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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5746692" data-attributes="member: 463">Not sure what you mean by 'class' here.Assuming your campaign centres on a mortal NPC villain and his quest to become a demon lord:  If you want this to be a full 3-tier campaign, the villain needs to survive for a long time, without his plans being destroyed.  But you also need to avoid railroading.The best solution is for the villain to initially be an offstage, unseen presence, like Sauron in LoTR.  Initially he can be personally too powerful for the PCs to handle.  Later on, he can (a) avoid direct conflict with the PCs and/or (b) be defeatable, but not permanently killable - due to the power he has gained, his body may discorporate upon 'death' then reform elsewhere after a delay.  This approach would let the PCs fight him directly, perhaps slow down his plans, but not achieve final victory until the climax of the campaign.  Another idea would be to have him become a psychic entity that can take over the minds of vulnerable NPCs, like the Ravers in the Thomas Covenant books.You could end the campaign with an Epic-tier maguffin quest where the PCs seek a high-Epic artifact that is capable of permanently destroying the now-partially-ascended demon lord before he gains full power.</blockquote>