BBEG idea: The Frostfell Queen

[dededo11]

I have an idea for a BBEG and would like to hear your thoughts on it.

Many years ago, a powerful wizard grew powerful enough to attempt a ritual to turn herself into a god. The ritual failed however, and she was instead transformed into an elder evil. She nearly put the world into a permanent ice age before she was sealed away by a powerful cleric. The cleric then sought out a way to permanently destroy her, attempting to create an artifact capable of weakening her enough that she could be destroyed, but died before completing it.

Now, the seal on the elder evil is growing weaker and she will soon break free. The campaign centers around the characters learning about this, and then traveling the world to complete the artifact the cleric was working on so they can defeat her when she frees herself.

What do you guys think?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I have an idea for a BBEG and would like to hear your thoughts on it.

Many years ago, a powerful wizard grew powerful enough to attempt a ritual to turn herself into a god. The ritual failed however, and she was instead transformed into an elder evil. She nearly put the world into a permanent ice age before she was sealed away by a powerful cleric. The cleric then sought out a way to permanently destroy her, attempting to create an artifact capable of weakening her enough that she could be destroyed, but died before completing it.

Now, the seal on the elder evil is growing weaker and she will soon break free. The campaign centers around the characters learning about this, and then traveling the world to complete the artifact the cleric was working on so they can defeat her when she frees herself.

What do you guys think?

Sounds like a solid plan. You can have a cult who do wish to free her fighting your protagonists also.

Have you had the session zero yet? Do your players want a more open world or prefer a bit more narrow focus? Or how will you pace this?

[dededo11]

Sounds like a solid plan. You can have a cult who do wish to free her fighting your protagonists also.

Have you had the session zero yet? Do your players want a more open world or prefer a bit more narrow focus? Or how will you pace this?

i haven't has session zero yet, and I think my players would like an open world.

[Ninja_Prawn]

If the evil wizard is imprisoned up until the final battle, who will the players fight up until that point? A cult of some kind is a start, but the key to making it work is to have a person - a face with a name - that drives the plot. There needs to be someone actively trying to stop the players obtaining/completing the artifact, because otherwise, it's just the players working on an item for x amount of time, and then automatically winning when it's done. Even if some dungeon-delving is necessary to collect parts or whatever, I don't think that's really a satisfying plot on its own.

Also, given that there's so much material to draw from for the primary antagonist (Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen & Elsa from Frozen, Jadis from The Chronicles of Narina, the archfey Koliada from the D&D canon, etc.), it seems a waste for her to not be doing anything during the story. Maybe she should break free before the players are ready, and start freezing the world over, making their task much harder?

[Bunny Commando]

If the evil wizard is imprisoned up until the final battle, who will the players fight up until that point? A cult of some kind is a start, but the key to making it work is to have a person - a face with a name - that drives the plot. There needs to be someone actively trying to stop the players obtaining/completing the artifact, because otherwise, it's just the players working on an item for x amount of time, and then automatically winning when it's done. Even if some dungeon-delving is necessary to collect parts or whatever, I don't think that's really a satisfying plot on its own.

Good advice here - e.g. in the LotR Sauron is certainly the BBEG but the Witch-King of Angmar and Saruman are the ones that try to stop the heroes.

IMHO, your Frostfell Queen seems serviceable; I would add another layer to her story so the players could have some food for thought - while the story says she was evil and tried to bring an Ice Age to the world and only the bravery of a Cleric saved everyone the truth could be different: maybe she wasn't as evil as everyone think and she attempted the ritual to keep a faltering divine spark alive, maybe the Cleric even helped her and when everything went wrong he tried to fix the whole mess.

[dededo11]

If the evil wizard is imprisoned up until the final battle, who will the players fight up until that point? A cult of some kind is a start, but the key to making it work is to have a person - a face with a name - that drives the plot. There needs to be someone actively trying to stop the players obtaining/completing the artifact, because otherwise, it's just the players working on an item for x amount of time, and then automatically winning when it's done. Even if some dungeon-delving is necessary to collect parts or whatever, I don't think that's really a satisfying plot on its own.

Also, given that there's so much material to draw from for the primary antagonist (Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen & Elsa from Frozen, Jadis from The Chronicles of Narina, the archfey Koliada from the D&D canon, etc.), it seems a waste for her to not be doing anything during the story. Maybe she should break free before the players are ready, and start freezing the world over, making their task much harder?

I was thinking she could have a cult of undead created by her that awaken as the seal on her grows weaker. They could work to prevent the players from completing the artifact.

I kinda like the idea of her breaking free before the artifact is ready. It adds a sense of urgency to the players mission. But then, why wouldn't she go after the players herself to prevent them from completing the artifact?

[Nidgit]

I think I'd add a different villain/group as a secondary antagonist. Perhaps a wizard attempting to replicate the spell for himself or some warlord after the artifact to bend the Queen to his will. In both cases I could see the secondary villain perishing early or making it all the way to the climax, depending on how your story acts. A little bit of factionalism and intrigue can help to spice up a straightforward plot.

As far as your cult of undead idea, maybe they could be led by a vampire or empowered wight?

[The Outsider]

I was thinking she could have a cult of undead created by her that awaken as the seal on her grows weaker. They could work to prevent the players from completing the artifact.

I kinda like the idea of her breaking free before the artifact is ready. It adds a sense of urgency to the players mission. But then, why wouldn't she go after the players herself to prevent them from completing the artifact?

Well, she might not know what they're up to. Sure, she might know about the original cleric, but he sealed her away and THEN tried to create the artifact. Communicating with an Elder Evil is... challenging, to say the least, and if she's been imprisoned she's highly unlikely to know what's going on in the world around her. Part of the urgency of her breaking out, in addition to Hell freezing over, could be "We have to complete this before she realizes what's going on, or we're toast."