(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
One thing that annoyed me about a lot of fantasy novels are the number of defined heroes vs the number of defined villains.
Villains are on screen for a shorter period of time, and have a much shorter life expectancy. I divide villains up via the Spycraft method - there's the head honch BBEG, a number of henchmen (one of whom is probably a bodyguard who never leaves his master's side) and the grunts.
The henchmen (there's usually 1-3) all have some special quirk and combat style that's usually very noticeable by the players ... but since there's fewer of them than there are heroes, they quickly fall to the "Akbar" maneuver (eg focus fire on one of the henchmen). It's also difficult to put all the henchmen in one spot ... the BBEG can't be everywhere, so he sends his henchmen on separate missions. Often the heroes only run into one henchman and some grunts as a result.
The DM has to quickly go through multiple villains, hopefully coming up with interesting ideas for them.
Making matters worse, what if you have a large group? Do you think it's a better idea to use more henchmen per encounter (and give the BBEG lots of them) or do you think it's a better idea to simply use higher-level henchmen? I think the first is a little more flexible if the number of people coming to the game is "fluid"...
Villains are on screen for a shorter period of time, and have a much shorter life expectancy. I divide villains up via the Spycraft method - there's the head honch BBEG, a number of henchmen (one of whom is probably a bodyguard who never leaves his master's side) and the grunts.
The henchmen (there's usually 1-3) all have some special quirk and combat style that's usually very noticeable by the players ... but since there's fewer of them than there are heroes, they quickly fall to the "Akbar" maneuver (eg focus fire on one of the henchmen). It's also difficult to put all the henchmen in one spot ... the BBEG can't be everywhere, so he sends his henchmen on separate missions. Often the heroes only run into one henchman and some grunts as a result.
The DM has to quickly go through multiple villains, hopefully coming up with interesting ideas for them.
Making matters worse, what if you have a large group? Do you think it's a better idea to use more henchmen per encounter (and give the BBEG lots of them) or do you think it's a better idea to simply use higher-level henchmen? I think the first is a little more flexible if the number of people coming to the game is "fluid"...
