Which is the better way to introduce a BBEG?

[Tinker Gnome]

Okay, I know you are all sick of me constantly asking for help. But i am going to keep doing it.

Second of all, I come up with the best ideas when I am taking a shower.

Okay, here is the BBEG. He is basically a Teccnomage from a society that had highly advanced technology, so much so that much of it was like magic. As in the case of himself. Appearance wise he has long black hair, wears a long dark robe, and is rather feminine looking for a man.


Here is my first idea.

The party encounters an entourage of soliders trying to kill him, they have a Wizard cast a MDJ on him, but he mealry smirks and "casts" a huge fireball that wipes out everyone except the PCs. He looks at them, and gives them the classic evil BBEG smirk, and then teleports away.

The second way is this. He has his own pocket dream dimension, and he calls the Halfing Paladin of Lathander in my group to him during a dream. His dream dimension resembles a meadow with many flowers flaoting in space, he is satnding with his back to the Halfing when he arrives. He then tells the Halfing that the gods of his world care nothing for him, and that they are all weak compared to him. That he truly has the Halflings best interest in mind. He offers to grant the Halfing his Paladin abilities, instaed of Lathander. The Halfing does not have to accept right away, he just teels him to think about him as he goes to sleep, if he wants to see him again. If the halfling does accet his power, then I am going to show him a tangibe result of it. The party will encounter a VERY large band of Orcs. Oh, let me explain, we have this thing where you can pray to your god, and then you roll a percentile, usually only 90+ gets you anything. Well, no matter what the Halfling rolls, all the orcs will be anilhilated by beams of sunlight. Making it look like a blessingfrom Lathander. But it was really the Technomage who did it. As tehir travles progress the Technomage will ask the halfing to do things more and more against he code. When the Halfing refuses, he will bring him back to the drema dimension and appear to be crying, and say that he truly does have his best interest in mind. That is all I have for now, but what do you guys and gals think.

Sorry for any typos.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the BBEG is a Human.

 

[demiurge1138]

It sounds like you already have apretty good idea of what you're doing, Galeros, but how about this?

The party has, somehow, gotten into a fairly hopeless battle with a monster they can't defeat in order to recover some massively powerful treasure. They are all badly beaten, maybe one of them dead or unconcious. The monster prepares for a massive attack (breath weapon, powerful spell, coup de grace, etc.) when...

bang

The monster falls dead.

"You're welcome", says the BBEG, as he grabs the treasure and smirkingly teleports away.

Demiurge out.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

It sounds like you already have apretty good idea of what you're doing, Galeros, but how about this?

The party has, somehow, gotten into a fairly hopeless battle with a monster they can't defeat in order to recover some massively powerful treasure. They are all badly beaten, maybe one of them dead or unconcious. The monster prepares for a massive attack (breath weapon, powerful spell, coup de grace, etc.) when...

bang

The monster falls dead.

"You're welcome", says the BBEG, as he grabs the treasure and smirkingly teleports away.



Demiurge out.

Hmmmm, well that seems a bit topo much like Deus Ex Machina, although I will now put that into my bank of ideas.

 

[demiurge1138]

It is a bit deus ex machina. But it also means that the BBEG has whatever treasure it is that the party wants so badly, but is more powerful than they are by far...

Demiurge out.

 

[shilsen]

Hmmmm, well that seems a bit topo much like Deus Ex Machina, although I will now put that into my bank of ideas.

Having a large group of orcs obliterated by beams of light is fairly close to deus ex machina too, don't you think? I personally prefer slightly more subtle methods. Have the paladin find his powers slightly augmented when necessary. Laying on hands during a battle heals twice as much damage, for example.

 

[Altalazar]

The best way to introduce the BBEG is ALWAYS by having the whole party, dressed in tuxedos, play him in a game of Bachara at the big, lavish casino.

 

[drnuncheon]

Here's my hints for introducing a BBEG.

1. Don't do it on opposite sides of a fight. Sure, you can do this in the movies, but guaranteed this will be the one time that they party (sensing his BBEG-ness) will bust out all the stops, whip out an amazing string of crits, and/or the BBEG will fail a pathetically easy save, or something else. Then you're in the place of having to cheat (sorry, fudge) to save the villain and your plot, or abandoning all your hard work. If you cheat, the players will get upset. I've been on the player side of this more than once, and it caused a lot of bad feelings.

2. If you introduce the BBEG in such a way as to show his power, you're walking a fine line. Some players may get discouraged, thinking the GM is just 'showing off' with his cool NPC. This is always a danger when you've got a really nifty character, because naturally you do want to show off. Just remember the players are the stars, not you.

3. The best way, IMO, keeping those two things in mind, is to not introduce the BBEG directly. Start with rumors. Then more direct evidence of his existence. Later, add minions. Then lieutenants. And only at the end bring out the BBEG.

For example, the party could hear about this guy and his awesome power. Then when they're looking for whatever treasure they're looking for (like demiurge suggested), after struggling to get there, they find the guardian dead and the treasure gone. They start trying to find out more about this guy, and he sends minions to shut them up. When the minions don't come back, he sends more powerful people, etc.

If you want to introduce him directly, consider making it in a place where the PCs can't just unload onto him - the Duke's Ball, for example, or some other society event. He may even try to provoke them into acting, just to make them look bad.

J

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I'm with DR on this one. If you're planning a long-term villain, a slow buildup is the way to go. Do quick introductions for villains who are going to be fought in the immediate adventure or module.

I especially don't see the second one working to well, as there's no way a paladin should turn his back on his God IMO, even if he does get the promise of all his powers. In which case, the player will probably shrug it off and that will be that. Even if he did eventually accept, it's still really only an intro for one person, not the party itself.

A couple of variants might work for the first idea, like having the villain use his "magic" to bail the party out of a tight spot, maybe send them on the occasional quest or feed them info. Eventually, the party should find out that he's behind the other evil plans they've been trying to foil.

Otherwise, go with the rumors and henchmen. Once possibility might be to use the first scenario mostly as written, but substitute one of the villain's minions for the BBEG himself. He could use the technology to wipe out some guards or something, the party can show up in the nick of time, and end up with a weird magic item that seems to work despite anti-magic effects. That's something for them to look into, and the lackey could also have some clue to the villain's plot, like a letter or battle plans or whatever.

 

[Gundark]

Second of all, I come up with the best ideas when I am taking a shower.

Un......ah.....Okay I won't comment and leave this alone.....sorry this just sounded really funny...

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, I am still going to use some variant of the seond one. The only problem is, my older brother( the backseat DM) wants me to kill the Paladin to make things more "interesting". I think that is the only way knows how to make things more "interesting." Although I am just going to ignore him. Despite the fact that he will probably be all pised off when I do not kill him, oh well.

As for the showy NPC one, my players are the type who go ohhh and ahhhh at high level NPCs that could kill them easily. They did it when my brother was DM, and it does not seem they have changed.