D&D 5E Who Should Be my BBEG?

[Odysseus]

How about throwing all or most of them at the party early on .See which ones the party dislikes the most, and use that fraction.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

1. Make it a poll.

2. This guy is always (ALWAYS!) the Big Bad.

 

[Zardnaar]

1. Make it a poll.

2. This guy is always (ALWAYS!) the Big Bad.

All hail Xargon.

The Hive is a placeholder name. They have infiltrator units. They are basically humanoid stirges or heart eaters.

Elves and Crimson fleet are the naval type baddies. The Elves are heavily outnumbered (1000-1) so they use mercenaries and half elf officer/bureaucrat types.

 

[Imaculata]

It sounds to me like none of these factions would make for a compelling main antagonist. Maybe you should introduce something else, that poses a threat to all these factions. Then leave it to the players to form an alliance.

 

[Zardnaar]

It sounds to me like none of these factions would make for a compelling main antagonist. Maybe you should introduce something else, that poses a threat to all these factions. Then leave it to the players to form an alliance.

I'll sex it up a bit with an individual.

Vanthus Vanderboren is the BBEG atm, and Cervantes the Dread is a famous pirate presumed dead.

Any of the factions can be a front for a dragon or demonlord.

 

[Tonguez]

I'll sex it up a bit with an individual.

Vanthus Vanderboren is the BBEG atm, and Cervantes the Dread is a famous pirate presumed dead..

or is Cervantes the Dead pirate now back to spread Dread? Mwahahaha

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm running a sandbox game with several villains. The theme is Happy pirates and I'm using There is No Honor from the Savage Tide as my base game. I have several contenders.

The Elves
The Elvish Imperium is past it's heyday but House Kueryll and Jerith'Kor are determined to rebuild their legacy. The have recruited vicious insectoid soldiers into their forces.

The Knights of Vanya
A military order founded in Solaria devoted to kicking the elves out of Solaria. Since the defeat of the Imperium they were expelled to Kriegsburg for being to extreme. They are human extremists devoted the "the purge". Exterminate!

Yuant Ti.

The serpent people linger in the ruins of the ancients and observe. Responsible for the slave trade such unfortunates usually end up as food. Or used in experiments by Coiled Cabal biomancers.

The Crimson Fleet
Preying on the Elvish Main these pirates are based out of Scuttlecove. Any who fall into their hands often end up as slaves sold to the Yuan Ti as bait.

The Hive
A new player that is providing troops to the Elves. Unknown to them the drones are part of a collective conscious that regards other lifeforms as food. Eat now?

Definitely remove the Hive. That one seems a little off-topic for the various themes your going for.

The Elvish Imperium seems like the best "main" foe... you can throw in a lot of the Spanish Empire/Dutch East Trading Company themes there, trying to control their diminishing influence.

I may keep the Yuan-Ti, either as a secondary antagonist, an untrustworthy ally, or the true "puppeteers behind the conflict."

The Crimson Fleet and Knights are great too, but work better as allies to the PCs I think than their enemies.

 

[Marandahir]

Keep the factions and let the players pursue the villains that feel relevant to the team. You've created some good choices, you don't have to dictate the way the game goes before they lean into a direction or two. Give them the narrative seeds to pursue any or all of these antagonistic forces, and then follow the hook that makes the most sense to them.

 

[NotAYakk]

Which of these can nominally be on the PCs side for an early adventure, only to face-heel turn, betray the party (ideally off camera, so the PCs don't just kill them).

Basically a good BBEG should elicit emotions from the players. By having an NPC on their side, it encourages non-deadly interaction. Then by betraying off-camera, it generates hate.

And now you have a BBEG the players haven't killed, know, and hate.

 

[Tonguez]

Definitely remove the Hive. That one seems a little off-topic for the various themes your going for.

The Elvish Imperium seems like the best "main" foe... you can throw in a lot of the Spanish Empire/Dutch East Trading Company themes there, trying to control their diminishing influence.

I may keep the Yuan-Ti, either as a secondary antagonist, an untrustworthy ally, or the true "puppeteers behind the conflict."

The Crimson Fleet and Knights are great too, but work better as allies to the PCs I think than their enemies.

If I was running this starting low level, I’d have the PCs start with the Elvish Imperium, perhaps hired as crew on an Merchant ship owned by House Kueryll. Perhaps have them need to run a Solarian Blockade to get to their destination.

I’d have a couple of Hive warriors on the ship making the crew feel uncomfortable and at some point I’d have the Merchant ship get into combat with a ship of the Crimson Fleet.

Let the game play out from their with the PCs making a choice of which faction they like or not