What is your favorite kind of villain NPC?

[InQbait]

I have run many short-term campaigns and have played in many campaigns of varying lengths, and throughout this experience, I have seen many different villains. I am not sure which is my favorite kind, but I would ask the Playground if they have any favorites they would like to talk about.

[Bulhakov]

Probably the Well Intentioned Extremist. I like my villains to have reasonable motives the players can relate to.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellIntentionedExtremist

Also the Punch Clock Villain is a common theme in my games. A lot of the henchmen and mercenaries are just doing their jobs (and thus will not fight like psychos to the death but will likely attempt to run away, negotiate or surrender).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PunchClockVillain

[Dr. Yes]

They don't tend to last very long in my games, but my favorite kind of villain to run is the volatile Chaotic Evil man-child (or actual child). The juxtaposition of naivete and utter malevolence really seems to put my players on edge, and it's fun to chew the scenery when roleplaying that kind of delusional enthusiasm.

[Vitruviansquid]

There's a soft spot in my heart for the Valiant-And-Honorable-Warrior-Who-Just-Happens-To-Be-On-The-Other-Side.

[Velaryon]

I like to throw in redeemable villains sometimes. Whether they're decent people working on the wrong side, or someone that has gone full Dark Side but can be pulled back to the light, I like offering that possibility. Sadly, my players rarely if ever go for it.

[Mr Beer]

Not sure what the trope is but the sinister Hollywood English guy, superficially polite and even charming at times but actually a ruthless bastard. Their plans vary but are normally at least superficially logical as opposed to outright "cause of Evil" full D&D alignment style.
They tend to be pragmatic about things like their own survival and can therefore be negotiated with but subject to temper tantrums if they don't get their own way and it's safe to vent their anger.

[Yukitsu]

I`m good at the silver tongued villains. For example, the last campaign I ran, the players ended up working for Lucifer, and rather unintentionally, the players were unable to realize that they were on that road to damnation. When they figured out, one of the players left the party immediately after a lot of thought, but the others stayed.

[Morithias]

The brutally pragmatic villain.

A villain you can't beat with brute force.

A villain you can't just kill because his supporters in his empire will just pick him up.

A villain for who the hero is useless against.

A villain who values peace of mind over torturing innocents.

And a villain who has mass amounts of wisdom.

The villain for who the only argument the heroes have is that they ping on the slaydar.

[Downzorz]

Very pragmatic villains who have a touch of the Manipulative Bastard. My first and favorite villain was a cleric who claimed to be part of a religion that prohibited her from being violent, which was technically true, but she also fed the players crippling poison before they went out to fight the ogres that were secretly under her command. She was a fun time.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I like villains who are villains because they can be. Machevellian, sneaky villains can be fun but I prefer ones who are more open, who revel in their power. Sabretooth from X-Men would be a good example. Such a villain doesn't have to be necessarily sadistic, or even particularly malicious. They're evil because when they want something, they simply take it. "Lazy Evil" is a term from an old 3.0 supplement that I've always liked to describe this style of villainy. It's the evil of a Red Dragon who burns the kingdom and hoards treasures because he likes the way they look; an assassin who kills for the thrill and challenge; a warlord from the steppe who raids grain silos to slake his thirst for vodka. It's hard to build a whole campaign around this kind of villain, but in the actual creation process to me they're the most fun.

To me, attitude plays a huge part. When I think of a great villain, I think of the smug confidence in every gesture of Ricardo Montalban's Khan Noonien Singh. The contemptuous way The Kurgan knocked his foes around like rag dolls. The sardonic casualness with which Clarence Bodicker snuffs out someone's life. Regardless of your villain's archetype, if he's going to stay in the mind he's got to stick out.

[tommhans]

I like my villains like i like my ying to my yang! they need to be memorable and respectable! Indimidating and wise! The kind that you sort of respect but you know in the end you have to fight eventhough it would be a sad moment(sort of like liquid/ocelot and snake in mgs, you cant just kill them, it has to be in a proper way!

:smallcool:

[DigoDragon]

I like to throw in redeemable villains sometimes.

That's one of my two favorite types, usually on the "Well Intentioned Extremist" side. It gives the PCs a chance to correct them and with over an ally if they want to put in the work for it.

The other type I love is the manipulative villain. Usually played out in the open. The PCs know he's evil, but they can't pin anything to him because he knows how to work the system and get off with nothing more than a repreimand if that.

[TheCountAlucard]

Off-topic, I know, but if you stick around here, you should get an OotS-style avatar of a boxer smacking the crap out of Mr. Peanut. :smalltongue:

[AngryHobbit]

Manipulative Gods in human disguise.

[GungHo]

The ones that have a reason for other people to be loyal to them, such as the well-intententioned extremists or manipulative bastards who have people skills beyond just blackmailing everyone.

[JoshuaZ]

There's a villain in my current campaign who has a family and cares a lot about his family. He's high up in the bad guys organization but not at the very top. So he actually gave the PCs a list of their most easily accessible family members and told them to secure them, because he didn't want any hostage taking to occur because he knows that can end very badly, but he doesn't have enough control of the organization to stop others from doing so. I think it helped to make him substantially more human.

[Kid Jake]

I'm having a lot of fun with a group of villains that are 100% in the right. A mercenary outfit originally just out to bring them in for the bounty on their heads, now just pissed because they keep killing their members and rubbing it in.

Righteous indignation is great.

[3SecondCultist]

For me, I like playing villains with depth above all things. I can get behind various different character archetypes - the honourable warrior who happens to be on the other side, the manipulative double agent behind the scenes, and the sinister overlord who is pulling all the strings - but they all need to be three dimensional, to have qualities beyond simply acting as antagonists.

For instance, in my current long running game I am playing with a sort of villain who is trapped between a rock and a hard place: a lawful evil hobgoblin general who made a deal with the devil (figuratively speaking) and finds himself unable to deliver on his end of the bargain.

[VariSami]

I love almost all kinds of villains but here are a few types that pop to mind:

1. The Necessary Bad: This guy is evil - and his existence does cause harm to many people. However, his actions also keep a great evil, maybe even greater than him, at bay. Maybe the demonic cultist is also a protector of more or less harmless and innocent devil-bloods who will be persecuted harshly for his actions once he is defeated. What are you going to do, hero?

2. Well Intentioned Extremist: Mentioned a few times already. I prefer it when their whole scheme of thinking is really off, though. Or when they truly use despicable methods despite their "justification" of what they aim at. The key point is needless cruelty and indifference although their goal might actually be beneficial in the end.

3. The Alien: This... thing cannot be comprehended. Its motives are either so primitive or so intricate - or a mixture of both - that their sheer bizarreness is unnerving.

[Doomboy911]

I had some great villains who had a gang that was slowly taking over the crime, while this was going on the marines were fighting to take out the gangs but had left one gang alone. It was the one that the villains were a part of, because the two were actually one group. The marines had picked some folks and sent them out to be gangsters.


Good times. Campaign died before I got to it. I always liked someone who kept me guessing but I over think everything so this doesn't come up to often.

Finally the one villain I hated. He was the emperor and he was good man expanding his empire by parking their big guns over the area and asking folks if they'd like to join up. By joining the empire this weird magical effect would spread across the people over the generations giving them metal skin.
My character was a pacifist and saw that the emperor was going to use a magical artifact to ensure he couldn't be stopped.

I despised him and I knew I had a reason but I couldn't put my finger on it. This wasn't a situation where I liked him so much it was hard to hate him I was trying to focus my rage. Because I couldn't focus it I couldn't think of a way to beat him. The second I got my focus I turned into a force of sheer destruction.

[Mastikator]

The guy-with-goals-that-are-incompatible-with-your-welfare-and-goals-but-otherwise-is-a-pretty-ok-person-once-you-get-to-know-him-but-will-still-not-abandon-his-goals kind of villain.

I'm also a big fan of the guy-who-will-try-to-get-the-PC-to-work-for-him-and-will-either-betray-them-or-do-something-evil-and-then-they-have-to-stop-him kind of villain.