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View Full Version : Greatest/Most memorable BBEG you’ve ever fought/made.



Infernum
2010-02-27, 09:33 PM
I was curious what the greatest, most awesome BBEG some of you have ever fought against or created for your players to fight against.

Mine was and old hermit who had show our low level band of heros the difference between right and wrong and what being heros was all about. He used us and manipulated us into eliminating key elements of the world such as cursed locations, evil beasts and changing the political structure all for the benefit of good. Yet there were evil motivations behind this as he was playing out an agenda of his own. By doing away with all the bad guys and bringing him all the evil stuff we found along our journeys for him to destroy, we were actually making him more powerful and eliminating his competition.

Soon after eleventh level the kingdom was relatively safe, in the hands of a pacifist monarch who cared about the people and society, he stuck. Using the array of evil items and artifacts he summoned forth an army of monstrosities to concur the the kingdom for his very own dark god.

The one person who had always been there when we struggled, when we needed help, and who brought back our dead party members betrayed us.

Most of the group was god smacked to say the least. But we routed him in the end, already knowing how to defeat alot of the evil items he held. But he was truly a BBEG to be reckoned with.

Masaioh
2010-02-27, 09:37 PM
A free Levistus that had been warped beyond recognition by something I haven't completely decided on yet. My players hated him for basically turning the campaign world into a medieval version of Fallout 3, starting a second Blood War, infecting them with Far Realm parasites and killing 90% of the Prime Material's population.

Lycan 01
2010-02-27, 10:39 PM
My players never really get far enough into the campaigns and stuff I have planned to get to the Big Bad Evil Guys I cook up. :smallfrown:

Xallace
2010-02-27, 10:44 PM
My PCs will never forget the Blob-Of-Screaming-Soul-Faces, which while not a BBEG, was a recurring villain.

Accelces, one of my friends' BBEBGs, is pretty famous 'round here. He pretty much started as a total rip-off a Nightmare from Soul Calibur merged with Sephiroth (of Final Fantasy VII fame), but quickly became the sole Chosen of Tharizdun and started chasing fragments of (un)holy text across the world. No-one's ever fought him, but one group surrendered to him. Some heroes.

Mastikator
2010-02-27, 11:10 PM
The only BBEG I've ever fought was a freaking massive demonic spider. It wasn't really an endboss, it was just a really big mob guarding the item we were to retrieve for some king. Never fought an actual BBEG, though I would say I've delivered one or two as a DM.

There've been many enemies I've encountered far more memorable than that though. I'd say the Lindworm was the most memorable monster I've ever fought. That thing bit me, and while I was in its mouth struggling to stay away from its stomach I was trying to stab its brain from the inside. The other guys were attacking it with ranged. We got a lot of lucky shots and the wormdragon panicked, it tried to flee, but not before spitting me out. Which lead to a far fall into a huge pile of bones. A few more lucky shots and it finally died.
The crux was that we were the equivalent of a party of level 3-5, and the Lindworm was at least CR 9 or 10. If it had been in D&D3.5

Knaight
2010-02-27, 11:13 PM
An obscure figure. No-one knows his name, no one knows who he is, and what is known is that he is the head of a magical order seen as very sinister. Alone that isn't much, but the PCs did directly meet one of his minions, who nearly killed them all while trying not to, having been created and controlled by this person (eventually dealt with by being lead into another person they ran afoul of who was also more powerful than them, along with some friends). Furthermore, it is heavily implied that this particular person is the blunt raw force tool employed by the figure, and that there is another, much nastier person in his employ, along with a nation level military, and a following.

The campaign was heavy on mystery, and this was one of the few people in it the PCs were actually terrified of, and this by a group where the player's aren't stellar role players. The others were just things to be avoided, but could be avoided, if not killed directly.

1stEd.Thief
2010-02-27, 11:39 PM
One time a [not nice person] pulled an [*evil* spell component] out of his [heinie] in order to "escape" to [heck] by offering the soul of the party's [magic user's guild contact] (long story) to some summoned minion of The Jelly who Must Not be Named.

It was late. We were dabbling in BoED / BoVD. Mostly BoVD. We were murderous hoboes after all.

Starscream
2010-02-28, 12:10 AM
Probably Taerin, the Blackguard. Very long explanation in the spoilers.

I wanted to do a blackguard who actually had a reason for his actions, rather than simply "cuz I'm evil, lol".

So the first few times the players encountered Taerin he was just about the best paladin you could ever hope to meet. Possibly a bit more lawful than good, but way nicer than Miko, and a great guy to have on your team. His loyalty to the god he served (Heironeous) was indisputable.

My goal was to do a sort of Arthas meets Vader origin for him, and have the PCs be right in the middle of it. The players are on the trail of a Frost Giant Jarl and come across a village he had recently attacked. They are thrilled when their old buddy Taerin shows up along with the other paladins who serve under him, hunting the same giant. Perfect chance for a team up!

Taerin explains that this is no mere brute they are facing; the frost giant fully intends to sacrifice the people of the village in a vile rite that will give him incredible power. He's already made off with a few; they can either choose to pursue him and hope to rescue his captives before they are destroyed, or stay here and guard the village for when he inevitably comes back for the rest (he needs pretty much all of them, so the captives are theoretically safe for now).

But even though he's an NPC, Taerin likes to think of himself as in charge. After a bit of divination magic reveals to him that the village will "definitely be better off" if they pursue, he insists and the unsure PCs grudgingly agree to go along with him. Even though he has family who lives here, the paladin is certain that trusting the divination is the best course. After all, it is a message from the gods, and his faith is unshakable. He even leaves the rest of his allies here to protect the village. What could go wrong?

Everything. Seems some of Taerin's information was bad, because as they battle their way to the giant's stronghold the party keeps coming across the dismembered remains of the captives. At each site, there is also a message mocking and deriding Taerin for his trust in Heironeous. The paladin grows increasingly furious and vengeful. The PCs are bright enough to call foul. If he wasn't saving them to sacrifice all at once, what is the Jarl's plan? They want to go back, but Taerin will hear none of it. He's going onward, and the PCs eventually decide that they can't just let him get himself killed.

They make it, they beat the giant, they capture him alive. While trying to interrogate him, all the frost giant does is insinuate that the masters he serves don't really care about the village at all, but are after Taerin himself. He also says that the village is doomed, and the heroes have accomplished nothing. In a rage, Taerin smites the giant, who's last act is to smile and say "Welcome".

They race back to the village, to find it in cinders, attacked by a tribe of gnolls. Everyone is dead, save the other paladins who have been locked in cages to mock them. Taerin has the party sorcerer cast Contact Other Plane and demand an explanation. How could the previous divination have been wrong? Answer: it wasn't. If the party hadn't stopped the giant, he would have ended up sacrificing the village people. Better that they simply be killed than have their souls destroyed by the sacrificial rite. As they were good or neutral aligned, they are now content in their various afterlives. Upon dying the giant came back as a powerful devil. It was this devil that led the attack on the village.

The giant had actually been a servitor of the Abyss, and had hoped to become a Demon by performing the sacrifice. The devils had approached him offering him an alternative; If he failed and was killed he could become a devil instead, so long as he arranged it so that the paladin was the one to kill him. Seeing a chance at immortality either way, the giant decided it was win/win and agreed.

Taerin is infuriated by this, and feels betrayed. He also blames the PCs for their part in events, even though they wanted to head back. He executes his paladins for failing to save the village before the PCs can stop him, falling from grace in the process. They arrest him, and hope it's the last they ever see of him.

It isn't. Even though he is stripped of his paladin powers, Taerin buys a Plane Shift and heads off to the Nine Hells, to destroy the Jarl/Devil. Instead of resistance, he finds that the forces of Hell welcome him with open arms, and present him with the Jarl/Devil's head (seems he didn't read the fine print in his contract).

Then they allow him to peruse a copy the Pact Primeval, and learn how the battle between good and evil truly began. He reads it, and is shocked to learn how shabbily the devils were treated by the gods they once served. Created to do nothing but battle the forces of chaos, they were cast out and betrayed for the evil deeds that were necessary to complete this task. Even after their betrayal they have continued to wage the Blood War, performing this function because it is their Duty, and they believe in Law. Sure, they tempt mortals to evil, but everyone has a choice, don't they? And all the while the Gods sit atop their clouds, reaping the benefits of the Blood War without having to get their hands dirty. Jerks.

Taerin sympathizes with the devils, and decides that they have the right idea. He too sacrificed everything in the name of his duty, and was punished when he did what he felt was necessary. He feels that for true justice to exist, the gods must be toppled from their thrones, and the universe remade with Pure Law being the defining force. And he's just the guy to do it.

And so Taerin the Blackguard is born. He serves the forces of Law and Evil with a zeal worthy of a paladin. He has no problem with killing innocents now; after all, if they were "good" they get to spend eternity in a celestial petting zoo. If they weren't then they simply get what's coming. As prideful and self-righteous as ever, he will never accept that the devils are using him (like Vader he thinks he can overthrow them as soon as they win), or that there is another side to the story. And the gods (all gods, he even hates lawful evil ones) are too soft and decadent to understand true justice. He will make them understand.
As a villain, the PCs loathed him. They were furious with him, and every one of them personally wanted to be the one to take him down. I got some of the best roleplaying ever from these guys because it was personal. They really liked him as an ally, and utterly despised what he had become, and would stop at nothing to thwart his evil schemes.

So as you can imagine, I got a lot of mileage out of this guy.

Ormagoden
2010-02-28, 12:34 AM
The title of this thread makes me cry.

Infernum
2010-02-28, 12:40 AM
Yes, well I did type that rather fast on an old keyboard so some of the keys didnt go through.

Apropos
2010-02-28, 12:42 AM
You can fix it you know...

Da'Shain
2010-02-28, 01:03 AM
The favorite one I've faced was a Naztharune Rakshasa who basically manipulated our party all around the surface of Khorvaire, freeing ancient evils and damaging the forces of good unknowingly the entire way, until by the end we were among the most wanted people in Eberron. Instead of gathering more forces and power to us as the game went on, we were more and more forced to rely on ourselves and our wits, until finally we snuck and fought our way past the combined armies of the Five Nations and outwitted the bastard just before he succeeded in his ultimate goal of releasing one of the Lords of Dust.

And the best part? My Talenta halfling spirit shaman's deinonychus animal companion bit his head off when he was about to beat us. With teeth (piercing) that were blessed by our paladin of Freedom (good). We actually cheered.

Grommen
2010-02-28, 01:05 AM
I think my favorite nasty BBEG is Shaktha the Lizard King. And as fate would have it he got ahold of a ring of wishes and used it to be able to cast 5th level wizard spells. Then in his dyeing breaths he wished to one day rise again and slay even the great grandchildren of those who opposed him. And thus he was reborn a Vampire, Lizard King, and a 9th level mage. O the fun times with Cloud Kill in a small room...

A close second would have to be "The Grandfather of Assassins". This mythical bad guy plagued my party for over a year in game. The best part was that he was killed early off by the party's cleric who in a divine moment of inspiration cast Symbol of Death and a Symbol of Insanity on a recently intercepted piece of intelligence bound for said Grandfather. Once cast we let the intel loose and good ole Grandpa picked it up and read it, instantly slaying himself and over half of his leadership. The other half nearly all went insane. I never let on that the party had decimated the leadership of the Grandfather's army, and had good old Grandpa was eventually raised as a Death Knight for the final show down.

Every one nearly passed out laffing when they realized that the undead creature before them was the one and former living Grandfather of Assassins and had been killed by the party months before.

Grandfather of Assassins - "Now before I kill you all I'll allow you to ask me one question."

King Quinton the Great - "Just one?"

Famous last words between our hero and the BBEG.

BRC
2010-02-28, 01:19 AM
For a campaign I ran where my PC's were part of an Inquisition. Neither of these guys were the BBEG, but they were both Memorable.

First, the PC's leave the city they are in, while out and about they run across two veteran inquisitors, who upon hearing the PC's report, warn them that they intercepted messages that "The Gambler" was active in Inferno Bay (The city in question). All they were told about The Gambler was that he was cunning and ruthless.

Their first encounter with him was investigating a group of necromancers working out of the sewers. They kill the Necromancers, at which point an illusion of a man in a crisp suit with an ace of spades sticking out of his hat. He shows up, bets them 2000 Gp (or some amount like that) that they won't make it out of the room alive, and vanishes. The Door slams shut, four ports open up in the walls, and a pair of Bearded Devils appear. Every round the four ports filled the room with Fire. The PC's escape when, after a couple rounds, their beguiler remembers that he can cast Knock, and they escape, finding a briefcase with the amount of money previously mentioned in it.

They also escape with a coded message log. They manage to Decode it, getting valuable information. They get two important things, first of all that a Circle (They were up against an organization known as the Circle of Enlightenment) agent was staying as the guest of the powerful Baron Charles Rockridge. Also, that the local Circle agents were having trouble with Inquisition operatives (The PC's), and that "The Poet" had been dispatched to handle them.

The PC's are lucky in terms of getting into the Rockridge compound. The Rockridge's have a personal chaplin, he happens to be a former Inquisitor. He is also the curator of the museum, so he agrees to meet the PC's there. He has a plan to get them into the compound, he leaves them and walks into his office.

He dosn't come out. When the PC's go to investigate, they see him dead, a cloaked figure crouching over him holding a knife.
"Who would have thought the old man to have had such blood in him".
The Lights go out, and a team of Circle agents teleports in. The Poet vanishes into the shadows.

The next round, he strikes.
The Poet was designed to be an unstoppable obstacle, something the PC's couldn't beat in a straight up fight. He greatly out leveled them, and used a combination of Spring Attack and HiPS to leap out of the shadows, sneak attack, and then hide again in the same round. He was the boogeyman in their closets, the thing that goes bump in the night. Except with his move silently check, he didn't go bump. Ever. If there was any shadows, he could hide in it.

Also, he spoke entierly by quoting shakespeare.

My PC's loved him, and feared him. Their favorite part of the campaign was when they finally faced off against the Gambler (Who looked nothing like his illusion, but he had four very dangerous body doubles who did), and they were able to break the control he had over the Poet, turning the Poet against his former master.



I'm considering re-creating the Poet, only making him one of Three. The Poet they met was a Sepulchral Thief, kind of like a Lich, but for rogues. I'm considering renaming him the Laughing Servant, and creating two more Poets. A Wizard Lich named the Banished Duke (With a powerful air elemental at his command), and a death knight (Fallen Paladin/Blackguard) named The Murderer King.

Master_Rahl22
2010-02-28, 11:58 AM
My favorite BBEG that I fought was a half-dragon lich who showed up in our first session and killed the elf sorcerer chick we were supposed to guard. The Lawful Stupid paladin decided that he couldn't let him escape, even though he was merely going to hang onto her body and force us to bring somebody who could resurrect her. The lich Disintegrated the paladin, then teleported away. :smallsmile:

The favorite BBEG I made was a paladin who had retired after years of adventuring and become the governer of a large and prosperous province. The province had recently begun to be plagued by vampires, so the paladin hires some adventurers to investigate. What nobody knew, even the paladin, was that at the end of his adventuring career, a famous and powerful vampire had decided to turn the paladin to get back at him for all of the times the meddlesome LG dude had foiled his plans. The shock of suddenly becoming an evil creature was too much, and the paladin developed a split personality. When his sire realized it, he had an artifact created to protect him from sunlight. So, by day he was Russell, Paladin and governer, and by night he was Lukela, Vampire Blackguard and BBEG.

Saph
2010-02-28, 12:05 PM
There've been a bunch, but probably the most fun one I've ever run was The Profound Darkness from Phantasy Star 4 (basically, the evil god-figure of the Phantasy Star universe). It was the climax of a campaign that had lasted for about 16 sessions, and it took an entire afternoon's worth of continuous combat. For the curious, the full stats are in the spoiler.

Following on from Proven Paradox's thread, this is a single-foe battle for D&D 3.5. It's intended as the climax and BBEG fight of an entire campaign. It's also a demonstration of how to have a long single-foe encounter without a quick win for either side.

The setting is the Phantasy Star universe (which includes high-tech and psionics, but neither of which are a big part of this battle - you can run it without them). The PCs, loaded to the gills with buffs and magical gear, arrive on the Profound Darkness' demiplane just as it's preparing to finally break free of its prison and manifest upon the material world. If they lose, the world is toast.

To reach the Profound Darkness' demiplane, the PCs have to go through the Edge, which is a weird in-between place full of kaleidoscopic light. A single 5-foot-wide path progresses through it, with an infinite drop in all directions. The PCs can run into the shades of old enemies here, but it is NOT recommended to give them any fights - they should be at full health for the battle.

Once they enter the Profound Darkness' demiplane, read them the following text:

"You step through into blackness. At first, everything around you looks dark; then, slowly, it begins to brighten. You're on a circular island in the midddle of an endless plane of kaleidoscopic light that seems to stretch away to infinity. At the same time, overlaid over this, is a second image just barely visible; a transparent cylinder leading away to darkness. In the centre of the cylinder, and at the centre of the island, is a writhing sphere of darkness."

Roll initiative.

The Profound Darkness

DM Notes: This battle is intended to be very difficult and very long. When I ran it, it took over 4 hours of continuous combat. You'll need to tweak the numbers depending on your party's level, numbers, and powergameyness quotient.

My party was level 10 for this fight and were six in number; however, they were loaded down with high-powered magical items, including an artifact sword that could use cure critical wounds and true resurrection as standard actions at will (though it could only resurrect each person once). You know the phase in videogames where you gear up for the final boss? Yeah, they'd just done that. Without the sword and special items, my guess is that they'd have needed to be several levels higher. Note that even with the resurrections, only two PCs walked out alive.

The PD is designed to be impossible to take out quickly. In true video-game style, the only way to kill it is to go through its truckloads of HP for all three of its forms. However, note that the PD has no energy resistance, no damage resistance, no spell resistance, and no critical immunity; this means pretty much all classes have the potential to hurt it. The idea is that everyone can do something. (In the game story, the reason the PCs were able to get through these things was due to the special rings they were carrying, which also protected them from the worst of the PD's powers.)

All forms of the Profound Darkness have the following abilities:

Plane Shift: The battle takes place on a disc approximately 120 ft in diameter, with the Profound Darkness at the centre. Since the Profound Darkness is always at the centre of the demiplane, whenever it 'moves', it's the PCs that appear to move instead. So if it takes a move action for 30 ft, you tell the PCs, "Everyone move your figure 6 squares this way." (point.) If you're cruel, you can drop PCs off the edge of the arena this way, but make sure to give them some warning first.

Senses: All forms of the Profound Darkness have darkvision, lifesense, tremorsense, blindsense, everythingsense, telepathy out to 100 ft, and constant true seeing.

Immunities: All forms of the Profound Darkness are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, death, mind-affecting, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, stunning, fatigue, exhaustion, decapitation, plane shifting, polymorphing, kittens, teleportation, That Damn Crab, ability penalties, dazing, presidential debates, antimagic fields, imprisonment, and anything else you feel the need to throw in.

When (if) the PCs kill a phase, there's a 2-3 round pause between the next one as the PD shifts dimensions. The PCs can use this breathing space to rebuff and heal.


The Profound Darkness, Phase 1

Description A huge mass of thousands of thin, writhing tentacles emerging from a sphere of darkness.
Huge outsider (Extraplanar, Evil)
HP 1000
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares, plane shift; see above)
Init +0
AC 25; touch 7; flat-footed 25
Attack Ranged touch +13
Space 15x15 ft; Reach 0.
Special Attacks Medium SLAs; see below
Special Qualities See above
Saves Fort +16 Ref +12 Will +16
Skills Concentration auto; Spellcraft auto
Challenge Rating High
Alignment Evil

DM Notes: This form is an easy warm-up for the PCs, though it can still knock off one or two of them if they get careless or unlucky. It allows the PCs to get used to the unusual conditions of the fight. Once it's destroyed, move on to . . .

The Profound Darkness, Phase 2

Description The mist solidifies into a creature out of a nightmare. It stands twenty feet tall on six widely spaced legs, and it's covered with mottled green and purple scales. Three draconic heads rise on separate necks, and a scorpion tail curls up over its back.
Gargantuan outsider (Extraplanar, Evil)
HP 900
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares, plane shift; see above)
Init +0
AC 29; touch 3; flat-footed 29
Attack Bite +20 (2d8+10)
Full-Attack 3 bites +20 (2d8+10), 2 claws +18 (2d6+5), sting +18 (2d6+10 and poison; see below)
Poison DC 22; initial damage death, secondary damage death.
Space 20x20 ft; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks Major SLAs; see below
Special Qualities See above
Saves Fort +18 Ref +14 Will +18
Skills Concentration auto; Spellcraft auto
Challenge Rating You don't want to know
Alignment Evil

DM Notes: This is where the fight starts getting tough. PCs who've gotten used to the initial form having no physical attacks or reach may be wrong-footed by this form's full attacks. Its SLAs are also dangerous. Expect some PC deaths here. Once the PCs finally take it down, it's time for . . .

The Profound Darkness, Phase 3

Description This creature is over thirty feet tall. Eight enormous segmented legs rise up to a vast spiderlike body, which rises at the front to take the figure of a giant humanoid female with a faceless head. Four colossal batlike wings rise from the creature's back, beating slowly as the empty face turns to look down on you.
Colossal outsider (Extraplanar, Evil)
HP 900
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares, plane shift; see above)
Init +0
AC 27; touch -1; flat-footed 27
Attack Ranged touch +15
Space 25x25 ft; Reach 0.
Special Attacks Greater SLAs; see below
Saves Fort +20 Ref +16 Will +20
Skills Concentration auto; Spellcraft auto
Challenge Rating Why are you even asking?
Alignment Evil

DM Notes: This is where you stop pulling punches. This form can easily kill one PC per turn, and sometimes more. Better hope the players are good, because they're not going to have any second chances.

Spell-Like Abilities

These don't provoke AoO's, and all are at CL 20. All are only examples; assume the PD can use pretty much any attack spell of equivalent level. The listed ones include some psionic powers as well as spells; DM should free to swap in his or her personal favourites. :)

Medium SLAs: Death Urge (DC 23 negates, duration 2 rounds), Prismatic Ray (DC 22), Baleful Polymorph (DC 22), Greater Dispel Magic

Major SLAs: Prismatic Spray (DC 24), Energy Wave (DC 24), Ultrablast (DC 24), Finger of Death (DC 24)

Greater SLAs: Megid (Mass Disintegrate on all targets within 30 feet, ignoring line of effect, DC 23), Maze, Meteor Swarm (DC 26), Weird (DC 26), Polar Ray

If the PCs somehow manage to kill it; congratulations, they've saved their planet! The Profound Darkness disintegrates in an escalating explosion, while the PCs run as fast as they can out of the collapsing demiplane and then through the Edge, the path breaking apart behind them.

For the curious, when my party tried this battle, the final results were: 1 PC killed, resurrected, killed, reincarnated, and finally surviving (favoured soul), 1 PC surviving without being killed at all (druid), 1 PC disintegrated (psion, though the druid grabbed some of her dust on the way out to reincarnate), 1 PC killed by a prismatic ray, resurrected, then disintegrated (rogue), 1 PC killed by an energy wave, resurrected, and then sent insane, polymorphed into a badger, and thrown through a planar rift to Bytopia (warlock, don't ask), and one PC who sacrificed himself to finally kill the thing (psychic warrior).

If you actually decide to inflict this on your own group, PM me with the results. :)

Tar Palantir
2010-02-28, 12:15 PM
The best I've ever run as DM was the Chizrik Queen, an insectoid outsider controlling a hive mind of deadly humanoid insects (which the players really began to loathe; high SR, decent DR, and a Dex poison all on the standard mooks, and some of the "middle management" were even worse). With potent sorcerer casting focusing on illusions and enchantments, she forced them to waste three 9th level scrolls before she even revealed herself and managed to kill the party swordsage with a combination of sting with Wis damaging poison and a quickened Final Rebuke. After that, she was perforated by the party ranger, but it was quite the fight.

Ormagoden
2010-02-28, 12:16 PM
The title of this thread makes me happy!

PairO'Dice Lost
2010-02-28, 02:08 PM
Let's see...you want the most memorable in terms of "Holy crap, we're all gonna die!" or "...dude, that is the most messed-up Lawful Evil I've ever seen"?

The former would be the BBEG of the one and only epic game my party has ever let me run. I'm fairly sure I posted the story here once or twice before, so suffice to say that the party told me "These monsters are too easy; give us your worst!" and I obliged with a 206-optimized-demiliches-disguised-as-a-single-lich abomination. It took the party 30-some contingent true resurrections before they killed one demilich.

The latter would be the BBEG's lieutenant in my last campaign, which I believe I've also mentioned here a few times. He was a graft- and crafting-focused necromancer with the stereotypical lust for personal power and knowledge and a disturbing lack of concern for others. He utterly ignored the PCs unless they directly attacked him, and even pretended to cooperate with them for a while, but had a totally inappropriate sense of what was appropriate in war. He obliterated a country the size of Germany a few acres at a time and reanimated its inhabitants to figure out what kind of intelligent undead was in the most mental and physical pain, he sent a few dozen adamantine clockwork horrors at the PCs' home nation to test a particular leg joint mechanism in combat situations, and his first act when going epic was to lock his nation (an empire the size of Europe) in a faster time stream (1 day outside = 1 year inside) and spontaneously grant everyone inside psionic abilities for kicks and giggles.

Closak
2010-02-28, 02:43 PM
Pretty much all of the worst ones are of the Elder Evil variety.


Turalisj Nugri: Note that the name is draconic for "Big Hunger" and then take into account that it's an Elder Evil.
Imagine a REALLY out of this universe ENOURMOUS dragon made of a combination of flesh, crystalized magical energy, and swirling hatred.
And by really freaking big i mean the "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan" type of really freaking big.
The thing eats galaxies, and once one universe is stripped clean of food it jumps into another universe to feed some more in a futile attemp at sating it's infinite hunger.
It's "Only" been going around like this for 250,000,000,000,000+ years without anything managing to even slow it down.
Good luck figuring out a way to kill it, you need all the luck you can get.

Damn thing was just plain overkill.


???????: And then there's the one that doesn't even have a name.
Imagine if all the anger, hate, jealousy, greed, corruption, rage, and all other forms of negative emotion from multiple universes came together to form a single being.
Then imagine that any and all forms of destruction, evil or corruption feeds it.
Then take into account that it's influence spans countless realities, drawing power from every little bit of wrongness that exists in any of these realities.
Meaning that this thing is constantly drawing upon the power of counless trillions of other villains from countless universes, it has the combined power of nearly every villain that has ever existed anywhere.
It also has the capability of breaking the fourth wall and mocking the players directly.
And "Turalisj Nugri" turned out to be just one of this things many spawn...
...
...:eek:
Excuse me if i run away screaming now.


"Wimpy organic, running from something that isn't even real"
*Hole forms in the fourth wall and a big lazor comes out and vaporizes the robot*

Soranar
2010-02-28, 02:49 PM
Probably the Lawful evil arcanopath monk/Paladin of tyranny I made a while back. I didn't expect him to kill anyone (being a mesh of bad classes) but I built him as a highly defensive character focused on stunning fists.

DM: You have found the temple (of evil!)

DM: You see a Half-Orc in robes blocking your path.

Wizard: I cast disintegrate!

DM: You won't even talk to him?

Wizard: No, I shoot! (all the other party members agreed to just attack)

DM: Alright (rolls), the Half-Orc deflects your ray back at you, roll your Fort Save.

The party, believing they had just witnessed and epic feat, literally ran away when the tank alone could have killed said monk.

theMycon
2010-02-28, 02:59 PM
DnD 3.5:
The one I loved the most, from a DM that had no idea what he was doing and gave us all 1 free new character per session to compensate, if we'd died last time.

Vampiric Minotaur Sorcerer, CR 20 (Lesse... that's 4 minotaur, +2 vampire, +3 for 6 "unassociated" Sorc Levels, +11 for the 11 associated ones). While terribly stacked and unoptimized, it was still an ECL35 character, with 8th level spells and access to whatever book the DM wanted.

Against a party of 6 level 8, core-only*, mostly first-time players. And he got a DM-fiat surprise round &won initiative.

Two of us were dead before we got a chance to react. Three of the survivors had made characters specifically for this fight (A +1 holy, cold-iron, greatsword of undead bane, made by a cleric with no other magic equipment? Hand it to the will-as-his-best-save barbarian we buffed to high heaven just before entering the room, as the wizard hands you his metamagic wand of empower and casts dispel. than, let loose with the only spell prepped above 3rd level, empowered Searing Light). The wizard died next round, I was infected by some no-save Necrotic Cyst and died the one after that. The Barb went down swinging, but died in two rounds nonetheless.

In the end, our Sorceror, hiding in the corner behind an illusion'd wall, hovering in midair and down to level 1 spells, brought him down with a Magic Missile.

*The one the DM had the hots for got to be a Dread Necro & had a free Werebear Template for reasons that seemed legit at the time.

KillianHawkeye
2010-02-28, 10:25 PM
Vampiric Minotaur Sorcerer, CR 20 (Lesse... that's 4 minotaur, +2 vampire, +3 for 6 "unassociated" Sorc Levels, +11 for the 11 associated ones). While terribly stacked and unoptimized, it was still an ECL35 character, with 8th level spells and access to whatever book the DM wanted.

Against a party of 6 level 8, core-only*, mostly first-time players. And he got a DM-fiat surprise round &won initiative.

ECL really has no bearing on NPCs, but CR 20 for a bunch of level 8s is still a bit excessive.

Volkov
2010-03-01, 07:33 AM
I took the Paladin from the last campaign and made him do a face heel turn into a vile overlord. Even though the players lost their final fight with him, it was still great fun.

Drothmal
2010-03-01, 09:31 PM
The best BBEG for me was a byproduct of my DM showing me that, for all my character optimization, his optimization fu was better

I had a lvl 16 fighter/barbarian/homebrewPrC human weretiger with Strenght 43 (while raging) that weilded two large Longswords. In the last session before the BBEG had appeared, I had just one shot a dragon while wearing no armor and only mundane swords borrowed from the palace guards.

When we finally uncover who was behind the dragon attack at the end of a dungeon, we find a hooded figure that commends me for defeating his "pet". He uncovers himself to reveal... my character in human form!!. After explaining that it was really my character's twin brother, he challenges me to a duel. I go into hybrid form to kick some ass, to which he responds going into half-fiend mode (yes, I know that he is always a half fiend, but he had an illusion or something cast for dramatic effect). I win initiative, I start with a partial charge as my haste action and then unleash all 8 attack on him. I deal over 200 damage. The guy is hurt, but according to the DM, he doesn't seem to be close to death at all. And then he proceeds to unleash 287points of damage on me (I had 291hp thanks to barbarian rage, so he would have completely killed me if I hadn't won the initiative). After proving his point, he just walks away (even with an AoO I didn't kill him) and teleports away saying that he would meet me at the final battle.

I never finished the campaign (3 of the 4 players moved away to start college). And even now, 8 years afterwards, I am still have a bitter taste in my mouth after my utter defeat at the hand of Raigard (that's the BBEG's name). I still have my character sheet and I hope that someday I will have my revenge!

Swok
2010-03-01, 10:20 PM
In terms of "memorable" as in "I will never forget that": 50' tall David Bowie.

I am not kidding. Admittedly, it WAS a lighthearted game, but even then, none of us saw something like that coming.