Need ideas for persistent BBEG

[Trit One-Ear]

Some of these ideas are great, and I may directly steal [MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION]'s for my own campaign, but I would be cautious including rape in an adventure, unless you know your players are comfortable with it. It may be worth discussing it with them before hand, just to ensure everyone's okay with the campaign handling "darker" or "grittier" elements.

Trit

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Why not some sort of possessing spirit?

Basically, this creature can magic jar into/possess someone but, if its host is slain, it is banished to its lair where it has the means to magic jar/possess again.

A BBEG like this can be encountered again and again and in a range of bodies. Perhaps it gives some sort of clue - a distinctive hand gesture, certain coloured eyes - if the PCs scrutinise an NPC carefully.

 

[Ryujin]

The experiment who gains the upper hand on the 'scientists' is always a good angle. "Oops!", say the Mind Flayers, "We gave him more powerful mental abilities than WE have!!" When the PCs arrive the lunatic was actually running the asylum, from behind the mental curtain.

 

[Celebrim]

Some of these ideas are great, and I may directly steal [MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION]'s for my own campaign, but I would be cautious including rape in an adventure, unless you know your players are comfortable with it. It may be worth discussing it with them before hand, just to ensure everyone's okay with the campaign handling "darker" or "grittier" elements.

Trit

Yeah, that may be the most dicey campaign outline I've ever created, but the truth be known is that I went there because I really don't think Mind Flayers make that great of villains. They make great monsters maybe, but they really aren't interesting to me as villains because they are just too alien. Their main scrutable motive is they think people are livestock, and so I went with that theme plus a villain that I thought would be more hateable, loathsome, and terrible because of at least his appearance of humanity.

You'd really have to handle that campaign delicately though, and you'd really need to know your players could handle it because the core issue is in a nutshell is: "Is genocide excusable as a means if the end is saving all of humanity?" That's going to be a potential mindscrew even without dealing with the sexuality issues. If you want more details on the campaign outline and where I'd go with it, let me know.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Yeah, that may be the most dicey campaign outline I've ever created, but the truth be known is that I went there because I really don't think Mind Flayers make that great of villains. They make great monsters maybe, but they really aren't interesting to me as villains because they are just too alien. Their main scrutable motive is they think people are livestock, and so I went with that theme plus a villain that I thought would be more hateable, loathsome, and terrible because of at least his appearance of humanity.

You'd really have to handle that campaign delicately though, and you'd really need to know your players could handle it because the core issue is in a nutshell is: "Is genocide excusable as a means if the end is saving all of humanity?" That's going to be a potential mindscrew even without dealing with the sexuality issues. If you want more details on the campaign outline and where I'd go with it, let me know.

Knowing my players, genocide is the type of large or heavy issue they'd on some level like to deal with (as long as it is a rare occurrence.) Rape, on the other hand, is one they'd probably want to avoid. And even that might not exclude using breeding procedure in my campaigns... But I'd still check with them.

I think you've written a very interesting adventure, making the as you said alien villain offensive on a more personal and human level. I mostly wanted to post to ensure less-experienced DM's don't accidentally traumatize their groups by going too dark without warning.

Trit

 

[Celebrim]

Knowing my players, genocide is the type of large or heavy issue they'd on some level like to deal with (as long as it is a rare occurrence.) Rape, on the other hand, is one they'd probably want to avoid.

Well, I think the way to handle this is to make it something that has happened far off stage and the PC's are dealing not with the issue itself, but with its tragic after math.

But if you think that rape is the darkest issue that I brought up in that summary, you really aren't thinking it through. Many of the vectors aren't even aware that they aren't human. Some of them have legitimately become the loving spouses of pure strain humans, and are busy breeding wonderful laughing happy children - who may or not be the sort that smile and offer their brains and willing service to the first mindflayer that comes along or who automatically fail saving throws versus a mindflayers mental powers.

The really terrible question here is what are you willing to see as a monster. I think this is such a terrible question that there really ought to be an 'out' here, even if you don't make it immediately obvious it's there if you are looking for one hard enough. The consequence of inaction is unthinkable. Ruthlessly killing the hybrids is effective, but probably unthinkable to most good characters - especially if they find even one hybrid that can resist. For me the out that is hidden in the summary is the PC's gaining control of and repurposing phase 3 of the program. A sufficiently knowledge PC ought to be able to turn the last phase against the hybrids as a skill challenge, creating a disease that removes their mutations (mild failure on a the skill challenge creates a diseasse that is lethal to them!). Another possible out is gaining control of the Prototype, possibly by an Epic act of diplomacy that reaches through to his humanity, or worse come to worse by magical means. More likely, one of his own children is more human than he is (of course, some may also be less, in the sense that humanity itself can often be very inhuman), and can be reached to alter phase 3 provided the PC's can gain control of the main base before it is too late. An even more ambitious campaign altering 'out' is simply achieving genocide of the mind flayers, rendering the mutations harmless . But the thing I like about this campaign outline is that it really allows for alignment to play a major role in how the game plays out, including intraparty conflict over the issue of what to do about a very non-standard threat to human existance (at least within a fantasy context).

 

[Samloyal23]

Any horrific, psychologically traumatic crime can replace rape in my scenario, the point is that an illithid is using psionic powers to force its victims to commit terrible deeds and coldly studying the effects. Sometimes it even participates by taking over a target's body. The horror becomes personal when a player is suddenly thrust into the situation and framed for the deed...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Like, the true BBEG is actually a small psychic slug, worm, or other critter that dominates the lieutenants and is then overlooked in the aftermath.

I know it has been done to death, but a sentient item- an artifact- is perfect for this. The One Ring, Stormbringer, Malice (Fantastic Four villain)...

 

[Samloyal23]

I know it has been done to death, but a sentient item- an artifact- is perfect for this. The One Ring, Stormbringer, Malice (Fantastic Four villain)...

Go with a psionically imprinted item created by the mindflayers that programs actions in a wielder that he is not aware of...