If you play in the Dayton Ohio area, please stop reading this.
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Ok, I didn’t have anything planned for this because I didn’t expect the PC’s to do this.
I’m running a conversion of an old 2nd ed adventure. A NPC was only loosely described as a survivor who makes life difficult for those that irritate him. Neutral with evil tendencies. Implies he is human but doesn't actually state it. That's all it says.
The party has actually decided to intentionally publicly embarrass this guy so he loses his job. (He didn’t accept their bribe to do what they wanted.) But they are not planning to eliminate or weaken him in any other way.
So what I want is to make a reoccurring villain that will occasionally show up and try to screw their plans and make their missions fail (or at least more costly). He is angry so it will have that personal touch not just hiring some throw away mooks. I don’t want an assassin type that is just trying to kill them. I want someone that is trying to ruin their life like they ruined his.
But to be reoccurring he’s got to be able to get away. I’m actually finding it hard to make a build that has a decent chance to get away from moderately optimized PC’s. Yet still have skills and/or abilities to do much of anything.
I was originally thinking of an Arcane Trickster that would follow them and hit them with 1 or 2 annoying spells (glitterdust, slow, etc…) when they get into a major fight. But with them having a bunch of spell casters (or equiv) after just a couple of times he is bound to fail a save that will allow him to be caught. To say nothing about the kind of damage the 2 melee types can do in a round if they get within charge range.
Btw: PC’s are currently 7th level and I would like this guy to last several levels at least.
Party is psion, wilder, buff cleric, melee fighter cleric, controller wizard, and twf fighter.
How would you build a reoccurring villain of the make their life hell type?
Edit: No higher than 8th level to start with. He could be kinda rich from the former position so maybe up to WBL x2. But since he lost his job he won't have a huge government support structure.
Alchemist type Grenadier maybe? Craft Potion skills, and he can make potions of fly/teleport/DD etc., and he can take discoveries to get the Smoke bomb and Stink Bomb, maybe Tanglefoot bomb. He shows up, carpet bombs Stink/Tanglefoot, and drink his potion of fly/teleport/DD and away he goes!
So if he shows up and suprise round for first bomb. (That's assuming his stealth is high enough to not be noticed and attacked before the surprise attack.)
Normal round for second bomb.
Normal round for escape potion.
It will probably work the first time he comes after them. But after they have seen him once and he gets away. All the casters will probably slam him to keep it from happening again.
So in 2 non-surprise rounds. He will probably have to make 6-12 saving throws to keep from being stunned, held, slowed, charmed, etc...
Even if we say they are all will saves and that is his best saves, odds are he going to fail at least one. Then he is no longer a reoccuring villian.
That's where I was getting stuck.
Potion of Protection against X (Good/Evil)? Potion of Greater Invisibility before he comes into combat and they only hear his distinctive voice and laugh as he goes away...
Depending on level, there's a discovery for Fast Bombs where he can make and throw multiple bombs if his BAB allows it. You're down to 1 round attack and 1 round potion drink...and if he's buffed up pre-fight as he should be...
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My oppon... mean players have gotten rather adept at killing my attempts at recurring villains.So any attempt to make the guy actually a direct combatant is going to be rather difficult for me.
My idea is to make the nemesis a non combatant. Just make him a constant drain on reputation. Have him hire bards to spread slightly slanderous tales ahead of the parties travels. Poison the well of public opinion. After awhile he could make the "virtuous" adventurers into blackguards in the public eye. Direct confrontation would be met with law enforcement protecting a private citizen from out of control adventurers. Murdering him would be met with bounty hunters, banishment, or worse.
Just because he doesn't have his job doesn't mean he didn't have a network of supporters/friends still working for. Many organizations have loyalty that lasts even after a "save face" firing. His proxies can still jerk the PCs around, depending on how much empire building he did it could be a major problem. If it was a government job, its extra dangerous, as govs don't like it when their officials are humiliated, certainly not govs that knowingly employ N/NE characters.
Guys who are like this rely on their reputation for vindictiveness to protect them, he pretty much HAS to go after the PCs as best as he can. If he is a NPC class then he can come after the PCs in a way that they may not be expecting, and that they can't realistically deal with.
Also could be some kind of trap maker! And every trap sprung gives his distinctive laugh....
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Don't think of a reoccuring villian in terms of what he can do in combat with spells, potions, etc.
Make him someone that just hands PC information to the otherside.
Say they are in a tavern, talking about their "loot" for the day, have him sit with a disguise spell on the other side and listen in. Pass that info along to the enemy, badda bing badda boom...PC life is tougher and more costly.
Have him continue to do so. They are about to go find treasure? Great! Have him contract another adventuring group to get there before them.
Have this NPC make a pact with a devil or demon to get other cool things, or have him become to pawn/minion of your next arch nemisis for the players...that lvl 15 wizard who is sitting in his tower and looked into the future with a spell to find that one day THESE adventurer's would ruin his plans...so perhaps he takes this little, motivated, minion under his wing and imbues him with a spell like ability to cast quickened dimension door. (lvl 8 spell baby :) )
They players might think of it as cheese, but your response as a solid GM should always be to them "Have faith in me guys, I haven't failed you thus far have I?"
Making a bad guy a returning problem over and over again is a difficult task at times, but never be afraid to go FAR FAR FAR above and beyond the PC's capabilities to do it. In home games...they will always find a way to catch up, and if one or more of them die, you do indeed have this awesome ability to get raised from the dead.
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Give him toys that will allow him to escape effectively. This is super important. Players will be less upset about an enemy with a toy that's a bit inappropriate for his level than they will be about obviously forced plot contrivances that show they never had a chance of killing him to begin with. Determination armor and winged boots or a wand of dimension door will help make sure that whatever recurring villain you use, he.she actually gets the chance to recur.
+1 to much of what BK said above, excepting you probably don't even have to go out and make stuff up out of the normal rules.
I'd probably go with a Wizard/Diviner/Scrying specialist. Give him some invisibility and scrying. Whispering Wind with critical information to whoever or whatever the PCs are fighting at the right time can lead to all sorts of fun, especially if the PCs are expecting to ambush rather than be ambushed.
Build him as you would an optimized PC for a specific role. Give him some intelligent tactics that you would expect a PC to try (ex. hiding in a rope trick, explosive runes concealed amongst innocuous writings, use of scrolls to offset normal limit on spells per day, etc.)
Basically think of him as a recurring (and mostly off-camera) minion to whatever the PCs are going against. For additional fun, have him gloat via Whispering Wind or (when high enough level) Sending as well.
-TimD
Ok, I love the gloating voices/sendings. Will definitely do that.
I don't think the handing out information will work out very well. It would effectively make things harder, but how will they ever know why. The adventures will just get tougher, but I can't see them figuring out he did it.
Hiring bards to blacken their reputation fits. And I can see them trying to find where the rumors are coming from, so that works.
He really won't have much of a network. The PC's are really making him a pariah. Plus they are leaving that area behind. He would have to follow them to continue to give them problems.
The trapper might work if I can figure how he would get infront of them to set up. Or maybe behind them to go off when they leave a fight.
Good ideas guys. i will think about them some more.
another idea could be a summoner. The class is designed for you to completely avoid entering combat. Additionally, have him hire mooks to attack the players right before they get to the treasure room. They mooks slow them down for a few rounds, just long enough for the guy to lock the players out and clean out the room before they can get there.
You need to build him up, start slow with inconveniences, then build to nuisance, and then obstacle and finally nemesis.
If they're planning on publicly embarrassing him, turn it around on them.
A high Cha skill based Bard.
Make him screw with them by doing to them what they did to him. Just constantly spreading lies/disinformation about them, talking other people into hating them, hiring cohorts to slow them down.
Have them get in a public argument with him and have his build just buff as hell for social skills, so he can out talk them any day of the week.
Have him never get his own hands dirty and just screw the PC's reputation.
I think I will have him attempt to trash their reputation.
However, if it is nothing but that, they will just find it boring and frustrating. Our group is not as heavily into or good at the RP aspects as some out there. So an only RP nemesis will probably not work out.
He could use his social skills to keep hiring guys to go after them as well.
And a Bard isn't exactly worthless in combat, if he has allies he can make them pretty nasty with his bardic performance.
An alchemist clone master which is widely connected, spreading rumors about the party and have merchants and NPCs unwilling to deal with them till they prove themselves or pay inflated rates for services.
Keeps tabs on the PCs and allies with local villains to divulge their secrets and tactics, possibly incriminate them in crimes by creating simulacrums of the PCs, sponsor plays to ridicule them and generally tries to undo their life goals and destroy lasting relationships.
Alternatively he might employ doppelgangers or be a doppelganger himself.
I once had a BBEG in a game with the ability to make clones and simulcrums of variable strengths. Using this ability i could use him and his loyal henchmen as recurring bad guys and still give the players the satisfaction of beating them.
A guy cloning himself for multiple attacks would be cool if they were higher level. I will look for the alchemist clone master. I don't remember seeing that one before. I was thinking of the beast-bonded witch for something similar, but that just keeps the spirit alive in the familiar (and not until level 10). It won’t give back a body to inhabit.
The witches hexes seems very thematically appropriate for someone trying to get even. But I can't see how to make one survivable enough to be a reoccurring villain like this. But I’m not very familiar with witches since I don’t know anyone who has played one and I haven’t had the chance yet. If you have ideas for this let me know.
I guess I’m leaning toward the summoner with some stealth skills. Could buff himself all to heck. Then while still invisible could send a few sum mon Y at them during a big fight. Then laughs from around the corner and runs away without ever exposing himself to easy attack. Doesn’t quite have the personal touch I was looking for. But it seems most likely to be able to attack repeatedly and get away like I wanted.
Hmm...
Just read up on the clone master alchemist. That really sounds pretty good. I think I may look into that some more.
Maybe a hexcrafter magus? They get a few hexes but aren't quite as squishy as a witch.
That's a thought. I don't know much about them. I'd have to look into the hex crafter some more. Do the magi have enough defensive spells to really buff himself up to virtually guarantee getting away?
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An 8'th level conjurer with a 20+ intelligence and a decent charisma. Give him the cosmopolitan feat for diplomacy and another social skill (You'll have 8+ skill points per level as a human wizard).
For harassment, he can send in hordes of conjured mobs, summon inconvieniant pits, and make life difficult with walls, black tentacles and cloudkills. As soon as PC's start to close: teleport. Never stand and fight.
Use lower level spells such as alter self and non-detection to hide his identity.
Use social skills to sabatoge the PC's when they are not present.
A bard villain with good local rep can do consiterable damage to a PC's reputation. I'd write up the more obnoxious d-baggy song about the players characters that this villain wrote and has sung all over town.
When townsfolk start singing this song around the players it might drive them crazy.
As far as getting away? Santuary can work fairly well.
If the villain is semi famous or has a good rep in the city just make sure he is always in a public place (or can quickly run into a public place) he should be able to use his reputation as a shield.
Sounds like you has some great ideas Gruingar. Reacuring villains are tricky to pull off but the reward is worth the attempt.
Thanks folks I will ask for some more detailed help fleshing out a couple of these concepts.