An Idea for a Recurring Enemy

[Nmomoth]

In this campaign that I have been writing for the group that I am DMing, I'm thinking about giving the group a recurring enemy that can give them a sense of urgency and dread. The problem is that I'm not entirely sure about how to do this in way that's at least somewhat fair to the group.

The enemy I have in mind is a Death Knight, due to their high CR and that they can never truly die until the players figure out how to actually keep them dead.

That said, they'll first met him when they're only level 5. Are there any useful tricks I could use to effectively implement my little Pyramid Head into this campaign?

[rlc]

You could have him just watch them fight something else, and then maybe say something before he just leaves. Do that once or twice.
If you absolutely want him to fight them the second (or third) time, have him use weak attacks or spells just to test them, before he has some henchmen take over the fight for him and he leaves again.
Or, make a weaker version, I guess, but that's more work.

[solidork]

One thing you have to be able to answer, and answer well, is this: "Why doesn't the powerful recurring antagonist just kill the PCs?" Vader could have easily killed everyone in Empire Strikes Back, but that wasn't what he was interested in. In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the Lich King's master plan was for the players to become very powerful by defeating his minions and then kill them and raise them as death knights in his service.

I've never played it, or seen it played, but in theory the official campaign Cruse of Strahd should be an excellent example of how to do this. I've read through it and it was pretty interesting, but it does cost money.

[Nimlouth]

One of the things that I used before (And it worked great for a long campaign) is letting the PCs kill a less powerful version of the lich/death knight and then carry an item that was a trophy from it (Like his sword or mask or gauntlet). Later on the story they'll discover that the item has powerful magic on it and will try to use/destroy it. Being deceived by the forces of evil, they'll carry the item protecting it from danger to an antique temple full of bosses and traps in which they where supposed to destroy it but they where just manipulated to do the dirty work for the undead lord.

At this point the lich/DK will revive and (almost) kill the party with his overwhelming power, unchaining an ancient power for himself in the process and practically dooming the world. Now the party must gather strenght and stop what they started in the first place.

That generally makes the whole group re-think what they are doing and can lead to some awesome RP moments of "I told you!... It wasn't my fault... What have we done? omg..."

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

https://youtu.be/FUrlRZu2uCc

Anything I would recommend on the topic is covered in this video.

As far as using a Death Knight, I would recommend starting with a henchmen of the DK first, then once the party has stopped the "BBEG", they learn that he is just a pawn in a larger game

[Specter]

Yeah, hardest challenge is keeping PCs alive until the final showdown. He could be the kind of guy who underestimates them entirely too much, or one that satisfies his horrible necessities by watching the PCs humiliated by defeat instead of killing them.

If you really want Pyramid Head recurring villain, you need to build the encounters with the goal of survival, not killing the dude, and it would have to be very clear by your description ("you find your best efforts void against this opponent"). Otherwise players will feel like you just wanted to kill them.

[Albonor]

I think that having him defeated the first time around and coming back later works best. How?

Have him narrowly win against the previous heroes of the land, with the PCs on site to provide back-up to those guys. As the smoke clears (the heroes went ahead and told the PCs to mop up minions in the previous room), the DK is left standing, having spent most of it's ressources and with only 20-30 hp left. Sure, he hits for 20-35dmg a blow but if the PCs are level 5 they shoud be able to overcome him.

That accomplishes:
1) Making him formidable. No way they don't know just how strong he his (especially if you gave the heroes a chance to show off themselves beforehand).
2) Take him out of the way for a while
3) Make the level 5 PCs relevant (the clearly-more-powerful NPCs in you setting..are dead)

[Knaight]

This is a bit tricky on the system side - the dramatic PC power curve makes recurring enemies that much trickier, and basically means that they either need to also be getting more powerful in some way, be attacking using increasingly direct means that access more powerful, or gradually get subsumed into being part of a group. Not staying down when put down is the other key part, although indirect means of attack can obviate the need for that.