Most loved or hated NPC of all time?

[Wombat]

Back when I was running a 3.whatever comedy campaign, I had an NPC that my players developed a peculiar (...that is probably the best word for it...) fascination with.

His name was Zimbastian. He was a gnome inventor who got in trouble with the Hobbit Mafia. He had a bad Peter Lorre accented voice, was usually deeply depressed, loved his Mommy, and just was an all around hard luck case. He was supposed to be a one-off character ... until the players decided to take him under their wing and save him.

Now due to circumstances, by saving him the whole party was banished from the city ... which is where Zimbastian's Mommy lived ... and they couldn't take her with them ... so poor little Zimbastian was still alive, but could never see his Mommy again, and he ended up constantly whinging about it. But the party kept him around as a mascot and complaining good luck piece.

That campaign was years ago. Somehow everyone from the gang still ends up talking about Zimbastian...

 

[kitsune9]

Strahd von Zoravich. At least five of my gaming groups hate him with a purple passion for what he's done to them in Ravenloft.

Yeah, I had a DM who ran him where he did a lot of hit and run tactics. It felt great finally killing him.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I'm sure a lot of you have hear of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, Lord Mage of Waterdeep. I put a twist on one of my campaigns where everything was opposite to reality in the FR universe in terms of alignment. For example, Khelben was lawful evil in an evil campaign and so in order to keep my PC's in line I had to use his considerable power to keep them "under his heel." He was their boss, he'd spy on them and send them out on assignments to take out people who he perceived of as a potential threat, basically a hit list. My PC's hated this guy, he kept such a close eye on them and they just knew that he could destroy them any time he wanted so they had to go along with his plans until they became strong enough to stand up to him and perhaps take his spot on the food chain...

Unfortunately, some RL issues came up which caused the campaign to fizzle out and end before they could really get too far into it, but I still like the idea of flipping things around and going with a new story/history of the world that is so well known.

 

[Smoss]

As a PC, I dealt with a couple of interesting NPCs.

One was Neighbor Finnian. He was a demon in disguise and his plots caused us great consternation. Our taunts against him were epic (The "Don King" incident will be remembered forever). And the final journey into the Abyss itself to finish the jerk off was quite fun and rewarding.

Another was DeMorgan Riis, the fence. A fumbling clumsy foppish oaf of a man. He usually wore finery except his frayed sunhat (Helm of Comprehend Languages) and his perpetually mud-stained boots (Boots of Striding and Springing). Eventually marrying a BDF gal who left him quite henpecked, he was beloved for his weakness. And the fact that before he had his mind wiped to become DeMorgan, he used to be Ooham Riis - the deadliest warrior on the continent...


Now as a DM...

The one NPC people love to hate the most is Faerlynn. Who often took the form of a cat (Elven Cat). As the main diety of my world, he liked to interfere and torture the PCs while they could do naught against him. My favorite PC quote is still a loving "Augh, not that damn cat again!"

Smoss

 

[SkredlitheOgre]

Remembered another one that my player's created.

I was running the module Barrow of the Forgotten King (a 3.5 module) for my Pathfinder group. There's a water weird in there and you can either fight her or negotiate with her. In the module, it states there is a sack of gems on the floor. If you take the gems, she attacks you. From there, you decide what to do.

The PCs got past that encounter through Diplomacy and went to the next encounter, which involved a Hobgolin Wererat Rogue whose name I couldn't remember now if you put a loaded crossbow to my head. He was searching for look. He heard the party coming and ambushed a party member and I rolled a critical fail. So, the party outnumbered him and he lost his dagger. Since he was party of the bad guy's party, he was more than willing to give up info to save his skin.

As they were leaving, the party's Cleric/Wizard said, 'Oh, by the way. If you're looking for look, there's a sack of gems in that last room.' I had him roll Bluff...natural 20 with a skill bonus of 5 (or so). The Hobby's Sense Motive? 8 total. I told them that he sauntered off and a minute later they could hear the sound of water hitting flesh. They laughed uproariously about it and still make 'sack of gems' jokes to this day.

Little to they know (oh, they know), that Drippy, the Half-Water Elemental Hobgoblin Wererat is out there searching for vengeance.

 

[jedavis]

Hmm... probably my best work was Golgorroth the Gnoll Demon, a Trailblazer Gnoll Paladin of Slaughter of Legend (MM2). I was running Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale with a two-man party, Godrick the Fighter and The Monk With No Name, but was dissatisfied with the ending as written, so I decided to mix things up a bit. The PCs happened upon a group of gnolls worshipping about a ziggurat with a priest leading from the top. They slaughtered them handily, but upon slaying the last, a portal opened and through stepped Golgorroth, a supremely confident bronze-skinned gnoll wearing only a kilt with a fiendish axe and a great black hellforged shield, who thanked them kindly for assisting in the blood sacrifice necessary for his release into the mortal world. After a tough fight against him and the zombie gnoll corpses he reanimated, they managed to put him down. In his dying breath, he asked the party fighter if he might know the name of his slayer, which Godrick told him (provoking a "NOOOO!" from The Monk With No Name). Golgorroth swore revenge, and died.

Fast-forward a fairly significant amount of gametime later - the PCs have built a small fort on a rocky promontory, but gnolls now plague the land. They split the party to go after two separate gnoll warbands, one of which was led by a half-fiend giant gnoll berserker, Golhimshin, son of Golgorroth, whose dying words were "Father, I have failed you." This tipped the PCs off to Golgorroth's involvement, and they rushed back to the fort. Upon arriving there, the PCs found the corpses of their loyal men-at-arms on pikes about the entrance, the gates shattered, the halls covered in blood... and Golgorroth sitting on a throne of bodies in their great hall, merrily drinking their best wine, which was being served by their zombified house staff. But this time, he was armored... The combat that followed was a very very close thing, with the Monk With No Name down around -7 and both Godrick and Golgorroth around 5 HP. Party wipe vs party victory came down to a single die roll for a charge attack... and the dice gods favored the PCs with a timely overkill-crit.

Anyways, they loved to hate Golgorroth, because the whole thing could've been avoided - if they hadn't slaughtered the gnolls, and hadn't revealed their names... Also because he killed their men-at-arms!