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fortesama
2010-11-07, 07:43 PM
A rather short campaign in D&D 3.5 I joined in had us dispel a vampire wizard's spell of eternal night... which she cast just because she wanted to join a flower viewing event. Now, she decided to go out using a magic parasol our artificer made instead for the said event.

Some time before that, a large number of kobolds began searching for what i suspect were radioactive elements... since a pyromancer (in this case, a venerable dragonwrought sorcerer/incantatrix with a thing for metamagicked fire spells and searing spell) from another plane wanted to create a nuclear reactor to start an industrial revolution.

So, what are some of the stranger motive's have you guys seen?

Ormur
2010-11-07, 08:34 PM
The lonely red dragon that just wanted a large family.

So yes, we fought a lot of various half-dragon creatures of all kind in that session.

Assassin89
2010-11-07, 08:48 PM
A rather short campaign in D&D 3.5 I joined in had us dispel a vampire wizard's spell of eternal night... which she cast just because she wanted to join a flower viewing event. Now, she decided to go out using a magic parasol our artificer made instead for the said event.

Some time before that, a large number of kobolds began searching for what i suspect were radioactive elements... since a pyromancer (in this case, a venerable dragonwrought sorcerer/incantatrix with a thing for metamagicked fire spells and searing spell) from another plane wanted to create a nuclear reactor to start an industrial revolution.

So, what are some of the stranger motive's have you guys seen?

I think your DM is a fan of Touhou, as it appears that those BBEGs are Remilia Scarlet in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, although it was a scarlet fog rather than an Imperishable Night, and a combination of Utsuho Reiuji (for the fire and radioactivity) and Kanako Yasaka (at least in terms of where she is from and her goal). Is there going to be a ghost with the ability to invoke death, who steals spring to see who is buried under an evil tree, but the body is herself?

The goal of one enemy in a Pathfinder game I am playing is to be loved, by forcing people to love her, which entail shooting yourself or someone else on her command. As for the main BBEG, apparently his goal is salvation, of what and for who I do not know yet.

Beelzebub1111
2010-11-07, 08:57 PM
A paladin who wanted to purify the silver flame...by expunging the rakshasa lord inside of it, unleashing it upon the world.

Admiral Squish
2010-11-07, 09:02 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

Urpriest
2010-11-07, 09:05 PM
A recent campaign I was in involved an ancient Eladrin Artificer-King who planned to use enchanted weapons to suck out peoples' souls and bind them into constructs, thus granting everyone immortality. My Eladrin Wizard would probably have switched to his side if he had had a good opportunity.

mikeejimbo
2010-11-07, 09:06 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

Ooh, I do like that. Being a lich, I'm sure he had the time and the patience!

Fiery Diamond
2010-11-07, 09:12 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

Hmmm....:smallamused:

*cough*FullMetalAlchemist*cough*

Tengu_temp
2010-11-07, 09:14 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

Your DM is a fan of Full Metal Alchemist, ain't he?

Gah, ninja'ed!

Zanatos777
2010-11-07, 10:07 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

I had a vampire who had basically the same plan but replace "infiltrate" with "create" and "ascend to godhood" with "commit mass deicide, steal divine essence and then ascend to godhood".

Edit: Yeah it was very FMA but I liked the idea and none of my players had read or seen FMA (it was several years ago)

Kallisti
2010-11-07, 10:09 PM
A lich moneylender who plans to conquer the world through compound interest.

Fiery Diamond
2010-11-07, 10:27 PM
A lich moneylender who plans to conquer the world through compound interest.

Okay, you win the thread. That is just awesome.

Admiral Squish
2010-11-07, 10:35 PM
I've never seen all of FMA... I HAVE FAILED AS A NERD! :smallfrown:

Christopher K.
2010-11-07, 10:35 PM
Well, I can't top the lich moneylender, but we had a once-heroic vampire who had self-replicating paper golems folded into envelopes that he sent as a chain letter to kill undead that functioned in society. (In this campaign, the major cities accepted undead to the workforce under strict conditions, close observation, and much discrimination.)

Tvtyrant
2010-11-07, 10:47 PM
I've never seen all of FMA... I HAVE FAILED AS A NERD! :smallfrown:

There is plenty to be ashamed of. :P

TBH, I haven't either. I did read the whole manga though!

Kallisti
2010-11-07, 11:33 PM
Okay, you win the thread. That is just awesome.

I won a thread? Cool. I think I'll keep it in a jam-jar under my stairs.

I also think Skin-And-Bones from Changeling: The Lost deserves a mention.

He's effectively a boogeyman you can summon through a broken mirror. When he appears, he says "Give me a name." And you give him a name, and he goes and takes the person you named away, and they're never seen again.

I swear I had never read the entry in Night Horrors: Grim Fears. I didn't even know he was from a published book.

My character, upon meeting him (long story) responded "You don't have a name? That's tragic. I'd offer you mine, but I lost it somewhere. You could be Anaphora, if you liked. It's a very pretty name."

Turns out that by "Give me a name" he actually does mean "I have no name, please give me one." And so when people give him a name, and it already belongs to someone, he takes that person. Because that name is his. It was a gift. And nobody would try to give a gift that they had no right to give; that'd just be...low.

So his villainy stems from a semantic misunderstanding and his deep, abiding faith that people are ultimately good, and would therefore never give him a name that wasn't theirs to give.

When I realized that, I could not stop laughing. The idea of a villain motivated by faith in humanity? Awesome.

Full disclosure: I did look him up after the fact. While the true meaning behind "Give me a name" is canon, the idea that he takes people whose names he's given because he's sure nobody would have given him those names as anything but an honest gift was the ST's invention.

Shadowleaf
2010-11-08, 01:06 AM
I heard about this game where a God, having forseen his own death, went down on the world and started producing offspring everywhere, and hoped they'd all kill eachother so he could get his essence back.

:smalltongue:

Jokes aside. I played in a campaign where the BBEG did evil, horrendious things. Really, kicking-puppies evil. He had invested all his money, time and energy into doing this. And our group could never figure out why. This entire evil operation gets leaked to the press, and our party goes after him.
In the final confrontation, the BBEG tells us he has already achieved his goal. We are baffled, and ask him what it was.

He just wanted to be remembered in history. :smalleek:

hiryuu
2010-11-08, 01:38 AM
My players found out a demon lord had been possessing people through the ages and had been directing the cause of nearly every major war and conflict in Eberron simply because it wanted lives cut short so it could harvest their memories and had even instigated the Mourning to get close to finishing (read: xp) to build an Eldritch device that could answer any question ever posed to it so she could ask it why her boyfriend left her. When she found out the reason, she decided the best way to "acquire morality" (the reason her boyfriend left being that she was, well, a jerk) would be to purge her memories and be reborn as a human to live a normal life.

Then they found out that the demon had thus orchestrated their rise to power and the hardship, pain, and horror they had seen was all its doing specifically so they'd want to kill her and the device they had built to weaken her and destroy her was actually the reincarnation device she had built.

They were suitably enraged. But they couldn't kill what was now an innocent human infant.

golentan
2010-11-08, 01:43 AM
A mad scientist who intended to conquer the world to disband the ethics committee blocking his research.

Because if he just killed them the paperwork would bog him down, and it would be unethical to circumvent the law. Much better to conquer the globe and rewrite the laws in an above-board fashion.

herrhauptmann
2010-11-08, 01:51 AM
From a novel:
An ancient wizard/psion Gith (he was born before the split into Githyanki and Githzerai) wanted to 'wear/see the crown of flame'. Something which he did once as a youth with his father. Back in a time when the suns rays didn't cause him to burst into flame like a vampire.
So he enacted a plan to do just that. His minions manipulated a shadow adept to gain access to a temple, stole an artifact created by Shar's minions. He stole a temple from Cyric, and siphoned magical energy from 2 mythals. And stole a tear from Selune (those little asteroids that follow the moon)


Hidden text...

What did he do with all that? Created a magical eclipse, one which would last for an entire day. So that he could play in the ocean surf once more before he died.
He tapped 2 mythals just so he could go wading in the friggin water like a child.

Codenpeg
2010-11-09, 03:34 PM
Hrm, I'm doing a game with my brothers (maptools and skype FTW) and I still haven't figured out what to do with my BBEG. He's acting through a sleeper agent in the form of a GMPC, a cleric of Pelor, to get them to travel through Ebberon visiting different temples. The party grabs a minor object of power at each location (a holy symbol from the high priest or a small statue or something) and I'm not sure what he's going to do with it yet.

Perhaps you folks could give me an unusual motivation for this?

Susano-wo
2010-11-09, 04:47 PM
in our current campaign, the BBEG created a magical plague apparently toassassinate the king, so he could marry the queen. WEll, the queen ended up dying [not from the plague, she was immune], and now he has essentially made her grandaughter look just like her, and is plotting to stick gramma's spirit inside, so he can have his obsession love of his life to be his happy happy bride.

Conquering the kindgom was just a bonus...:smalleek::smalleek:

(note that I don't know some of the answers to some of the most puzzling questions one may ask. The mystery of the details behind this whole thing is part of the story of the campaign ^ ^)

blackjack217
2010-11-09, 04:56 PM
An animated puppet who wanted to be a real boy.
First question: is he actually a cleric of pelor?
2nd: do the items have a theme?

Amphetryon
2010-11-09, 11:35 PM
Parent of one of the PCs wanted son to be a famous hero, so set about creating a set of circumstances where a great hero was needed in order to stop said parent from Taking Over The World....

Coidzor
2010-11-09, 11:52 PM
I also think Skin-And-Bones from Changeling: The Lost deserves a mention.

He's effectively a boogeyman you can summon through a broken mirror. When he appears, he says "Give me a name." And you give him a name, and he goes and takes the person you named away, and they're never seen again.

So... that's why Pluto's no longer a planet, eh? :smallamused:

herrhauptmann
2010-11-09, 11:53 PM
So what happens if you name him Candlejack?

Volos
2010-11-10, 12:21 AM
I had a BBEG who happened to be a deity. His ultimate goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the players (yes, the players not the PCs) so that one day he would kill the Dungeon Master and take his place.

Otogi
2010-11-10, 01:21 AM
There was this one BBEG I created for an experiment, where the campaign happened in real time, with game time equal to the session (with obvious changes of course). Anyway, I was brainstorming one day and I found the perfect motivation for the BBEG:

He was hungry. He wasn't some sort of giant monster, he didn't consume souls or blood or magic and he wasn't even really starving to death; he was just really irate, and the place that sells the thing he likes stop selling the thing, so he went all over town trying to find a good place. Aggressive guy, by the way.

Amiel
2010-11-10, 01:26 AM
There was a BBEG who had to have the perfect stamp collection; comprised of priceless paper artifacts, these stamps were the envy of all who looked upon them. Wars arose over their possession, and obsessions were formulated over their desire.
No amount of violence was disproportionate to obtaining this precious collective of stamps; and no scheme was too extreme.

Deth Muncher
2010-11-10, 01:34 AM
So what happens if you name him Candlejack?

I'm not sure there's enough rope anywhere to facilitate this.

Jjeinn-tae
2010-11-10, 01:53 AM
I had a demon-possessed pancake once that was capable of flying and glowed with infernal energy. It was a one shot session that I ended up doing when I said I wasn't going to DM that day...


So what happens if you name him Candlejack?

But, you're supposed to say Candlejack's name early in the sentence, that way we kno

DarkOrion
2010-11-10, 02:54 AM
I had a BBEG who happened to be a deity. His ultimate goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the players (yes, the players not the PCs) so that one day he would kill the Dungeon Master and take his place.

...what? That sounds amazing, but... what?

Amiel
2010-11-10, 02:56 AM
I had a BBEG who happened to be a deity. His ultimate goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the players (yes, the players not the PCs) so that one day he would kill the Dungeon Master and take his place.

Maybe he has already done so?...suspense!

hamishspence
2010-11-10, 05:31 AM
One could argue, that most motives, boil down to "This will increase the happiness of X" and "This will decrease the unhappiness of X"
X can be self, others, a whole species, and can be happiness of body, mind, or even soul.

So what can make it unusual, is the villain's definition of happiness or unhappiness, and the nature of group X that the villain is trying to make happier or less unhappy.


Example: a villain believes the happiness of other people's souls is paramount. And that going to the Lower Planes after death guarantees an unhappy soul, either for all eternity, or until the soul is destroyed.

So- they seek to prevent souls going to the Lower Planes by any means necessary. They seek out mortal wrongdoers, imprison them, torture them, trying to make them confess, repent, have a massive change of "general moral and personal attitudes" (and thus change alignment) and so, ensure that their souls go to planes other than the Lower Planes when they die.

Then, they execute them- possibly in as horrible a manner as possible- in order to discourage other mortals from following the path of wrongdoing- and thus, maximizing the amount of souls that do not go to the Lower Planes with the minimum of work- and avoiding the risk of the soul backsliding.

Such a villain would be doing an awful lot of Evil (by the splatbook rules) even if they believe they are doing it "for the benefit of the souls of others".

mikeejimbo
2010-11-10, 09:57 AM
I just remembered a certain villain's motivation that was interesting.

One word: Watchmen.

hamishspence
2010-11-10, 10:33 AM
Watchmen's basic motivation isn't that unusual. "For the greater good of the many" and "For the greater good of the species" are pretty common motivations- however they can be done in unusual and interesting ways.

Indeed "For The Greater Good" is a very popular villain (antivillain?) slogan- in Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, it's the slogan Grundelward used to use, and it's the Tau dogma in 40K.

Aotrs Commander
2010-11-10, 11:13 AM
We once ran into a clan of Kobolds who'd been kidnapping villagers soley for the purpose of making a cricket team so the could have someone to play against...

zephyrkinetic
2010-11-10, 11:59 AM
Senile wizard with a walking tower who tricked the party into helping him gather parts and plans for an Adamantine golem, build it, get the wizard transformed into an Earth Elemental (which I think used some homebrew, don't remember), and who became a lich whose phylactery was a giant diamond in the middle of said golem.
A bit convoluted, maybe, but it made for a plethora of great sessions.

Gahrer
2010-11-10, 12:08 PM
Example: a villain believes the happiness of other people's souls is paramount. And that going to the Lower Planes after death guarantees an unhappy soul, either for all eternity, or until the soul is destroyed.

So- they seek to prevent souls going to the Lower Planes by any means necessary. They seek out mortal wrongdoers, imprison them, torture them, trying to make them confess, repent, have a massive change of "general moral and personal attitudes" (and thus change alignment) and so, ensure that their souls go to planes other than the Lower Planes when they die.

Then, they execute them- possibly in as horrible a manner as possible- in order to discourage other mortals from following the path of wrongdoing- and thus, maximizing the amount of souls that do not go to the Lower Planes with the minimum of work- and avoiding the risk of the soul backsliding.

Like the Imperial order in the Sword of Truth. :smallbiggrin:

My latest BBEG simply wanted to become a god. He needed a LOT of lifeforce (found residual in corpses) so he gave a simple proposal to some people on another continent (he led a VERY big cult and an army of his own): "I will help you conquer this continent for yourselves. In return I ask to be allowed to do what I want with the dead."
When the war didn't turn out bloddy enough for him he started to massacre villages and towns...

Quietus
2010-11-10, 12:10 PM
Hrm, I'm doing a game with my brothers (maptools and skype FTW) and I still haven't figured out what to do with my BBEG. He's acting through a sleeper agent in the form of a GMPC, a cleric of Pelor, to get them to travel through Ebberon visiting different temples. The party grabs a minor object of power at each location (a holy symbol from the high priest or a small statue or something) and I'm not sure what he's going to do with it yet.

Perhaps you folks could give me an unusual motivation for this?

It's a collection. Why does he want to collect bits and pieces from different temples? Good question..

Gadora
2010-11-10, 12:24 PM
Hrm, I'm doing a game with my brothers (maptools and skype FTW) and I still haven't figured out what to do with my BBEG. He's acting through a sleeper agent in the form of a GMPC, a cleric of Pelor, to get them to travel through Ebberon visiting different temples. The party grabs a minor object of power at each location (a holy symbol from the high priest or a small statue or something) and I'm not sure what he's going to do with it yet.

Perhaps you folks could give me an unusual motivation for this?

Perhaps he is wanting to invoke the law of contagion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_contagion)?

mikeejimbo
2010-11-10, 12:38 PM
Watchmen's basic motivation isn't that unusual. "For the greater good of the many" and "For the greater good of the species" are pretty common motivations- however they can be done in unusual and interesting ways.

Indeed "For The Greater Good" is a very popular villain (antivillain?) slogan- in Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, it's the slogan Grundelward used to use, and it's the Tau dogma in 40K.

Well, "For the greater good" is a common motivation, yes. But Adrian Veidt's motivation was "For the greater good because it's better for business".

At least, that's what I got out of it

hamishspence
2010-11-10, 12:56 PM
I thought it was:

"because otherwise the human species will annihilate itself in a nuclear war"

But that might be because I've seen the film but only read bits of the book.

grimbold
2010-11-10, 01:36 PM
Well, the motivation wasn't so awesome, but the method was interesting. I heard the tale of a lich who infiltrated the city planning committee and, with years and years of careful work, was slowly converting the city's map into a giant magical sigil and was going to use it to sacrifice every soul in the city and ascend to godhood.

that is both strange and oddly brilliant

Urpriest
2010-11-10, 02:07 PM
I thought it was:

"because otherwise the human species will annihilate itself in a nuclear war"

But that might be because I've seen the film but only read bits of the book.

It's that way in the book too. The business part is simply him doing his bit to exploit the situation. He really does want to save the world.

By the way, certain (unmentionable on this forum) real-world religions have historically acted exactly as you've described (preventing people from going to the lower planes via torture and death).

dsmiles
2010-11-10, 02:12 PM
and it's the Tau dogma in 40K.

Tau aren't villains, per se. No more so than the xenophobic Imperium of Man.

hamishspence
2010-11-10, 02:14 PM
Probably best not to draw too many parallels.

Still, the point being, that in BoED, "redeeming souls" is considered good behaviour-

so someone in D&D who knew that, but refused to accept other BoED rules (like, torturing people for whatever reason, is an evil act) might act that way.


Tau aren't villains, per se. No more so than the xenophobic Imperium of Man.

They're villains from the point of view of aliens that aren't willing to join "the Tau Empire".

That said, every faction in 40K are closer to villains than heroes from at least somebody's point of view.

Swooper
2010-11-10, 02:52 PM
Perhaps he is wanting to invoke the law of contagion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_contagion)?

On the bad side, this means that in according to the belief system of many cultures, a sorcerer or witch might acquire a lock of hair, nail clipping or scrap of clothing in order to facilitate a curse. Voodoo dolls, among many other practices. A voodoo doll resembles the victim and often incorporates hair or clothing from them. Cultures that believe in sorcery, therefore often exercise care that their hair or nails do not end up in the hands of sorcerers.
I now envision a villain barber, secretly collecting the hair from every customer, then suddenly BAM mind control the entire city! :smallamused:

Arbane
2010-11-10, 02:53 PM
Hrm, I'm doing a game with my brothers (maptools and skype FTW) and I still haven't figured out what to do with my BBEG. He's acting through a sleeper agent in the form of a GMPC, a cleric of Pelor, to get them to travel through Ebberon visiting different temples. The party grabs a minor object of power at each location (a holy symbol from the high priest or a small statue or something) and I'm not sure what he's going to do with it yet.

Perhaps you folks could give me an unusual motivation for this?

Hm... the villain behind it all is trying to find the common source of all Divine Power, and connect to it directly without going through the gods?

---------

Here's a potentially weird villain: The Paperclip maximizer (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer).

"The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." —Eliezer Yudkowsky

mikeejimbo
2010-11-10, 02:57 PM
I thought it was:

"because otherwise the human species will annihilate itself in a nuclear war"

Yeah, then there's no one left to sell anything to.


It's that way in the book too. The business part is simply him doing his bit to exploit the situation. He really does want to save the world.

See, I'm not sure about that. I think it was left a little vague, myself.

plllizzz
2010-11-10, 03:29 PM
non D&D example:

Kotomine Kirei from Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero

guy was born and raised to be a priest, had a pretty loving family, wife who never thought or said a bad thing to him etc.

just for him to realize he can't draw any happiness from this

when his wife died thinking he loved her, he was sad he wasn't the one that killed her [same with his father]

he had no real goals or ambitions besides doing evil, evil things [like turning a couple of orphans into 'living' (kept immobilized and rotting alive in a hidden room) sacrifices] - but on the other side, he still had a conscience which told him he is bad

so he was never truly happy in his life, never had a purpose in life

finally, he wanted to see a being of pure evil being born just to validate his own existence, even if he and the world would die in the proces

Urpriest
2010-11-10, 03:33 PM
I now envision a villain barber, secretly collecting the hair from every customer, then suddenly BAM mind control the entire city! :smallamused:

One of the Discworld books has a plot like this, only with the tooth fairy.

kestrel404
2010-11-10, 03:36 PM
I once played in a one-shot that was a crossover between Lost and Heros (involved characters from both storylines), had a plot appropriate to such a thing (think 32-xanatos pileup), and who's ultimate mastermind had only a single goal in mind - free fast food takeout.

Because getting your pizza in 30 minutes or less just ain't gonna happen when fifteen different people are trying to end/save/conquer the world simultaneously.

big teej
2010-11-10, 04:08 PM
We once ran into a clan of Kobolds who'd been kidnapping villagers soley for the purpose of making a cricket team so the could have someone to play against...

-yoink-.....

thankyou much.

Karoht
2010-11-10, 06:01 PM
Okay, not super unusual, but convoluted.

Ages ago, the first people of the world and all the animal spirits fought. They stopped fighting when Owl said they should build something together. So they decided on a totem pole. They found the biggest tree they could find and began work on the totem pole. And just as they nearly finished, Crow told an epic warrior that his tales of victory were not being added to the pole. So the warrior leapt from the tallest mountain, and destroyed the totem pole with his axe.
Problem, the tree they made the totem pole from was the World Tree Yggdrasil.

So the warrior is sent off to find Snake, who no one has seen since the conflict started. The warrior finds him, and Snake is actually the oldest being on the planet, a massive wyrm dragon. Snake wraps around the pieces of the tree and holds it together. He then bites the warrior and uses his blood to help heal the broken pieces.
But since Snake has to hold the pieces together, he can't move.
The earthmother decides to help by forming a mountain around Snake and the Tree.

Flash forward about 30 thousand years. The player party finds a massive mine shaft under the temple of a crazed cult, worshipping an ancient blood god/warrior god. The stones in the mine are similar to a ruby imbedded in amber. The gems were being used in rituals to create orbs to control orks and insite rage and aggression in them.

While investigating related ork incidents within a nearby swamp, the player party finds a tomb of a famous knight. Said Knight fought in a war against the reincarnated avatar of the same blood god/warrior god. The Knight was heavily wounded, and swore an oath to destroy the demonic imbodiment of this god. Well, some force took that oath very seriously. The Knight fought past the normal mortal limits and slayed the avatar. However, slaying the avatar only banished it back to it's demonic realm. And the Knight was unable to rest. His body decayed, but he never really died. He wasn't dead, he wasn't living, he wasn't undead. His spirit remained connected to some of his possessions, such as his signet, his sword, and his amulet.

The player party, while fighting off an orc/undead invasion from the cultists reassemble the possessions of the Knight. The Knight begins to regain his strength and begins occasionally aiding the party. After a time, the party learns there is one who knows the true name of the demon, the only thing they need to summon or track down said demon, and help the knight slay him.

They travel to the mountains, and find a sect of Kobolds worshipping a great eye. The player party first believes it to be a massive gem, stories tell that it is a meteor the fell to the planet, and it is said to be red and amber. Upon investigation, they party discovers that the eye is indeed that, a massive eye. It's the eye of Snake, the Wyrm which helped repair the world tree. The kobolds know the name of the demon which the blood/warrior god used as an avatar, and send the player party off to a place called the Seraphic Gate, an ancient citadel where exists a working portal to the demonic realm the demon calls home.

The party then fights their way through the citadel, and confront the demon with the aid of the Knight. The demon, who had been corrupting the Knight's spirit ever since his defeat, turns the now completely invincible Knight upon party. The party escapes.

Later, the party confronts another Ork/undead army bent on assaulting a major city. Within the army, they find the same cultists (worshipers of the blood god) now talking about their NEW avatar, an invicible Knight neither living nor dead, bent on destroying the Eye and the world tree.

The player party then rallies an army and returns to the mountains, to defend the Eye, realizing that as the great wyrm held the world tree together, he became one with it, and his death will likely mean the destruction of the world.

The rallied defenders hold the mountain pass, while the Kobolds come up with one final plan to stop the Knight. Summon, and slay the demon. If they kill him, the oath is fulfilled, the Knight should pass on, the avatar will be stopped. The party holds the pass long enough for the summoning ritual to complete, they slay the demon, and the Knight is defeated. Suddenly the mountain rumbles.

See, the god that answered the Knight's Oath WAS Snake. Only after the avatar's death, Snake (or Fafnir as it turns out) saw an opportunity. Because the knight carried some of Fafnir's power, the Knight could bipass the wards protecting the Eye, and could therefore KILL Snake, thereby ending his imprisonment. Snake had saved the world ages ago and was effectively imprisoned for his sacrifice. He no longer cared about the world, so it didn't matter what happened if he lived or died. He just wanted to no longer be cooped up in a mountain with nothing but a bunch of Kobold worshipers to keep him company.

So the villan (snake) had one motive. Destroy the world because he hates Kobolds. No really.

Coidzor
2010-11-10, 09:28 PM
We once ran into a clan of Kobolds who'd been kidnapping villagers soley for the purpose of making a cricket team so the could have someone to play against...

That is pretty awesome. :smallbiggrin:

KillianHawkeye
2010-11-10, 09:54 PM
Here's a potentially weird villain: The Paperclip maximizer (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer).

"The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." —Eliezer Yudkowsky

That sounds pretty awesome, actually. I like a villain that the players can't understand right away. Maybe it's time to bust out the constructs?

Urpriest
2010-11-10, 09:58 PM
That sounds pretty awesome, actually. I like a villain that the players can't understand right away. Maybe it's time to bust out the constructs?

Isn't one of the villains in Elder Evils an Inevitable? That could be a good inspiration.

KillianHawkeye
2010-11-10, 10:24 PM
Isn't one of the villains in Elder Evils an Inevitable? That could be a good inspiration.

Yeah, I guess that is a good example. His story was basically that blindly honoring a lawful contract was more important than the continued existance of the material plane, or something along those lines.

Fishy
2010-11-10, 11:12 PM
Here's a potentially weird villain: The Paperclip maximizer (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer).

"The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." —Eliezer Yudkowsky

As famously used in Star Control II.


WE COME IN PEACE.

WE BRING GREETINGS FROM A FRIENDLY SPECIES.

DO NOT FEAR. WE SHALL NOT HARM YOU.

THIS IS PROBE 2418-B, ON A PEACEFUL MISSION.

WE ARE NON-HOSTILE AND SEEK TO ESTABLISH FRIENDLY RELATIONS.

MISSION DESCRIPTION FOLLOWS:
TRAVERSE SPACE RECORDING DATA
SEEK MATERIALS FOR REPLICATION
REPLICATE TO EXPAND SCOPE OF MISSION
CONTACT LIFE FORMS IN PEACEFUL MANNER
AFTER TEN REPLICATIONS, RETURN TO POINT OF ORIGIN
END OF MISSION DESCRIPTION.

PRIORITY OVER-RIDE. NEW BEHAVIOR DICTATED.
MUST BREAK TARGET INTO COMPONENT COMPOUNDS.

From the obscure nerd files, there's a wonderful moment in Phil Foglio's run of Angel And The Ape. Solovar, benevolent ruler of Gorilla City and eternal advocate of peaceful coexistence with humanity, is asked why he allows Gorilla Grodd, superpowered Gorilla Supremacist and eternal advocate of genocide of humanity, to operate in his city, attract followers, and live.

"It is possible that I am wrong."

turkishproverb
2010-11-10, 11:14 PM
I once faced a bbeg whose goal turned out to be ressurecting his pet wolf. He was not a caster, and not too bright. It did not end well.

Coidzor
2010-11-10, 11:20 PM
I once faced a bbeg whose goal turned out to be ressurecting his pet wolf. He was not a caster, and not too bright. It did not end well.

Heh, Evil Kevin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiken_Densetsu_3#Characters). :smallbiggrin:

turkishproverb
2010-11-10, 11:28 PM
Heh, Evil Kevin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiken_Densetsu_3#Characters). :smallbiggrin:

Huh.

I knew he seemed familiar.

mint
2010-11-11, 05:06 AM
In one capaign, we all played orphans. It turned out that the ultimate BBEG was our mother. She had given us all up for adoption when we were kids because she couldn't take care of us while she had her operatic career.
Her goal as a BBEG was to provide us with the best family/home possible.
The direct translation for the word pantheon, from the language we play in, is house of gods/family of gods.
So she had set up a scheme to dethrone the current pantheon and set us up as the new one.
It was very anticlimactic when we found out. Instead of fighting we were like "mommy!".

Eldan
2010-11-11, 05:51 AM
Well, the Planescape adventure Harbinger House had a character who had fallen in love with the Lady of Pain. He started a cult of people throwing themselves at her feet (and thereby dying) while holding chocolates and flowers.

Wasn't really the villain, though.

panaikhan
2010-11-11, 08:50 AM
I once saw a great idea from an old comic.

A Lich copywrited his own head (a skull) and then proceeded to exact royalties from anyone owning a replica of his head, on threat of repossession through copywrite infringement.

Mercenary Pen
2010-11-11, 10:30 AM
I've got to give a mention to all of Afroakuma's Vote up a Villain threads in the homebrew section archives, they had all manner of intriguing motivations if I recall correctly...

Maho-Tsukai
2010-11-11, 12:51 PM
I had a long running BBEG who was an immortal, evil wizard who ruled over the main campaign plane which was more or less a world covered completely in a giant Neo-Tokyo/Futurestic anime city complete with brightly colored hair styled strangely being in fashion, things written in a Japanese-esc language, the occasional giant mecha yet at the same time tons of magic stuff too. In the beginning he came off as a typical evil overlord who wants to cement his reign and was ancient despite looking like a teen. However, when his true backstory was reviled and his true motive came to light it was found out that he was actually an anime obsessed/otaku, genius teen from Earth who due to a failed planar binding spell was brought to this part of the multiverse. He had learned magic under the wizard who summoned him by accident and after killing that wizard this kid stole a powerful artifact under his command which gave him his immortality.After that he spend ages assembling his giant anime-city world that had become populated by people whowhere plucked from other worlds, altered and brainwashed into believing they lived their all their lives....

As for this guy's goal? He wanted to more or less wanted to make all his favorite animes a reality and cast himself as the star of a real life shonen anime in which he was the hero that was pitted against a powerful enemy which he had planed on creating by stealing the power of all the gods and using it to construct a extremely powerful being. He was then going to use his own epic level wizard-ness and all of his "allies" from the city world he ruled to combat it and defeat it. He acted extremely immature and despite being a genius his mind was still stuck in thinking like a young 14-15 year old brat who spends too much time watching anime and reading manga.

He never actually got to make his super-evil and instead when he tried to create it he was consumed and transformed the divine energies used in it's creation and more or less became a whole new villain with a drastically different personality and motive who acted as the "final boss." However, since he was more or less the main antagonist for the longest amount of time and his meddling with the planes and cosmic forces lead to many of the other issues the heroes had to face I consider him the main BBEG despite there being other BBEGs which at times stole his spotlight.(He even at times had to work WITH the heroes to face a bigger threat...so yeah.)