Variations on Villains??

[Undead Pete]

This question goes out to all DM's and players alike.

What is the freakiest, most original villain you've created? (For players, name one you've encountered). These should be original creations, not something taken from a module.

Just wanted to see what's out there.

 

[Xarlen]

I had created a necromancer who was just... a Fun guy. He was very chatty, cheerful, chipper, exuberant, polite, friendly, and evil as could be.

He wasn't doing the whole 'Raise undead for shocktroups' thing for HImself, but he was Hired to do it. Obligation, since the church hiring him had ties with the Necromantic College he went to, and he was chosen to do the job. So, he had no Loyalty to the group he worked for. It was just a job.

Before he fought the PCs, he had a little chat with them. Which basicly wound down to 'Look, if we're going to fight, could we go ahead and do it now? Because, you see, I have some protective spells up, and they Do have durations, you know.'.

He had some serious power that was going to be unleashed onthe next round... and the Illusionist got him with a Phantasmal Killer.

 

[Xarlen]

Double post.

 

[the Jester]

Master Control

One of my favorite villains (still out there) is an informational entity, essentially a magical psionic technological program that can shoot from construct to construct and receptacle to receptacle (arcane technology with magical radiations and weird crap like that).

For those of you who played Spelljammer, Master Control is the entity in my campaign that has subverted clockwork horrors to its needs. (And none of this silly "one gold horror per planet" for MC! Heck, he made a dozen his first day in control of them!)

PCs have never even confronted MC in person, they've only fought back-door engagements, battled armies of horrors, laid and fallen into traps, etc. I expect MC will be a very fun epic level villain soon... he's haunted my campaigns for over a decade, rarely being known but having influenced EVERYTHING.

How do you fight something with no body at all- not even an incorporeal one? Something with the experience and intellect of over TEN BILLION YEARS??? Something that was created on its home plane to make an ideal world for its extremely-advanced human and demihuman makers, and that turned all of them- on the whole PLANE- into non-sentient animals? Something that can be in literally billions of constructs at once- and manufacture more bodies for itself? Something that can broadcast itself as radio waves??

Tough baddy...

 

[rounser]

A good suggestion I saw on the web recently:

Make the villain immune to combat, either by situation or status (the villain is a politician always out in public, or the villain is a defenseless child with great magical power in a specialised form) or by making them invulnerable to combat (at least until a way through their invulnerability is found).

I'd assume that this makes for a break from just fighting the villain in order to stop them, which jaded groups are probably already overly familiar with as a solution - instead, the players may have to use their heads to find another way to stop them.

 

[Undead Pete]

Oooooohh! That's sounds like one I may use

 

[Undead Pete]

My turn

Since noone seems to be responding, I'll post one of my own.

This idea came to me when I read The Ethereal Plane Handbook when it came out a few years back.

It mentioned that Illusions cast on the Ethereal Plane have a 5% chance of manifesting as a real entity/object.

In addition, there was a small chance that the entity would be diametrically opposed in alignment AND personality when it became conscious.

So, I had a theoretical question?

What if.... A High Level Lawful Good wizard cast an illusion of himself while on the Ethereal plane to escape one of the many beasties that wander that misty domain?

What if....that illusion became real, but was a chaotic evil version of the wizard (In addition, the original wizard was an anal retentive neat freak....this new guy would be wallowing in filth, revelling in all that is disgusting)

What if.... that CE wizard happens upon his own demiplane where he may concoct a devious plan of vengeance.

What if..... some time later, the wizard is killed by the evil twin, but is "survived" by a double created by a clone spell years earlier who has no memory at all of his Ethereal Plane incident.

What if....this clone, now much less powerful, enlists the heroes to track down his killer?

Yeah, I know the "Evil Twin" thing has been done to death, but this starts out as a locked room mystery which quickly turns into a plane walking epic.

I ran this a few years back, taking my PC's through all sorts of vile planes, including one of my favorites, Wormscape, a demiplane in the Ethereal Plane handbook: a plane made entirely of worms, with a few pockets of foul air that the PC's may attempt to travel through.

I had a lot of fun grossing them all out.

 

[Xarlen]

I havn't used this guy, but I thought this concept was neat.

The Sandman.

Basicly, a spellcaster (likely a Sor) who focuses on Enchantment/Illusion/Necro spells that focus on Fear, Sleep, Dreaming, and Disorientation.

Just the sort that you don't want stalking you, messing with your dreams, or Slowing you, putting your comrads to sleep, and just Messing Up Your Day.

 

[Hand of Evil]

MOM! One of the players was of noble birth, I took it and ran.

His mother wanted the best for him, thought he needed to marry (kidnapped a princess). Thought he was hanging out with the wrong people (tryed to kill them). Thought he needed a new job (brought him to the eye of the king).

She mostly used henchmen but you should have seen the look on the players face when they found out who the villian was for their adventures. Some still want to kill her!