Work-shopping my villains

[Bobby Baratheon]

I'm just getting back into DMing after a burnout-induced hiatus, and to make thing easier for myself I decided to use published adventures, with my plan being to run a (slightly) altered Lost Mines of Phandelver then moving from that into (drumroll) the Red Hand of Doom, with the link being the Cragmaw gang, who are now an offshoot of the horde.

However. . . my impulse to put my own spin on things has been kicked into overdrive since the first session. That's good, because that's part of what motivates me as a DM and probably what I enjoy most about it. My idea is to put Azarr Kul on the backburner (while still being the main villain) and have the horde be led by a brother and sister team of Messianic hobgoblins named Thengis and Orsah, who want to forge a better future for their race. My main inspiration here is Hengist and Horsa (hence the lazy totes original names for my villains), a semi-mythical pair of Saxon brothers who led the first forays into Britain. I also plan to make Jarmaath much more Vortingern-like, and give him a history with the pair where he had hired them to do some dirty work or somesuch.

For those not in the know with RHOD, Azarr Kul is a Tiamat Cleric trying to summon an aspect of his goddess and conquer a frontier region with a horde of fanatical goblinoids. Jarmaath is the lord of said frontier region.

My main purpose in posting here is to see what the good people of the forum have to say about characterization of these two hobgoblin villains. I'm thinking of them as having similar motivations as Redcoat from OotS, but with a more selfless and martial approach. However, I'm kind of drawing a blank on their individual personalities and characteristics. How would you characterize them? Any sources of inspiration I should consider? Thoughts on how to get the players hatred flowing freely? I want these two to be frequent sources of hardship for the PCs so they have a personal motivation to take them down. If there's a way to do that and easily insert them into a Lost Mines cameo, that'd be even better.

My one thought mechanically is that one of them be similar in abilities to the 3.5 doomlord prestige class. Think beefy melee guy with some spells and dispel magic-type abilities.

Also, a final note: I'm going for a full force "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter" kind of dealy in-universe here. These two should be roughly as controversial as Ulfric Stormcloak. Death to the Empire!

[opaopajr]

Grab a 3x5" index card. Fill out these fields.

I assume these are recurring NPCs -- you are not going to fling them immediately to their deaths confronting the party. They have their own goals and would prefer to get THEIR plans done. PC interference is merely a complication to them

(front)
Name, title
[Physical Description]
personality:
job & routine:
goal:
relationships:

(reverse)
news:
rumors:
quests:
secrets:

Do that and you've just created an NPC with a faction, an agenda, and complexity. If parties end up splitting because of different attitudes, all the better. Buys these twins more time for THEIR goals.

(That's if you want the NPCs to breathe with life. Which sounds like what you want to do. If they are mostly there to be knocked over by Team Good Guys, and adherence to the modules, don't over-embellish their creation. If players are not going to experience it beyond exposition, it's not worth much fine tuning.)

[Malifice]

I'm just getting back into DMing after a burnout-induced hiatus, and to make thing easier for myself I decided to use published adventures, with my plan being to run a (slightly) altered Lost Mines of Phandelver then moving from that into (drumroll) the Red Hand of Doom, with the link being the Cragmaw gang, who are now an offshoot of the horde.

However. . . my impulse to put my own spin on things has been kicked into overdrive since the first session. That's good, because that's part of what motivates me as a DM and probably what I enjoy most about it. My idea is to put Azarr Kul on the backburner (while still being the main villain) and have the horde be led by a brother and sister team of Messianic hobgoblins named Thengis and Orsah, who want to forge a better future for their race. My main inspiration here is Hengist and Horsa (hence the lazy totes original names for my villains), a semi-mythical pair of Saxon brothers who led the first forays into Britain. I also plan to make Jarmaath much more Vortingern-like, and give him a history with the pair where he had hired them to do some dirty work or somesuch.

For those not in the know with RHOD, Azarr Kul is a Tiamat Cleric trying to summon an aspect of his goddess and conquer a frontier region with a horde of fanatical goblinoids. Jarmaath is the lord of said frontier region.

My main purpose in posting here is to see what the good people of the forum have to say about characterization of these two hobgoblin villains. I'm thinking of them as having similar motivations as Redcoat from OotS, but with a more selfless and martial approach. However, I'm kind of drawing a blank on their individual personalities and characteristics. How would you characterize them? Any sources of inspiration I should consider? Thoughts on how to get the players hatred flowing freely? I want these two to be frequent sources of hardship for the PCs so they have a personal motivation to take them down. If there's a way to do that and easily insert them into a Lost Mines cameo, that'd be even better.

My one thought mechanically is that one of them be similar in abilities to the 3.5 doomlord prestige class. Think beefy melee guy with some spells and dispel magic-type abilities.

Also, a final note: I'm going for a full force "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter" kind of dealy in-universe here. These two should be roughly as controversial as Ulfric Stormcloak. Death to the Empire!

Make them sympathetic (but evil).

They're genuinely trying to save their people, and have a genuine grudge against humans. Say.. they fled their homelands after the neighboring humans invaded and destroyed where they lived in order to claim the area for themselves.

The brother saw his parents die at the hands of murderous humans, who captured and then hung them both. Hes sworn vengeance on humanity as a result, and has a burning hatred of humans. He's moved the clans survivors to the area, to conquer and pillage the surrounding area, ethnically cleanse the population, and set up a warlike kingdom of goblins next door to a neighboring peaceful one.

Possibly make the sister not evil (LN) and more introspective, and not blinded by hatred. She opposes the ethnic cleansing and slaughter, and is more of an honorable type of warrior, just trying to do her best for her people (knowing they face extinction if she doesnt). She is hateful to humans for what they did to her clan and parents, but also acknowledges that it was the Hobgoblins who started the war to begin with.