Reusable villains: how? (Another "101 ideas" thread)

Psion · Oct 10, 2002

Typical heroic movie: Villain battles hero to a standstill. As soon as he sees the tables are turned, he dashes off into the foilage, declaring "we shall meet again!"

Typical D&D game: As above, followed by:
PC: "Don't run, you'll only die tired!", chases down the miscreant and does away with him.

At any rate, I am looking for ways that I can make some villains more indellible. You can only give so many of your villains invisibility, fly, and dimension door spells before it wears thin.

So what other ways can you make villains more reusable. Here's some ideas:

1) Establish a "mercenary code" or somesuch. If a party, being bested in combat, casts their arms down, they can surrender and submit to being ransomed. This code is recognized by local law and those who violate this trust quickly gain a bad reputation and cannot expect the same treatment.

2) Make the villain a noble or some other figure who it would be a crime to kill outright (that one can get old, too.)

Any others?

Crothian · Oct 10, 2002

3) Villians minions fights and hold off PCs as the Villian escapes.

4) Villian surrenders (only work for a good party that won't kill a person who surrenders).

5) Villian has eloborate escape plan already set up

MerakSpielman · Oct 10, 2002

"Wait! If you swear before your gods to let me go free, I'll tell you where the princess/treasure/bomb is! Otherwise, it will be on your heads! And don't think you can find her/it without this information! You only have one hour before she dies/my henchment take the treasure/the bomb goes off! Promise, NOW!"

And hope the villian makes his saves against the inevitable Charms, Geas, Suggestion, Detect Thoughts, etc that the party is going to try before swearing such an oath.

Apok · Oct 10, 2002

7) The party does away with said villian but he comes back as some form of undead. There are enough undead templates out there for anyone to come up with something interesting.

8) The part does away with said villian but he is raised or ressurrected, either by some dark deity, a cleric of said deity or some kind of infernal/abyssal pact. Oodles of roleplaying & plot-twist fun stuff here.

9) The villian has hostiges that will be summarily killed or tortured if anything happens to him. This probably won't work unless the party has some shred of moral fibre.

Hand of Evil · Oct 10, 2002

10) Never let the PCs see the villian die or find a body...Death blow and the villian falls from the castle wall into the raging river. Death blow, the mountain shakes, lava flows, the PCs have to run for it, leaving the villian behind.

11) Public office - damn it Jim! He is a congressman!

12) Surrender - I give up, I will allow myself to be taken and see what the King has in store for me! Sir, paladin, I repent and wish go to trial, protect me until the church finds just punishment for my crimes. (note: this is an alignment issue and deals a lot with what is defined as evil in your games).

13) Magic - Item takes the soul of the villian, later to be released into another boby or henchmen raise the dead on him.

Psion · Oct 10, 2002

Apok said:
7) The party does away with said villian but he comes back as some form of undead. There are enough undead templates out there for anyone to come up with something interesting.

This one I actually am using in short order. My players defeated a traitorous aristocrat turned blackguard (who follows a goddess of undeath) whose body fell into a negative energy nexus. Death knight, here I come...

RangerWickett · Oct 10, 2002

11. A delayed version of the psionic power "mind seed." Pick the best roleplayer in your group (or if you don't have one, pick the NPC they care about the most), and have the character slowly begin to adopt unusual behaviors, then eventually leave for a time before coming back as the villain.

Be forewarned, it seems that a lot of players take it personally if you collaborate with another player. I tried this with my group, and they thought I was cheating. Grr.

12. The PCs actually killed her twin sister! So she's still around, and pissed enough to want revenge.

13. Devoted followers who have readied teleport spells. Even if the villain wants to stay and fight, his henchmen will carry him off to safety after two rounds of combat.

14. Set up in advance that the villain is immortal. If he dies, he just reincarnates, or perhaps his body totally heals. The party must either change his ways, or find a way to thwart him that's a little more inventive than kacking him.

Xarlen · Oct 10, 2002

15) Regeneration. Perhaps the wizard did some ritual where he absorbed some troll blood, and thus after death, begins to reform. But it's slower, so it could take him days. Regeneration from a ring or magial item that was Implated in him, or she was gifted with the power through an infernal pact.

16) Watch the movie Fallen. The badguy is a spirit that inhabits body after body, by touch or possession, and to kill him, they have to put him in a situation he cannot possess anyone nearby.

17) Like the above poster said, have situations where the PCs can't see the body. Villain about to die? Have her jump off a roof/high rise/whatever, and a web spell/levitate/featherfall waiting. Cave the ceiling in, have the house they're in on fire.

18) Body doubles. In the Slaver series (I believe), the elf wizardess would kidnap elves that looked like her, changen their apperance, and brainwash them so they thought/acted like her, and thus used several of them to pose as herself.

19) Contingencies. Need I say more?

20) Other spells like Wall of Force, Ghostform, Ethereal Jaunt, Gaseous Form, etc.

21) A Bigger Distraction. They're about to kill the villain? Have something bigger, nastier, etc etc, break in near the end of the fight. Could be the hook for the Next adventure, could be an ally of the villain, a random monster, a pet, etc. While the party fights the bigger threat, their nemesis bolts.

roytheodd · Oct 10, 2002

Villain can polymorph and escape by flying or leaping or some such.

Villain is a doppleganger and hides by entering crowds.

Villain rarely engages in fights and leaves while his minions are still hashing it out.

Villain is an illusion, while real villain hides off in the shadows or some such.

Villain flees the PCs and leads them down a prescribed path that allows an ultimate getaway (like leaping over a waterfall and having some fantastic way of surviving).

Villain feigns death.

Villain is a lackey to a bigger villain.

AegisEversoaring · Oct 10, 2002

One of my favorites...

The villian is a trusted ally of someone the party also trusts. An advisor to a monarch or noble, or a mayors trusted deputy with a dark secret.
On the surface, the villian does his job well, but underneath they are leading another life entirely.

Aegis