What kind of villian? Melee? Ranged? Arcane Casting? Divine Casting? What circumstances is he/she going to be used under? Any connection to the Demons, Devils, or Undead? Do you just want any product of another evil DM's mind? Because I can do that!
Mwahahahaha!
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Evil clerics make great BBEGs. They have good hit points, two high saves, can wear heavy armor, and cast strong spells. They can even heal themselves or minions when things go badly for them.
A level 30 cleric could have access to epic spells and the Automatic Quicken Spell feat. He could throw around spells that don't allow a saving throw, like a Twinned Maximized Enervation (-16 to all your rolls, great to follow up with a PW:Kill or Wail of the Banshee). If the PCs have learned the dangers of negative energy, no problem. Gate in some muscle-bound demons with the promise of many humanoid sacrifices later. Mind-control spells can also win a battle.
If your evil guy should be an unstoppable killing machine, a barbarian/Frenzied Berzerker is probably best.
An evil manipulator might be a lich sorcerer/archmage, a rogue/spymaster, or even an elven bard/dirgesinger. A CR 30 dragon could fill most any profile above, too.
Spellthief 20/Ur-Priest 10. Practiced Spellcaster and Epic Spellcasting.
*cue evil DM laughter*
If the alignments fit properly and roleplaying so allows, nothing beats first-level LG commoner.
Here are the ideas I have so far. I'll post more ideas and possibly some of the stats over the weekend.
Troll Fighter 5/Hexblade 10/Warlock 10 with a Huge greataxe and the Hideous Blow invocation and the Monkey Grip feat and the Power Attack feat chain.
Thri-Kreen Fighter 7/Transmuter 5/Spellsword 10/Eldritch Knight 3/Abjurant Champion 3 with Multi-wepon fighting and Oversized two weapon fighting, weilding a bastard sword in each hand and using fun buffs like Bull's Strength before combat.
A Human Diviner 15/Archmage 5/Unseen Seer 10 who uses a bunch of spells to gaurd himself against anything the PCs do because he knows the future.
An Human Transmuter 10/Master Transmorgrifist 10/Master Specialist 10.
More to come, will probably include something fiendish and a necromancer of some sort.
It's all about how you play it.
The scariest villain to date in my campaign has been a Loremaster. Yup, book in his nose, librarian type. Why?
In his pursuit of knowledge, he has completely abstracted himself from interactions with others, seeing it as interfering in the natural processes he is attempting to study. He doesn't interact with the PCs. They ask him a question and he stares at them for a moment and says, "Half-Elven subject has posed an interogative. Coupled with a heightened emotional state and outside stimulus..." and he jots down notes in his research journal while his more...deformed experiments are pummeling the PCs.
Gold Dragon Black Guard, former Paladin
ooh, that's good.
I would go with a drow lich wizard 17/fatespinner 5/archmage 5.
I’m thinking about how to create a good villain on the way home from a gaming session and it dawned on me that the best villains are those that strike the heroes in their most vulnerable areas. Movies provide great inspiration for examples of what villains might do.
A villain might go after defenseless loved ones.
… might go after the heroes reputation.
… might go after the heroes possessions.
I’m sure there are other diabolical acts a villain could perform as well, but I am drawing blanks – feel free to chime in. My problem is at the gaming table, PCs have little vulnerability, aside from their hard-earned loot, and stealing from them is difficult in the first place. They usually have no family (or if they do, it’s a back story element only) and could care less about a tarnished reputation.
How have you DMs crafted a vile criminal hated by a PC? How did you motivate the player to hunt the villain down?
Yes, a player will have his character hunt down a creature for the sole purpose to steal his money after the creature is dead, for the XP, or just because the word evil is associated with it, but I’m looking to add some satisfaction to defeating the BBEG.
Another villain absolutely despised by the PC in my campaign (only one, my wife's character in this campaign).
Half-Fiend Yuan-Ti Pureblood. The despising part came from when the villain started "collecting" the PC. The PC had started to develop a following dedicated to her teaching. The villain used magic to assume the PC's likeness and usurped a group of the PCs followers, twisting her teachings. The PC had been adopted into a barbarian tribe and had a "brother" among them. Additionally, the PC's symbol is the mask she wears, which her adopted brother had tattooed around his eyes. The villain killed him and carved the flesh holding the tattoo off, using it as a mask of her own. The PC had befriended a halfling tailor who created custom outfits for her. The villain killed him and took the last outfit he had been working on for the PC, wearing it herself.
The most hated villains, at least in my experience, make it personal. Make it so personal that the player despises the villain, not just the character.
The next step for the villain is the PC's newborn son. I'm probably going to give the PC the chance to rescue the child before any serious harm is done because there is such a thing as going too far.
Y'all do know that any builds you come up with can be added to DM Tools, right? CR 30 NPCs are seriously lacking at the moment...
I would go with a drow lich wizard 17/fatespinner 5/archmage 5.
I'm almost scared to ask, what is a Fatespinner?
Fatespinner is a 5-level PrC from Complete Arcane that manipulates fate.
Yes, with the ability to pump up the DC of one of his spells by as much as 15 once a day! (especially nasty if used with feeblemind)