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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5206984" data-attributes="member: 3820">In a "lethal solutions" game like D&D, generally the first rule is not to send them into fights with the PCs. That may seem like kind of unhelpful advice, so let's look at it a little more.Generally speaking, D&D doesn't have much of a superhero comic tradition of "take the villain prisoner, or watch him escape/stage his death, so that he can recur." Players are generally aware of this; the expectation is that if they're defeated, they're more likely to die than to wake up in a clever deathtrap. (Though the latter works well with D&D, too.) Therefore they like the NPCs they fight to undergo the same risk that they do in a fight.The most simple solution is to have long-running villains just not show up face-to-face at first. You first run into people in their employ, maybe with letters written by the villain explaining what's expected of them. Then maybe you run into a lieutenant or five. Gradually you can get a sense of a villain through their actions, before it's time to draw swords against him. Depending on your players, you might be able to get away with a face-to-face meeting or three where violence isn't an option -- meeting the corrupt baron at a royal ball, for instance, where neither side is willing to risk the king's wrath -- but some players would find that frustrating in a bad way instead of frustrating in a good and exciting way. Also consider organization-as-antagonist. Say, a vicious monastery called Sons of the Blind Star; players can be running into their acolytes all the time, and meeting specific named lieutenants that provide interesting stepping stones, but the actual threat won't be ended until they meet the Grand Master of Flowers in charge. This lets you get away with a lot of the recurring motifs of a single villain, particularly if the organization has a dominant "personality" -- and the players can kill off individuals within the organization to feel better without getting it all over with at once.Mostly I find that the best villains that recur who actually cross swords with the players and then get away, only to fight them again, are the ones that aren't planned for; they just happen. There's nothing wrong with setting up an escape plan for a villain, mind; just be certain that the players have half a shot at preventing it. And if an escape plan is set up, it's usually not a bad idea to make sure that the players can achieve a secondary objective over killing the villain in the same fight, something that will ruin the villain's day. It's a little more satisfying for many players to watch the villain escape if he's pissed off and cursing the day you got involved, or wide-eyed with terror, than if he's got a smug smirk on his face.</blockquote>

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