D&D 5E Help! I Suck at Villains!

[Denalz]

So I'm trying to pull together a coherent backstory and an antagonist in general for the adventure (potential campaign) I'm planning. Here's what I've got so far....

My PC's will show up at a village at the base of a mountain range. The village has been plagued by wyvern riding barbarians for many years now. Typically they swoop in, steal food, and retreat. The attacks have been coming with more and more frequency and this year the brutes even made off with several of the community's young women. The PC's will be asked to retrieve the captive women and destroy the ongoing threat if possible. Side note: They will be given a tracking hound to help find the riders.

Within the mountain cliffs the PC's will find the barbarians and be shocked to realize that they have made blushing brides of their captives and that the ladies have no wish to leave. Some investigation will reveal that the riders consider themselves guardians of humanity and that they only steal resources from the village below because the growing threat of evil looms stronger every year from within the mountain, robbing of them of time to hunt and toil. Their abductions were out of necessity as their camp was recently attacked whilst the men were away. Their women were slaughtered and the children would have perished too were it not for the men's early return.

Here is my problem, I have no idea what to say the riders are guardians against. My aim is to send my PC's into the mountain and maybe eventually the underdark for the real adventure... but I feel immense pressure to make the ultimate antagonist a good one as I have high hopes that this adventure could be made into a full blown campaign.

At first I was thinking maybe a demon that has been sending minions out in greater forces over the years. Maybe he's sending them out to seek a way to free him? Then I thought maybe the mountain houses some sort of portal and that's where the fiends are coming through, but I don't really have a firm grasp on portals and how the planes work. Though it would be interesting if I could find a reasonable way to tie together the idea that the portal or demon here is only one of a network of many throughout the continent. This way once the PC's find a way to defeat the threat, they are made aware of many others, possible much more formidable, throughout the land. This could set them up for all sorts of adventures that should end up connecting.

*Sigh* Anyway, you see my dilemma, I have too much ambition and not enough creativity. I'm not sold of fiends, but they are a favored enemy of one of my four PC's. Others include celestial, undead, and warlocks.

 

[LotusApe]

Seems like you already have some ideas, you just need to fill the holes in. Sometimes if I get stuck I just re-read what I already have, and I think you have a thematic element you may have missed.

Turns out the Barbarians are raiding for supplies, and the fiends are coming out and raiding as well. Except they are doing it to free their master.

If you want more locations, then you just need to define the reasons they are coming out in different places. It's for supplies, that could be metal or minerals that are only available on the material plane, or it could be certain magical items.

1) They need copper to build a huge electric mechanism that will blast through the ancient ward holding their master.
2) They need items of fallen heroes (the one in the Mountain is the dwarven forged axe of the Barbarian chief). These heroes were the ones that sealed away the Big Bad. Their weapons hold their essence so can be used in a bit of trickery to undo the warding spell.

Portals work how you want them to work. If you want the heroes to properly solve the wyvern-riders dilemma then you need to give them a way to close it permanently or temporarily. Or in a Pyrrhic victory the fiends get what they want and just close the portal themselves.

 

[FrogReaver]

I personally like some kind of demon or similar being in disguise as a man (or possessing the man) and leader of a group and network of devoted followers that is trying to help him open a portal to some great place but is really going to be a portal to hell for his armies to arrive though.

For a neat twist you could do it as a celestial that wants to purge the world of evil (evil being mankind as they have grown too wicked) and have it be a portal that is for the armies of heaven to invade the world.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Have them the guardians of a sentient chicken that keeps pleading with the PCs to turn it back to normal.

The chicken is actually a polymorphed ancient red dragon necromancer who plans to use a special ritual to absorb all life on the continent and ascend to godhood so it can rule over the entire planet as an unstoppable godking.

The attacks are by the dragon's followers, who mistakenly believe the dragon won't eat them as soon as it ascends.

 

[Schmoe]

Quick question, but how is a tracking hound supposed to help find the flying wyvern riders?

That being said, what about a dwarven lich who long ago destroyed a dwarven hold far beneath the Earth? This lich desires revenge against the surface dwellers who long ago shunned him from attending a prestigeous magic academy, and so now he musters undead from the bones of the slaughtered dwarves in the hold. The lich has bound several demons as his generals and aides, and he has enslaved a race of (gibberlings, mongrelmen, or other pathetic underdark hordes) to do his bidding. The barbarians have been holding back the burgeoning forces of the hordes, but recently have made the troubling discovery that the hordes now have undead among their ranks.

A note about the lich. As he was spurned by the magic college for being dwarven and unrefined, he has come to loathe the fact that he is dwarven, and in fact has turned to terrible hatred of all dwarves. This could work best if the surface village that is being raided has dwarven origins, and thus is a natural target of the lich's hostility.

 

[Bupp]

At the very least you should have a couple sessions for the party to get to the barbarian stronghold. That will give you some time to lay some groundwork and throw out some hooks. Use rumors and such. They hear that there could be fiends behind it all, or undead, or celestials, or the thing behind curtain #3. What seems to excite the players the most? That's the hook you reel them in on. Then, after they get to know the barbarians, they find out the thing that they are excited about is the thing the barbarians are fighting against.

 

[Quickleaf]

So I'm trying to pull together a coherent backstory and an antagonist in general for the adventure (potential campaign) I'm planning. Here's what I've got so far....

My PC's will show up at a village at the base of a mountain range. The village has been plagued by wyvern riding barbarians for many years now. Typically they swoop in, steal food, and retreat. The attacks have been coming with more and more frequency and this year the brutes even made off with several of the community's young women. The PC's will be asked to retrieve the captive women and destroy the ongoing threat if possible. Side note: They will be given a tracking hound to help find the riders.

Within the mountain cliffs the PC's will find the barbarians and be shocked to realize that they have made blushing brides of their captives and that the ladies have no wish to leave. Some investigation will reveal that the riders consider themselves guardians of humanity and that they only steal resources from the village below because the growing threat of evil looms stronger every year from within the mountain, robbing of them of time to hunt and toil. Their abductions were out of necessity as their camp was recently attacked whilst the men were away. Their women were slaughtered and the children would have perished too were it not for the men's early return.

Here is my problem, I have no idea what to say the riders are guardians against. My aim is to send my PC's into the mountain and maybe eventually the underdark for the real adventure... but I feel immense pressure to make the ultimate antagonist a good one as I have high hopes that this adventure could be made into a full blown campaign.

At first I was thinking maybe a demon that has been sending minions out in greater forces over the years. Maybe he's sending them out to seek a way to free him? Then I thought maybe the mountain houses some sort of portal and that's where the fiends are coming through, but I don't really have a firm grasp on portals and how the planes work. Though it would be interesting if I could find a reasonable way to tie together the idea that the portal or demon here is only one of a network of many throughout the continent. This way once the PC's find a way to defeat the threat, they are made aware of many others, possible much more formidable, throughout the land. This could set them up for all sorts of adventures that should end up connecting.

*Sigh* Anyway, you see my dilemma, I have too much ambition and not enough creativity. I'm not sold of fiends, but they are a favored enemy of one of my four PC's. Others include celestial, undead, and warlocks.

I'll pose some questions that you may draw inspiration from answering...

1. A hound tracking wyverns? Hmm. Something doesn't add up. Maybe a way to set bait and lure a wyvern out and then track it? Or a bloodhawk to help track it (that would be one brave hawk!)?

2. The captives are, essentially, "war brides" forcibly taken and introduced to new families. I would be *very* hesitant to paint a happy picture of all of them enjoying life among this new tribe and not wanting to leave. The reality would be much more nuanced – sure, some may have integrated into the new tribe, but just as many are likely to struggle or absolutely hate it.

3. Don't feel you need to define a BBEG yet. Many of my old D&D games involved an emergent villain – meaning I made it up according to things that happened, inspiration that struck in game, or even borrowing ideas from my players.

4. I think it's good you identified favored enemies of your PCs. If you wanted something like Game of Thrones, you could use a death knight or lich or vampire (warlock vampire?) frozen in/under the frosty mountain peaks. If you have Tome of Beasts, there are some interesting neutral-aligned celestials that could make an unexpected villain; maybe the mountain is, according to legend, the place the gods/saints/heroes ascended into heaven?

 

[akr71]

I agree with [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] & observation #2. Instead of coming down from the mountains to steal women, maybe the barbarians demand tribute of young people (men & women) to come and live with them - like a medieval hostageship perhaps - learn the language and culture. Some would adopt the new culture and raise families, some would return home when their indenture was complete, but with a newfound respect for the barbarians and their way of life.

Perhaps this has been happening for a few years - the barbarian shamans know change is coming and allies will be needed, so this is how they planned. In addition, maybe the numbers of their own young men and women are dwindling from fighting the evil - whatever it may be.

A new tribute is due, but some of the 'civilized' folk are tired of losing their young men and women and some brave adventurers step up to put an end to it.

 

[MarkB]

2. The captives are, essentially, "war brides" forcibly taken and introduced to new families. I would be *very* hesitant to paint a happy picture of all of them enjoying life among this new tribe and not wanting to leave. The reality would be much more nuanced – sure, some may have integrated into the new tribe, but just as many are likely to struggle or absolutely hate it.

Yeah, that part of the OP's description bothered me immensely. Just how hideously horrible a society were these women living in, that they find being kidnapped into a war camp that suffers frequent raids by fiends and told that they're there to help re-populate the tribe to be a preferable existence - and if their former home was an even worse alternative, why are the PCs even helping those people?

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Keep it vague for now. The unknown is always more scary than the known.

As long as the players understand that a greater evil is lurking somewhere, that is enough for the early game. The real trick is to listen to the players, who will start guessing at the nature of the bad guy. They will give you ideas.

Later, when you start dropping more hints, be sure to include some of the guessing by the players - they'll be delighted when they were right about certain details.