Reoccuring BBEGs

[Tinker Gnome]

Does your game have any BBEGs that the players thought they killed, but didnt? Does your game have one BBEG that keeps coming back no matter what? Or are you more of a "one-shot" BBEG person?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

In my past campaigns my BBEGs have generally encountered the PCs a once and sometimes an additonal time noncombat related situation. However I did generally have a string of BBEGs from one orginization (country, order, guild ect.) Once though I had a cleric who the PCs kill who then came back as a lich.


Currently I'm trying my hand at a BBEG who the PCs will fight and encounter several times. However I will not have her 'come back no matter what' nor do I plan on the PCs (when they finally do fight her till the death) believing they've killed her but then have her come back.
I still am having 'one shot' BBEGs however.

 

[Awakened]

I like to weave a whole bbeg mythos. A big, recurring bbeg here and a minor villain/villainess there, some die, others join. But yes, I do have a central bbeg who is a Half-fiend Draelgloth Fighter/Cleric with tons of extra hit dice and a cabal of drow worshippers under him. He has been defeated, and is coming back this weekend .

 

[LondonReign]

Does your game have any BBEGs that the players thought they killed, but didnt? Does your game have one BBEG that keeps coming back no matter what? Or are you more of a "one-shot" BBEG person?

No, the current BBEG my players are dealing with is actually just a minion of the REAL BBEG.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have used one, the first time the bad guy was human wizard, who then came back as a lich the second time, then worked from the 'gray waste' as a spirit the third time.


Not a bad guy but but had an halfling cook assassian that I would have pop up now and then to try and kill the party for a 'wrong' done to him. He was my hit and run guy, try then disappear. Players were really upset when he fire bomb their inn.

 

[Caliban]

Does your game have any BBEGs that the players thought they killed, but didnt? Does your game have one BBEG that keeps coming back no matter what? Or are you more of a "one-shot" BBEG person?

In my campaigns identifying and then locating the BBEG tend to be lengthy challenges. They usually only encounter a representative of the BBEG, or someone the BBEG has dominated or possessed.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

My last BBBEEG (big big bad evilX2 Guy) did die and come back FOUR times. (the heroes hated him)

 

[DaveStebbins]

Some return, others don't. It's great fun when they do and very memorable, but if all the bad guys come back, what's the point? So it depends on the personality of the BBEG and the situation where he is defeated. Some will have contingency escape plans, others won't. Some will get the opportunity to escape or return from the dead based upon how the encounters play out.


But it's great when they come back. The look on the players' faces when they recognize an old enemy is priceless.

 

[jerichothebard]

I had one return for a while, but he got a little stale and eventually was surpassed by the PC's in power level. Though it might have been fun to milk his presence for a while longer, I got a lot of good use out of him and ended his harassment to the PCs in a memorable way, so I was content to let him go.