Creating Reaccuring Villians

[Tono]

So, I have a game starting soon, and for it I want to create some recurring villains. These villains are set up to be slightly incompetent, yet always seem to manage to get away(more Team Rocket then The Linear Guild, though). Personalities I am fine with, yet actually creating the characters so they fit in this mold is proving difficult. Mainly because I want these villians to pop in most of the time when it is very inconvenant to the party. Fleeing with the Royal Family Jewels? They want them too. Dungeon collapsing? They are just on the outside. So, they have to be able to be taken out when the party is not at full power, yet still proving to be slightly challenging, if for no other reason that the majority of players have little experience playing, and almost none outside of core. I want this to run sorta as an 'eye-opener' to the rest of the books. Yes, I am expecting this to end badly the first couple of times, but I hope itll work out in the end. The party consist of(All at ECL 5);


Hafling Rogue3/Swordsage2 -Player is a fan of 4edition rogues, and likes to play the sneaky stealing and disarming type, figured this might be the best way to play like that. Player played straight rogue last time, liked the class but wanted to be more battle worthy and expressed a desire to have powers like 4 editions encouter powers.(Player plans one more level of swordsage then probably rest rogue. Not quite sure though It'll probably change as the player plays more.)
Warforged Crusader1/Fighter4- Player plans to progress into Warforged Juggernaut. Player is a fan of being a 'Tank', doesn't like the idea of tripping though, and would much rather just bull-rush and either grapple or hit everything with a maul. Plans to just go straight up Juggernaut, for now.
Gnome Artificer- No idea where this guy plans to fully go, tbh. I think he had heard of the class before but never got a chance to play it, and with one of the characters playing a warforged he nabbed the chance.
Fourth player has not chosen a race. I am fully expecting to get a text the day of the game from him asking permission to play a certain race, but I am not worried. Doesn't have the patience or drive to fully min/max something, and prefers to play for flavor. Wants to go wizard/Frostmage.
Finally a Catfolk Scout. (I've tried to lean him towards Ranger/Scout with the ... I think it is Swift hunter feat from CS? I'm not sure i remember the name. I don't think he liked it though.) - Wants to play to the ranged damage dealer. Offered him LA byoff, but I think he doesn't want it. The 'I'm a level behind then' thought sorta came out, even though I tried to convince him it basically gains him a level. w/e.

So my problem is I want something that can challenge them now, without being too weak in 3 levels, or in two months when one of them finally digs through the internet for ideas. With only one 'frontliner' and the rogue, I'm thinking that anymore then a group of three would get too mean for them. While any less would just hand them the victory anytime. That way also in the off chance I forget to leave the villians an out, it wouldn't sky rocket their wealth, having just killed three people I might have to throw gear on to make a challenge. As such I was thinking of the following;

A basic Buffer/Magic/Tank setup.
Cleric, with the Celerity and Time domains. Mostly for the buffs, with maybe a heal thrown in battle and the domains grant that 'can't catch me' feeling. Not quite sure though.
Magic I am debating about throwing a Warlock or a Shadow caster at them. A warlock would get Flee the Scene and the ability to constantly annoy them with damage, eventually to maybe building up undead at one of the final battles with the group, but the Shadow caster would grant that 'unfamiliarty' to them that I kinda want, and I know they all will have spot and listen checks low, as for some reason they don't like to put ranks in it, with the exception of one. I want this guy to be annoying.
And I have no Idea for the third one. I don't want a shock trooper or tripper here, as I think it would devastate them. I was thinking of putting a Hexblade here, but I don't know how well that will turn out.
Also, because I can be horrible at balancing levels some times, putting them a level lower the first time, with them slowly catching up then bypassing the party towards shouldn't screw them over too much, right?

Books include all WotC material, no dragon magazine.

So, uh, does this look like they'll be able to do what I want them to do? Any ideas to make it better? Thanks for reading all that!

TL;DR, not quite sure I can create something that will be a constant challenge to 5 PCs. Not too good at balancing difficulty.

[Dr.Epic]

Always have them have like a teleport spell or similar effect they can use to escape combat.

[Keegan__D]

Exemplars of Evil has some material (variants, feats, spells) to really lay on the evil as well as provide some villainous necessities like an escape route, henchmen info, or whatever you need. It's got a lot of archetypes and pre-made villains, though I doubt that's what you're after. A lot of the first chapter has some more ideas on personality.

If you're looking for help on your villains, it's really the best place to shop. That said, Book of Vile Darkness can also provide some very evil things for your villains to do, such as demon worship, incredible narcotics, mutations, and many disgusting acts. It wears a mature audience warning for a reason.

Exemplars of Evil seems more geared towards humanoid villains. Savage Species might have some feats for the other ones, and of course check out the other Monster Manuals for more of that.

[Tono]

Ah, thanks, Ill take a look through that, I didn't really consider that book. What I am more worried about is if those three will be able to challenge my players with out me fudgeing numbers, but I guess ill just have to throw stuff at them to find out.

[Keegan__D]

Ah. I've never been to good at judging what's appropriate for an encounter, considering different people play at different levels. I'd just wing it, and if one goes down, start fudging then. If they're experienced, they should do fine, and if not, they're capable of dealing with a lost character.

[Kol Korran]

first of all, a few things i think you should read:

building and using comical recurring villains (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=216279&highlight=team+rocket)

and since two of the suggested classes are kind of weak:
suggestions to fix Hexblade from the author (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19547530/Contacting_Wizards_of_the_Coast_about_Hex_Blades&post_num=11#332210466)

suggestions to fix the Shadowcaster (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=l7ijes283tqa3617t6s5iau127&topic=11610.msg397441#msg397441)

ok, now that's behind us... since the team needs to repeat it needs 3 factors:
1) survivability: to be able to withstand focus fire, and to run away once things get bad. after 2-3 encounters, you'll need a back up way as well, as the players will prepare for the usual escape plan. so far your group seems very vulnerable.
2) versatility: they need to be able to surprise the characters, and to adapt to them. i hate to say this, but shadow casters are very, VERY limited. the cleric is ok, but the hexblade... meh...
3) some punch: they have to be able to be a threat to the party, and if possible, a different threat each time. again- a hexblade and shadowcaster are poor for this.

that said, perhaps with the fixes they can be useful.

my humble suggestions: (i'm not that good at this either):
first of all start with a concept- an idea of who this group is, their team dynamics, their goals and so on. players will remember a poor battle team with interesting personalities and so on, than nameless cleric plus nameless arcane caster and so on... make them interesting, unique.

an example follows:
"team Jackal" (could also be themed as Team Hyena if you wish):
the team worships some sort of jackal god or force of nature. they are... slightly mad... they believe that they must seek a worthy challenge, and then try and defeat them. using guile, sneakiness ambushes, and brutal sudden force (the way of the Jackal) however, they are not that smart... 4 members to the team:

The Leader: a were Jackal binder of fairly low level. he was "blessed by the god" to take the blessed form, but also- he gained the secret knowledge to bind all kind of powers! the vestiges allow him all manner of versatility, giving him a sort of new personality each time the party interacts with him. you could play it as if he's always making poor pacts, and so he always present the personality of this vestige or another, never quite controlling them.

The main Caster: a druidess who fell in love with the leader, and is enamored with him. they act sort of like Gomez and Morticia from the Addams family? only with more gleeful violence. a druid offers TONS of versatility, and you can limit her power by her personality. (could mostly summon and buff and debuff, disliking getting her hands dirty) companion is a jackal (or dire jackal) of course who is "our child".

if you think a druidess is two powerful, go for a spirit shaman- similar spells, more limited in variety, but more per day and no wild shifting or animal companions. you could portray her as "talking to the spirits" in battle and out of it (sort of like Drusilla in buffy?)

The tank: tanks need to do 2 things- soak up damage, and remain standing. dishing out damage is nice but secondary. i say go with a mix of barbarian and swordsage (mainly for saves and AC in non heavy armor) as to race- Shifter, themed on Jackal. i suggest giving him the beast hide shifter trait, and perhaps the elite beast hide feat. the guy is stupid, barely sentient, but and impressive fighter (Krush smash sort of thing) he'll go for frenzied berserker of course in higher levels. choose this form of rage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy )- it will help him survive longer, and make an appropriate totem.

binder and druidess consider it their loveable child, a bit dim, but his heart is in the right place, no? (in a flying murderous bloody rage)

the skill monkey/ brain: yes, a 4th party member, but which participates little in the fights. he's the one that does 2 things: widen the party's options beyond combat- parley with possible allies/ mooks, setting traps, knowing stuff they normally wouldn't, using special magic items and so on. should have lots of useful skills, and also UMD. more than that- this guy is actually smart, knowing when to retreat and can strategize a bit more. his smarts shouldn't offset the general silliness of the team, but help not letting it go over board...

i have 2 ideas for this guy:
- a poisondusk lizard folk: supplies the team with poison, trap and snare making, and maybe a few other skills. why is he with the team? he doesn't really believe in this jackal nonsense, but he likes the violence, and the team as well. the family treats him as their distant uncle... "fester" if you will. i think rogue/ ranger.

- a dwarf! the Binder got some sort of hold on him- either he holds something important to him, or knows a secret the dwarf doesn't want others to know and so on. this is a less combative version than the poisondusk, but more crafty in traps and using magic items and armor and so on. could also be a rogue, or could be an artificer as well, competing with your guy.

as to level, i suggest they all be 1-2 levels below the party, when the binder a bit more (about 1 level above including the jackal HD and so on)

i think it would make for a good team, memorable one with it's dynamics and abilities.

and even if not, i hope you get what i'm getting at with "Team's theme".

good luck to you and your team! :smallsmile:
Kol.