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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 909602" data-attributes="member: 697">I like villains. They're really the DM's stars. The current big bad in my Known World campaign is a 3rd level aristocrat. Can't post details, though, as my players read these boards.But, I can mention two older villains.Cassatta was a cleric/automaton created by a villainous alchemist who had a thing for creating new creatures and combining parts to make new ones. She was a real ball buster. The PCs disguised themselves as thieves to sneak aboard her ship, and she spent the entire trip chewing them out for various mistakes or just on general principle. The players never realized she was a construct. They tried to cast a few enchantments on her, and I kept describing how the spell simply slipped off of her without any effect. I think I also asked for caster level checks, to keep them guessing. They were convinced that she was a big, bad, villain. The cool part was when they finally arrived at her master's tower and she had to report to him. Since she had failed in her mission (she was supposed to capture or kill the PCs) the main villain casually reached into her eye sockets and plucked out her eyes as punishment. (She was an automaton he had built, and he could easily repair the damage once she had suffered through blindness for long enough.)I still remember the looks on my players' faces when they realized that A) losing her eyes didn't kill her and B) the inside of her skull was full of gears and springs.The other "villain" is from a 2e game from high school. The characters had to guard a wagon filled with gold ingots disguised as bars of lead. A gnome illusionist and his thief partners managed to steal the wagon in the dead of night. As the characters pursued them, the wagon went out of control, careened into the side of a hill, and into the hidden lair of a brass dragon named Chrynox. Good 'ole Chrynox was greedier than he was good and decided that, since the gold had left a big hole in his hill lair, he'd keep it. The PCs had to put up with an arrogant, whiny, petulant, complete snot of a dragon for several adventures before they finally worked off their debt and got back the gold. If they didn't have a paladin in the group, they would've gone back and gutted the miserable lizard once they hit 8th level.That was a fun NPC. If the players hate 'em, I know I've done my job.</blockquote>

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