Here’s the idea: Let’s make a Guide to Villains. By villains I mean foes players will remember, the “bosses”, the repeating foes, the ones that can change the course of the campaign. The information I want to collect includes:
- Good major bad guys, what monsters make good big bads? Who should be your final boss?
- How would you surprise your players? What monsters and classes won’t your players expect? How do you make clichés new again?
- What are you preferred archetypes for foes to take? Do you prefer evil overlords or nercro-masters? (Or both?)
- What tactics do you use? Do your villains use every dirty trick in the book? Can you make an enemy efficiently solo versus the PCs?
- How about lairs? Where do foes hide and fight? What kind of battles do you run?
My plan is to compile as much advice as I can on the subject and make a handbook using Google documents (for some reason I can’t log into the forums at the PFSRD and can post there, if anyone can help me out- tell me what I’m doing wrong I’d really appreciate it) anyone who contributes will get author credit and will be noted after every one of their quotes. If you just want to post a few sentences on this thread that’s cool, but if you want to contribute paragraphs or whole articles that’s even better. You could post here or email me directly at sam.dzuricky@gmail.com. I’ll be writing some things of my own of course, and I’ll soon put up some examples, but anyone who wants the ball rolling is welcome.
Well i said I'd include examples and I'm a man of my word, here's the first villainous archetype: The Fiendish Noble
Very few monsters are as well suited to proper villainy than the evil outsider. They are often intelligent foes with multiple modes of attack- they often can cast as well as fight toe to toe. They usually come with their own escape plans and you can use lesser fiends as minions. It’s difficult to find a better “boss”.
Now, if we talk about a final enemy, one to end your campaign with, there are really only two real options out of the fiends: Balors and Pit Fiends. These foes are largely similar in power and tactics, the real deciding factor is alignment.
Simply put, Lawful Evil overlords wish to conquer and Chaotic Evil ones want to destroy. This is not a rule that all must follow, but you must take the ethical element of the fiend’s alignment into account when you determine his methods, goals and in battle tactics. I won’t tell you how to plan you campaign, but I do want to point out something about chaos. Balors have an intelligence of 24- two less than the Pitt Fiend but distinctly greater than most beings. A chaotic creature can wait, plan and delay immediate gratification for greater reward just like everything else. There is no reason that you can’t have a refined, cultured Balor, and the can be vicious warlords; but one thing they can’t be is stupid- don’t every play them stupid, there are brilliant creatures and should be played as such.
But what if your players find these two passé? Well, you have options. At its core, this core is an evil, multi-talented horrifying, brilliant creature from the lower planes. If your party is lower level, the Marilith and the Horned Devil are suitable replacements. In fact, if you advance them further, you could use them at higher levels. Another great option is the half-fiend- you add the template to the proper monster, preferably one that is intelligent and can take class levels- I like to make them into eldritch knights to replicate the abilities of the more powerful fiends or bards to buff their armies (also to reference Charlie Daniels). Efreeti are good low level evil outsider villains and can take class levels to get stronger.
Now when are these beasties appropriate encounters? Both the Pitt Fiend and the Balor are CR20 but by no mean should you fight them at level twenty, unless you have specific plans. In the core rulebook they suggest to have encounters with a CR of character level to character level plus 3. Why three? Because an enemy (or group of enemies for that matter) with a CR of character level+4 is of equal power to the party, and has an equal chance of winning. Keep this in mind. A level 16 party could fight a Pitt Fiend and win, but could just as easily be TPKed. A level 17 party will probably win, but casualties may very well happen. Keep this in mind.
Now the above is assuming that the overlord has no lackeys with him. If said Balor is accompanied by his Marilith consort 5 Nafalshees and a Babau, the encounter will be CR 22-much more exciting than just the Balor. Conversely, you have then option of making the Overlord stronger, adding class levels, and advancing hit dice- in fact, they give you special powers to give more powerful Balors and Pitt Fiends, allowing you to make your villain more personal and unique.
- Good major bad guys, what monsters make good big bads? Who should be your final boss?
The classic; the Evil Wizard.
- How would you surprise your players? What monsters and classes won’t your players expect? How do you make clichés new again?
Think back to evil wizards in cinema-- they aren't these looming figures who live in far off towers, but men and women who live among us and control us through their machinations or through our fears.
Jafar from Aladdin and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty are good examples of the evil wizard who is iconic, but they're stale. Ozymandias from The Watchmen is the evil wizard you should strive to evoke. He's the friend and the hero, but inside, a super-genius with a plan to kill everyone he ever meets.
The evil wizard definitely can't live in a tower, nor can they have some kind of dungeon where they keeps all of their treasures in in. No, no; the evil wizard should be just like the classics, living among those with power who protect them. Too deeply ingrained in society to just pluck out without significant repercussions hitting the players. Then, the evil wizard can live out his plots to his fruition and the players frustration.
Twists:
The evil wizard pretends to be a good wizard.
The evil wizard is the hero of the nation, just coming off a successful adventuring campaign.
The evil wizard is the heroes' patron, sending them off to do his dirty work.
The evil wizard is a master of disguise, manipulating everything the PCs do in order to fufil his goals.
The evil wizard is a good wizard with good intentions, but performs bad actions for the good of all.
The evil wizard is the familiar of the raven sitting on his shoulder... who is actually the real evil wizard.
- What tactics do you use? Do your villains use every dirty trick in the book? Can you make an enemy efficiently solo versus the PCs?
It's a wizard! He scrys. He casts buff spells. He *prepares.* The wizard loves fire? He loves resist energy (fire). The paladin loves his sword? The wizard hired a bunch of rowdy minstrels to talk about the -2 cursed longsword he hid in the mountains years ago-- the one that becomes cursed whenever you stand in a library. The bard loves singing? The wizard disguised himself as a young serving girl and slipped a poison in his drink that removed his ability to speak.
22 Int doesn't mean the guy's smart-- it means he's a genius.
And geniuses don't get where they are without lackeys. The evil wizard should always have lackeys ready or manipulated into fighting the PCs. The illusion of some dark brotherhood's "ritual of world ruin" is often just enough to trick the PCs away from the real threat looming just behind them-- the real threat that paid the dark brotherhood to spread the rumors of their ritual in the first place.
Or maybe the evil wizard doesn't just have nameless lackies, but a specific race of lackies under his control. Think of all the great villainous empires-- where would the drow be without driders? Where would the aboleths be without skum? Where would the gnomes be without humans? Er, forget that last one, but you know what I mean. Great species ready for enslavement by some dark monster are ogres, giants, kobolds, lizardfolk, morlocks, dark creepers, demons, devils, angels, archons and azata and many, many more.
Nothing says "This guy needs to go down" like the enslavement of an entire race of people.
Nothing says "This guy -way- needs to go down" like an enslaved solar being forced to fight you, all the while apologizing when his shots ring true or his powers blind your allies.
- How about lairs? Where do foes hide and fight? What kind of battles do you run?/
The final gate before ultimate power where the PCs take their stand... and the temple is collapsing.
A running battle at the coronation of the new king, where the evil wizard finally steps in to receive the crown as his plans come to fruition and the PCs come to stop him.
A battle that spans space and time, with the evil wizard transporting the PCs back and forth from one reality or plane to another.