Keeping NPCs Alive

[cranewings]

One of the defining features of the super hero genera, which is what you basically have when you let the player characters obtain a significantly higher level than your NPCs, how do you create a "story" where the heroes come up against the same villain more than once.

A part of the problem is the fact that most players, even good RPers, assume that their characters are pragmatic killers and will put a bullet in the head of anyone that they think they can't control. Imagine 6 Batmen in a group, anyone of which would kill the Joker before putting him in jail. You can't really build a bad guy up unless he is powerful enough to either beat the party, or has so many HP that two rounds of attacks, with the inevitable crit, can't outright kill him.

So imagine you and your players want a heroic game with recurrent antagonists, but the players simultaneously don't want to play along. How do you handle it? What classes to you make the bad guys? Do you make them higher level? Do you keep them out of combat and give them a bunch of escape powers? All three at the same time? What's your game?

[Ologath]

I would say yes, yes, and yes. Being higher level than the PCs makes your BBEG powerful enough (and hopefully gives him/her enough HP) to stand toe-to-toe with the PCs for a few rounds. The BBEG should also have escape plans ready.

Also keep in mind that the Pathfinder universe has resurrection magic, so even if your PCs simply slaughter your bad guy, he/she can always be brought back to life. Liches and grave knights even have this kind of feature built right in.

[Celestial Pegasus]

Another thing that can help is bringing some help. There are presumably 4-6 PCs... it's perfectly fine for your major villain to bring along some minions to screen for them, same way the Fighter screens for the Wizard in the PC party.

If things turn nasty, these minions can provide aid to the villain and help him escape, or even remove his corpse from the battlefield if he unexpectedly dies (for a later revival, as Ologath has suggested). Major villains as a single entity are vulnerable to sudden crits, save-or-death, etc.; so have an insurance plan handy.