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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6099002" data-attributes="member: 20323">I have a list of 4 things I use for designing villains:Motive. Transparency. Communication. Surprise.A villain needs to have a convincing campaign-appropriate motive. Mooks die by the dozens but a real villain gives the players pause (either to formulate a plan or consider the villian's perspective). The saying "the villain is the hero of their own story" holds a lot of truth. Whatever the villain is doing needs to make sense...even if its only in their own distorted worldview...and should be learnable by the PCs. If the villain is assassinating political officials, they should have an objective - why these targets and why now?This ties into transparency. While villains can be mysterious and have many secrets, some of those need to be available to the PCs. I actually think more transparency sooner is better, as it gives the PCs a better picture of the villain in totality. For example, a villain who leaves a purple rose after each assassinated victim is much more intriguing once the PCs know the significance of the purple rose. I'll often write up 3 secrets about the villain that PCs can uncover through footwork.One thing I've seen written a lot online is various tricks to keep villains alive. While different DMs have differing perspectives on this, I think the important take away is to provide the PCs a chance to communicate with the villain in non-combat scenarios. Depending on how rabidly violent your PCs are, you might need to resort to sending stones, magic mirrors, crystal balls, "scrying" undead, or other magic to make this work, but I've had success with making the villain politically untouchable at various functions in intrigue scenarios.I also think the best villains keep the players on their toes, both in terms of plot and strategy. The villain should surprise the PCs with their tricks, plans, and background. During repartee have the villain reveal something horrible that the PCs can go rush off and maybe save someone's life in the nick of time - one of those "you can fight me or save the innocent person" cliched moral dilemmas. While raising the villain's hideout, the PCs might discover a magical purple rose with only a few petals left...that appears to be life-linked to someone (the villain? a dying relative? their current victim?). During an assassination scenario the villain has a decoy target and decoy assassin to lead the PCs away from the real target.So those are my big 4: Motive. Transparency. Communication. Surprise.</blockquote>

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