It's time for a NEW & DIFFERENT generation of magic-using villains!

[Turanil]

So, who else is tired of Necromancers, Demonologists, and the like? They have been used so often and again in (almost) everyone's campaign that I was thinking it's maybe time to come up with fresh ideas.

So, bring in your concepts, or help me develop the few that I have so far (or give variants of these ideas):


-- Cursed Magic Maker: This alchemist or artificer has devised hideous methods to produce magical items that pervert those who use them. Of course, the method for nearly mass producing these cursed and evil magical items is awful-woeful. But now, when the paladin will realize that his trusted sword was done through gruesome rituals and has already tainted him?

-- Master of Constructs: This mage manufactures golems, animated armors, clockwork creatures looking like robots, etc. Okay, what else to make him an interesting foe? Is he turning the world into a mechanical tyranny with steampunk machinery everywhere to control people's lives?

-- Fanatical "lawmaker": Outwardly he appears as a benefactor working to help develop and protect society in organizing it, providing laws, etc. However, soon these laws become horribly coercing, have unforeseen disastrous consequences, etc. Nevertheless, this mage forcibly goes on with his grand master plan and will mercilessly punish anyone who would oppose him (or even just express his discontentment).

-- Vivimancer: This magic-user breeds aberrations. He is the one responsible for things like owlbears and perytons. But what else besides having weird creatures at his disposal? Has he begun to cast spells on villages so women give birth to a new specie (hehe what a good way to introduce new homebrew PC races) along many defects.

-- Divine (or fiendish?) Incarnation: This mage has found a way to infuse himself with the energy / power / aspect / whatever of some powerful outsider (deity, demon prince, etc.). As such he becomes the living embodiment of that being on the material plane. Many people are deceived into worshipping him. As such, he has got fanatics hidden everywhere among the populace to further his evil schemes. (Followers receive telepathic commands from him, and they usually obey blindly like religious fanatics.)

-- Chronomancer: Very difficult to run, this type of campaign would be about a wizard who is changing the past, modifying the future, summoning armies from alternate histories, etc. Lets say that (at least in the beginning of the adventures) the PCs would have to oppose him without being able to travel through time themselves. Anyway, the most difficult idea to run coherently...

-- Complex Mixture of Villains: Take several ideas above and mix them.


(Note that such magic-using villains may rely on existing classes or would require a new class of its own. In any case, it's the concept which is of prime importance here. Yet you could outline some of the abilities possessed by these unusual characters.)

Thanks.

 

[The Sigil]

The "Control Freak" - The enchanter who is used to having his way, with everyone under his mental domination/charms. He's loved, adored, worshipped, and spoiled... then along come these adventurers who don't think he's so hot. Think of Dudley from Harry Potter when confronted with Hagrid for the first time.

The "Twisted Devil" - A chaotic transmuter who loves to practice psychological warfare by transforming his foes (and minions) every now and again with a well-placed polymorph... preferably with no warning, and more preferably taking a creature that was physically powerful and making him physically weak and vice versa... then seeing the interplay that goes on (hope that makes sense, basically, think of someone who delights in seeing you squirm as he changes you into something unpleasant yet again). Think of an even MORE abominable Dr. Phibes.

 

[Eolin]

I am reminded of Feng Shui, a game of anime violence. Or something.

Its based on Hong Kong movies, and has a really neat metaplot. Basically, they found a way to do time travel coherently. And yes, there are factions trying to take over the present by taking the past.

The way it works in Feng Shui is that world control is based upon control of Feng Shui sites. You can only get to certain time period -- I think its 69 AD, 1850, the Present, and 2069. Or some such years. Say you're a guy in the present and you go back to 1850 and while defeating the Bad Guys give your grandfather control of a Feng Shui site. Then when you come back to the present, things are different. You're the same you -- but the "you" who everyone believes you to be is a lot better off, because of the Feng Shui site. Luck and Fate are with those who have Feng Shui sites.

Anyway, its a good way to do chonomancy, says I.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

So, who else is tired of Necromancers, Demonologists, and the like? They have been used so often and again in (almost) everyone's campaign that I was thinking it's maybe time to come up with fresh ideas...

I'm definately with you here. Actually, I'm sort of sick of the whole undead/demons/outer planar monster portion of fantasy in general. It seems like every book and module coming out these days has to have undead, drow, devils, or some other super-evil, Lovecraftian menace or pure malice. Now, I'm as big a Lovecraft fan as anyone, I started reading the books in 7th or 8th grade. But this is starting to get really old. Whatever happened to knights and dragons and fairies, I ask?

This, incidentally, is why I don't buy things like Dungeon magazine. As far as I can tell, it's just one "go through the cave complex to kill the undead demonologist" adventure after the next. But that's sort of off topic for this thread, so...

The Surrealist- Based on one of my longer-running PCs, this illusionist believes that reality itself is an illusion, and thus malleable to his whims. Anyone with the knowledge and will can make whatever they fancy come true- and those who can do so have no concern for societal or moral constraints, since it's all just an illusion anyway.

The Businessman- This wizard deals with necromancers and other dark things, but he isn't interested in the Dark Arts themselves. Rather, he simply provides them what they need for a tidy profit. Specifically, things like corpses, body parts, and other grisly components. He's rigged up an entire keep full of traps, secret passages, and creatures intelligent enough not to mangle the product (ie PCs). Then he just puts out the rumors of treasure and waits for people to bring themselves to the slaughter. It's not EVIL in the destroying-the-world sense, just in the "anything for a dollar" sense.

The Healer- This wizard has created a transmutation process that will correct the effects of a devastating plague- one which leaves it's victims alive, but physically and mentally crippled. Unfortunately, the process requires a living "donor" of the same race to make it work. Naturally, he charges a great deal for this service, and only nobles or rich merchants can afford the cure. The wizard has opted to get his donors from the criminal element of society, thus partially assuaging his guilt. But he's still playing God in a way, and his gang of providers might not be too particular about the source of donors and demand pressure increases...

 

[Emirikol]

The neutral agenda and Clear-Healing Potions

I want to see more 'good' and neutral villains. Why can't the pope have a nasty plot and have offed the previous pope just because the old pope was actually evil or had made a major slight against his country, for which he was bound to seek vengeance or be banished?

Those druid's always have some kind of 'liberal agenda' too to corrupt the gnome youth, make everyone hate their own country, burn their standards, smoke halfling pipeweed, dominate the whispering wind media, legalize stump-cell-research, puff some low-level apprentice's banana, and legalize love with trees; and they're willing to paint nasty words using goodberries on your castle wall to get you to sway their way..thankfully, you've got your fascist knight force to go beat them into submission with jo-sticks. Eventually they're going to crack and let in a bunch of demons to distract the fascist knights from their deeds.

The priestess of love may also have plans to kill all the warlike folks by blowing them up with fire. Wizards, who are members of the AWA (Am. Wizard's Association) may wish to 'contain and eliminate' monks who practice clerical magic (ACA) by using an illegal boycott, calling them nasty names that begin with "q", and by spreading false rumors that clerical magic may shorten your life or even give you a stroke..all the while killing their own members by using non-magical-anti-inflammatories such as Wizardex and Thalidomide.

A battle between two bardic groups may be brewing. One is an established group that sells it's services to whomever comes by. The other may wish to send songs by mail so that people can hear them at their leisure. In the exchange, all late-comer fees from the first group (Block-bardster) will be waived in an attempt to kill off the songs by mail company (Bard-Flix). In their failure, the Block-bardsters will try the 'bard-by-mail' trick, but the Bard-flix company will already have established itself. At this point, Block-bardster will become hostile and attempt slanderous slurs and sabotage against Bard-Flix using thier ninja-wizards.

A potion-brewing group may feel somewhat uncomfortable after a renegade-brewer indicates that their rival Poopsie-Brewers healing potions may taste better in taste tests. In an attempt to improve their image, Boca-Cola comes out with Nuke-Boke. It is an utter failure, because brand loyalty is established..however it makes enough waves that Poopsie tries Clear-Healing-Potions that supposedly taste like potions of flying. Of course, riots ensue when the Arracrokra-wizards find out that potions of flying are being sold so cheap and the whole misunderstanding leads to them casting 'weighty chest' on everyone who purchases a potion of Clear-Healing.

The town adepts guild may feel slighted when a huge comglomerate, multi-national, slave-labor-using wizard's academy moves to town and starts selling magical items at rock-bottom prices. They hire bad-assed Hexers to start killing off the wizards (who are being paid at below DMG-rates; and there is a discriminatory policy against female wizards..who are paid even lower..causing a burden on the local healer and alms-distributors). The low-paid wizards, who aren't allowed to guild-ize, are also required to remove any and all rings or jewelry (magical or otherwise) for fear of a revolt. The Hexors do little but cause the low-paid wizards to begin lashing out at everyone while the huge conglomerate-town-wrecking-magic-academy get's off scott-free.

jh





..

 

[moritheil]

Some of these archetypes are themselves pretty classic.

 

[Emirikol]

It goes to show that you can change the class all you want, but if you don't have a good plot, you still have a boring NPC that's just there to be killed.

"What? Are we playing Street Fighter now? "

jh

 

[Tonguez]

I want to see more 'good' and neutral villains. Why can't the pope have a nasty plot and have offed the previous pope just because the old pope was actually evil or had made a major slight against his country, for which he was bound to seek vengeance or be banished? ..

In my Solomon Kane inspired 16 Century-like Campaign, the Grand Inquisitor (whose name was Torquemada) was made Hierophant (Pope) after the death of his more liberal predecessor. He then set about stamping out all magic use by and executing as heretics all magic users and all noblemen who supported magic users. At the time of the campaign Southern Europe suffers under the oppresive (and corrupt) regime of the Grand Holy Inquisitos.

Anyway back the the question

A major villain imc was Dr Yakub an Alchemist, financed by a Secret Society of Merchants who had discovered a method of restoring youth and vigour to aged bodies by submersing them in a device called the 'Blood Crucible'. Even dead body parts could be reattached to living ones if submerged in the crucible. Only problem was the Blood Crucible required lots and lots of human(oid) blood to work...

The PCs (who were Church Inquisitors) were alerted to the fact when a severed hand was found in the town sewer drains, later a member of the City Council was found murdered and his diary gave hints of Dr Yakubs work and his many victims whose bodies he had hidden in the towns sewers. The final stand-off had the crucible spill over Dr Yakub and a whole lot of dead bodies which merged into a huge undead abberation with the insane Dr Yakub at its center

 

[Woas]

The Midwife This woman eats babes and replaces them with fakes. The women of town are starting to catch on but can't put their finger on it. Never the less these fake babies cry a lot and the mothers the Midwife knows exactly how to calm them down which the mothers are, after many long nights, willing to pay much coin for the midwife to do!

 

[Tonguez]

Another Villain IMC was Lord Autumn the Erl-King (a human raised in the Autumn Lands (where the Unseelie Court lives)). Now imc the Fae-realm comprises all the dreams of mortals and Lord Autumn had found away to possess the minds of mortal children and thus gain control of their dreams (and thus the fae-realms). Unfortunately the process of possession involved poisoning people which put the vicitms (many of them children) into a coma at which point a cyst would grow in their heads. The PCs were asked for help by Fat Sally the Midwife (and retired Toothfairy)

That campaign was fun besides Fat Sally NPCs included Mother Goose, Peta Pumpkineater, the Blue Fairy, Rotten Eddy the Ghoul-father of the Cities Goblin Gangsters, Ripper Jack and an urban Brick-Troll named Haus.