DM/GMs- Most memorable Villians/Anagontists you've created.

Hejdun · Feb 20, 2002

I'm working on a great one. The kicker is, he's not evil. Hell, he's not even neutral. Yep, he's good. No, the party is not evil. In fact, quite good.

Here's the thing, the character will be a Robin Hood wanna-be. He will be a chaotic good ranger/sorceror, hell bent on stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. As the party is spilling gold coins out of their pockets, they will be obvious targets. So, he goes and trys to stun/blind/sleep/knock unconcious the party constantly, sometimes wading into combat with saps. Him and his merry gang will constantly dog the party, stealing and pilfering at every opportunity. He never uses leathal damage, and leaves enough for the PCs to get by. This brings the interesting delimma, do you kill the guy? He's good, he gives whatever gold he earns to the poor, he builds houses for the poor, he gives money to good churches, he helps commoners get better jobs. For everyone but the rich, this guy drastically increases the standard of living for everyone around him. What does the party do?

Someguy · Feb 20, 2002

An lizardman wizard who tomrented them through levels 5-20...
They met him becuase one of the PC's was looking for a bag of holding, well he had one, but made them go on a really hard quest to get it, and when they returned with the item..a gem...he successfully telekinesed out out of thier hands and teleported away...they made him into an enemy actually... they tracked him down, and harressed him. Thought tehy ahd killed him..( psuhed him over a cliff, but he did fly. they never bothered to check to see if he was alive.) He then started harrasing them...

It worked because THEY almost created him...and they new it and that I jsut wasn't sending a pet at them...

der_kluge · Feb 20, 2002

My best (most detailed) was a guy the party simply knew as the "Fire Knight". He was just a fighter, but had all this fire-related gear - ring of fire protection (2nd ed.) armor of fire, flaming sword, etc, etc.

He stole Joyhdee's Mask and used it to infiltrate the politics of one of the major cities in my world. The PCs had to go find the Monocle of Bagthalos to find him. Only - they didn't know where it was. So, they had to consult the Herald of Mei Lung in order to find the Monocle.

That entire campaign lasted over a year, and took them to three separate countries in my world.

The grand finale consisted of the PCs finally facing the Fire Knight, but he escaped to Hell. They decided walking into Hell after him wasn't worth it.

But throughout the campaign the PCs were constantly tormented with his side-kick - an evil halfling assassin with an amulet of the planes. They finally managed to kill him at the end, but not before he killed a young boy that had been travelling with them.

Oh, and there were a bunch of other "fire cult" members that hounded them throughout. It was great.

Gothmog · Feb 21, 2002

My most memorable villain(s) would be from a 2nd Edition campaign I ran a few years ago. Haven't had as much time since 3E came out to game, although I'm working on a real bugger right now.

1) A human barbarian fighter who they met and defeated in the 1st adventure named Karon. They thought he was dead when in fact he was the servant of a powerful shaman- his spirit fled his body at the time of his "death" and lingered in the spirit world for a while during the time his body mended, then when his body was whole, he was shoved back into his body and started up his nefarious actions again. He was a source of trouble and fear to the PCs from levels 1-9 or so, until he rebelled against his master and became an ally of the PCs. They loved to hate him, and later thought it was really cool he became an ally (although he never turned "good").

2) A diabolic wizard named Albrenax (mage 13+) who recieved his powers from an arch-devil. This devil and Albrenax had worked out a mutually beneficial relationship where the devil granted Albrenax unusally long life for a human (350+years) in exchange for Albrenax working to pave the way for his infernal masters on the game world. Although they never fought him in 70+ adventures, he was a source of fear whenever he showed up (even one surreal moment when he ate dinner with them at an inn, warning them of an ambush against them). Albrenax also had a thing for the female human wizard in the group (thinking she was a reincarnation of his wife), but nothing ever happened with that (she wasn't the reincarnation). By the time the campaign ended, they never had tried to confront him, partly because they never were sure what he was up to (he worked in very subtle ways), and partly because they had a bad feeling that if they did kill him, someone worse would have taken his place (which was true- a cambion demon was chomping at the bit to have Albrenax killed so he could do his stuff).

Cake Mage · Feb 21, 2002

I got another

Not so much an enemy but a pain in their butts. See someetimes I give out too much magical items, and then the PCs are overpowered. Quick and easy solution... Ethereal Filcher.

I hjad the same little bugger come and steal many a magic item that I did not mean to give out. One problem, They finaly killed him. Me, not wanting them to get all those magic items, decided that he dissapeared back to the ethereal plane when he died.
Problem solved.

James McMurray · Feb 21, 2002

You can check him out here. He has since died at the hands of the party, but they'll be seeing him aain anyway, at some point during their run through the Bloodstone series.

http://townhall.webrpg.com/index.phtml?nextid=546791

You can read the journal he kept during his travels with the party here:

http://www.geocities.com/Disc0_Sooperfly/ArthaxJournal.doc

Its really long, but at least the cover art is nice.

I doubt anyone will ever read the whole thing, but I had fun writing it while the party was traveling with him. And I really had fun giving it to them as a taunt from him as he fled with their hard-earned cashola.

Nightfall · Feb 21, 2002

Well I must say there's some REALLY nice ones in here folks.

My first one, back when I first ran a campaign in 2nd, was a small cabal of wizards/priests devoted (drum roll please) The Dark One. (Yep THAT Dark One for you Wotty fans out there). Anyway, they were all fifth level but they managed to survive a small assault force that was sent at them by Lanfear. So it went for probably about three months, they'd defend the city, (their cleric kept puking his guts out just on a normal "detect evil") and Lanfear would ALWAYS be one step ahead of them. They finally managed to seal her up using a powerful magic gem that trapped her "beyond the weave of time and space". They still had to deal with Ishmael but they managed to kill him off after gaining some major power from the Dragon Reborn. (Hey what can I say? It was 2nd edition!

)

My second campaign, after a little more practice, was a Spelljammer type. The party's mage kept attracting the attention of amorous arcane, one of the few female NPCs I had. She often gave him a bauble in exchange for favors...but she always left him a little unsatifised. Turns out she was draining his Con away to help in her own battle with a rival beholder holding corp/spelljammer trader company.

Finally my first 3rd, I used Death in Freeport...but due to unforseen changes, I had to make a new NPC up on the spot. Thus was born, Rycheal, the Mad Maiden. She was a sorcerer barbarian that loved to find new treasure. She took the party on an amazing vogage to new lands...until the Keel Crusher killed them.

Okay not one of my best ones BUT she was memorable.

James McMurray · Feb 23, 2002

bump, because I like the topic.

Nightfall · Feb 23, 2002

I take then James you didn't think much of my Villians huh? *is being sarcastic*

Damror · Feb 23, 2002

This is a good topic. I hadn't seen it yet.

I like the Good villain mentioned earlier. It reminds me of one I did several years ago about a CG vigilante who was murdering evil people. The PCs had to investigate and by the time the end of the adventure rolled around (a short 3 session game) they were all argueing about what to do with the "villain."

One of the best though, was a cannibalistic drow woman named D'rahna. She was supposed to be a source of moral dilemma for the players, but they responed to her in a way I didn't expect and an epic villain was born.

It would take too long to explain the details. Basically, one of the PCs (a bard) made her VERY angry at him. In return, she embarked on a series of limerick laden ambushes (yes, limericks). Furthermore, in each ambush, she severed, gouged or otherwise removed a part of the bard's body and ate it. She gouged out his left eye and ate it in front of him. She choped off 2 fingers from each of his hands and fried them up for breakfast. She slashed off one of his ears and stored it in her pouch for later. The bard was literally being chopped up and eaten alive! (Note: never cross a drow.)

All the while, she had managed to fool another PC (an elven huntsman) into believing that she was just a poor, misunderstood "Good" drow who had fled the underdark (he never saw the ambushes). Even after she framed him for the theft of a holy artifact, he continued to love her.

She was the perfect combination of crulty, manipulation, wit, and seduction.