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

[Pyske]

Bluff to feign death.

Attack the PCs mounts / transport, and then flee on your own.

Run around corner, hide. (Generally best after a couple rounds running start.)

Hold back reinforcements to engage the PCs as you flee... or kill / hold hostage unconscious PCs if they party gives chase.

Snipe and hide if someone comes toward you.

Use cover to prevent 'parting shots'.

Potion: Expeditious Retreat (A 50 gp death cheat.)

Retreat into an area known to be dangerous / unexplored.

Branching, zigzag corridors limit sight distance, may lose pursuers who take the wrong path.

Duck around corner into secret bolthole which requires search to find. PCs may keep running if cover would allow position farther away.

Death magic / sacrifice magic. PCs are more likely to accept surrender if opponent who will die anyway can make "final blow" likely to kill a PC. Can also work with all-out power attack.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[kibbitz]

With regards to the "bluff to feign death" bit, do you guys ever encounter nasty players who believe in another bullet to the head as insurance?

 

[Grundle]

With regards to the "bluff to feign death" bit, do you guys ever encounter nasty players who believe in another bullet to the head as insurance?

Most people will only fall for something one time. Once they "kill" the bad guy but he comes back. Rest assured they will take every precaution to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Every big bad guy my group drops to negative HP will, at a minimum, loose his head. If time and resources allow, the body will be cremated and ashes dispersed, disintegrated, or dismembered and piece-by-piece FedEx'ed to the outerplanes.

 

[drnuncheon]

Really, the best idea is not to let the PCs meet the master villain unless you're ready for him to die.

"What do you mean, he melted?"
At high levels - or with wealthy villains - there's always the possibility of the simulacrum spell, or other 'cloning'-type
spells.

Power Behind the Throne
The big bad guy wasn't who you thought it was - he was under the influence (as a willing servitor or unwilling dupe) of the real villain.

"I'm Spartacus!
Using disguise skills and/or magic, the villain's fanatically loyal henchman has taken his place - he's the one that the PCs are fighting!

"Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts."
The villain isn't so much a person as it is a title or position - and if you strike one down another will come forth to take his place. If you do it right, this will give the players fits as they try to figure out how their old nemesis could have survived, and how he managed to get all of these new abilities...

"If you strike me down, I shall return - more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
Make the death part of the villain's Master Plan. Maybe he's got a trick up his sleeve that will let him get ressurrected far away. Maybe the death will give him more power. ("The red dragon we slew turned into a dracowhat?")

Revenge or Rescue?
Give the PCs something else to worry about than chasing the villain down. Maybe there's a time limit and they've got to rescue a friend, companion, lover, schoolbus full of nuns and orphans, whatever. Maybe he opened the floodgates when he realized he was losing and the water is rushing in.

J