How do YOU reintroduce villains you bring back?

[Tinker Gnome]

Okay, I am sure some of us here have brought back dead BBEGs to life for the PCs to fight once again. So, how have YOU done it?

 

[Chronosome]

One great way is to have a toady yesman who escaped the slaughter go to great pains to have him raised. Maybe life after BBEG's death just wasn't the same for the right hand man, or maybe he thinks he'll get showered in riches...

Family members will raise villains, curious bards who want the "real scoop" on what went down...

Just some ideas.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

have another BBEG show up with a plot that will make him a god, however the heros can somehow cause some of the power to revive the old BBEG and have the rest escape or something and they have a time limit so they can't come up with a better plan.

 

[Tonguez]

One villain was an Ogre Mage who was defeated and his lair sunk beneath the waves. Many years later a volcano erupted at the site of his sunken lair, I slapped a Paraelemental (Magma) Templates on the Ogre Mage and brought him back as a 'god' still trapped in the Volcano but working through his goblin worshippers to gain a means of escape.

 

[Gez]

Slain BBEG can always come back as undead, or in a case I have used, as fiends.

Their black, evil soul ends up in whatever Archfiend's lap, which sees fit, for any reason, to meld it into a fiend and give it back its memories. For example, because it will motivate the now-fiendish BBEG more in his first mission, which is to stop and slaughter the PCs...

 

[RithTheAwakener]

well our DM had a quite clever way of doing this for a undead lich monk/wizard we fought... at first he was level 7, we were level 4, we fought him, reduced him to 1 or so and had a few casualties. next time we see him (about a week later) he had his own demi plane and was an epic lvl character set on becoming a god. consequently when we met him, he also had figured out how to cast meteor swarm, and promptly made all of us dead. deaddeaddead. /endrant

 

[Gez]

Can't be a lich at level 7, it requires caster level 11...

 

[Peterson]

My all-time favorite one was when the PCs where tasked by a high level cleric of Pelor to rid a former garrison of a Master Vampire and his minions.

The PCs manage to fight their way past all the low minions and finally confronts the BBEG's right hand man - a brute of a vampire with a two-handed sword, lots of strength, and power attack-related feats. They manage to hit the brute with a Bokken of Distruption, and he fails his Fort save - dies instantly.

However, the PCs are pretty weak, so they retreat to rest and heal.

Two days later, they arrive back to take on the Master Vampire - only to find that he resurrected his right hand man, and turned into a Vampire AGAIN! Sure, the henchman was a full level lower than the first time, but the fight didn't go as well this time around. The brute attacked and destroyed the Bokken of Displacement right off the bat (pun intended). The PCs eventually escaped, though with serious losses and without destroying the BBEG.

Good times.

Peterson

 

[Judas]

Lords of Darkness. 9th level arcane spell, Stasis Clone. Your BBEG may never "die".

 

[Thanee]

That was actually planned from the beginning... Clone is such an annoying spell, especially if the BBEG is smart enough to beat the Scry+Teleport routine.

Bye
Thanee