Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9858098" data-attributes="member: 7052563">The Lich from Adventure Time is an interesting case of a villain who is both generic and specific.  He does not even have a real name of his own, just his generic moniker as THE Lich, because he is a cosmic spirit of pure evil older than existence itself, from a time “before there was nothing.”The Lich cares not for the petty things that motivate most stock villains, even immortal ones.  He ignores shiny baubles like money and treasure.  He does not crave power over others, or the loyalty or worship of lesser beings.  He does not want to dominate this world or any other.  He does not revel in sensual pleasures, or obsess over lost loves the way vampires like Dracula or Strahd do.  He certainly does not want to spend eternity unlocking the forbidden magical secrets of the universe, the way a classic D&D lich would.He just wants everything to end, because he hates everything so, so much (possibly including himself?).  He embodies pure nihilism in his hatred for existence itself and especially life.  His only wish is to destroy everything everywhere and return the entire universe to a state of non-existence.  Like so many villains he describes his eee-vil plans to Our Heroes, and occasionally he will crack a sardonic joke to mock them, but to me that feels like slightly inconsistent characterization leaking in from villain depictions in other media.  Most of his villain monologues do not express even negative emotions like cruelty or hatred, they are just matter-of-fact declarations of his relentless, inexorable will.  If his plans are temporarily stymied, he goes catatonic and waits patiently for his next opportunity, no matter how long it may take.  He is not invincible however, because he is vulnerable to magic weapons and to a variety of positive forces that exist in the Adventure Time universe.  And just like a rogue supercomputer from Star Trek TOS, he can definitely be foiled by logical paradoxes, and by monkey’s paw wish hijinks.I generally prefer lower, more grounded stakes in my stories and in my games, but if we are going to have cosmic stakes in D&D adventures then this is the way to do it.  This is the kind of villain that D&D 5E could use, the kind that Big Damn Heroes can defeat, but only if they fight hard and fight smart.</blockquote>

Verification