Need a good group of badguys/gamblers/debt collectors

[MarkVIIIMarc]

One of the players in a campaign I'm running is a reformed gambler. Refermed as in he's been to prison and came out a Paladin (for some God of Luck of course).

His back story is a bit vague but I figure some debt collector is bound to have a beef with him. I'd like to introduce some NPC bad guys but am short on inspiration besides that. The group is largely level 3 if that helps and I've thrown a lot of human, elven and other similar bad guys at them so some more interesting races would be welcome.

[Skelechicken]

What about an invisible stalker? Either re-flavored to make it less mindless than they are in the Monster Manual or else used as a tool by a powerful debt collector? I really like the idea of an invisible and dedicated enforcer designed to hunt down gamblers.

If you go the second route you can even have them both present at the same time, with the summoner pretending they can make things happen with their mind or with magic when they are in fact relying on their stalker to do things.

This is going to likely be too difficult for your party to beat at level 3, but it is something that can be used to set up future confrontation. Since it is collecting debts the stalker need not kill. Beat him within an inch of his life, drag his unconscious body to your collector, and then ask where the money is.

[PhantomSoul]

The Tome of Beasts has the Domovoi (CR 4 Fey) that could either be used or provide some inspiration.

From the ToB, p. 122:

Debt Collectors. These smirking stragglers seek work as tireless sentinels and fey button men, collecting debts for criminal syndicates. They can use alter self and invisibility at will, and they delight in frustrating the progress of would-be thieves and tomb robbers. They enjoy roughing up weaker creatures with their powerful, stony fists.

[Unoriginal]

One of the players in a campaign I'm running is a reformed gambler. Refermed as in he's been to prison and came out a Paladin (for some God of Luck of course).

His back story is a bit vague but I figure some debt collector is bound to have a beef with him. I'd like to introduce some NPC bad guys but am short on inspiration besides that. The group is largely level 3 if that helps and I've thrown a lot of human, elven and other similar bad guys at them so some more interesting races would be welcome.

A Dao (with some Xorn goons), or Xvarts?

[Nettlekid]

Cloud Giants use material wealth to move up and down the social ladder in the Ordning. Most of them are fairly crafty and sneaky since their god Memnor is a trickster, and they love doing things like giving each other gifts that look expensive but aren't actually and neither giver nor recipient will reveal the ruse because doing so would harm both their social status. The exemplars are the Cloud Giant Smiling Ones from Volo's Guide who have some Bard- and Rogue-like abilities rolled into the Cloud Giant chassis: An outrageous Deception mod, some enchantment and illusion spellcasting on top of their useful racial spells, and +4d6 damage when striking with advantage. Most excitingly they can change their form into any Humanoid or Beast that they've seen, but their stats don't change at all.

What I recommend is a Cloud Giant Smiling One working like a mob boss/casino shark who climbed down from his cloud kingdom to siphon the money out of the Human economy. He started simply, using his innate magic or Change Shape to rig bets and gain both money and more importantly dirt that he could hold over the people who would become his employees. Once he had enough people working under him he started to expand, attracting people like any casino does with distractions and promises of wealth and fortune, while everything remains rigged to funnel funds directly into his pockets.

This would work as a faction because you can have all sorts of carny-type opponents picked out by the Cloud Giant for being amusing, so there are a variety of conflicts, and somewhat of a moral dilemma in that these carnies are going to try to hunt down the PCs because they've been ordered to but they're all being blackmailed so they're victims too. When it comes time to actually fight the boss he relies more on trickery and misdirection than anything because it's in his nature, but when push comes to shove he's a dang Cloud Giant and can pack a serious punch. This is also why no one really stood up to him in the initial stages when he was rigging bets - who's going to try to rough up a freakin' Giant when they tell you that your money now belongs to them?

[Daithi]

I actually have a bounty hunter/gambling debt skip tracer type character. The UA Mystic has a Find Creature psionic ability that will track someone down to within 1-3 miles. The Druid (and others) have the Locate Creature spell, which will find a creature with 1,000 feet. Druids also have Wind Walk that lets them search the 1-3 square miles in less than half an hour. This character (and his friends) could relentlessly track down your character. Druids are also pretty good with the animal handling, so having a couple vicious dogs and a hawk tracking down your boy could work as well.

Another option, that doesn't require the UA Mystic, is a character with the scrying ability. He/she uses this to tract down your character then could use Find the Path to tract down that location. It would be cool to use scrying and a teleport spell that requires a line of sight to just teleport there, but most have a line of sight and within X feet limitation too.

Lastly, someone else mentioned the Invisible Stalker. These can be summoned, so a bounty hunter/skip tracer spellcaster could be using one to go after your character. (However, dead gamblers don't pay back their losses.)