Question for DM's: Favorite Homebrewed Villain?

[Undead Pete]

I'm always interested in the creativity of fellow DM's....especially when it comes to villains, one-shot or recurring.....

My personal favorite was a Death Knight named Lord Ash.

I know...Death Knights aren't amazingly original, but his background was to my PC's

Right around the time 3E came out, I decided to introduce the new system by ending the current campaign with, what else, a meteor.....but the PC's (unknown to them, of course) would determine where it landed.

The basic plotline involved the avatars of the Earth God (evil), the Ocean God (not evil, but muy loco) fighting for the love of the Moon Goddess (hence the tides, etc....).

The avatars manifested themselves by taking over mortal's bodies. The Moon goddess took over the body of a local princess, the one true love of my party's paladin.

Needless to say, this wasn't likely to end well....at least for their relationship.

I let all my players know that the campaign finale was upon us soon, and that the results would determine what I did for the 3E campaign.

• The big battle ensued, and the PC's sort of won....by helping to defeat the Earth God's avatar.
• The Ocean God thereby won the love of the Moon Goddess....in the form of the meteor crashing into the ocean.
• The paladin lost his love forever as she ascended to the heavens
• The surviving PC's fled the tsunami that was rushing toward shore
• ......all except for the paladin who simply stood there and swore vengeance upon the two gods

So.... the next campaign begins. everyone has created new characters. All old characters have been relegated to NPC status.

A few runs in, I introduce this death Knight/minion of the Death God who is laying waste to temples all over the continent....with no regard for the temple's allegiance.

I dropped a few hints here and there, but it wasn't until they finally encountered him that they realized (OOC) he was the previous party's paladin, serving the Death God as an agent of his own vengeance.

To top things off, the way the PC's finally defeated him ranks in my top 2 or 3 of all in game events that I've witnessed.

I had given them a Rod of Resurrection with only enough charges left to raise one individual. They were very conservative, and saved it until the end.

What they did took me completely by surprise. They were slowly losing ground against Lord Ash. One PC was down (and dying). The rest were at about 1/2 HP. Lord Ash looked about 2/3 power.

The party's cleric pulled out the Rod....and cast it on Lord Ash!! Now, I had never thought of this possibility, but it's originality made me feel that it should have a chance.

Of course, Lord Ash was allowed a save....and he had a pretty good one. from what I recall, he only needed a 6 or 7 to successful save.

I rolled a 2.

The battle was over. The paladin was resurrected, and is now redeeming himself as an NPC Hero.

Poetic Justice at its best in D&D.

So.....let's hear some stories of villains from your campaign.

I'm all ears.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

*slight spoilers from a spelljammer adventure*

Salutations,

My favorite villian I lifted from a Spelljammer adventure- a vampire, T'lann, who snuffed the sun of his crystal sphere and was not looking to do horrible things to other spheres.

He got away during the adventure and became a nemesis of the group.

As he grew in power, he performed some alterations upon himself.

Eventually, the party decided it would set up a trap for the vampire- and finally stake/destroy him.

The battle rages on- and near the end, the kensai takes a flying leap down on the vampire. In his hands was an enchanted stake, and as he landed upon T'lann.. slamming the stake into his chest.. he heard a loud.. "clunk".

T'lann had encased his heart in metal.

The looks on the face of the players was classic.

Respectfully submitted
FD

 

[Skarp Hedin]

My favorite villain was a gentleman who went by the name of Baron Dubric. He was a displacer noble (humanoids from an alternate prime material plane -- bipeds with panther heads, an overall feline cast to their bodies, and two big displacer beast tentacles coming out from just behind the shoulder) who pursued the PCs across the continent as both groups raced to find components of a magical key that would open a portal to another world.

He was, unbeknownst to them, just a mercenary, but he'd been hired to get the key pieces, and after some time in suspended animation (he was hired a while ago), he was a bit impatient about completing the job.

The PCs finally defeated him, and got the key and opened the portal and met Baron Dubric XVII.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have background chat with my players prior to starting a game, I ask questions do you have family, are they still alive, what do they do? That stuff. One of players told me he was the lesser son of a noble family, gave some details and did not think about it any more.

Well, I made his mother the villian. I based adventures around her. She thought he should marry, so arranged the kidnapping of a weathly lady in waiting for the son to save. She did not like the adventures that her son was hanging out with and arranged to kill them.

She was a lot of fun as the hidden foe, should have seen the reactions from the players when they found out.

 

[Mojo]

We played a Spelljammer campaign for years....

One player was a half elf bard, the other a elf mage

At one point, the elf mage got torched by some pyro mages, and was not faring well despite a ring of protection from fire. In an act of despair (by the player), he removed the ring and let himself be engulfed.

That player rolled up a new character (a paladin) and the game continued.

A time later, someone was trying to bump off the half-elf bard. After repeated attempts, they met their nemisis:

The elf mage, now a rare form of undead created from a wizard's experiment, came back and fully believed not that he had committed suicide (as he did) but that the half-elf bard failed him.

He was a thorn in their sides for years, and both players loved it.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

My favorite villain was known simply as the Dark Wizard. Yeah, pretty bland name, but I took the "shadow magic" theme from FR and made a very small group who had discovered an "alternate" magic.

His biggest weapon was the party's own fear. In two (non-combat for party) situations, he demonstrated his power (he could cast a 6th level spell, the party was roughly 8th/9th level at the time). He was also fearless and arrogant, and instead of fighting the PCs, he tried to recruit them, vigorously at first.

Naturally the party declined (but that would have been interesting), and instead of investigating a way to bring him down, the party decided to leave him alone ("he'll kill us" was a standard mantra).

So the fight came to them. I decided to be a bit despicable, and had the party ambushed in the home of a man they were helping. They were given a "really big clue" (one of the players remarked, "Gee, they are awfully well armed for woodcutters"). Most of the party was captured and forced to serve the Dark Wizard (dominate person).

After escaping his evil clutches, the party was finally in the mood to strike back. Unfortunately, they essentially announced their location in his hometown, and a dangerous fight ensued. The party almost had him, but when he did retreat, the party was on his last legs (and the Dark Wizard fled from an AMF).

The party tried again, this time both sides were prepared. It was a battle involving the party, a paladin NPC on their side against the Dark Wizard and his Iron Golem. The battle lasted most of the session, and they managed to get him (mostly) alive.

In the end, they turned him to stone and "lost" him in the ethereal plane usnig a Leomund's Secret Chest.

Afterwards, the party learned his true name from the assassin's guild: Silven Nightmantle.

Definitely my coolest villain.

 

[Breakstone]

The surviving PC's fled the tsunami...

Don't run away! I just want to be your friend!


Anyway, my favorite group of villains were just there in one adventure. They were a mafia of mephits, with the appropriate names. The mafia leader was a Fire Mephit named Jack Lantern, and his three thugs were Joe Crackers (Stone Mephit), Bernie the Fish (Water Mephit), and an Ooze Mephit who's name escapes me. I made each Mephit a clay miniature, which I'll post pictures of in just a minute.

Fun villains, and one of the funnest adventures I've DM'd.

 

[Breakstone]

Here's the picture of two of the Mephit Mafia members, Jack Lantern and the Ooze dude. Unfortunately, Jack's arm broke off, and they're both a bit dusty.

 

[Zappo]

I'm currently using a female LE mage who had to travel to Baator to deliver some magical weapons. After seeing how nice the place is (not much), and how well the petitioners are treated (not much), she decided that it wasn't going to happen to her, and traveled to Mount Celestia to seek forgivance for her sins.

The archons told her that she wasn't really convinced, and she had made the pilgrimage only out of fear, so no heaven for ya.

At which point, she decided that she had to become incredibly evil and powerful, so that after death she would immediately become a decent baatezu instead of a larva or lemure.

Currently, she's trying to rob the PCs of a stone which slowly turns its owner into a half-fiend.

 

[Nightfall]

My favorite is one I haven't used yet. Actually it's two but they could be on both sides of the coin.

One is a Tauron, a kind minataur spellcasting druid that's also a half red dragon. His name is Cimber. Cimber has class levels in druid as well as ranger. Cimber is considered to be the best of his father's brood, an ancient red that decided not to participate in the Divine War mainly out fear because he knew one side had to lose and he didn't want to take a chance to be on the wrong side. So he hid, deep in the mountains near the jungles of Termana. There he bred with some "lower" creatures to sort of have a legacy as well as worshippers. (The dragon is very vain, even for a dragon) Unbeknownst to them, is the presence of a powerful ogre magi that, through a powerful ritual, because a lich and was a faithful servant to the Lord of Plagues, Chern. When Chern died, the ogre lich, Durlock, decided to reek revenge on the elves....only to see that they had been cursed already. Thus he decided to help raise up his master and his been collecting the life force of many creatures, mostly gnomes, to help empower his master. But Cimber opposes this, because the gnomes are under his father's protection, (all his progeny consider him a god. The gnomes think of them as powerful and vengeful creatures and the dragon, a kind living spirit of flame.) So Cimber and Durlock are locked in a stalemate, each determined to keep hold of the village while the gnomes are caught in between.

My idea: Have the PCs travel to Termana to help aid the Vigils in keep Chern from awaking, sensing the rising power of Durlock. Thus they try to destroy Durlock, only to incur Cimber's wrath as well. (He despises other titanspawn as well divine races, seeing them as weak and needed to see the light of his father, the ancient red)

So what do you all think of that?