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DragonBaneDM
2009-07-31, 01:26 AM
It's an evil campaign.

My PCs are all villains, and their employer, Lord Vicro, is an even bigger villain.

That's the twist. :smallbiggrin:

But I REALLY do need a hand here. He's one of the last evil overlords in existence, and I'm not sure what to actually make him.

Originally, he was a necromancer, but I wanted to make a rival necromancer with some sweet homebrew undead I came up with that tries to talk the PCs out of working for Lord Vicro.

So... Evil warlord? Fallen paladin? What makes an awesome Lawful Evil Overlord?

ZeroNumerous
2009-07-31, 01:30 AM
A cleric. Not of any god, but a cleric of himself. He grants his own spells through the belief that he will win the day. There's a man I'd follow(and then ultimately surpass as he passes on the secret of drill-based spells to me).

Jade_Tarem
2009-07-31, 01:34 AM
Bard 10 / Sublime Chord 10. Your PCs will never see it coming, yet he has all the trappings of a deluxe Evil Overlord. High Charisma, magical ability, knowledge of ancient forbidden lore, a fanbase, etc., and he can be as foppish and over-the-top as you want. As an added bonus, he can bring his minions to the final fight and power them up to be more effective helpers.

And yes, he can be lawful. You're the DM, and are not constrained by petty things like alignment barriers where your BBEG is concerned. If your PCs cry hax, respond the only way you should: Disjunction. :smalltongue:

That said, the fact that your evil party's boss is also evil is not exactly a paradigm-shattering twist for savvy players, although I'm sure there's more to it than that.

Milskidasith
2009-07-31, 01:37 AM
I just imagined a boss playing this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Tx3DWeQcU&feature=related) while sending his minions out to kill people.

I love the idea of a bard being your evil overlord. You have to get background music for the fight, though. I know there aren't electric guitars in D&D... but just say it's magical. A whole orchestra in one instrument. One really awesome magical instrument.

DragonBaneDM
2009-07-31, 02:20 AM
Damn... Lord Vicro's theme song.

Probably Ultimatum by Chelloforte.

And prepare to despise me, but he's in 4e. So that Bard build...

Yeah...

AslanCross
2009-07-31, 05:46 AM
A cleric. Not of any god, but a cleric of himself. He grants his own spells through the belief that he will win the day. There's a man I'd follow(and then ultimately surpass as he passes on the secret of drill-based spells to me).

I always imagined the infinite damage Crusader build using a 1d2 damage drill pendant as a weapon.

Fishy
2009-07-31, 06:21 AM
I just imagined a boss playing this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Tx3DWeQcU&feature=related) while sending his minions out to kill people.

I love the idea of a bard being your evil overlord. You have to get background music for the fight, though. I know there aren't electric guitars in D&D... but just say it's magical. A whole orchestra in one instrument. One really awesome magical instrument.

Pipe organ.

The size of his entire fortress.

C'mon, that wasn't hard.

Triaxx
2009-07-31, 07:36 AM
No, his pipe organ is the Fortress. And his shoes are enchanted so his theme plays as he walks.

Kol Korran
2009-07-31, 10:38 AM
wait, wait wait! isn't this the campaign with the seven deadly sins who are the PCs opponenets? and wasn't lord Vicro THEIR employer? i guess he can be both, i'm just a little confused at whats on your mind...

anyway, back to subject, i have an idea. you'll may have to stat it up from though i have a suggestion, but the concept is interesting, and fun to play with (might be a tad long, bear with me):

history: (not that importent, and can be easely switched up, just something to give more rationalization to things, as well as satisfy inquiring players minds) a long time ago, a lord named Vecro tried to contact/summon somethign from another plane, probably the shadowfell. things didn't go well- he summoned the shadow essence of some greater evil. this shadow essence then possesed him.
but the shadow essence was disoriented, cut away from it's source. more over- the seperation trauma caused it to forget where it came from. it decided to try and make do where it was, and explore it's own origins. forgetting it's own name, it took the name of the creature it now possesed- lord Vecro.
but the body seemed to fade, and the new "lord vecro" foudn out it needed new bodies to inhabit. (it could survive for a certain amount of time without a body, but if it took too long, then it started to foget about itself even more) the bodies had to be of powerfull beings, or otherwise they would fade and crumble too fast. it couldn't be of too powerfull beings because those resisted too easely.

Lord Vecro in recent times: the entity has gained influence, resources and followers through time. it has also perfected the body swapping procedure- kidnapped or willing subjects go through special mystical tattooing that enables the entity to enter more easely, thus both ensuring a "longer stay/ slower decay" and reducing the subjects ability to resist (will be explained). lord vecro focuses it's efforts on 3 routes:

gaining more power and influence, and causing more mayham. it might be it's influence that have caused the destruction of most other elder evils in your campaign. in that respect he is the "typical evil mastermind".
trying to learn more about it's origins, and maybe find a way back. he may have some forces from the shadowfell amongst it's minions, for scouting forays into that realm.
since he no longer knows if he wants to be reuinited with it's severed part, he is seeking to construct a more permenent body to last. it grows tired of exchangin bodies and feeling them wane all of the time. this is the major reason for his artifacts theft, search for ancient knowledge and so on.


the lord himself can be any number of creatures. (so you can play a dragon, a fey, an angel, humanoids, giants, and more...) a small but vital part of his forces go out of their way to acquire new "subjects", who are stored in various complexes owned by the entity. (the PCs might be ent to acquire one of these "puppets" for their lord, unknowing). at first when the PCs meet it he is in one shape, later, that shape is more "worn out", like a sack. at a later time the lord is another creature alltogether! (i suggest you begi nwith humanoids. they will think it's a shape changer. then go to soemthing bizzare like a gibbering beast or a dragon.) throw clues, but without outright telling the answer. how much time should a body last? you decide- months? weeks? days? i suggest it be in correlation to the power of the creature.

weaknesses: i suggest you give the shadow entity some weaknesses to explain why it doesn't do the work itself (as well as add flavour). this may or may not be used by the players. some ideas:

direct sunlight speeds up the decaying process. the lord must travel inside one of his bodies from place to place, it cannot cross direct sunlight in it's natural form.
holy places ward it off completly. these two combined the players will probably think it's a vampire. make these weaknesses realy not obvious, unless the players take special care to notice things, or you know... THINK.
some sort of creatures he can't posses (i suggest undead). also there might be a ritual to ward off possesion (which the character better look for)


powers/ build: i suggest you use the tormenting ghost entry, tweak a bit, and maybe slap on a template (suggestions a bit later on)
it's all really up to you to decide, but the main thing here is that you don't just prepare it when you fight, you also prepare several stashed "subjects" he can use (they can be in sustained animation through a variation of the Gentle Repose ritual) make sure of two things though:

the players either have protection from possesion, or there is a way to end it- knocking the target unconcious, or perhaps a saving throw or renewed possesion attack every few rounds.
tattooed bodies (as were mentioned) are fully possesed, and can do 2 actions a round- move and standard. they also don't get further saving throws. and lastly, most importently- lord vecro can use their FULL powers!
(which make the battles here far more interesting)


make sure that when you fight, lord vecro is at it's real form for at least a round or two before switching between bodies.
in the first encoutner the lord is sure to have an "emergency escape" body (flying probably). the party can destroy the creature when they destroy all bodies and then the creature itself, or when they surround it with natural sunlight, or best of all, when there is a climactic battle at the site of the creatures either:

newly constructed super body OR
about to reunite with it's severed self.

that way it won't run away.

Suggested templates:

a PC class template. i'm thinking either wizard, bard, or a sort of inverted Avenger or Involer (using necrotic energy instead of radiant)
the Death Master template, with a little change- instead of having minions at his disposal, have it capable of summoning more and more. what minions? shadows or wratihs of course...
not exactly a tamplate, but you can slap some of the Phane (under abomination) powers to him, double HP and add some defenses, and you've just made him a lot more creepier. emphasis on the "other wordly evil" in this one. these powers can be used only when it's in his real form (will drive the distinction deeper)


fun ideas with players:

as mentioned before: have them snatch a new "body" only to have it appear as lord vecro! i suggest you do it close to the end though.
once the PCs gain levels they might be interesting targets for lord vecro... it might ask them to under go an "empowering ritual" in which they will be tattooed with a special tattoo he found in some books... this will be much more importent later on, in final battles, when it might try to posses them!
if the PCs might have some one who is close to them, they might be "harvested" as an insurance by lord vecro. what will the PCs do when faced with their mother for example? (though the "bodies need to be powerfull might not work here fully)
if the 7 sins aren't working for vecro, he might ask the PCs to capture them instead of killing them, for "interogation". in later battles they might face these enemies again!


so... to sum things up= it's a ghost refluffed, who snatches and uses bodies till it dumps them. play it cunning, play it with character, and you got one villain with planty of battle possebilities.

hope this helped,
Kol

DragonBaneDM
2009-08-01, 02:23 AM
wait, wait wait! isn't this the campaign with the seven deadly sins who are the PCs opponenets? and wasn't lord Vicro THEIR employer? i guess he can be both, i'm just a little confused at whats on your mind...



Yep yep yep!!!! C'mon, you can't expect him to be happy with just one team of supervillains to command! What if one rises up in the ranks enough to rival him!?! Hahaha!

And I absolutely love this idea, Kol. I'm using it to it's full extent, and it's going to be an intregal part of my storyline.

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-08-01, 02:25 AM
I always imagined the infinite damage Crusader build using a 1d2 damage drill pendant as a weapon.

Taking things beyond the impossible, eh?


Bard 10 / Sublime Chord 10. Your PCs will never see it coming, yet he has all the trappings of a deluxe Evil Overlord. High Charisma, magical ability, knowledge of ancient forbidden lore, a fanbase, etc., and he can be as foppish and over-the-top as you want. As an added bonus, he can bring his minions to the final fight and power them up to be more effective helpers.

Bard 7/Mindbender 1/Ur Priest 2/Sublime Chord 2/Mystic Theurge 10.

Have a nice day...

DragonBaneDM
2009-08-01, 02:28 AM
Bard 7/Mindbender 1/Ur Priest 2/Sublime Chord 2/Mystic Theurge 10.

Have a nice day...

4e, but thanks for the sentiment. :D

Haven
2009-08-01, 02:34 AM
Make him an Avenger with the ritual caster feat.

But never let any of the PCs in on this, so that they just assume that he's a cleric or something. And then when, inevitably, they have to fight him for one reason or another, they'll freak out on discovering he's a striker instead of a leader. Hilarity ensues.

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-08-01, 02:35 AM
4e, but thanks for the sentiment. :D

3.5e character. That's the twist.

DragonBaneDM
2009-08-01, 02:36 AM
3.5e character. That's the twist.

Hahaha, dear God it's like 6th Sense and Happy Tree Friends had a child...