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View Full Version : The Best Villains You've Fought/Played?



kraftcheese
2016-01-31, 09:00 PM
As it says in the title, I'm curious about your favourite foes from campaigns you've played/run.

What made them stick in your mind: were they funny, especially nasty, sympathetic, etc?

endur
2016-02-01, 01:10 AM
The best villains are seen by the heroes at least twice. The first time, the villains beat the heroes. The second time, perhaps the heroes win, perhaps they lose again or it is a tie. But the heroes go into the second encounter knowing that the villains beat them last time and may well beat them again.

FocusWolf413
2016-02-01, 09:10 AM
The best villains go against you on a personal level. Either they kill your friends, go against your ideals, or something.

Also, they keep living despite your best efforts.

nedz
2016-02-01, 09:48 AM
The best villains befriend and recruit the party; and then get them to implement their evil plans.

BWR
2016-02-01, 10:38 AM
Esmarraf Elderforce comes to mind.
We were both searching for parts to a powerful artifact. When we first came across him he wanted to buy out bits off us but we declined. He offered a partnership, which we didn't believe would end in anything but him stabbing us in the back (he radiated evil quite strongly). Then over the course of several years in game and out of game he stole some of our artifact parts, soundly beat us in a couple confrontations (sent us running like scared kids because he was far more powerful than us for most of the time), killed a couple of us and generally made life hard for us by attacking friends and allies to distract us, and by the time we were powerful enough to be a threat he would stay away or teleport away ASAP if we crossed paths, just sent minions to do the work.
When we finally beat him we were quite pleased.

Elvenoutrider
2016-02-01, 12:32 PM
I've played a lot of great villains. Hmmm my favorite was a jester that the players fought. He was a gestalt fighter and reverse bard. Reverse bard meant he debuffed the party rather than buff his minions. He openly announced himself to the party as they entered the wizard tower he was barricaded in using a magic intercom system and mocked them as they hit all the tower's defenses. I had pre written insults tailored to the party. I probably still have the list lying around somewhere.

Some of them were:

1) as the party was bantering with him he insisted on giving his backstory - which was identical to one of the players secret backstories in order to get under their skin. He knew who they were

2) shatters archer's bow and says - that's the problem with archery - too many drawbacks

3) after setting off alchemist fire trap - light a man a fire and you keep him warm for a night - set a man afire and he's warm for the rest of his life

I may add more later

Jay R
2016-02-01, 05:12 PM
I have both played and run Flashing Blades, a musketeers-era rpg. So the absolute best villain I've seen is Cardinal Richelieu.

When your villain has been played by both Charlton Heston and by Vincent Price, you have a well-developed, quietly menacing, subtle, suave villain who sets the highest possible bar.

[Yes, I know that Tim Curry has played a character of the same name, in a movie of the same name. The character Curry played was lots of fun, but he was a loud, brash, frothing madman, completely unlike the suave, subtle character played by Heston and Price, written by Dumas, and played by me and Bob in the game.]

The Fury
2016-02-01, 10:27 PM
I've got a story about a memorable villain we fought. A long story. I apologize for not making this brief, and for my gaps in memory.

What kills me is that I can't remember this guy's name-- neither can the DM that ran the campaign though, so there's that. Someone in our group did give him a nickname though, but I'll come back to that if you'll bear with me.

I think that his plan was to wrest control of the kingdom by buying up and controlling all the property. Notice that I said "I think," this is because we didn't know what his plans were at the time and didn't much care to learn them. We were all set to get this guy because he conned us and got us sent to jail. Bastard! After we escaped prison we were all set to get him just because he sent us there in the first place. That, and he kept sending what I dubbed "inept assassins" after us. The assassins he sent weren't inept by design, just dumb luck. The DM just rolled badly for their Stealth and attacks, so they were rarely more than just annoying. I offered the interpretation that they gave away their position by doing an ominous/goofy laugh. "Nyeh-heh-heh-heh!" For some reason the rest of my group, DM included went along with it.

After dealing with this for a time we decided it was finally time to hit this jerk where he lives. So in an effort to gather information about him we learned a few things-- we know where he lives, we know he typically stays at home, and we know he always has spicy chicken delivered from a particular restaurant to his residence. Great! Now we got a plan forming, if we can impersonate or even get hired as delivery people from said restaurant we got a way to get to him! So we decide to stake out the place that makes his spicy chicken... in an effort to fine-tune our plan maybe? We all get an order of the spicy chicken too.

Fast forwarding a bit, we nearly gain access to the jerk and kick his butt before we learn the secret behind the spicy chicken-- it's people. Yup, not only did this guy con us but he regularly eats people. We ate the spicy "chicken" too. Most of the group is disgusted but retains their composure, not me though. As both a roleplayer and a drama queen I declare that my character is retching and puking her guts out.

So we beat the villain and his cronies, (sadly the head cook to that wretched spicy "chicken" restaurant got away,) and since the villain's name has long since been lost to the sands of time I just call him "Spicy Chicken Guy."

The same campaign had a goblin bard that talked like a pirate but apparently didn't actually know what the nautical jargon he used actually meant. "Batten down the britches! We're in for a storm!" was my personal favorite phrase. Because of his shiny blond hair we called him "Goblio." Sadly, he was only around for one session.




1) as the party was bantering with him he insisted on giving his backstory - which was identical to one of the players secret backstories in order to get under their skin. He knew who they were



That sounds cool, though really difficult to actually pull off. This character reminds me a little of some versions of The Joker. Was that what you were going for?

Squibsallotl
2016-02-01, 10:56 PM
A dark campaign in which the BBEG was Caiphon, the Dream Whisperer. A far realm abomination of immense power. It was allowed back into the Astral Sea (because one of the players unwittingly opened a portal...) and immediately killed the pantheon.

No one knew any of this, though, because Caiphon usurped the former gods' domains and continued to answer the prayers of the faithful. But each time a divine magic user called upon Caiphon's power it would corrupt them, slowly turning them against the tenets of their own faiths.

A few months in, and clerics of pelor were murdering their flocks, and paladins of bahamut were roaming the countryside killing and pillaging.

kraftcheese
2016-02-02, 06:28 AM
A dark campaign in which the BBEG was Caiphon, the Dream Whisperer. A far realm abomination of immense power. It was allowed back into the Astral Sea (because one of the players unwittingly opened a portal...) and immediately killed the pantheon.

No one knew any of this, though, because Caiphon usurped the former gods' domains and continued to answer the prayers of the faithful. But each time a divine magic user called upon Caiphon's power it would corrupt them, slowly turning them against the tenets of their own faiths.

A few months in, and clerics of pelor were murdering their flocks, and paladins of bahamut were roaming the countryside killing and pillaging.

Wow, how did that end up working out?

Also, did Caiphon kill the evil gods of the pantheon? Did you have some really kind, generous clerics of Bhaal popping up? Paladins of Cyric protecting truth and Good Stuff?

hifidelity2
2016-02-02, 06:35 AM
The best villains befriend and recruit the party; and then get them to implement their evil plans.
Agree

We were once recuite by a Vampyre (the BBEG) to start off his world domination withour realising it

DigoDragon
2016-02-02, 08:02 AM
Well right now I'm in a party trying to stop a villain called 'Leviathan' from retaking a very old gemstone that has sealed within it part of her power. We're under the ocean at the sunken ruins of Windsoar, and first faction to get that gemstone wins. Unfortunately the deck is stacked against us-- Leviathan has not only brainwashed a sea serpent to help her, but she's captured two of the party members and is possessing the body of a NPC love interest for my character.

What I really like about this villain is that she pays attention to our mannerisms and learns how to hit us where it hurts on a personal level. Also, losing this adventure is a very real possibility, and carries real consequences, so her threats are not just light monologue-ing. There is real investment here, and the adventure has instigated a nice amount of character development in several PCs and NPCs. I'm totally invested in the fun here.

Quertus
2016-02-02, 02:55 PM
For me, as DM, the most memorable villains are the ones that live - probably because that is not their intended role in the narrative.

I have included the same fighter in three adventures. She's a simple sell sword, but I play her 100% as a paranoid PC. Every time, she is just one of several sell swords the BBEG has hired to protect his fortress. Every time, the party chooses to enter / navigate in a way that does not take them to her right away. Every time, she hears the commotion, and finds the BBEG dead. So she leaves.


The best villains befriend and recruit the party; and then get them to implement their evil plans.

Yeah, I made a BBEG that the party was "supposed" to thwart; instead, they chose to join him. Good times.

I've made several villains that manipulated the party; the ones who made the players feel like they were getting a fair trade, who didn't then get murdered, are the ones I tend to remember.

As a player, I remember the many copies of my characters I've fought. I remember the villains that were relevant to the character - an X-hunter fighting an X, for example.

But the most character-defining villain, for me, was probably the evil "druid" who abducted children.

So, the party gets hired by a town who claim that their children have been abducted. Although no one else seems to notice, my paranoid character feels that something is a little off. Being a paranoid scout, my character spies on the villagers, and sees that their hopeful attitude vanishes the moment we are out of sight. Eventually, he learns that we are not the first group that they have sent to rescue their children. Not wanting to demoralize the party, my character decides that part of his role as scout is to protect the party from the truth. This set the tone for the character.

We go to the druid's lair, to ask about the missing children in standard murder-hobo fashion. On our way there, we begin encountering strange, new monsters. Some are smaller, faster, more magical versions of creatures we're familiar with; others are completely foreign. This guy's definitely up to no good - children or no children, he's going down.

Being a paranoid scout, my character hunts around the druid's abode for clues as to where these creatures came from. He finds notes on magical transmutations.

Despite the fact that most of it was said openly at the gaming table, the rest of the players didn't seem to catch on when my character uncovered evidence that the monsters we had been fighting may actually have been the missing children, changed by the villain's foul magics.

My character had to choose whether to tell the party the horrible truth, and make everyone live with the fact that we may have murdered children, or allow their consciences to be clear. To try to save future monster children at the risk that, in pulling our punches, we would fail, and lose the whole village and our own lives.

Remembering the previous parties that had failed, fearing that this moral dilemma could have been what caused them to fail, and considering the number of potential children that died to our hands due to their failure, my character decides to keep this information hidden. To protect the party from the truths that would destroy them.

Before his death, the druid confirmed the children's fate (again, in a way that the rest of the party didn't seem to follow). After we defeated the druid, we returned the children to their parents. Sure enough, some of them were missing - no one seemed to understand what had happened to them. This was one of several secrets that wound up haunting my character throughout his adventuring career.

And what made the evil druid probably the most memorable antagonist my characters have ever encountered. Even if I never learned his name, and he probably wasn't actually a druid.

Braininthejar2
2016-02-02, 03:07 PM
I have quite enjoyed playing Irenicus (campaign in progress, so I still have some monologueing to do)

Squibsallotl
2016-02-02, 08:07 PM
Wow, how did that end up working out?

Also, did Caiphon kill the evil gods of the pantheon? Did you have some really kind, generous clerics of Bhaal popping up? Paladins of Cyric protecting truth and Good Stuff?

Every god with a domain in the Astral Sea was dead, with the exception of Asmodeus. Dispater (Archdevil of the 2nd layer of the Nine Hells) was holding off Caiphon's forces at his Iron Tower, a stronghold-artifact that makes him basically impervious to harm.

So the Raven Queen (Shadowfell), Asmodeus (Nine Hells), Lolth (Abyss) are all that's left.

Caiphon's key trait & movitation is "Betrayal", so yes, eventually clerics of Gruumsh would have started trying to care for people and be kind (and would subsequently be killed by their tribes for showing weakness), clerics of Bane would throw down their weapons and declare vows of nonviolence (and be killed by their followers for the blasphemy, or at the very least punished and exiled), clerics of Ioun would start burning books, and so forth.

Khaiel
2016-02-03, 02:00 PM
One of the villains for a game I GM'd was this Lawful Evil Chessmaster that was a Rogue/Fighter/Blackguard (I didn't really give him stats, just a rough draft of classes he would have). He was a genuinely nice guy, who was known in public for helping others as a retired adventurer. He would teach basic martial arts at his dojo, help adventurers who wanted to explore dangerous places or even guide newcomers through the city.

Behind the curtains, he was a high ranking member of an Evil cult (and he was using them to further his own objectives) and the one who ruled the most important criminal operations in the city. He was a villain with standards, not afraid of making pacts with devils or even killing children, but who would try to only use violence as a last resource. And yet, in public no one would ever suspect him, because he was a rather nice guy without being too nice. If something was happening in town or in a 100 mile radius from it, he knew. His only real weakness was his sense of moral superiority, which ended up costing him some allies.

But until the very end, he was never suspected. Besides being nice and intelligent, he was unremarkable. The PCs even asked him to come with them when they finally thought they have figured out who the Chessmaster was! He left very little clues (he wasn't perfect, but quite near), and the PCs never caught him. In fact, they were 100% convinced that the guy they killed (which was one of his liutenants) was the actual BBEG.

His true identity wasn't known until the Epilogue, when, while at the opera, the PCs received a message with all the markings used by the Chessmaster, looked at where the message told them to look and saw the Blackguard, winking and then leaving the building while members of the cult dealt with the relaxed, unprepared PCs (This has been the one time my players have told to me to just leave the ending as "Bad" ending, as they thought it was fitting with the theme of the campaign).