Gurei's page

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Years of paranoia and evil DMs, there's no way I'd be working with an animated goblin head with its mouth sewed shut.

I'd be looking for any possible way to just kill it. No way would I be hunting for its organs. And honestly, besides the organ hunt, what does this thing give me, adventure-wise? This is some kind of adventure, not a villain. Even if the heroes have the head and are trying to prevent others from finding the organs, it still isn't the villain to me.


Okay, I like annoying, and this guy is annoying. I really liked the idea of him and his followers taking things of violence from the PCs. I don't care what alignment you are, if you suddenly find your mighty sword replaced with an ostrich feather (shed from the creature, not plucked, obviously!) you are going to want blood!

But, there's no direction here. His force of his ways on people is annoying, and that's it. It doesn't get to villain status. There isn't any battle (of wills, of weapons, or anything) that I see.

The thing though that tanked it for me was the adventure hook. The pacifist and his followers who won't defend themselves is tired. Someone mentioned the recent episode of Clone Wars. There have been MANY other shows with the same theme, and it is always frikkin annoying. These shows are written from the point of view where you HAVE to fight; That's who the main characters are. The pacifists will NEVER fight; that's who they are. Often there is scorn between the heroes and the pacifists. This is just sad. It is a battle of beliefs and the pacifists always seem to lose. Other times, the hero tragically defends the pacifists but feels bad, and the pacifists let him, but then banish him from ever returning. (Trying not to curse, here) ^&*(%$^&# #@ Hypocryticial!!

I'm not saying I know the "right" answer, but still this story has been done to death and ticks me off at nearly every instance.


I may be new, but I like it. Sure there's a lot of back story and not as much in the present, but the malleability of this villain is impressive:

Depending on how I want to use him, I could have him as the stock one shot "crazy evil druid" for a hack 'n slash night of fun.

I can have him (as it implies to me) be the intelligent, calculating (albeit, still crazy) plotter where you really don't want his focus on you, the hero. This version of the villain could be a series of adventures or just a recurring thorn in a hero's side. (Dating myself, but thinking of the Swamp Thing comics in the late 80s early 90s where he went for revenge on tons of people).

I could have the religious fanatic with all the lizardfolk (and other) followers where killing him would only martyr him, so what are the PCs to do?

I could go the tragic anti-hero route and have the PCs have to figure out how far gone this guy is on whether he can be "brought back" or not and if he can, how will that play with the cities and towns he's been attacking.

Maybe somehow, combine all the different elements for a total campaign villain? (Okay, that may be stretching it a bit)

It's all in there, just where you want to focus. As it is written here, I really like this character because I can use him in various ways for my own stories. If the rules were for a villain to then use in a specific adventure, then there's not enough here. I see the rules about the adventure OR campaign sourcebook with a big "OR" there. As written, this would fit nicely in a campaign sourcebook.

As a villain that I can take and own for my adventure writing, this is pretty interesting.