I've always had a soft spot for a good bad guy. >:) Post your favorite villains of YOUR OWN creation, and any cool stories about them you care to share!
Verdegris, an illborn nymph blighter 3/sorcerer 4/arcane hierophant 7. She had been horribly scarred by a green dragon breath weapon, so instead of blinding beauty, she had the horrible appearance of a hag. She lead an army of trolls, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, worgs, hags, giants, and other evil fey. She was behind the scenes for the most part; the campaign ended before she was revealed, but she was responsible for most of the action.
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Stats below the spoiler
Krug-lakkar Bloodrock, male orc Clr3Wrm1: CR 4; Medium Humanoid
(6-ft. tall); HD 3d8+1d12+8+4; hp 46; Init -1; Spd 20 ft.(full plate);
AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18; Atk +8 melee (1d12+4, masterwork
greataxe) or +2 ranged (1d8/crit. x3, light crossbow); SA spells; AL CE;
SV Fort +7, Ref +0, Will +5; Str 18, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10.
Skills and Feats: Spellcraft +7, Concentration +8; Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, Sturdy.
Possessions: Masterwork greataxe, full plate, amulet of natural armor +1, 3 scrolls cure moderate wounds, potion of aid, 2 doses of agony (liquid pain).
Spells Prepared (4/4/3): 0— no light, read magic, slash tongue(2); 1st— command, entropic shield, protection from law*, shield of faith; 2nd— bull's strength*, spider legs, wave of grief
*Domain Spells. Domains: Chaos (+1 caster level for Chaos spells);
Strength (enhancement bonus to STR equal to level for 1 round 1/day).
Note: These are 3.0 stats. I used the PHB, BoVD, and Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed.
This is a low level BBEG. He was memorable to me because this was one of the very first made-from-scratch NPCs I ever built. He became something of a recurring villain when he escaped from the (2nd level) party via Spider Legs and a potion of Invisibility.
I've always liked clerics as villains. They can be either melee bosses or caster bosses, and evil religious figures are wonderfully compelling.
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Seconded on cleric-villains. Especially if they are Balors.
My epic campaign back in 2002-2003 had four major villains:
1. Mendegast XXV, the King of Mendaria, Human Fighter 20
2. Dagathon, Servant of the Blood, Balor Cleric 5
3. Avatar of the Blood, Dream Vestige
4. Kiar'keth, Demi-Lich (also controlled a Colossal Flesh Golem)
Never got around to foiling Kiar'Keth, but the party got Mendegast to help them slay Dagathon, then he turned on them, and finally the Avatar appeared to try and eat their souls.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Shadrach, The Blue Dragon
As a PC I got him to level 5 before I retired him due to party stress (and no, he wasn't the instigator of party conflict. His desire to kill the party members plotting to betray him was)
As a villian (which came first, story to follow) He was an Elan Psychic Warrior 15, with an Orthlox Blue Dragon mount.
Against the party, he was with a band of villians, followers of Tiamat called 'The five dragons'
The Red Dragon Aasimar Fallen Paladin/Blackguard
Blue Dragon (Shad)
Green Dragon, Half Green Dragon Fighter/Occult Slayer
Black Dragon, Lizardman Ranger/Assassin.
White Dragon, Tiefling Sorcerer.
Shad became a constant thorn in the party's side. After they turned the town they saved over to the Red, Blue, and White dragons (thinking they were heroes) they worked their way up the hiearchy, killing white, black, and green.
Then Shad struck, using the party to defeat the Red dragon for him, then started unifying the disparate cities under his 'protection' He was Lawful Evil, focusing on law, and often regretted that the party would come to cross purposes with him. The fact that he'd use them, even when they did something heroic, instilled a deep hatred of him in my players. *sigh* memories.
As a PC, I'd talked it over with our Greyhawk DM. I wanted to play Shadrach from level 1, to see if I could build a PC with his long term goals. I often joke he was 'the moral compass' of the party. It was Shad who hired the cleric of Zuoken to treat the poisoned rogues in 'Mad God's Key'. Shad who set up an orphanage, Shad who insisted we rescue NPCs because they were put in danger doing him a favour, etc. The most amusing thing was his closest friend in the party was the NG cleric of St Cuthbert.
Of course he was also the guy who killed the guy who had betrayed him when we captured him again, hired his rogue friend to burgle the apartment of the other party members (who had stolen from him) was selling information on the crime lord one of the same party members was dating to a 3rd party, gave the information that the (same party member) was not a member of the thief's guild, was working on becoming part of the 'underground' psionic guild. Oh and he was a Kosher chef too :-)
In either incarnation, his motivation remained the same. "The world is a mass of chaos and someone needs to bring order to it. Why not me? I've time after all..."
One of my favorites is one I'm using in an Iron Kingdoms campaign currently. Here name is Maxiana Hellcaller, a Satyxis Gun Mage. A Satyxis is a race of once-human women blighted by the blood of dragons. The males of their species degenerated and tey now mate with humans to reproduce. They are reaver-witches and pirates.
So, Maxiana... she is slippery. The PCs were in a naval battle with the forces of Cryx (an IK country ruled by a dragon-god), and were try to destroy an experimental submersible vessel. They boarded it when it surfaced and went to face its inhabitants, namely an iron lich and her henchmen. Maxiana kept popping in and hitting them with vampiric touches, and, after they defeated the iron lich, they lost track of her. She used alter self to disguise herself as one of the soldiers that came with them that she killed, and came back to the military base. (It's really funny... one of the characters did a body count and realized, too late, that they came back with one person too many... classic!).
She then wreaked havoc and slipped away. She followed them for months, then pretended to be a new recruit for the paladin's knightly order. She then drugged him, had her way with him, and he woke up with a note saying that they will have a daughter together will be a scourge of the seas like no other, and it will be a pity that he won't meet her because her iron lich mistress (whom they had thought destroyed) had great and terrible plans for him.
My favorite so far!
-RN
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I'm still working on a set of villains for my campaign world; but the whole idea is that they were a greatly honored and respected party of adventurers from 180 years before the start of the game, one of them died, and for some unknown reason, they simply could not figure out why, as it seemed that their comrade's soul had vanished. It simply could not be found.
As time passed, the loss of their ally effected each of them differently, and the grief they carried twisted their senses of honor. They began a decades-long plan to set numerous events in motion to bring their friend back, which required a great number of Evil acts. Tragic Villains are my favorite types, because while the players know they have to be stopped, they feel sorry for them. It's my goal to illicit that sympathy from them; to make them hesitate, to wonder "Could that have been me?".
If I can make my players think and feel, then I feel I've done my job. Here's the basic breakdown.
La Lance Verte "The Green Spear": NE Druid-Lich
La Lance Rouge "The Red Spear": NE Rogue/Assassin
La Lance Bleue "The Blue Spear": LE Fighter
La Lance Noir "The Black Spear": CE Bard/Sorceress
What?!?! No more great villains? BTW, I love some of the ones posted so far. Great stuff!
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Favorite Villain Ever.
Kelthas Dread, Human Red Wizard of Thay and one of the 7 Crime Lords of Faerun. 16th level Wizard.
Ive got a folder devoted to him.
He is the equivalent of a Multi-Billionaire for our purposes.
He is primarily a Smuggler and his reach extends from Kara Tur to Maztica, From Chult to Luskan. He has at least 12 alias' to include
Fandalg, a caravanserai based in Baldurs gate (which is the one he travels most as)
Hazard, A Wizard Adventurer based In Amn
others are a magistrate from Waterdeep, the owner of a travelling circus that frequents The Savage North and The Heartlands, An Innkeep in Cormyr, A Merchant in Durpar, A sage on the sword coast, A member of the Cult of the Dragon....
I have notes for his resources in every town he has a base in...
(Thats why I chose this psudeo-nym...since anyone whose played in my campaigns would know who he is ;) )
He started out innocently enough as some notes of an antagonist Wizard who was a member of a Thieves Guild in Neverwinter....The party stopped a plot to overthrow the crown thereabouts that the Guild had backed...and The Wizard fled for his life.
As time went on, He cropped up a second time and was foiled...and a third time and was foiled...and then the party began hunting him down, of course I expanded the sheet I had on him each time until he began to take form almost as a PC. Now He is antagonist or contact in many of my games...and his name crops up from time to time as one of the major players in the Realms.
His personality is that at any one time he has at least 10 or so plots going on somewhere in the realms and has more escape valves to insure his freedom than folks can imagine. He uses his alias' to gather information...and then his network to insure his grab for power and money....Heck on one occasion I had him hire a party to kill off his father so he could get his Title in Thay, and He altered his form and joined the party to make sure a critical magic item didnt not fall into their hands....That adventure was touch and go, and He barely got away. (damned paladin and his Holy Avenger ;) )
hes a blast to use, and I have to really thank the players of my campaigns for how he has come to grow.
Kelreilynon Un'linoth, lawful evil male drow fighter/rogue 10, rogue/assassin 5, fighter/dread fang 5, fighter/assasin 5, rogue/dread fang 5. He killed the party of 6 by himself. My players still haven't found a way to kill him...
This is just one, and I'm to tired to dig up sheets and puts down full stories for him and everyone else.
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I got two, they're both extremely and are sort of more of a running joke to the group, but they're villians and my group thinks they're great, so i'll count them here.
1) One night I got extremely giddy off of lack of sleep and caffeine and I had had enough of the b******* of the female bard. just cuz she's my brother's girlfriend doesn't mean I have to put up with being berated. So I decided to have a little fun and had a monochrome man with a long mustache, a monacle and a top hat sneer, grab her and tie her to train tracks. ignore the fact that there are no trains in fantasy settings (or at least in mine), but everyone loved it and she stopped insulting me when she realized noone else was upset. they rescued her before the train hit her. now he's evolved into a recurring villain, and an important NPC in the setting. Name's Vaudeville due to my bad naming ability, but the group loves him.
2) The first game I ran was a castle in a giant underground cave, and the group had been hired by an NPC by the name of Flora Lagg (I mentioned about the bad naming, right?) to accompany her and get something from the castle. halfway through she backstabs the group, runs off and tries to leave them for dead. problem is she's so incompetant that the group feels sorry for her and gets her the item (which was guarded by an invisable gnome wizard with invisable winter wolves pets. it was an odd adventure). Since then, Flora pops up occasionally, and sometiems even has something to do with the players, but it's become her mark to fail and blame it all on the players. She is a lot fo fun to run.
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Ah the villains, as DMs often our favorite creations. Lets see there are two I can think of off the top of my head.
1) Morphius, a Human male LE cleric of Shar. The party first encountered him at 1st level when I ran them through Isle of the Abbey from Dungeon #34. They again faced Morpheus when I ran the group through Rahasia. He took on the role of “The Rahib”
Later in the campaign, when I was running the group through the “Desert of Desolation” series, they actually needed his help. They needed their nemesis help to get through a dungeon in the “oasis of the white palm” module to retrieve on of the star gems. Their nemesis Morpheus was willing to help them, because he wanted to expand his power by expanding SHar’s influence. The rampaging Efreti lord put a crimp in those plans. How could he rule the world, if the Efreti lord got their first?
They found him to be frustratingly useful. He had a shadow jump ability, which enabled him to escape the party on many occasions.
2) Another I was fond of was called Hans Rictor. He was a human Druid. I modeled him after Hanibal Lector. My idea for this character was that he was the perfect predator, He would shape changed into animals, and kill the alpha male of the pack and do other things like that. He was an ally of the PCs helping them hunt down a “beast” for the local duke. I was running an adventure modeled after “the brotherhood of the wolf” movie. They would find these horribly twisted beasts, at the scene of attacks, and the party would kill the creature, and it would vanish. They thought that it was some sort of wizard. They were very surprised it was a druid with a summon natures ally spell, animals growth and magic fang spells. Yes the villain got a way to fight another day.
He was eventually killed by the party wizard, who summoned two celestial lions, which pounced on the druid and mauled him to death. Fitting.
Good times
I was in a D20 Modern campaign where the 3 PCs were all Roman Catholic priests who were shadowhunters. Kind of like Buffy, but with collars and vows of chastity and poverty. I played a Jesuit surgeon that kept Uzis in his medical bags. Anyways....
We were supposed to transport this evil coin from the US to the Vatican with another team of "good guys." Both teams of 3 got on a private jet with the pilot and co-pilot. The other team betrayed us (of course), and they bribed the co-pilot to take out the pilot, then re-direct the flight when we were over the Mediterranean. The other team zip-tied us to our seats, disarmed, and then they threw the co-pilot out the plane, and maybe even the dead pilot. Then the 7 foot tall amazon woman took over piloting. We then fought back, and had this crazy fight with 3 vs 3 in a fighting space that was only 1 square by 8 squares. And we were un-armed. We did crazy grappling and disarming the whole flight, and the NPC eventually jumped out of the plane and left 3 of us with 1 parachute. It was crazy. I think none of us were pilots. The plane ended up crashing into a mountain, and I think the 3 of us somehow shared a parachute.
I was a Dedicated Hero, one guy was a Tough Hero wannabe Adept, and the other guy was a Strong/Fast swordsman type. I think none of us had Brawl or Combat Martial Arts. Maybe the swordsman. It was a crazy fight. We ended up fighting them a few other times. Once, they had a helicopter gunship and we were pinned along the docks. We had to jump in the water to avoid getting shot.
We HATED those guys. And we couldn't kill them in cold blood because we were the good guys, and priests, and part of a secret society that knew about demons and stuff, so if we crossed the line, they'd take us out for being demon-tainted. I think we once had them at our mercy, almost, but they were unarmed or wounded, so we couldn't just spray them with bullets. It was so frustrating. And I think we ended up on the same side against another big bad once.
'Morgana Rose'- a mentally-ill anti-paladin who believes herself a Goddess.
'Lord Evil' - a completely ham warrior who looked like he belonged in a Scandanevian Death Metal band. He wasn't actually all that evil.
'Raven' - a sexy womanising vampire. More interested in seduction than murder. And his sister 'Talon' a cold-blooded human warrior, with a sincere romantic side.
'Reaver' - Champion of the King, reknowned swordsman and hero. Handsome, charismatic and famous. A high ranking member of a clandestine murder-cult.
'The Black Galaxy' - (inspired by Bal Sagoth lyrics). An entire universe of body-possesing parasites, staging invasions of worlds. They would send heralds to investigate the cosmology of a target world and then begin to destroy it's Gods/World Tree/or other source of light, gradually increasing their schemes until the entire planet would be stripped bare.
Second level
Party clears the goblins from a fort in a mountain pass. They kill all the goblins, but they find a goblin female with two children. She is hiding in the commode. They kill her too. I ask them what they do to the children. One of them tosses a dagger down into the commode, and they start looting the bodies.
Fifth level.
Six years have passed.Party is attacked by a goblin warband, in a ravine, while going through the same mountain pass. As they advance on the goblins, they hear a cry up above. "wevenge!". Tree trunks come crashing down into the ravine. None of the party are slain. The dagger is embedded into one of the treetrunks.
Sixth level.
The party has had a year of downtime. The party mage is attacked in his room, in the middle of a thunderstorm. The attackers are a bunch of mercenary thugs, and the goblin. After shouting "wevenge!", The goblin casts web on the doorway, and steals the mage's spellbook. The goblin escapes via flight. One of the thugs is caught. The mercenaries were paid with fools gold. The party tries to find a trail, but cannot.
Tenth level.
Party is on a boat going upriver. The boat is attacked by merrow, and by the goblin casting lightning bolt from under the water. a magic mouth cast on the chest of one of the merrow, shouts "wevenge!" The party kill the goblin, after catching it with a hold person spell. Curious, the party casts speak with dead, and ask the goblin why it attacked them. They discover, of course, that the goblin is one of the children from the commode, but the creature tells them that it only survived by killing its sibling, and floating on the corpse.
Twelfth level.
Attacked by goblin revenant. End.
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These are fantastic villains, I especially enjoyed Vaudeville (whose name is quite fitting) and the accidental butler turned villain Davis. I kind of feel like stealing them for my own campaign. Great stories behind them.
As for my own villain it's nothing special but the players loved him. He was inspired by a friend who loves goblins so this guy was a king of the goblins. In fact in a big, booming voice he would constantly refer to himself as the "Goblin King" and that's what the players call him to this day. Try imagining a bloated goblin who claims good ideas as his own, shouts loudly to feel big, and puffs out his chest to act tough but in reality he was a marshmellow. His villain status might be debatable though. The party placated him and fed into his ego and then allied with the goblins against the local authorities so they never fought against him. A mass combat ensued with the only survivors being the PCs, the Goblin King, and his pet worg.
When the dust cleared the party wanted to kill the Goblin King just because he was a jerk to them. They didn't because they feared the worg (it seriously didn't roll under 18 the entire combat and crit like three times). Oh, I miss that team now.
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These are fantastic villains, I especially enjoyed Vaudeville (whose name is quite fitting) and the accidental butler turned villain Davis. I kind of feel like stealing them for my own campaign. Great stories behind them....
Feel free, If you're curious I'm going to list the items he wears. Bear in mind that he's meant to outrageously overpower your players, but not confront them directly. Almost all he ever does (that the players can see) is use cliché, old traps and situations from old movies. pies in the face, tied up on train tracks, falling rock, cackling manically, etc. in fact, watch Dudley do-right. He’s exactly like that villain.
Also, bear in mind that he is 3.5, so to use him anywhere else, you’ll need to do the (minor) converting, and feel free to add your own items and abilities to the list. Also note that overuse of this character could cause your campaign to derail and should be handled with care. Or for April fool’s day.
- Monochrome ball (minor artifact): This impressive item can be activated for up to 10 minutes a day, and this time can be split as the owner wishes. when activated, this small item (about the size of a large Opal) causes everything in a five foot radius to become monochrome. this effect is not permanent, and stops when the item leaves the area or turns the item off. Activation of this Item is also necessary to activate the sinister ensemble, which can then be activated as a thought-activated free action.
- Sinister monocle: this is a lens of true seeing and grants a +2 on any opposed roll, due to being able to see the other person better. Plus it looks snobbish. When not under the effect of monochrome ball, this is just a normal lens.
- Sinister cape: this cape grants a +5 bonus to jump and acrobatics checks when under the influence of the monochrome ball. It can also grant fly up to 3/day. Otherwise it’s just a normal cape, if a little tattered.
- Sinister hat: This hat grants the hide in plain sight ability as well as it can be activated to provide invisibility 1/day when under the effect of the monochrome ball. Otherwise, it’s a normal, if worn out, top hat.
- Sinister Walking stick: when under the effect of monochrome ball, this otherwise normal walking stick functions like a +3 Anarchic, dancing rapier of speed. It also grants a +2 to rolls made to disarm opponents.
Skills:
I didn’t really stat him up since he wasn’t meant to be recurring, however I did decide to give him a +20 to any skills that would enable him to be the odd stage villain he resembles. This includes acrobatics (or tumble), Use rope, jump, perform (rambling diatribe) and perform (villainous speech).
Special Abilities:
Vaudeville is able to create impossible situations that may be anachronistic or outrageously funny so long as he’s under the effect of the monochrome ball. These include putting spring-loaded pies into odd places, small charges in cigars, boxes, weapon sheaths, etc. that will explode in the players’ faces, finding train tracks to leave tied up people on, etc.
And don't sell yourself short there. you managed to create a villain that has a unique personality and managed to get your players angered at him. Personally, I consider that a job well done.
Skills:
I didn’t really stat him up since he wasn’t meant to be recurring, however I did decide to give him a +20 to any skills that would enable him to be the odd stage villain he resembles. This includes acrobatics (or tumble), Use rope, jump, perform (rambling diatribe) and perform (villainous speech).There really should be a mechanic for the Perform (rambling diatribe) and Perform (villainous speech), especially when it comes to the Evil Monologue. Maybe allow the PCs a Will save opposed by the villain's perform check; if successful, they can act normally. If failed, they are dazed and are forced to listen to the rambling monologue. They get a new save every round until they succeed or the villain is done talking.
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There really should be a mechanic for the Perform (rambling diatribe) and Perform (villainous speech), especially when it comes to the Evil Monologue. Maybe allow the PCs a Will save opposed by the villain's perform check; if successful, they can act normally. If failed, they are dazed and are forced to listen to the rambling monologue. They get a new save every round until they succeed or the villain is done talking.Skills:
I didn’t really stat him up since he wasn’t meant to be recurring, however I did decide to give him a +20 to any skills that would enable him to be the odd stage villain he resembles. This includes acrobatics (or tumble), Use rope, jump, perform (rambling diatribe) and perform (villainous speech).
I like it! too bad it's too late to edit the post, otheriwse I'd put this in there.
I think there should be a BBEG template that provides a bunch of bonus feats and possibly a cross-class skill or two, for a relatively low cost, like +1 ECL. Maybe include some easy getaway mechanic, too. Or re-rolls.
My personal favorite was from my (now finished) Styes campaign. Horatio Quigley from Richard Pett's The Devil Box had a sinister freak show that the PCs needed to inflitrate to get a two-headed kid. Long story short, they steal the kid and Quigley's now got it in for them. At the end of another adventure, he and the freaks attack. The melee combatant is known as...
The Incredible Octopus Girl.
Basically a 3rd level barbarian with a lot of Aberrant feats from Lords of Madness. She had two long squid-like tentacles growing from beneath her ribs, wore a featureless mask and actually could have been pretty hot if not for the.. abnormalities. The back story the PCs never found out was that her real name was Vadalia Van Trier, the daughter of a now defunct noble house. Her parents loved her, but kept her in seclusion for her early life until a maid saw her and started telling people. Ruined the family, the parents resented their daughter and sold her to Quigley when he convinced them she would have a fine life with his show.
I was going to have a whole adventure around her, with a Tharizdun worshipping sect of underground aberration people (high priest/leader- beholder eyes, savage inbred family of muscle- chuul descended, scouts with segmented eyes, etc.) taking her in as their messiah and perhaps as a means to stop stealing children to continue their little community. The PCs want to stop them from stealing kids, Quigley wants to get his freak back. Never got off the ground, but The Incredible Octopus Girl will always be a favorite.
Lots of villians come to mind. To be honest There always seem to be one villian who so urks the party they hate them. I can name some of them to the players and they instantly call out curses. I guess I'm really good at making a villian hateable or something. Like this Doppleganger who took the mayors children hostage, only to have the party call her bluff. 3 children and a mother lost their lives that day.... and a priestess in a pickle barrel. The group never did get her, had a spectacular fight in a wizards tower in which she spiderclimbed out the window 700' up and the party barbarian jumped after her intending to kill them both.... and rolled a 1 ><
Some days you just have to question people's sanity :P
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Lots of villians come to mind. To be honest There always seem to be one villian who so urks the party they hate them. I can name some of them to the players and they instantly call out curses. I guess I'm really good at making a villian hateable or something. Like this Doppleganger who took the mayors children hostage, only to have the party call her bluff. 3 children and a mother lost their lives that day.... and a priestess in a pickle barrel. The group never did get her, had a spectacular fight in a wizards tower in which she spiderclimbed out the window 700' up and the party barbarian jumped after her intending to kill them both.... and rolled a 1 ><
Some days you just have to question people's sanity :P
nICE! Now if only I could get players to be good-guys... I have some fo the best villains, they're my heroe...errr players...