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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 5826533" data-attributes="member: 10784">With my game, it just happened.  I did not plan on it at all.  However, it became quite the memorable bad guy, even though though she was just the tool of the eventual BBEG.  We usually play a "let the dice fall where they may" type of game, so it's kind of hard to plan for a recurring villain unless they're in the background.WARNING - LONG WINDED POST FOLLOWS I had managed to get the fairly rare miniature - Drow Champion of Eilistraee miniature - and thought it was really cool.  So, I told myself as a DM, I needed to find a way to get this miniature on the table.<img src="http://crystal-cdn.crystalcommerce.com/photos/38315/large/Archfiends_-_012_Champion_of_Eilistraee.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />It was not designed to be a recurring villain, however.  I just wanted a big change from the orcs, goblins and low level clerics the party had been facing so far.  The local duke had been kidnapped and then "sold" to some orc slavers, who were then going to hand the good duke over to the neighboring evil slave-trading theocracy (ESTT).Thanks to some good tracking rolls, the PCs managed to catch up to the orcs just when they were meeting with the reps of the ESTT.  The PCs hid nearby and hoped to nad the duke once the two parties separated.  For the ESTT reps, there were a few obvious clerics, plus some low level soldiers and two cloaked & hooded figures.  Well, the deal between the orcs & the ESTT went bad and one of the hooded figures was revealed to be the drow miniature, who I had written up as a drow duskblade.  She immediately laid waste to the ogre that was with the orcs with her arcane channeling power.  After the orcs were killed/scattered, the PCs moved in and it was still a tough combat.  The clerics and low level soldiers were dropped, the Duke was secured, and the duskblade was soon the last bad guy standing.  The party elf was dropped by her, but the remaining PCs surrounded her.  Seeing that she had no hope, she cast her Swift Expeditious Retreat and did a full withdraw action to avoid any AoOs.  The PCs focused on patching the fallen PC elf and ensuring the duke was healed - they let the drow duskblade go.A few levels later, the reps of the ESTT struck back in revenge.  The PCs had to defend a dryad's grove that bordered the kingdom where they lived and the ESTT.  It was a huge showdown with several clerics, some soldiers and slaves, some orcs, a hill giant, and our lovable drow duskblade.  It was very close to a TPK - the duskblade killed one PC outright and dropped the PC elf to -9 (another PC got killed by a mega crit from the hill giant and a major NPC ally also died).  The duskblade got dropped to exactly 0 hit points, but since the battle had moved across the table by the end, the duskblade was nowhere to be found once the battle was finished.  (She was saved by fleeing soldiers off camera.)By this time, they really hated her and we'd get a lot of jokes about how the party elf keeps falling on her sword.  He even ended up taking the Champion of Corellon PrC so he could wear heavy armor and still get his DEX bonus.A few levels later (around level 9), the players encountered a mid level "boss" cleric from the ESTT - they had heard his name for a while now.  He was mounted on a wyvern and had a bunch of soldiers at his command.  This time, the duskblade was invisible and came at the party from behind to attack the party cleric.  It was priceless to see the look on the face of the woman playing the cleric when I said, "and, appearing out of thin air right behind Janayla..." and then I popped the miniature down on the table.  The duskblade did a full Power Attack, combined with Arcane Channeling, and did about 60 hit points of damage to her... since, she had only 54 hit points, she immediately went down.  It was the first time her cleric had really been seriously damaged the entire campaign (they had mostly fought unintelligent foes that focused on the front line fighters).  So, the party had to scramble to save her and had lost their main source of in-combat healing.But, the players eventually turned the tide and soon, only the lead cleric and the duskblade were left.  Seeing that they were outnumbered, the cleric took the duskblade and Plane Shifted out of town, much to the chagrin of the players again.The cleric came back fairly soon and this time was mounted on a dragon, but the duskblade was gone for a while.  (she had something else to do for the ESTT) Eventually, they had a final showdown with her and a drow war party near an important elven village.  The PCs were level 16 or 17 and I think the duskblade was level 18, along with the lead drow cleric.  The drow had some hill giant barbarians, as well as some lower level drow clerics and wizards. It was an awesome battle in game, with both sides throwing around powerful spells, both sides getting memorable crits (the party's goliath barbarian annihilated a hill giant barbarian with a 130+ point crit) and both sides using Revivify to heal up "dead" allies, including the drow duskblade.  However, when the duskblade was dropped for the second time and had no allies left to heal her, it was high fives around the table.  They finally got her!She ended up being more memorable than the final BBEG at the end, who was only "on stage" for the last two sessions.  I think she had four direct battles with the PCs, and then had one off camera one with another PC's family.</blockquote>

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