The Best Big Bad you ever had.

[Pokonic]

Everyone remembers the evil overlord. The elven rangers and the half-orc shamens may be lost to the passage of time, but everyone remembers the lich with a throne that was secretly a stone-incrusted dracolich who planned to raise a graveyard of giants to his will.

My personal favorite was what at first seemed to be a generic bad guy: a Khan in a mongol-styled area, actualy. The players first encountered his men while walking to a traditinal DC and fought with them. Then, a few in-game days later, they learn that the local orc tribes have suddenly become peaceful and started migrating into his lands wearing his banner. Then they hear that a clutch of black dragon eggs where stolen. They did not realy care, considering they heard it from a friendly adventuring group and they had more importent things in there mind.

Then, while talking to the king a month or so later, the capital is attacked. By three adult black dragon, with riders. While they where not doing anything at all, the Khan found a device that rapidly ages anything it touches. While the kingdom was dealing with acid-burned crops, riders both orcish and human where running into the kingdom with half-dragon horses and wargs. The party, level ten at the time, spent eight more levels going into the country beyond and helped prepare it for the horde.

They failed.

The horde broke every defence, every hero, and every home. They caused the party to flee. Until the final battle, where the party faced the Khan proper and his guards.

It was only then the figured out that the Khan was a level five expert. Proof that all it takes is a little charisma to take over the world. The horde won the battle for the other kingdoms capital, but quickly fought within itself because of the many warleaders and chieftens (and the loss of the mainbackbone: the magical device.)

[Averis Vol]

I'm going to have to say it was Grelbir Once-blooded, an elder diety who slowly faded from existance and eventually died off, stuck in a catatonic stasis in the outer realms while his servants roamed the planes looking for a way to bring him back. they eventually found their way to a plane with a faint glow of worshipers in the form one tribe in the middle of a forest. from there the four champions of Grelbir went to find a pseudo god that held part of his divinity. this was a being not unlike andromolus the vestige, except he had a heart of pure malice and greed.

they each were given a weapon and armor that were relics the clan held sacred and sent off, as they leveled up each of their armor leveled with them, reflecting their characters style. the assassins leather darkened his blade became serrated with deep blood grooves etc, etc. so they faught all across the kingdom and faced their demons, both metaphorically and literally. they finally got to him and were granted power by a council of archons who were champions in lifes, or demons whom were villains.

it was a gruelling fight that led them inside the spirits mind to a strange quasi world that brought their greatest fears to bear. the paladin met the drow that murdered his clan, the assassin confronted his father; an abusive man who taught him the art, the warmage met her sister who was thought to also be ubducted by drow, but was actually a chosen (an albino drow pretty much) and the cleric of heironeus had to sit by helpless and watch his patron be slaughtered by his brother hextor. so they kill him, and are each given a piece of divinity.

they thought it was the end of the campaign until the long walk back ran them into a nine foot man with a 16 foot greatsword over his shoulder, with the skull of an elk atop his head and the pelt of a bear as both cape and shirt. they stopped at a stalemate in the rode and they heard a slight chuckle from him, then he looked up and They could see the symbol of grelbir tattooed onto his face, all he said was "You have something of mine, give it back."

they stood incredibly uneasy as the cleric made the knowledge check to know exactly who he was and they asked how it could be done, those who were faithful to him atleast. he extended a hand and a gate opened up to the outer realms, it was here they must complete the ritual to return power to their god. so they went along with it up until the point they learned that they needed to be completely drained of blood and that grelbir must drink it to regain his divinity. now at this point they, in these exact words, said "Yea...**** no dude" near simultaneously. so initiative was rolled and he flew into an absolute (Frenied berserker+Bear warrior) rage, greatsword transforming into claws the sise of longswords.this fight took three game days to finish and they eventually died, sadly they didn't win but grelbir was returned to diety status and he raised each of them, thanking them for his power back and sending them back to their own plane (It wasnt exactly the material plane) to do as they pleased with their lives.

that game was great, i really wish some things had gone differently but i loved it none the less and that god layed such a smack down on his followers =P.

[Anecronwashere]

Best big bad we've faced? Me.

I was playing an ageless Dread necro, Lawful "Neutral" (Custom-Item of Detect As Neutral, a homebrew spell) who had been awoken after 350 years. The rest of the party was Human Blasty-Wizard, Human Fighter, Elf Rogue.
The main plot was basically "Find the macguffins you all want".
I think the mage got several Magic Tomes (mechanically a few powerful spells and some Rods of Metamagic)
The Fighter got upgrades and powers for his sword (Feats he could use while holding the sword, bonus damage, status effects on hit etc.)
Elf amassed a large criminal syndicate.

I got "Family Heirlooms" from ruins that gave off lots of Magic.

As the game progressed we heard rumours of a mass of Undead forming, towns hit by Vampires, Wights, Zombies and were attacked more regularly by Undead (Homebrewed as we leveled too).

Me and the DM knew what was happening but the rest of the party wasn't. We spent a lot of time in downtime (Rogue wanted to give orders to his syndicate, Wiz needed to read his Tomes and Fighter needed to infuse his sword with the gathered materials) which is when I planned my invasion and checked it's progress.

Finally at lvl 15 the Fighter had the most Legendary sword in existence, the mage had a veritable library of unique or rare books, the Rogue had a global if not Planar syndicate and we found the last of my "Heirlooms". It was a gem that went into an empty ring.

As soon as the now-complete ring was on my finger the last of the bonds binding my power fell off, I leveled to 20 and turned to them
"Thank you for freeing my power Mortals. Your corpses shall serve as fine commanders in my army." and the squad of Undead I had following me turned on them.
I played my character, the DM played the Undead.
I got an AM Field up (Scroll of) over the mage, ordered the Undead to grapple the Fight and disarm him of his sword and surrounded the WBL-Breaking Rogue.
Un/Fortunately the grapple failed and the mage could ignore Anti-Magic 1/day and took down my Field and after a long battle took me down, but losing Fighter and Wizard.

But forgot to destroy all my bling (the ring was a Phylactery). When the DM sighed and shook his head when Rogue said he simply left I laughed maniacally for a while before explaining how many levels I gained. At 20 a DN becomes a Lich and can Rez.


The next campaign was set 200 years later as Undead rebels against the Lich-King and the 3 Generals
(the PCs were freed from servitude by a magic item created by the Rogue and his syndicate before the whole world fell)



I was a Sealed Evil in a Can with my Powers Bound until I got the full set of bling. I was entombed because the last time I was free I ravaged the land (the others never connected the Undead War that ended the same year as my entrapment with my entrapment despite plenty of hints. My excuse for raising Undead was that at the time, everyone in my line of work had done it and no-one ever asked what my line of work was) before being caught and thrown into Stasis and slowly stripped of my powers until the thing could actually kill me (had the PCs not woken me for 200 more years I would have died without coming back)

[Dread Angel]

This is a big bad of the campaign I am currently writing. I playtested the final battle with a couple friends who aren't in the group, to make sure it was on the level.

A bit of background: My campaign revolves around an intelligent evil longsword that contains the essence of a Demon Lord. This particular lord fell in battle against an Archdevil's army, and is Hellbent (bahahaha) on revenge. The campaign begins with the PCs hired to go after some "valuable sword". They're just a bit too late, killing the BBEG's Kayal escort and entering the chamber just as the human BBEG gets his hands on the sword. Which proceeds to give him all kinds of power. He himself is already level 14, fighter/sorc/Eldritch Knight. He proceeds to test out his new power on the PCs, but leaves them alive to spread the tale of his power, not realizing that they haven't a clue what the sword really is.

Fast forward a whole campaign of assembling relics of Aroden's power to break the invulnerability shield around the BBEG (granted by the sword), and the PCs are about level 10 when they fight him.

It's a pitched battle set on a floating island in the middle of the Eye of Abendego (giant permanent hurricane that spawned on Aroden's death) and the island is in the shape of Aroden's holy symbol. It is the site where his soul - and thereby his divine power - is sealed. The BBEG thinks he's going to recieve the god power.

So as the PCs kill the BBEG, he falls...and as he does, manages to shatter the gem holding Aroden's soul. The sword absorbs the power, blinding flash, and the island is now within a hurricane of green-black fire, the corpse of the BBEG has been possessed by the soul of a Demon Lord with a fraction of Divine power, and the PCs get to fight it. As the new-and-improved BBEG is recovering from the massive influx of power, an NPC they know, a Paladin, shows up and heals the PCs, and joins the battle.

This dude now has a buttload of powers he didn't before, and it's an insanely difficult fight, but they managed it, after which things happen story-wise and it kicks off the next adventure that will lead to the resurrection of Aroden himself, eventually, and change Golarian history forever.

So no pressure.

[Craft (Cheese)]

I wouldn't call him the best, but probably the most memorable BBEG I've ever run would be the Noodlemeister, from our first attempt at playing Wushu. A very angry noodle chef who is upset that no restaurant in town will hire him, so he's decided to go on a massive homicidal rampage.

His first action? He catches a grenade with his bare hands and allows it to blow his arm off, then grows a set of noodles out of the bloody stump and uses them as a set of combat tentacles to strangle the PCs.

By the end of the session, he had turned into a 500-foot tall Noodle Golem who was destroying Tokyo.

[Doorhandle]

So no pressure.

Honestly, I don't know why they didn't just use wish to ressurect him. (by R.A.W, it would work...)


I wouldn't call him the best, but probably the most memorable BBEG I've ever run would be the Noodlemeister, from our first attempt at playing Wushu. A very angry noodle chef who is upset that no restaurant in town will hire him, so he's decided to go on a massive homicidal rampage.

His first action? He catches a grenade with his bare hands and allows it to blow his arm off, then grows a set of noodles out of the bloody stump and uses them as a set of combat tentacles to strangle the PCs.

By the end of the session, he had turned into a 500-foot tall Noodle Golem who was destroying Tokyo.

Was he blessed by His noodly apppendage?

[Craft (Cheese)]

Was he blessed by His noodly apppendage?

No, but one of my players made a joke to that effect.

[DigoDragon]

Former Biggest--Snowfire the White:
A white dragon from the north tundras. The PCs first met this dragon in the icy village of Potos. The villagers had managed to cage and muzzle this adult white dragon (purely out of luck) and accused it of murdering two noblemen. Through a series of investigations and one battle with a necromantic cult, the PCs actually cleared the dragon's name and had Snowfire released.
The PCs ended up regretting it ever since as Snowfire would become a twice reoccuring villain. Once by stealing a valuable MacGuffin and hiding it in the cousin to the dungeon called "The Temple of Elemental Evil". The second plot involved Snowfire joining up with a vampire to use an artifact that can blot out the sun. THAT campaign ended up with the PCs losing half their members in various dungeon encounters trying to deal with vampire spawn and Snowfire's ice elementals. And Snowfire himself.

In the end the PCs had slain Snowfire, but in the epilogue they found out Snowfire had a contingency the PCs failed to deal with when they had the chance. Snowfire was reincarnated as a baby white dragon. So he lives to plot again... well after getting potty trained. :smallbiggrin:


Current Title Holder-- Techlokiowa "Skullshank" Izuri:
He's the younger brother of one of the PCs in my current campaign (Said PC didn't know about him until halfway into the campaign). Going by his father's nom de plume of "Skullshank", his goal is to complete his father's design of a giant gate device that can connect to the celestial and infernal/abyssal planes. His goal was to prove that the gods weren't omnipotent beings, but high-level mortals who simply know how to put on an act.
Skullshank successfully outwitted the former BBEG of the campaign (a red dragon), has outwitted the PCs (one PC is dead and another MIA), and has currently succeeded in completing his device and testing it (Where are the heroes now?!)

Skullshank was partly right about the gods. The gods are not omipotent beings, but rather they are a network of insanely advanced super computers left behind by a long extinct civilization (the computers can manipulate the fabric of magic, hence granting worshippers spells). The computers are playing a never-ending game of "chess" with each other for control of the world, recruiting mortals to be their pawns in the game. Several computers have noticed this gate device and are willing to make deals with Skullshank in order to have access to it and gate their Pawns Bishops, Rooks, & Queens around faster than their opponents.

The PCs are currently en route to Skullshank's lair for the final showdown, but they'll be in for a plesant surprise when the final battle includes the avatars of Orcus, Titania, and Saint Cuthbert fighting side-by-side against the PCs. :smallbiggrin:

[North_Ranger]

Former Biggest--Snowfire the White:
A white dragon from the north tundras. The PCs first met this dragon in the icy village of Potos. The villagers had managed to cage and muzzle this adult white dragon (purely out of luck) and accused it of murdering two noblemen. Through a series of investigations and one battle with a necromantic cult, the PCs actually cleared the dragon's name and had Snowfire released.
The PCs ended up regretting it ever since as Snowfire would become a twice reoccuring villain. Once by stealing a valuable MacGuffin and hiding it in the cousin to the dungeon called "The Temple of Elemental Evil". The second plot involved Snowfire joining up with a vampire to use an artifact that can blot out the sun. THAT campaign ended up with the PCs losing half their members in various dungeon encounters trying to deal with vampire spawn and Snowfire's ice elementals. And Snowfire himself.

In the end the PCs had slain Snowfire, but in the epilogue they found out Snowfire had a contingency the PCs failed to deal with when they had the chance. Snowfire was reincarnated as a baby white dragon. So he lives to plot again... well after getting potty trained. :smallbiggrin:

Man, that sounded awesome. Mind if I yoink some of this for later use? :smallwink:

[Dread Angel]

Honestly, I don't know why they didn't just use wish to ressurect him. (by R.A.W, it would work...)

Yeah, it would. It's much more fun to have a campaign dedicated to gathering various powerful items that have bits of his essence in them and using them to revive Aroden though. Especially when I can make them go all over Golarion, uncover the reason behind Aroden's death, fight all kinds of enemies and events and dungeons to find the MacGuffins, and of course confront an exceptionally awesome BBEG that I am planning right now.

[North_Ranger]

Yeah, it would. It's much more fun to have a campaign dedicated to gathering various powerful items that have bits of his essence in them and using them to revive Aroden though. Especially when I can make them go all over Golarion, uncover the reason behind Aroden's death, fight all kinds of enemies and events and dungeons to find the MacGuffins, and of course confront an exceptionally awesome BBEG that I am planning right now.

True, that does sound very interesting. And you actually got me thinking for a possible way to continue playing with a PF group I'm now gathering, should they take interest in the game beyond the "lord's kidnapped daughter" plot I'm currently planning for them.

Perhaps something involving the golden dragon Mengkare deciding to turn it up to eleven with his plans to improve humanity...

[Sudain]

Wabash; a captain of the guard(fighter) who was extremely racist and violent in a prison town.

He was so much of a loose cannon his organization 'crused' his sword by making it merciful and not telling him the command word to disable it. While this prevented un-needed deaths, it infurated him more and so he attacked people much quicker.

[Dread Angel]

True, that does sound very interesting. And you actually got me thinking for a possible way to continue playing with a PF group I'm now gathering, should they take interest in the game beyond the "lord's kidnapped daughter" plot I'm currently planning for them.

Perhaps something involving the golden dragon Mengkare deciding to turn it up to eleven with his plans to improve humanity...

The first thing I pictured here was a golden dragon bent over a surgical table with a surgeon mask and a scalpel muttering "And an acid gland over here, ooh they need scales..."

On a serious note, that sounds pretty awesome, a pitched battle between the PCs and the dragon's gone-wrong ubermensch, meanwhile far below the tower/cliff/whatever a massive clash between the humans and the screwed up human+'s.

[Pokonic]

The first thing I pictured here was a golden dragon bent over a surgical table with a surgeon mask and a scalpel muttering "And an acid gland over here, ooh they need scales..."


Actualy, I had a evil twit who was a bit like that. His main reason for existing was to give a reason for the wolfpack bosses roaming around. Among other things, he made a half-dragon golem (as in, a dragon with chunks of it replaced with steel), a phenox-cockatrace hybrid (turned anything that it looked at into a pile of ashes), the Griffonbear, and the Serpentcore (A Manticore with the head of a snake.) The worst was probably the Pesudonatural ogre. In the final battle, he decided to turn himself into some horrible beast with at least five templates stacked on top of eachother.

[North_Ranger]

The first thing I pictured here was a golden dragon bent over a surgical table with a surgeon mask and a scalpel muttering "And an acid gland over here, ooh they need scales..."

On a serious note, that sounds pretty awesome, a pitched battle between the PCs and the dragon's gone-wrong ubermensch, meanwhile far below the tower/cliff/whatever a massive clash between the humans and the screwed up human+'s.

Hmm... I gotta remember that. Personally I thought about getting the PCs getting duped into collecting pieces for the McGuffin that will help Mengkare wipe out intelligent life off the face of Golarion (or at least the Inner Sea region) save for Hermea. You know, so that Mengkare's Hermean ubermench can start from a clean slate, without the sub-par humanity getting in the way.

Gotta see if I can't figure how to get the other dragons involved. Maybe a silver in human form, trying to get the MacGuffins before the PCs (essentially a faux BBEG)...

[BlackestOfMages]

Hmm... I gotta remember that. Personally I thought about getting the PCs getting duped into collecting pieces for the McGuffin that will help Mengkare wipe out intelligent life off the face of Golarion (or at least the Inner Sea region) save for Hermea. You know, so that Mengkare's Hermean ubermench can start from a clean slate, without the sub-par humanity getting in the way.

Gotta see if I can't figure how to get the other dragons involved. Maybe a silver in human form, trying to get the MacGuffins before the PCs (essentially a faux BBEG)...

Maor Bronze dragon as a water-based minion - perhaps at first act kindly towards PCs (offerring to ferry them across the sea to a maguffin/gathering the PCs to gather them for him as a decoy guy in a tavern (gotta love shapechanging))

brass could be used to reshape the world to better fit this idea of perfection.

copper as the general chaotic trickster minion that also secretly plans to usurp the big-bad and become a god himself in place of the ubermensch ideals of the gold, also morphs into something clownlike... (spot the plot source!)

also, are you planning to keep the chromatic/mettallic rivalry?

[North_Ranger]

Maor Bronze dragon as a water-based minion - perhaps at first act kindly towards PCs (offerring to ferry them across the sea to a maguffin/gathering the PCs to gather them for him as a decoy guy in a tavern (gotta love shapechanging))

brass could be used to reshape the world to better fit this idea of perfection.

copper as the general chaotic trickster minion that also secretly plans to usurp the big-bad and become a god himself in place of the ubermensch ideals of the gold, also morphs into something clownlike... (spot the plot source!)

also, are you planning to keep the chromatic/mettallic rivalry?

Well, I mentioned Mengkare who is one of the few named dragons in Pathfinder's setting: a gold dragon who believes he can help humanity achieve its true potential. Essentially he's established a remote island nation where he collects people whom he considers to have the most potential to make a better mankind. All he asks in return for a life in his paradise is signing a contract which essentially hands all decision-making to Mengkare's hands. Plus, there's the idea any child or hopeful that doesn't measure up in the end is sent back to the continent - or at least that's what Hermeans are told, as fire-seared bodies sometimes wash up on the shores.

To me that spells a tragic situation: a noble if misguided cause that is essentially a slippery slope to doing horrible things for the 'greater good'.

[BlackestOfMages]

ah right, shows how much I know of pathfinder fluff (none) :smallredface:

[Raum]

They started out friends...then the zombies came and his friend (the PC) abandoned him and ran. Alone against the horde he was bitten but managed to get away and cut off his own arm before the infection spread too much.

Strangely, the zombies no longer attacked him. The virus or whatever caused it must have changed him just enough for the zombies to think he was one of them. The best thing about it from his point of view? Zombies follow noise...and he knows where his former friend is going.

----
The above started out small. Didn't figure it would last long...but he seldom attacked himself, he just followed the PCs and gathered up hordes to attack. Killed a couple fellow travelers and generally made life miserable. Eventually, the group tracked him down and killed him. They hated him by that time. :smallbiggrin:

[Kymme]

My most memorable villian? Hmmmmm.
Oh! I know! Vincent.
Basically, Vincent was a green dragon that the PC's met early on in the campaign. The first adventure revolved around the PC's raiding a dungeon overtaken by kobolds. Their leader was a wyrmling blue dragon. Needless to say, he mopped the floor with them. After the fight, he flew away, and showed his friend, a wyrmling green dragon, the humans he had let live. The players then hopped on a ship, and went on their merry way. The blue dragon, with Vincent in tow, followed them.

Just as the blue dragon was about to attack, a ship appeared out of the water (owned by another enemy of the players) and shot him with a cannon. The blue dragon fell into the water, and Vincent dove in after him. He found his friend dead on the bottom, and just as he was about to take him, a bunch of weird Kua-Toa's sprang from the seabead, and tackled him. They were all covered in some sort of coral, and by the time Vinny had managed to get free, he was covered in it, too. After that, the coral began to grow, until he was basically a dragon with coral for skin.

So, the players then had a pissed off, grief stricken, monster dragon chasing after them. Hilarity ensued.
Green=Lying

[Korivan]

Back in second edition I had a particular enemy that would make an apperance if the players became truly powerful and wanted a real fight.
Bob and Fluffy...

Bob: Level 20 wizard/Level 20 Cleric lich with a plethera of magic items from all the compendiums.

Fluffy: Ancient Shadow dragon turned Dracolich.

[Noedig]

Nakir, the fallen archangel of war and revenge. He is not a happy camper.

[JustPlayItLoud]

The best villain in any game I've been in was a PC I played. He started out as a lawful evil grey elf wizard (I really wish I still had that character sheet or even remembered his name). It started out with a fairly typical type of game, just with me being evil and occasionally executing our enemies instead of turning them in to the proper authorities. After we'd taken down the current big bad and amassed some wealth, I decided to start a wizard guild.

The other two PCs were a fighter and a rogue who didn't have any real goals and so pretty much just started following along with what I wanted to do. I constructed an adamantine tower next to the sea on top of a system of tunnels that was guarded by a beholder mage I formed an alliance with. Eventually a detachment of the Church of Hextor arrived, seeking asylum. In exchange for allowing them to establish a barracks and access to the guild, they agreed to be protection for the guild. The fighter started taking ranks in Fist of Hextor and we got up to some good old fashioned villainy. Smuggling, kidnapping, consorting with fiends, hiring pirates, you name it. That elf became one magnificent bastard.

Eventually the Church of Heironeous showed up on our shores. They were crusaders that had come to wipe out this wretched hive of scum and villainy. Not interested in a full scale military endeavor, I took a moment to parlay with their leader. I put forth the notion of a contest of champions. They would send their mightiest champion and I would send mine. If they won, the Hextorites would surrender, I would dissolve the guild, and myself and the beholder mage would leave permanently for another plane. If I won, they would leave my shores and leave me be forevermore.

We laid out the rules, but the Heironeans neglected to make any provisions for whether the champion was required to be humanoid, mortal, or even intelligent. We would meet on the field of battle at high noon (what else?) the next day. They sent out a mighty paladin, and I sent out a ghargatula (Book of Vile Darkness), a powerful devil I'd summoned with Greater Planar Binding the night before. I was allowed to control my champion for the fight.

(As an aside, it occurs to me this was clearly a 3.0 game as Greater Planar Binding could actually summon a 24HD ghargatula. It was reduced to an 18HD cap in 3.5)

The paladin buffed himself or did some non-combat action. The ghargatula drank some sort of buffing potion I'd given it. The paladin charged and provoked an AoO which I took with my tail stinger. It hit and the paladin whiffed his save against poison and took some Dex damage. He dealt pretty good damage with a smite. Then I did a full attack (bite, 2 claws, stinger) and all the attacks hit. He made the poison save this time, but the bite activated improved grapple and the paladin was grappled. The paladin tried to beat my +46 grapple next round, but couldn't. I took a stinger attack, hit, and the paladin failed a fort save and fell unconscious from Dex damage. Then I had the ghargatula use swallow whole and that was all she wrote.

The Heironeans were horrified at my "cheating" before I pointed out that they'd never insisted I use a mortal champion and were just jealous that they hadn't thought to summon a celestial. Then I kicked them off my damn beach. The game pretty much ended there since it was near the end of the school year (we'd been playing during breaks in high school) and we would only be playing Friday night, and that game involved only myself and the DM from this game, so I retired the greatest villain I've ever played. If I ever make a homebrew world I now want to incorporate this guy as an NPC.

[Jay R]

The best BBEG I ever ran was the classic one. In a game of Flashing Blades (musketeer role-playing), I ran a long convoluted political conspiracy that Cardinal Richelieu had hired the PCs to investigate.

The conspiracy was actually Richelieu's. He needed some well-meaning fools to appear to break up the conspiracy, to distract attention from his main goals elsewhere.

I ran the old-school movie Richelieu - loyal to France, wanting personal power for France's benefit as well as his own. With the ultimate spy network. (In every scene in the entire game, I knew exactly who Richelieu's spy was.)

Richelieu: It takes a good man to prevent a catastrophe, Milady, and a great man to make use of one.

Athos: My friend, my friend. My young country friend, when will you learn about Paris? By now Richelieu, without the slightest question, knows even the color of your underpants.

Lady de Winter: Your Eminence is a great player - great enough to lose.

Cardinal Richelieu: [to D'Artagnan] I don't make such an offer twice in one day. But if you should survive to return to Paris, then you may see my hand stretched out to you once more. For then, you would be a very remarkable young man indeed. I would remark on it to people.

Oh, he was fun to play.

[Roguenewb]

Ashardalix. Those of you with sharp eyes will recognize the Ashardalon reference in the name. He was a Troll-Blooded, Half-Green Dragon Red Dragon. He basically refused to go down. Basic damage basically never worked. He was attempting to duplicate Ashadalon's immortality, but throw growth, not through stasis. I subbed out his Sorcerer casting for Spont-Druid casting, and he was a pro-nature guy. He spread wilderness, particularly deserts, and sought to swallow the world in Primordium, of which his unique Druidic Draconic magic would make him king of. At the campaign mid point, the players home city was swallowed by his mega desert. The rest of the campaign was trying to find allies and save more homelands from his magic.

The campaign ended in a massive fight among floating islands covered in super-deadly Rainforests above a super-hot death desert. The key to defeating Ashadalix's flyby and AMF tactics? I kid you not, my players killed the Ancient Red Dragon with a Quaal's Feather Token: Tree. Threw it right into his path, the dragon smashed into the tree, and was knocked into unconcious while they got enough kill spells to finish him off.

[Dr.Epic]

I think it would have to be a troll king.

[JabberwockySupafly]

Had a campaign that ran into Epic Levels a long time ago (probably almost 9 years now), so the details are kind of hazy.

The BBEG was Venegoth, a CE Wizard/Priest that was a lich, true necromancer, and Horned Harbinger, if memory serves. Had a massive undead army and had recently come into possession of a powerful artifact sword, the Executioner's Kiss, which he had stolen from the Mage City of Obelisk, which was built on the back of a mind-boggingly colossal scorpion who wandered an immense desert of black glass sand.

His primary minions were an epic-grade Shadow Dragon named Obsidaskris the Eclipse Mother, an order of Vampire Monks called the Crimson Tongue, and his Champion, the group's own Paladin corrupted by the essence of the dead god that Venegoth was trying to ressurect (Myrkul). He wanted to use the artifact to ressurect a part of Myrkul to power a colossal flesh golem he called The Walking Cathedral of Flesh.

That campaign lasted almost a year, and when the party finally got face-to-face with Venegoth and learned of the paladin's true nature as he handed the artifact over to the BBEG was incredibly satisfying. It took a lot of work, a lot of note passing, and a lot of emails and talking to the Paladin when the other players weren't around.

The end battle was suitably epic, and only one member of the party survived it. The rest were either displaced in time & space, destroyed to the point of soul death, or corrupted beyond salvation. Good times.

[doliest]

Best?

Bit of a generic title, but his name was The Lich King. He was an undead demi-god who had been playing shadow-manipulator to the entire campaign entirely to strengthen the main characters up because they were the reincarnated souls of a group of warriors who ALWAYS rose up to stop him. No matter how many times he went back to the beginning of the universe, started gathering his power base, and trying to take over the world. The same group. Was. Always. There.

So, he tried to force their rise early, sure that if he got them strong enough to awaken their 'true power' but not experienced enough in it to beat him, he'd be able to finally get around to conquering the world and becoming a true god. To make sure he could do it, he even recruited a Death Knight from the previous timeline with a grudge against one of the warriors, and gave him a sword imbued with a significant chunk of refined magical energy. (Essentially, an epic variant of 'Wish' that can do anything except hurt the Lich King)

He's mostly memorable for two things:
1. For the brief time the players actually talked to him, he jumped constantly between 'hey, remember that time you-' about things the players never did and 'oh for the love of' annoyance because he was more 'annoyed' at the prospect of another defeat than he was 'scared.'

2.How they beat him. Okay, so the players are marching through one of his bases, meet the Death Knight, talk him over to their side, and the Lich King shoots him. I mention a portal at the opposite side of the room, expecting them to run. The other players start talking about running and one player...'So, did the Death Knight drop his sword?' 'uhhhh yeah, why?' 'I pick it up and wish for enough power to defeat the Lich King.'

And like that, using a sword I had forgotten, they all bumped from 'Level 7 and getting an idea of the problem' to 'Level 21 and murdering the problem before finding out anything about it.'

[Jay R]

2.How they beat him. Okay, so the players are marching through one of his bases, meet the Death Knight, talk him over to their side, and the Lich King shoots him. I mention a portal at the opposite side of the room, expecting them to run. The other players start talking about running and one player...'So, did the Death Knight drop his sword?' 'uhhhh yeah, why?' 'I pick it up and wish for enough power to defeat the Lich King.'

And like that, using a sword I had forgotten, they all bumped from 'Level 7 and getting an idea of the problem' to 'Level 21 and murdering the problem before finding out anything about it.'

If I were the DM, they would have gotten a one-time-use lich-killing device. Leaving aside the fact that you can only get one level from a wish, they didn't ask for enough power to defeat anyone else afterward.

[DigoDragon]

Man, that sounded awesome. Mind if I yoink some of this for later use? :smallwink:

Go right ahead! :smallsmile: