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Message: <blockquote data-quote="silburnl" data-source="post: 1324120" data-attributes="member: 13560">Personally I'd work the initial encounter into an ongoing story rather than have it turn up as a random alleyway mugging that they just happen to be in the vicinity of - that has a strong whiff of 'you all meet up in a tavern and decide to go adventuring' cheesiness about it. How about if the kobold assassin is doing some freelance work on the side for whichever non-recurring villain is at the root of your next adventure plot? That way you can engineer the story so the PCs can still 'win' the adventure in a satisfying way (ie expose whover is employing the kobold) without you losing a groovy villain that you have future plans for. This also helps you pace the buildup for your villainous pair. You can have an adventure where the kobold sidekick is a mysterious 'out of town' hitman. Then a few clues/rumours the PCs can chase down as to who this kobold guy is, this can lead naturally into an adventure which *seems* to be about the kobold but where in fact the PCs stumble on to one of the BBEG's minor plots (they get dragged in by rumours of the kobold but he's long gone by the time they arrive). Before long you have a full on vendetta going between the PCs and the villainous pair.Either way can work but the devil is in the detail of your execution. Having recurring villains who are roughly par with the PCs can be asking for trouble IMO - player groups have a tendency to hit a percieved bad guy with massive, coordinated firepower at the first opportunity which can make framing and staging scenes for the villains a bit problematic (you want to have opportunities for these villains to twirl their moustache and reveal their dastardly plans, right?). The obvious response as a DM is to beef up their EL so they can brush off the player attacks until the Dimension Door they have prepped goes off but this begs the question - if they're so tough why don't they squish the PCs like bugs the first time the PCs foil one of their evil schemes?RegardsLuke</blockquote>

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