Thomas Percy
First Post
Demons.
What's your Bad Guy race like?
- Thread starter InVinoVeritas
- Start date
They're idiots.
Start with an Earth-sized world orbiting a dull red dwarf star. Add what looks remarkably like a cartoon octopus. A quadropus in effect. Give them psychic abilities, suspicious minds, and a strong desire to remake the universe into something that resembles their home.
Part of the plan was to remake everybody else into them. This was to be done through a virus, the virus would infect the victim and reshape him into a kekihj, our "evil race". Just one problem, immune systems. For most folks the infection meant stuffy noses. At the worst it resulted in the creature most people think of when they hear the word, "kekihj" (my version of the illithid). Other monsters are the result of this virus, including carrion crawlers and displacer beasts.
While the kekihj were working on the virus the dragons got involved. They offered their assistance, and even helped spread the virus when it was ready. At the same time they were keeping various deities up to date on the scheme, and "engineering" the virus so it would not have the effect the kekihj wanted it to have.
To make a long story short, the kekihj scheme failed, the kekihj were put on probation, and they promised to behave themselves. Currently they are working avidly in secret places on a better plan, with the assistance of their good buddies, the dragons.
Have I mentioned they're idiots?
Start with an Earth-sized world orbiting a dull red dwarf star. Add what looks remarkably like a cartoon octopus. A quadropus in effect. Give them psychic abilities, suspicious minds, and a strong desire to remake the universe into something that resembles their home.
Part of the plan was to remake everybody else into them. This was to be done through a virus, the virus would infect the victim and reshape him into a kekihj, our "evil race". Just one problem, immune systems. For most folks the infection meant stuffy noses. At the worst it resulted in the creature most people think of when they hear the word, "kekihj" (my version of the illithid). Other monsters are the result of this virus, including carrion crawlers and displacer beasts.
While the kekihj were working on the virus the dragons got involved. They offered their assistance, and even helped spread the virus when it was ready. At the same time they were keeping various deities up to date on the scheme, and "engineering" the virus so it would not have the effect the kekihj wanted it to have.
To make a long story short, the kekihj scheme failed, the kekihj were put on probation, and they promised to behave themselves. Currently they are working avidly in secret places on a better plan, with the assistance of their good buddies, the dragons.
Have I mentioned they're idiots?
Odhanan
Adventurer
For me it really depends on the campaign itself.
In our last campaign, the ultimate bad guys were an evil alliance of undead anathema, a weird alliance of monsters and an ancient cult of Mojh spellcasters trying to destroy the Creation together.
In our current Ptolus campaign, the bad guys are mostly alchemists who played on both the side of law and chaos to reach some goals yet unknown to the players.
I tend to have a few very specific mastermind badguys who run the show and basically squeeze every single advantage they can from all the factions necessary to the success of their goals. In the Seven Spires, these bad guys were the spirit of an ancient dragon reincarnated in a human body who wanted to wipe out the sentient races from the surface of the Spires and an undead acting as a messiah for a god that should never have existed. In our current campaign it seems to be some sort of ancient harrow elf with mad scientist tendencies...
I've never been a huge fan of monolithic races you can put an "always evil" stamp on. Sure, most orcs, most drows, most undead, most devils and demons are Evil, but you can't just pinpoint a race which would be utterly "evil" without any viable reason for it.
In our last campaign, the ultimate bad guys were an evil alliance of undead anathema, a weird alliance of monsters and an ancient cult of Mojh spellcasters trying to destroy the Creation together.
In our current Ptolus campaign, the bad guys are mostly alchemists who played on both the side of law and chaos to reach some goals yet unknown to the players.
I tend to have a few very specific mastermind badguys who run the show and basically squeeze every single advantage they can from all the factions necessary to the success of their goals. In the Seven Spires, these bad guys were the spirit of an ancient dragon reincarnated in a human body who wanted to wipe out the sentient races from the surface of the Spires and an undead acting as a messiah for a god that should never have existed. In our current campaign it seems to be some sort of ancient harrow elf with mad scientist tendencies...
I've never been a huge fan of monolithic races you can put an "always evil" stamp on. Sure, most orcs, most drows, most undead, most devils and demons are Evil, but you can't just pinpoint a race which would be utterly "evil" without any viable reason for it.
Last edited:
Andor said:
Hrmm... Evil dessert made of several layers of different flavors of ice cream or ices, variously garnished and served in a tall glass. Ghuauauaau.... (Grumpy drools on himself)
For the ultimate campaign villain, yes, like many other posters I go human. It's from a desire to not add editorial comments about race/social class/whatever into the game and also to deny the characters the ability to look up stats in a monster book. I've always felt that the biggest fights in drama are between individuals, not races or cultures, and highlighting nonhumans in this vein reduces the choice to fight into simplistic terms of "us against them." In such cases, fighting nonhumans usually makes the choice to fight too easy for my tastes...
Academic analysis aside, I do favor certain critters for my games, just like everyone else. For brutal, savage humanoids, I use gnolls. I just got tired of the idea that orcs are somehow like klingons in their culture. I still use orcs in my Greyhawk games but not my homebrew. I'm considering reintroducing them as a race that used to reside in the abyss and were expelled to the material plane. This would give them easy, obvious ties to the various demon princes and other established bad guys in my ongoing campaigns.
For clear-cut bad guys, I usually use undead. Their abilities and immunities usually make them relatively tough for their CR (especially if the party lacks a cleric or paladin). For 'dangerous simply because they're dangerous' encounters, I favor constructs, animals, and elementals. I use a pretty hefty amount of demons and devils, who are intelligent and organized enough to make a credible long-term threat and also instill a sense of fear in both the characters and their players.
Academic analysis aside, I do favor certain critters for my games, just like everyone else. For brutal, savage humanoids, I use gnolls. I just got tired of the idea that orcs are somehow like klingons in their culture. I still use orcs in my Greyhawk games but not my homebrew. I'm considering reintroducing them as a race that used to reside in the abyss and were expelled to the material plane. This would give them easy, obvious ties to the various demon princes and other established bad guys in my ongoing campaigns.
For clear-cut bad guys, I usually use undead. Their abilities and immunities usually make them relatively tough for their CR (especially if the party lacks a cleric or paladin). For 'dangerous simply because they're dangerous' encounters, I favor constructs, animals, and elementals. I use a pretty hefty amount of demons and devils, who are intelligent and organized enough to make a credible long-term threat and also instill a sense of fear in both the characters and their players.
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