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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ydars" data-source="post: 4590985" data-attributes="member: 62992">Paladin; maybe you could take your ideas but be a little more subtle. It is always tempting as a new DM to use your power but beware of this; showing most PCs how weak they are is seldom a good idea. This is because one of the most important reasons for playing the game is to feel your character's actions MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If you like the idea of the protagonist/ BBEG appearing at the beginning, have some plot where he wants something from the PCs otherwise they will get killed. Yet the BBEG will have something in mind that he wants from the PCs. He will set something up so that he is manipulating them in some way or using them to get to his enemies. Say, for example, that your Death Titan captures the PCs at the beginning of the adventure and he infects them with a deadly undead disease. The PCs then seemingly escape because the titan deems them beneath his notice; like ants. But in actual fact, the escape was allowed by the titan so that they will try to find the "well of life" guarded by the avatars of good on your world. The adventure then focuses on them finding this well and all the many travels they have to undertake to find the well. What they don't realise is that one of them is being magically tracked and this allows the Titan to find the well, which has always been hidden from him, and possess and claim it. Make your villain powerful but also subtle. Make him far cleverer than the PCs and allow him to manipulate them; just think what they will do in a given situation and then have the monster plan for this. That way, they will hate and respect this monster and he will be more than a bunch of stats. Give him an agenda and make some of the PCs actions, instead of opposing him, actually lead to the very events they are trying to stop. Don't overdo this to the point where the Pcs feel they can never win; the point is to "big up" the BBEG and make them want his head all the more. Then, at the last, they can finally discover ways to thwart him and will be of high enough level to physically challenge their nemesis.</blockquote>

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