Personally, I felt that RotRL had the most memorable villains out of all the adventure paths.
For our group, Xaneesha became a recurring villain who not only masterminded the Skinsaw murders in Magnimar, but engineered the downfall of Fort Rannick (I replaced Lucretia with Xaneesha) as well. My group absolutely despises her for her condescending attitude, utter lack of morals and uncanny knack for being at the heart of many of their problems. Through numerous contingency plans and a significant amount of luck, she has yet to be taken down by the PCs as they enter Book 5 of the path.
Though we've recently put our Runelords campaign on hold to play Crimson Throne, I still hear, "Remember when Xaneesha did this..." or "I can't wait to get my hands on her..." at my gaming table.
Anyways, who were your favorite villains in this adventure path and why? I'd like to hear what you all did with these baddies to make your players feel something (such as hate) for them.
Our campaign is only just halfway though, but this far the Skinsaw man was the best one.
Already in PF1 the party's sorceress became smitten with the young nobleman and actually spoke guite a lot about when she would visit him in Magnimar.
The sorceress played her part very well when she became Alden's obsession and the letters he left her worked out very well.
Exposing Aldern was a memorabe scene. And his depraved nature and complex psyke made him both scary and tragic at the same time.
My PCs immediately sensed that something was "off" about him and even turned down his invitation to go boar hunting. I'm amazed that one of the characters in your group has become infatuated with him.
I've started doing Tarantino-esque "cut-scenes" to reveal the backstory for some of the villains in the AP, just because there's some great info in there that the PCs will never learn otherwise. It's also helped give some dimension to the foes as the players beat them down.
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I think the female bard in my party is going to become the next Alanis Morisette given the story so far. Having gone to school with Tsuto when they were younger, she tried to get him to stop attacking and talk to the party when they confronted him in the glassworks. Instead, he shot the hell out of her from a scaffolding, dropping her down to 0 hps or below three times (we had 2 clerics repeat positive energy bursting) in the battle. After the party killed him, she kicked his corpse for a while to cool down and wrote a nasty song about him. Since then, Aldern has been courting her and flattering her, and her character is sort of sweet on him, since she is RPing a somewhat naive young bard. I can't wait to see her reaction given what is going to happen...
I think the female bard in my party is going to become the next Alanis Morisette given the story so far. Having gone to school with Tsuto when they were younger, she tried to get him to stop attacking and talk to the party when they confronted him in the glassworks. Instead, he shot the hell out of her from a scaffolding, dropping her down to 0 hps or below three times (we had 2 clerics repeat positive energy bursting) in the battle. After the party killed him, she kicked his corpse for a while to cool down and wrote a nasty song about him. Since then, Aldern has been courting her and flattering her, and her character is sort of sweet on him, since she is RPing a somewhat naive young bard. I can't wait to see her reaction given what is going to happen...
Wow, I'm thinking the bard will have some serious trust issues later on in the game...
My PCs immediately sensed that something was "off" about him and even turned down his invitation to go boar hunting. I'm amazed that one of the characters in your group has become infatuated with him.
I think the party thought something was off about AF early on, but mostly that he just wanted acceptance and to belong somewhere.
Our sorceress is played as a somewhat naive and narcisistic person. She really thinks she is destined for fame and wealth and always falls for promises at that. Our player plays her really well though some of the other characters tend to get a bit frustrated about her.
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I played him as very eager to please. There was an aasimar cleric (who would become his object of lust) that he tried very hard to impress. I think he just came off as very creepy from the get-go.
The aasimar in question wanted nothing to do with him.
In my campaign he showered the party with gifts after they saved him. Gold, horses and a ruby ring for the sorceress. They where totaly taken by the wealth...
Hmm... I should probably write them all up for a greed sin! :D
We kind of liked Aldern when he was taking us out boar hunting. My ranger even offered to teach him some basic swordcraft, because really, getting threatened by a goblin is just embarrassing. Figuring out what had happened to him was a long process rather than a single "oh crap" moment.
But my favorite villain to *run* was probably Lady Andaisin. Her villain speech is just so calm and, well, evil. And she is a true villain, no emo mixed messages or protestations or apologies or anything - she's there to kill the PCs and their city, and either she kills them or dies trying. (And then ... when they think it's over ... BAM).
Plus it helped that her temple is one of the creepiest settings I've experienced in decades of gaming.
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Doing it right: After encountering a certain ogrekin matriarch the player characters wanted to burn the place down, the PLAYERS wanted to go home and shower.