Enabling Re-Occuring Villainy

[Aidan305]

I'll be starting a campaign for Pathfinder (Pathfinder/APG/UM and UC only) after Christmas and am having a little trouble with one element that I hope to have play a significant part of the plot. Namely, that of re-occuring villain NPCs. I've created separate antagonists for each players' individual plotlines and I'm trying to find a way to enable them to return time and time again without a) making it seem too deus ex machina, and b) circumventing my own customised rules with regard to the setting.

While the former needs little explanation, the latter likely does:
The campaign will be fairly heavily centered around travel and exploration and so, in order to help promote these elements (and also on the request of a couple of my players) I decided to remove all magic in the game that revolved directly around the transportation of people or materials from one place to another (By this I mean of the disappear, reappear variety; not the phantom steed variety). Therefore, given the lack of any teleportation, can anyone suggest a way for me to allow my villains to escape in a timely fashion so as to avoid untimely death at the hands of the PCs?

[bloodtide]

While the former needs little explanation, the latter likely does:The campaign will be fairly heavily centered around travel and exploration and so, in order to help promote these elements (and also on the request of a couple of my players) I decided to remove all magic in the game that revolved directly around the transportation of people or materials from one place to another (By this I mean of the disappear, reappear variety; not the phantom steed variety). Therefore, given the lack of any teleportation, can anyone suggest a way for me to allow my villains to escape in a timely fashion so as to avoid untimely death at the hands of the PCs?

1.Polymorph/change shape. In to something small and mobile. I'm not sure how much Pathfinder nerfed ploymorph, but you might want to make a custom spell/item/such for them to escape with.

2.Plane shift. Just go to another plane.

3.Clones. Doubles. And such. They think it's Dr. Evil, but it's just henchman Bob in a mask.

4.Movement spells/items simply like haste so they can run away.

5.Let them die and simply have a plan to be brought back to life...or even as undead.

[Silva Stormrage]

Illusions are also great. If a BBEG taunts the players and tells them he is channelling a large amount of power from a macguffin he could simply cast a major image of himself exploding and then cast quickened invisibility. Thats a specific case but if you give a death scene (a quote also helps) most pc's assume he is dead.

Another tip is if the target has a unique move speed (Swim/Burrow) have him open up a trapdoor under himself and escape into a tunnel that the PC's can't follow.

There are also a lot of cheap items that block 5ft backs effectively. Blockading Buckler (~4k)is one that creates a 5ft wall of force adjacent to you as a swift action. Have him move into a 5ft corridor and use that then run for it. Unless the pc's have disintegrate without teleportation they are stuck until it wears out and the BBEG is long gone.

[Flickerdart]

The real villain creates copies of himself using Mind Seed, then tricks them into thinking they're the real one and lets them work against the party. This way, the party has an honest-to-goodness villain corpse, but the real mastermind is always far away.

[Alefiend]

A smart villain won't actually engage the party if there's no means of escape, so don't engage directly. Fight via proxies and minions. If the main villain needs to make an appearance, have him/her do so by way of a projected image of some sort. This works especially well if the rest of the world has no reason to believe the villain is in fact villainous.

The only time the villain should be within striking/shooting/blasting distance of the party is when they are unable to attack. The villain can meet the party at social engagements where nobody is armed, and it would be suicide to start a fight. Your villain can taunt them in person, and via magic on the battlefield, but with no risk of a direct evidentiary link.

Early goals will involve surviving and foiling the villain's schemes. Later, it should be a case of proving villainy, forcing him/her to flee and start over elsewhere. Ultimately, the party's goal will be to locate the enemy's base of operations, corner the villain—with the help of anybody he/she duped earlier—and kill/capture as the plot requires.

[Vendle]

I ran an adventure module where the villain was a rogue/bardish manipulator type. The heroes finally cornered him in an inn that was starting to burn, and dealt him a significant blow that knocked him to the floor. I had him roll Bluff to play dead, and it succeeded against their initial opposed rolls. Because the inn was on fire, they didn't stick around long enough to check the villain more thoroughly, and he managed to escape.

I think that was the one event where I had a villain live, despite many of my villains having exit strategies in advance. That's just the way the dice roll.