Which is the best villainous organisation in D&D?

[Orius]

I decided to go with the Red Wizards. They rock. The Zhentarim are pretty good as bad guys too. The Cult of the Dragon is a bunch of moronic losers though. I'm not surprised that the Scarlet Brotherhood is leading, however, my general lack of knowledge about Greyhawk is the reason I didn't vote for them. I'm somewhat disappointed the Brotherhood of True Flame didn't get that many votes, they always seemed like they were pretty badass too.

 

[Arnwyn]

Twisted Rune. Excellent villains for a high/epic level campaign.

Runner-Up: The Zhentarim. Great mercantile villains.

Big Loser: Red Wizards of Thay. There were cool, until the stupid (IMO) decision to also make them mercantile... a decision that only makes sense in a vacuum.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I vote for the Red Eyes from the Al-Qadim setting. A secret society so secret I've only read about them only once in a supplement! Now that's sneaky!

 

[Clueless]

How did the Doomies make the list - and the *Harmonium* didn't?

 

[pogre]

I went with Lorraine Williams and the Blumes.

 

[MonsterMash]

Other - Black Lotus in the City State of the Invincible Overlord (of course it depends if you see the ruler's secret police as bad or not)

 

[rounser]

Shadow druids top my list. They're just plain cool, and an infiltration of shadow druids in a seemingly normal druidic circle makes for a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The Veiled Society. Basically a mafia-type noble house, but groundbreaking nonetheless because it hints at the potential for organised crime (and political intrigue) in a D&D setting that doesn't rely on the arguably tired concept of a thieve's guild.

People of the Black Blood. Lycanthropes would band together like this, and they make for an underused, yet potentially savagely destructive and unpredictable enemy. Imagine PCs walking through country that contains entire villages of them unknowingly, for instance.

The Unseelie Court, the Queen of Air and Darkness, and redcaps in general. The opposition doesn't get much more inspired in it's insanity than evil fey, because they've got a loooooong time to become bitter and twisted, and technically, never truly die.

 

[diaglo]

I went with L... W... and the Blumes.

what are you trying to do? cast summon she demon X.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

They say that if you say her name three times, she will appear and swallow all your gaming books.

 

[Brakkart]

In answer to a few posts an explanation for some of the choices on the poll. Ohh and I do apologise for not making it multiple choice, whoever said that it should have been is quite right, in retrospect I can see that now.

Okay, I don't know Eberron at all, so the Emerald Claw were the only evil organisation from that setting that I knew of, because the first 3 adventures feature them (one is even named after them), hence they got included as the token Eberron entry.

I choose the Doomguard because I couldn't think of any strictly evil societies from Planescape, so I went with what imho is the next best thing, a group of total nihilists devoted to the destruction of everything. If that is not an evil aim I don't know what is!

The Order I picked again because it was the only society from the Dark Sun setting that I could think of and because while it is not evil, the event they are most notable for (the Psionatrix Debacle) was a pretty evil thing to do, not matter what their intentions might have been.

And yeah, The Veiled Society from Mystara would have been a good inclusion. I disagree with the Horned Society being one though, they got royally whupped by Iuz during the Greyhawk Wars and there's like 4 of them left. I should have included the Slavelords from Greyhawk though.

And whoever said that the Cult of the Dragon are moronic losers should really read the current Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy and learn just what a bunch of crazed undead-dragon worshippers are actually capable of doing. They totally redeem themselves as a major threat to Faerun with what they are doing in that!