Creating recuring villains (like nale in OotS)

[Timy]

Hi all,

I was wondering how to create recuring villains in multiple quests (like nale and is companions in OotS).

The problem I see is how to make sure the PC don't kill them at the first encounter...

(and sorry for my crappy english)

[nickl_2000]

Hi all,

I was wondering how to create recuring villains in multiple quests (like nale and is companions in OotS).

The problem I see is how to make sure the PC don't kill them at the first encounter...

(and sorry for my crappy english)

Clones work well as a last ditch effort, a good greater invisibility allows an NPC to disappear in a hurry, Sanctuary spells could help, teleport spells to get him out of there.

[Unoriginal]

Hi all,

I was wondering how to create recuring villains in multiple quests (like nale and is companions in OotS).

The problem I see is how to make sure the PC don't kill them at the first encounter...

(and sorry for my crappy english)

My two pieces of advice are:

-Give them the occasion to flee. The PCs should have a chance to catch them, usually, but recurring villains are the ones who either flee the first encounter (or leave because it isn't worth their time and effort) or who manages to make the PCs flee. So plan an escape method for them when things turn bad.

-Make them memorable in some way. PCs will get more invested in recurring antagonists if they have a personality or a feature that makes them easy to remember. Alternatively, you could make the bad guy start as unremarkable, basically a mook, and then add to their characterization each time they're encountered.


Another thing to keep in mind is that it's easier to keep them alive and make them memorable if not every encounter they're part of is a combat one. Or at least, if not all of the encounter is spent fighting.

[jaappleton]

Make the players HATE the villain. One you love to hate.

First, when the party initially encounters this villain, I think the Villain needs to be a substantially higher level. Able to cast spells the PCs can't cast. Like 4+ levels higher. If the part can cast lv2 magic, he can cast lv4.

The party needs to know this person is a force.

And the villain will use that force to toy with them. To smack them around.

When the party even begins to get the upper hand, when the villain has shown just a sign of being winded, the villain has a trick to escape:

Misty Step using a Reaction is a good one. Misty Step to escape to the doorway, and the villain summons some cohorts to keep the party busy as he leaves unhindered. And then the villain shows up again a bit later. And again. And again.

[Coranhann]

I'm trying to create several recurring evil figures in my current campaign. One of the idea I've already deployed might actually work for you:

A - First of all, it's not one, but TWO villains. Working together, as a team. Players have encountered them twice now, and they have witnessed the fact that, while they are SUPER *******s, they are deeply loyal to each other and will mostly keep to their word (LE characters).

B - They first encountered them in a low level adventure (Players were lvl 2 or 3, these guys were level 5, making them more likely to kill the players than getting killed by them). I set up the first encounter as such :
1 - villains had a few bandit with them.
2 - As soon as the players show how efficient they are at killing the bandits, willains run away.
After this encounter, players learned that these two were highly skilled, highly dangerous mercenaries, paid to protect the BBEG of the scenario. The players contact told them that facing him AND these two was suicide. So last session was about killing the BBEG, while avoiding having these two joins the fight...
... and surely enough, when they did kill him, the two mercenaries showed up, and didn't attack (but forced the players to flee, allowing them to loot the BBEG treasure.)

This allowed two thing : Introducing them, as a deadly menace. And making my players hating them (they REALLY didn't like getting the gold & magic items from the BBEG taken away).

C - Two adventures later, they met again ... to work together. Players were recruited to explore a ruined city. The place is dangerous, and stand in a moutain chain full of even worst stuff. So the player's employer recruited additional help, to ensure the expedition success. And of course, it was the two villlains.
Players were now level 4, getting to 5 during the adventure. But Villains also gained level and were now level 7. At one point in the exploration, the player discover an information that makes one of the villains flee from the mission altogether, taking only his buddy with him.

This allowed several things : Players worked WITH the villains, getting to understand their internal logic a bit more and see how loyal they are to each other, getting to appreciate them for some stuff, and getting to see how powerfull they could be (the villains combo is 1 level 7 BM fighter, and 1 level 7 fiend pact warlock. They are SUPER deadly in fights). Players also hated them even more for fleeing and leaving them in a dangerous city without any kind of support.

D - Futur plans include : Having their first real confrontation. The goal of that confrontation is to have one of the villain dying. This way I can have the other fleeing the fight yelling vengeance and promising to murder them for what they've done. This encounter will probably happen in an adventure that will inform the players on why the villains ran during C.

All in all, my plan is to:
- Introduce the villains in a circumstance where players have NO CHANCE of killing them (because they are powerful enough or, as Unoriginal pointed out, because you planned for them to be able to flee ... give them several means of doing so)
- Then re-introduce them in a way that incentivise players not killing them (working together, needing their support to survive the monsters encounters). Building up their personnality and the reasons for players to hate them.
- And finally allowing players to fight them, now that the villains have Personnality, established their Relationship with the players, and proven how Dangerous they are.

My 2 cents. (god that's a long text, sorry)

[sir_argo]

Do you know when you play a video game and the game stops briefly and plays a cinematic or cut scene? Some people just hit the space bar to skip that part and get back to the game, but often times those cut scenes give information about the plot. In D&D, the DM does this all the time, such as when they describe an NPC die...

DM: You enter the alley. Lying on the ground in front of you is one of the town guard. He is lying in a pool of his own blood. As he gasps his last breaths, he says...
Player: I quickly cast Cure Wounds
DM: Well, no, you aren't in time. He dies, but before he does he tells you...
Player: Wait, if he can talk, he isn't dead yet. I cast Cure Wounds.



This is cut scene material. Gameplay is paused while the DM narrates the action. During these times, the DM wants something to happen as part of the plot. In this case, the guard is going to die and there's nothing the party can do to save him. So, about your recurring villain. He is a plot device and he is going to survive no matter what the party does. But I would advise you to let the players know you're going to use this device. In a campaign I ran some years ago, I told the players upfront that I would be using cut scenes when they defeat certain villains and have them escape, specifically to create recurring villains. When the party reduced the villain to 0 hp, I would literally say, "cut scene", and then describe how the villain escapes. The party still gets xp for defeating him. Key here is I told the players upfront that I would be doing this, otherwise it sounds like you are being heavy handed.

[MeeposFire]

Make them an actual threat (or at least have them bring actual threats for the party to fight the villain does not have to actually dirty his hands).

Make them noticeable. They cannot be flat characters. They need personality. For instance have him taunt the players and be really arrogant if you want the party to hate him. Make him noble and defiant if you want the party to respect him.

Lastly make sure you give him the ability to get out of dodge when needed and make sure that the way he gets out is not one that would make your players cry foul. Now your players will not know his stats so you can fudge a little but you need to be careful because if you do not do it right then your players could get rightly upset. One thing I like to do is rather than right down his actual HP I right down a smaller number of how much HP I am willing for him to lose in the fight and then have him escape after that number is exceeded. For example my boss actually would have had 100HP so I write down 80HP and then have him escape once they have dealt 80 damage to him.

[coolAlias]

Be prepared to let your villains die, often in their very first combat encounter. When it happens, don't worry about it - maybe the next villain will be the one to survive. ;)

If you are using the PC character creation rules to build your villain, it can be challenging to make a character capable of taking the massive amounts of focus fire damage a team of PCs can inflict in a single round, let alone multiple rounds, and not have that character also be powerful enough to completely wipe the party once their turn rolls around.

With that in mind, if combat breaks out, you never want your villain to be close to the PCs - preferably he is somewhere hard to reach, like up in a tower at a window while the PCs are outside on the ground, and he should have lots of guards.

Once combat breaks out, the villain's job is to get off a single flamboyant action to make the PCs remember him, and then flee while his mooks keep them busy.

But, even still, PCs will usually find a way to kill him. Best to have your villain someone like a powerful (but very evil) noble who can easily taunt the players in public without fear; if the PCs attack, the entire town guard will be against them (that may not stop them, but if you remind them, it might).

Trying to maneuver such a villain into a position where killing them won't have legal repercussions can be a fun challenge, as well as allowing the villain plenty of stage time to get the players to hate them.

[Specter]

The lowest level mechanism is a Sorcerer with Subtle Dimension Door, for no counterspelling.

[Scripten]

Do you know when you play a video game and the game stops briefly and plays a cinematic or cut scene? Some people just hit the space bar to skip that part and get back to the game, but often times those cut scenes give information about the plot. In D&D, the DM does this all the time, such as when they describe an NPC die...

DM: You enter the alley. Lying on the ground in front of you is one of the town guard. He is lying in a pool of his own blood. As he gasps his last breaths, he says...
Player: I quickly cast Cure Wounds
DM: Well, no, you aren't in time. He dies, but before he does he tells you...
Player: Wait, if he can talk, he isn't dead yet. I cast Cure Wounds.

This is cut scene material. Gameplay is paused while the DM narrates the action. During these times, the DM wants something to happen as part of the plot. In this case, the guard is going to die and there's nothing the party can do to save him. So, about your recurring villain. He is a plot device and he is going to survive no matter what the party does. But I would advise you to let the players know you're going to use this device. In a campaign I ran some years ago, I told the players upfront that I would be using cut scenes when they defeat certain villains and have them escape, specifically to create recurring villains. When the party reduced the villain to 0 hp, I would literally say, "cut scene", and then describe how the villain escapes. The party still gets xp for defeating him. Key here is I told the players upfront that I would be doing this, otherwise it sounds like you are being heavy handed.

This is precisely the opposite way to approach this situation if you value player agency. Especially in the case of the players expending a spell slot to save a guard. That's a sacrifice of resources that plays into their character's values, even if they are saving the guard just for information. Due to the fact that you're here asking a question, I'd wager you want to preserve the player's agency while also doing your best to ensure that the villain returns.

My alternate advice would be to ensure that your recurring villain escapes before they reach 0 HP, or to have some sort of in-game mechanism (be it allies or a contingency spell) that gets them out of the situation. Several posters here have already made good suggestions. An important thing to keep in mind about 5E is that even high-level enemies can be killed very quickly if they are suitably outnumbered, so mooks/allies for the villain can be very helpful to keep the combat under control. If you aren't able to do so, it's perfectly okay for your villain to die. Just take what you've learned and move on.

[coolAlias]

An important thing to keep in mind about 5E is that even high-level enemies can be killed very quickly if they are suitably outnumbered, so mooks/allies for the villain can be very helpful to keep the combat under control.
In my experience, they can be killed very quickly no matter how many allies they have - PCs are very willing to focus fire a dangerous or hated enemy even if it might leave them at a slightly disadvantageous position.

@OP To put this in perspective, even a party of 4 lowly 3rd level adventurers can easily put out 50 damage in a round without breaking a sweat. Depending on party composition, character builds, and the luck of the dice, they might be pushing well past 100 damage in that one single round.

If you want your villain to live, you have to give them lots of defense (both AC and saves) and lots of HP and, on top of all of that, get them the heck out of Dodge ASAP.

[Vogie]

As comics and tv shows have show us - Any villain can be a recurring villain with the right situation. Having the party choose between saving the villagers versus going toe to toe with the villain, or protecting the king from minions to give him a moment to slide away.

You could have a disease-like, parasitic villain (like the Borg, or the Phyrexians) that can't just be defeated in an encounter.

An "evil overlord" type of villain (like Xoom or Nicol Bolas), that are so far above the protagonists that they often show up, drop off some bosses for the fight, then leave the party to deal with said bosses.

A Time locked villain (Vandal Savage, various Lost antagonists) who is too powerful currently (or will be in the future), and the players are going progressively further into the past where the villains were weaker. Each time they are defeated by the too-powerful boss in that time period, they find out where that person was at an earlier point, so they can travel there and try again.

A Force of Nature-style Villain that cannot be truly killed, (Solomon Grundy, Doomsday, Deadpool, some liches) only banished/trapped/phased out/sent out to regenerate

[Waterdeep Merch]

I have a recurring campaign villain. He shows up in every single game I run that has a certain player that's been involved with the majority of all my games. He's a devil with multiversal properties, meaning it's always the exact same guy. And while he isn't aware that he's in a game, he IS aware that there is an overarching force and knows the player by that force, as well as other players he's tangled with in the past. Naturally, their in-character personas have no idea what the villain's talking about, but are filled with a nondescript feeling of familiarity and dread.

He's given to Bond-villain level schemes and traps, melodramatic speeches, gloating, and his failures always come from the details. The players, in turn, find more and more unorthodox ways to deal with him, as he is always insanely powerful in every incarnation.

To make every appearance that much more engaging, his involvement always starts as an undercurrent. A hint here, a hint there. Some unknown agent that screws with the players directly, hiring very dangerous enemies that tend to take a serious toll on them (stealing or destroying magic items, causing long-term debilitations, killing important NPC's or kidnapping them, placing killer traps, and never quite being worth the hassle of dealing with them). They start to understand that they're being hunted, and whatever is doing it is malevolent, intelligent, and getting under the players' skins.

When he does make his dramatic entry for the first time, he gives his big speech, he goes into detail on how he's screwed with them so far and what he intends to do next, and just really enjoys chewing on the scenery. Sometimes he then attacks outright, but if he does a sudden appearance or event stops him from the TPK he's fully equipped to dish out. He either beats them within an inch of their lives or causes some lasting damage, depending on how it goes. Between the previous events and these, he's likely to put both fear and anger into the hearts of the players.

Then his plan continues, with the players now aware of the stakes (which usually are tied more directly into the overall campaign, with him working for either the primary antagonist or a possible deuteragonist that could be just as terrifying). They have to use their wits to work through his machinations, confront him, and destroy him before he can do the same. I ad lib most of this section based on the basic plans and stats as laid out, as I encourage my players to get creative in dealing with this guy.

At this point there's usually a final confrontation and my villain is defeated, swearing undying vengeance as always. If you want to keep using a villain of your own, make sure he has a contingency plan to escape his fate. Teleportation, clones, some way to fake his death, minions ready and waiting to resurrect him, whatever it takes to keep him in the game. He'll lick his wounds, rebuild his forces, and start anew with an even more dangerous trap. Each time the players go through this tango, they'll have to be that much more thorough with making sure this time will be the last time. To ensure it's not, have a whole list of contingency plans to come back and haunt them again. Until they figure them all out, your villain's not going away any time soon.

[Unoriginal]

This is precisely the opposite way to approach this situation if you value player agency.

I have to agree with that. NEVER goes into cinematic mode unless the PCs literally have no way to do anything.

[Hackulator]

One thing I have done with great success is have recurring villains that people don't know are villains, or even recurring.

For example, I once ran an Eberron campaign with a rakshasa as a recurring villain. His goal was not necessarily to kill the PCs, he was trying to lead them on a path that would end in them fulfilly a prophecy allowing him to free his lord, a powerful Rakshasa Rajah. He was in almost every adventure, starting at level 1, but they didn't know. He used magic to disguise himself andSometimes he was an enemy, sometimes he was an ally, sometimes he was the person hiring them for the adventure itself. When they finally discovered that this guy had been manipulating them the whole time it was an AMAZING reveal and everyone was greatly entertained.

He then continued on as an enemy and the way he survived was by just running away a lot. Running away is a super important tactic for any recurring villain. Also, in the beginning your recurrent villain should be way more powerful than the characters but not want to kill them, as described above

Some examples of things he did:

On a mission to escort a prisoner to a remote jail, he had killed and replaced the prisoner so he could assassinate someone at the jail, s the party escorted him to his job. He did what he came to do and just left.

He led a group of hobgoblins in attacking a village, which slowed down the party as they had to stop to help. He abandoned the hobgoblins and ran while the party was saving commoners.

He hired the party to investigate an ancient city and bring back information he needed. This was actually the adventure where they began to discover who he was, as he was forced to use his magic when they were all attacked by the guardian of the city.

[Puh Laden]

Why do you want a recurring villain? Answer that and a more specific answer can be given.

If you want a looming, overarching villain, there's no need for she and the party to ever fight until the final confrontation.

A way that will probably only work once, is to throw enemies at the party until their resources are almost depleted, then the villain makes their entrance. Give the villain something that makes them scary: a high AC, multiple attacks, a high attack bonus, a powerful attack, or debilitating spell, something that won't wipe the party, but will send the message "you should run away now because you've spent all your resources and this guy will require your full strength" and make sure their path is clear. It helps to describe the villain as intimidating.

[Grimmnist]

I recently had a good experience when a former NPC companion turned into a villain because of the actions of the players. It's only a matter of time before the PCs piss someone off so it is easy to incorporate a character the party has met before.

Some tips I have found useful:

* Interact with the villain in a non-hostile setting. Examples could be the villain working with the party in disguise and later betraying them.

* Show the aftermath of a villain's actions. A burned down village tells an interactive story as the players investigate.

* Have minions of the villain fight the party. If the party is talkative give information about the villain through dialogue, if the party likes smashing things give details with distinctive clothing or insignias.

* Have the main villain spectate some early boss fights. A mostly unconscious party is less likely to attack the way over-leveled villain giving a chance to introduce the character.