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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8499216" data-attributes="member: 20323">I aim to make some of my NPC antagonists / villains just as feisty and flippant as the more instigating-type players at my table.I try to avoid direct threats – like your "rip out your guts" example – or active demonstrations of power – like annihilating a town or NPC before the PCs' eyes – which only tend to incite players further, and instead I look for cunning comebacks or verbal sparring that lean into specific story beats associated with the PCs.In other words, the gravitas you're trying to impose/inject for the NPC doesn't primarily rely on foreshadowing (though that helps) or lush descriptions of silently intimidating elements (though that also helps), but it primarily relies upon how well the NPC can flip the script and turn the repartee back upon the players. In other words, it's through adaptive and feisty role-play, ideally bringing in a touch of something personal – but not to the point of direct threats – or even reframing a past event through a more sinister lens, that's where the players will be impressed by the NPC.If only because you've temporarily defused their itch to drive the scene toward conflict where they star as the rebellious force, and instead reframed their expectations of the powerful NPC.Some example comeback lines that I'm spitballing for your archfey – only knowing what you shared to date in your OP:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(narrate white roots emerging thru ceiling...) (if PCs critique her underground abode) "Fine words from a jackal making its living stealing from corpses in deep dank dungeons." (if PCs follow up with a threat about 'making some corpses') "My dear jackal, did you think those were white roots hanging in my foyer? Perhaps you should pay deeper respects to my past guests?" (reveal the 'roots' are actually muddy overgrown bones from dozens of humanoids)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(if PC makes flippant comment like 'you're shorter than I expected') "Short I may be today, yet even when I finish my elfwine, tomorrow you shall still be an ugly ape. Disappointment is part and parcel of life, alas."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(if a rogue PC steals a jeweled necklace, she notices, and PC lies about it) "I didn't realize you've come to exchange gifts. For such a cursed necklace, a suitable gift would be a similarly cursed relic, wouldn't you agree?" (screws with the players' minds through artful deception, leans into the difficulty to get rid of cursed objects in typical D&D, and encourages rogue PC backpedaling to try to give back necklace, in which case...) "Oh that would be impolite of me to take back what was freely given. But I suppose, as you are my guests... I could take it back but leave you with my... blessing... instead?" (and here you'd prep a double-edged blessing/curse, such as 'may you never leave the seat of your power' or somesuch)</li> </ul></blockquote>

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