Need a new race foe

[JacktheRabbit]

I am putting together a campaign idea and at one point there is going to be a major evil race that is either at the center of the trouble or is being manipulated by someone even more powerful.

So what race would you recommend? The Drow have been done to death and I want something more evil and exotic than say the Drueger or something along those ideas.

I was thinking something quite alien like Mild Flayers or the Githyanki but I really do not want to have the campaign to be overly planar focused or too psionic focused.

Suggestions?

 

[arwink]

I always think the Yuan-ti are a great villain race, but for some reason never seem to remember when writing adventures.

Kobolds. With class levels, they're just as dangerous as everyone else. Some uber-sorceres who truly believe they have the blood of dragons and some mutli-classed barbarian rogues could make your PC's lives a missery.

If you've got Tome and Blood, crossing any of the usual suspects with the alien template would pretty much give you the creepies of the creepiest. Tentecle waving drow, anyone?

 

[Bonedagger]

Hobgoblins? Lawful evil intelligent humanoids who could easily have their own nation. Maybe an elitist society that shares traits with the nazi "3rd Reich". Other races are inferior, best used as slavelabour for the superior Hobgoblins. Constantly expanding. Having a strong wellmanaged military. Led by powerfull priests and clerics.

 

[kengar]

Definitely Hobgobbies!

I have a campaign setting where orcs are barbaric nomads, goblins & kobolds pester dwarves and gnomes in the tunnels, but the hobgoblins have a neo-Roman empire across the wasteland and are starting to send scouts into the region that the adventures live in.

Hobgoblins (IMC) are organized, well-equipped, disciplined and fight as a unit. Verrry dangerous. Their weak spot is not a lot of spellcasting, but they do have "war priests."

 

[Napftor]

Cabal of beholders? Or even the FR's phaerimm. You get hefty magical talents and hordes of charmed minions in the suggestions above.

Or perhaps leave your MM behind you and peruse the beasties of other d20 products. When you do this the players are apt to be even more stupified when this race rears its ugly head (unless they too own the book it came from).

 

[Nightfall]

Or perhaps leave your MM behind you and peruse the beasties of other d20 products. When you do this the players are apt to be even more stupified when this race rears its ugly head (unless they too own the book it came from).

*wonders if Nap is thinking what he himself is thinking...*

 

[Joshua Randall]

Don't laugh: Kenku.

I've always thought the kenku (detailed in 3E Oriental Adventures) would make a good villain race. Precisely because the PCs will perceive them as silly.

Here's a related idea. If you've read Redwall you will remember the fierce Sparra (sparrows). Take their personality and society and twist it so that it's dark and evil. Now you've got the villainous kenku.

I think you can get a lot of milage out of people's unspoken fear of birds. Those beady eyes that never seem to blink... wicked curved beaks... sharp talons... and have you ever noticed how much they resemble the reptiles they're evolved from....

 

[Napftor]

*wonders if Nap is thinking what he himself is thinking...*

I wasn't thinking it until I read that. Yes, the Creature Collections are good places for this maneuver. However, with the questionable CRs of CCI (a group of mansters nearly wiped out my 5th level party), I'd keep an open mind and have a look at the MANY MANY monsters out there in other products.

 

[Mark]

Lycanthrogangers*




















*The name Lycanthroganger is a creation of Creative Mountain Games and may not be distributed without express written permission of Creative Mountain Games.

 

[AegisEversoaring]

Yuan-Ti!

Huge fan of the Yuan-Ti, I'm using them in my current campaign, along with other snake-like creature and races: Ophidians, Nagas, Medusas, etc.
I ran the Freeport series of modules and replaced their generic snakemen race with Yuan-Ti and Ophidians to tie them into my campaign world. Wizards had a good series of articles on the website about Yuan-Ti controlled lands and such, which makes for good source material.
Another good villian to use are Rakshasas. Powerful, shapeshifting, animal-headed, magic-using, and thoroughly evil! Their vulnerability to blessed crossbow bolts makes a good plot device, you can change it so they are only slain by bolts made with a certain wood, or the bless isn't a simple spell, but a complex ritual.

Aegis