Do your villians have a profession?
Steve Jung
Explorer
What's wrong with a villain being a legitimate businessman?Numion said:
Silver Moon
Adventurer
The biggest villain in our campaign is a High Priestess of the Church of Loviatar. She rules an area consisting of a city and three towns, so derives her income from that.
A recent villain is a gnoll warlord, who now rules a group of over 300 gnoll, goblin and bugbear warriors. He spun off from the "Beast of Burden" module, and will become a major player in future years.
Another main villian is an insane megalomanic from a futuristic world, whose mind is currently inside of a flesh golem. I never gave him any other occupation, although I really like the dentist idea.
A recent villain is a gnoll warlord, who now rules a group of over 300 gnoll, goblin and bugbear warriors. He spun off from the "Beast of Burden" module, and will become a major player in future years.
Another main villian is an insane megalomanic from a futuristic world, whose mind is currently inside of a flesh golem. I never gave him any other occupation, although I really like the dentist idea.
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How about this idea ...
A well regarded sage who has the characters running about helping uncover lost treasures and magic which he then turns around and uses to advance his other plans.
Eventually the players should catch on to the fact that they're working for the villain whose plans they occasionally end up combatting.
A well regarded sage who has the characters running about helping uncover lost treasures and magic which he then turns around and uses to advance his other plans.
Eventually the players should catch on to the fact that they're working for the villain whose plans they occasionally end up combatting.
Amrynn Moonshadow
First Post
villans, eh? with employment?
my baddies are a varried lot...
one has been an advisor to the ruler of calimport (woo, FR is fun . . .), but didn't try to rule, or usurp or anything, he just used his possition to do things for his master, all the while, secretly trying to protect humankind from a massive mind flayer colonization. (like a khelben blackstaff for the south, with a more nebulous agenda) sure, over time he's had to do bad things, which on the surface made him an 'enemy' of the heroic PC's, but once they delved deeper in just what he was doing they realized that he wasn't so rotten after all. they still didn't like him, but there was much more to this guy than just kicking puppies and having a really cool, classic 'bad guy beard'. he was an advisor / diplomat by career, but he had no problems alloting skill points to those things (profession skills) as he had an insanely high INT score. basically a high INT, high CHA, ok WIS character with a mix of Amrish Puri's character from Temple of Doom (the main kali cultist) and the Cigarette Smoking man from X-files, but really trying to do good in a twisted twisted way. was a major 'villian' for the PC's until they figured stuff out, they never killed him, they never would have been able to either though, dude could probably take on some of the major NPC's in the realms (without the influence of Gods getting in the way).
another villian was a moody half-dragon sorceror who basically spent most of his time trying to do pretty things with gems and other stones, carving statues, and fabrige eggs, etc . . . was an artisan for a kingdom which fell under a plague (which he was immune to, as a half-dragon). he learned sorcery to conceal his true identiy though, and now is the only person in that kingdom still alive on some tiny island surrounded by his precious gems and statues and stuff. what bad things did he do? well, he'd abduct pieces of beauty (usually people he'd want to carve into marble or emrald or whatever) and kill them after he was done carving their likeness. normally the PC's would never have crossed paths with him but they made a deal with stronger baddies for their lives -- they were teleported to his crazy island of gems and traps to get something for those bad guys. (and in all 80's fantasy movie style, he would seduce one of the female party members into agreeing to be in one of his creations to the dismay of the other party members . . . )
sometimes though, you just gotta watch out for those 3rd level commoners. they don't make for long fights, but well, a guy working the printing press and has alot of free time can make up alot of propaganda info and play people off of each other with it, and do evil things.
he's not much in a fight though:
PC Monk: (meta game thinking) uh, i have spring attack . . .
NPC Commoner: (M.G.T. also) well, i have skil focus: profession . . .
some times bad guys go around kingdom to kingdom trying to sell 'insurance', if they don't pay, they can easily call upon bad guys to loot and pillage. (protection scheme . . .) i guess that would be a lawyer or something . . .
my baddies are a varried lot...
one has been an advisor to the ruler of calimport (woo, FR is fun . . .), but didn't try to rule, or usurp or anything, he just used his possition to do things for his master, all the while, secretly trying to protect humankind from a massive mind flayer colonization. (like a khelben blackstaff for the south, with a more nebulous agenda) sure, over time he's had to do bad things, which on the surface made him an 'enemy' of the heroic PC's, but once they delved deeper in just what he was doing they realized that he wasn't so rotten after all. they still didn't like him, but there was much more to this guy than just kicking puppies and having a really cool, classic 'bad guy beard'. he was an advisor / diplomat by career, but he had no problems alloting skill points to those things (profession skills) as he had an insanely high INT score. basically a high INT, high CHA, ok WIS character with a mix of Amrish Puri's character from Temple of Doom (the main kali cultist) and the Cigarette Smoking man from X-files, but really trying to do good in a twisted twisted way. was a major 'villian' for the PC's until they figured stuff out, they never killed him, they never would have been able to either though, dude could probably take on some of the major NPC's in the realms (without the influence of Gods getting in the way).
another villian was a moody half-dragon sorceror who basically spent most of his time trying to do pretty things with gems and other stones, carving statues, and fabrige eggs, etc . . . was an artisan for a kingdom which fell under a plague (which he was immune to, as a half-dragon). he learned sorcery to conceal his true identiy though, and now is the only person in that kingdom still alive on some tiny island surrounded by his precious gems and statues and stuff. what bad things did he do? well, he'd abduct pieces of beauty (usually people he'd want to carve into marble or emrald or whatever) and kill them after he was done carving their likeness. normally the PC's would never have crossed paths with him but they made a deal with stronger baddies for their lives -- they were teleported to his crazy island of gems and traps to get something for those bad guys. (and in all 80's fantasy movie style, he would seduce one of the female party members into agreeing to be in one of his creations to the dismay of the other party members . . . )
sometimes though, you just gotta watch out for those 3rd level commoners. they don't make for long fights, but well, a guy working the printing press and has alot of free time can make up alot of propaganda info and play people off of each other with it, and do evil things.
he's not much in a fight though:
PC Monk: (meta game thinking) uh, i have spring attack . . .
NPC Commoner: (M.G.T. also) well, i have skil focus: profession . . .
some times bad guys go around kingdom to kingdom trying to sell 'insurance', if they don't pay, they can easily call upon bad guys to loot and pillage. (protection scheme . . .) i guess that would be a lawyer or something . . .
Brother Shatterstone
Dark Moderator of PbP
Nightfall said:Yep,
Being evil, killing things, and also working as a mortician.
And what's so evil about being a mortitcian... My grandfather was one for 40 plus years.
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