Your best Villain (or Nemesis) in Campaign Adventures

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I see so many great threads around here about all sorts of topics and just thought to maybe get some good ideas for the best Villains, Badass Good guys (in an evil campaign) or player Nemeses that other DM's have had or Players have run up against. What kind of attitudes, how intelligent or stupid, resulting in great thematic moments or TPK's, etc... ?

I feel from reading so many ideas from so many great minds that we can all learn to be better DMs and Players from each others' experiences.

Thanks,
Trav

 

[Joshua Randall]

My best villain isn't a specific person, it's a name: Caligraf.

Ages ago in Dragon magazine, there was an ad for a product you could order that was a big-ol list of fantasy names. The ad showed a little snippet of the C names, one of which was Caligraf. It sounded pretty cool to mean -- reminded me of Caliban from The Tempest -- so I started using.

Caligraf first was an evil Death Master, some kind of weird NPC class from 1e that was like a cross between a cleric and a necromancer. That was back when I didn't really know what I was doing, so his chief characteristic was, "He's eeeeeevil!"

Over the years I've gotten a lot better, and the various Caligrafs have been major nemeses in various campaigns.

Because once you get a good villain name, you treasure it!

 

[Rel]

I think that an excellent villain is a really tricky thing to pull off perfectly. I've only ever done it a couple times.

It requires several things in my opinion:

The villain must be hateable: They've got to do some really dastardly stuff. And they've got to do it to places and people the PC's care about.

The villain must be respectable: If the bad guy only ever wreaks evil and havoc, he's a menace, but not really a proper villain IMHO. An excellent villain needs some sort of cause that he's dedicated to that makes sense to him and that the PC's can understand if not agree with.

The villain must be encountered: If all the PC's ever do is encounter the villain's minions and the destruction he has unleashed from afar, they'll probably still hate him. But only in an abstract sort of way. The best desire for the bad guy to be destroyed has to come from tangling with him up close and personal.

The villain must escape: A good villain is a good thing. A recurring villain is a GREAT thing. Word of caution though - the escape MUST seem plausible and not just a deus ex machina/GM fiat kind of thing. NOTHING kills the player enthusiasm for going after the BBEG faster than the sense that the GM is just going to hand wave an escape for him whenever he feels like. So have the villain plan a careful escape. Have him attempt escape when the battle is obviously lost but while he's still got some minions covering his trail. And if the players legitimately catch him, let them.


Probably my best executed villain ever happened pretty much by accident. It was a female Ogre Mage named Grella who led an attack on the PC's while they were camped. I didn't realize at the time how difficult it would be for the PC's to pin her down and kill her thanks to Regeneration, Flight and Invisibility. They initially thought she was dead but she regenerated and vanished while they were mopping up the rest of the bad guys.

Initially I had no strong motivation for her. But I ended up having her become a devoted follower of the evil deity that the PC's were trying to thwart the return of. She showed up 2 or 3 more times during the course of their adventures. Each time she managed to escape, barely, while the PC's were tied up fighting the other forces she led.

I could measure their growing hatred of her by the ever lengthening list of spells the Wizard was preparing JUST IN CASE they ran into her. Anything that would negate her Invisibility and Flight so they could pin her down and kill her was something he went out of his way to acquire. He had scrolls of this stuff in a special satchel he called "The Grella Pack".

Finally, in the penultimate session of the campaign, they got a real showdown with her. It was not an epic showdown to the final hit point. She had some good allies helping her that posed a very real danger to the party. But they hated her so much by that point that they (especially the Wizard) ignored everything else and focused all efforts on destroying her before they did anything else. And their combo of spells was quite successful and they took her down in about two rounds. But they were extremely satisfied and spent the rest of the battle with huge grins on their faces. So I considered the whole thing a big success.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

My best villain isn't a specific person, it's a name: Caligraf.

Ages ago in Dragon magazine, there was an ad for a product you could order that was a big-ol list of fantasy names. The ad showed a little snippet of the C names, one of which was Caligraf. It sounded pretty cool to mean -- reminded me of Caliban from The Tempest -- so I started using.

Caligraf first was an evil Death Master, some kind of weird NPC class from 1e that was like a cross between a cleric and a necromancer. That was back when I didn't really know what I was doing, so his chief characteristic was, "He's eeeeeevil!"

Over the years I've gotten a lot better, and the various Caligrafs have been major nemeses in various campaigns.

Because once you get a good villain name, you treasure it!

That's great, I've reused Villain names as well and had different incarnations of them as different types of race/class combinations.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Thanks for sharing Rel. I agree that a great villain is someone/something that is hateable and reoccurring throughout the campaign. I like to give my Villains a human element as well, a personality. It's fun to get into the mindset of the Villain and give them characteristics and traits that really give them substance. I enjoy role playing the villain and really having that villain believe in what they are doing is right in their mind and that they will do anything to make sure that their plans succeed.

They have to make multiple appearances and really get the party pumped to go out and kill him/her/it. It seems that most great villains I've done had to be some kind of magic user i.e. Evil Necromancer, Cleric, or Sorcerer. Just seems more realistic that they are able to get away at the last second and subvert many minions to their cause at the detriment of the PCs trying to stop them.

Anyone else have any really good villains they'd like to share?

 

[theskyfullofdust]

My best recurring villain was in the old d6 West End Game Star Wars rpg; a dark force adept called Klattaz, who had his arm lobbed off by a failed jedi, and got revenge against the same character a few adventures later by lobbing off both the jedi's arms and then killing him. They never did finish him off, and now that I'm about to start a Saga Star Wars game, i might be time to bring him back.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Sounds pretty fun skyfullofdust, let me know how it works out for you.

 

[White Tornado]

My favourite villain (and my PC's least favourite villain) was a gnome illusionist called Verpoolisch Popplepip. Wherever there was trouble, Verpoolisch would either be behind it, or be around somewhere for some reason. The PC's were fighting in a war against orcs? Verpoolisch would be trading magical items with the orcs. An extradimensional maze? Verpoolisch was your man to lure the PC's in. A gang war between two thieves' guilds in the capital? Guess where all those illusions came from.

Verpoolisch never had a real motivation or a background. He was mad as a hatter, a flamboyant show-off, always looking for some way to gain money and power, was charismatic and extremely well-connected in the Bad Guy scene, and used invisibility, illusionary walls, illusions of himself, and other tricks to get away from the PC's every time. The PC's hated his guts, but considered him annoying and not all that dangerous.

 

[amerigoV]

I do like the PCs having direct contact with the Villian in a non combat situation. For example, I am running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. I had the PCs interact with Strahd before the adventure formally started (they had dinner with him - so in real life we had a dinner as well - no dice/character sheets/etc). Now, they know who he is, can find out his story, etc.

I also like there to be a good downfall story. Strahd has a classic one. Otherwise, (as someone pointed out), the carnage just does not mean anything.

Another good Villian is one who is after the same thing PCs are. Its even better if they are not evil, just rivals who might occassional cross the line.

 

[Ahnehnois]

It seems that my most endearing devil villain has been the most despicable one. I had an Eye of Fear & Flame (BoVD). The creature was written as a corrupting entity whose M.O. is to present victims with sadistic choices (sort of Saw-like). I played it very much as written. It lasted some time and burned down the town the PCs were charged to protect and induced various NPCs to kill each other and do other horrible things and face the consequences, as well as nearly killing the PCs and capturing and torturing one. I've never seen such a happy catharsis as when the cleric finally crushed its skull.

The lesson is to be honest. If you're doing evil, don't make it PG-13 "ee-vil", make it really evil. The same goes if you want a righteous antagonist, or a morally ambiguous one: go for it.