Clowns as villains

[Andrew D. Gable]

Closest I ever got was one campaign in which the central villain was a court jester. But it was really more of a political intrigue thing, as the jester was quite brilliant but eccentric, and never really played too much upon the clown angle.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Well, Final Fantasy 3 (U.S. #) did it, so how could it hurt?

If you haven't played it, I suggest you do-it's a good game. If you like though, I can offer some spoilers about the villain (Kefka).

Edit-He was more the BBEG type, though.

Now that I think about it, Shining Force I, a Sega Genesis Game had a nice circus battle in it. The main creature was the Marionette, a sort of construct created by a demonness which had ice-related powers.

 

[Chimera]

I did the "evil circus tent of illusions" bit in 3e.

5th level party. Bad guys were just two wizards, one a child, two special zombies. And lots of illusions.

They had encountered a cleric who was headed back to town. He and another had been charged to build a shrine at a wilderness ford. His friend vanished in the night.

They find a big circus tent about 1.5 miles from the unfinished shrine.

Great fun. They were actually tense, "frightened".

Who can forget the fun...

The PC wizard attempting to drop a Potion of Fireball (house rules, as a grenade) down the illusory bottomless pit at his feet.

Them assuming the interior was tardis-like and solid, when it was all illusions. They killed two of their own horses, tied up outside, with a Fireball. They were confused by the area of effect spells appearing to go through the walls. They were confused by the Lightning Bolts from nowhere.

It took the potion/explosion damaging people who thought they were a long way away to start to clue them in.

The discomfort as the mostly male party was invited into the fountain pool by two male lovers, who kept trying to flirt with the Ranger.

The shock and horror on realizing that the two male lovers in the pool were actually a (house rules special) zombie of the cleric they were searching for...and an 8 year old evil wizard prodigy girl.

But I didn't use clowns.

Next time it has to have clowns.

Maybe Hostages. Illusioned as Evil Clowns. (Ok, that is evil)