Not a Poll! Who are your favourite D&D villians?

[Brakkart]

And by that question, I mean from the published D&D campaign worlds (from any edition). I'll lead off (naturally) with a few of my faves:

Emperor Vulkuram the Dark (Spelljammer - Under the Dark Fist): Any guy that has legions of lycanthrope warriors and rules 12 solar systems (crystal spheres) is cool in my book. Plus he has an a pantheon of gods trapped in a sphere/orb thing he wields and is a male medusa warrior to boot, truly an epic level foe if ever there was one.

Tisan Balshareska the Arch-Geomancer (Al-Qadim - Ruined Kingdoms): Cleric 20(Grombar)/Wizard 20, virtually immortal and nigh on indestructible. Arguably one of the most powerful villain's on Toril, even her ancient foes couldn't kill her, only managing to imprison her in her fortress.

Manshoon (Forgotten Realms): From too many sources to list, this archmage has been killed and reborn dozens of times (and on one occassion dozens of times all at once). Founder of the Zhentarim (my fave Realms bad guys) and a perennial thorn in the sides of the forces of good for over a hundred years of the Realms timeline. Bit of an under acheiver though, and now playing second fiddle to Fzoul Chembryl for the forseeable future.

Dregoth (Dark Sun - City by the Silt Sea): An undead dragon with delusions of grandeur, as he seeks to become Athas's first god, no matter the cost the world must pay to elevate him to deity status. Re-created al his followers into a new race to better serve him and arose from his own death to continue his schemes.

Markessa (Greyhawk - Against the Slave Lords/Slavers): The ultimate evil elf, this woman has the capacity to create duplicates of herself, using surgery, drugs and magic to make captured elf women into her "clones", thus driving many PC's nuts in having to beat her various copies time after time. Dangerous because while all the Markessa's look alike, they often vary greatly in their abilities. making her extremely unpredictable! And a hellish amount of fun for a DM to run!

 

[Mycanid]

Eh ... I didn't like Markessa making all those duplicates of herself personally. But that is just personal taste.

I always thought the Slave Lords in general were GREAT villians, though. Great idea and presented well for the most part.

The drow ... well, I thought it was an interesting idea but have not liked how they have been ... err ... developed, I guess. Somehow they seem just TOO involved in the affairs of the surface world at times. Again though ... just personal taste I guess.

I always kinda thought that the Master of the Desert Nomads was kinda cool....

Of course there are the penultimately cool "bad-guy" wizards - like Keraptis and Iggiwilv. But I must admit I liked them more when they were ultra-powerful creatures of "legend". They had an "agenda" at some point(s) in time, but were never really "spelled out" or confronted.

Same image/idea with Tharizdun. GREAT idea for a god ... but not too interesting as it was presented.

I REALLY like how the Scarlet Brotherhood has been presented over time, however - a happy exception to things.

 

[Nightfall]

Orcus!

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

RangerREG, PirateCat, Morris and, uh, whatzisface.

 

[Nightfall]

What?! Don't I get a mention!?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Obmi (the evil dwarf from the Giants modules)

Robilar

Rhuobhe Manslayer (the implacable elf who hates humans in the Birthright setting)

Actually, most of the major awnsheghlien of Birthright are great villains.

Vecna

Tharizdun

Iuz

 

[Teflon Billy]

Gargoyles!

 

[Voadam]

Warduke (toy).

I don't care if he was just a toy, he's still the coolest D&D villain ever. Even without having seen him with stats in the cartooon, Dungeon, or his DDM.

Lord Soth (Dragonlance Adventures) was pretty good as well. As written by Hickman and Weiss in the trilogies whenever he stepped forward and spoke I could feel the hair rise up on my neck. Course I think I was in junior high when I read the dragonlance books.

Sakatha (tomb of the Lizard King), surprise! This 1e lizard man is a lizard king, a high level spellcaster, and a vampire. Who says templates started in 3e.

The New Master (Temple of Elemental Evil). It took the group five times to finish him off when I ran this module, first he used his treasure to hire replacement mercenaries, buy a shrieker fungus alert system, and create glyphs of warding after they battled their way to him and retreated, then he hired the evil PC party to work for him, then after they betrayed him he turned all his dead servitors into undead until it came down to just the party against him.

Gulthias (Nightfang Spire) I don't know what he or his story is like in the actual module, but in the campaign I played in he started our whole banewarrens campaign off, was tied to lots of history and campaign events, and turned out to have set up our paladin's long term quest to cleanse an evil artefact Banesword, all through a wish he cast in the opening game which we didn't understand until we were on the verge of fighting him within the heart of his fortress, years later in real life.

 

[demiurge1138]

Hm... favorite villains you say? I'll go for some less "classic" and more modern takes, like...

Shemeska the Marauder (Planescape, esp Faces of Sigil): This pompous, preening arcanaloth made my player's lives hell, so I have to give her credit for that (and for her namesake on these boards who inspired me to use her). Her complicated plans ran circles around the PCs on numerous occasions, until the very mention of her name caused gritted teeth around the table. Good times.

Orbius (Shackled City): Orbius is a beholder done right, with layer after layer of careful schemes and clever disguises masking his influence in society. And his lair and actions are riddled with all sorts of great personal touches (he tends to eat his servants when he gets nervous, you see, and the PCs foiling all his plans have kept his nerves in very bad shape).

Filge (Age of Worms): A minor villain, sure, but a highly memorable one. The dining room scene in the Whispering Cairn, with

Spoiler

the zombified remains of his victims praising him

remains one of my favorite set-pieces to this day.

Dragotha (White Plume Mountain, Dragon Magazine et al): Before there were dracoliches, there was Dragotha the Undead Dragon, a footnote on an Erol Otus map that instantly caught the eye and the imagination. His history has been expanded a few times elsewhere, usually in different directions, and his recent appearance

Spoiler

as one of the masterminds of the Age of Worms

cemented his position as one of the greats.

Demiurge out.

 

[Nightfall]

*cheers the fact Soth, Dragotha, Vecna made the cut.*