Motivation is an Aggravation: building a better bad guy

[Bigbadpanda]

Hello all, I am a DM in need. I am running a game based in a world I created, there is a slew of races and classes running amok, the players go to a school for Heroism and Villany (meh Hogwarts) their headmaster is a prismatic Dragon (I know they don't exist in 5e I am using 3.5 spices to keep the game tasty) I built this Army of the Black Dragon, their emblem is a black dragon encircled by thorns, one of the mages of the army brands people before they die so they can never be rezed no healing no necro nothing. Anyhow, I am trying to figure out what my BBEG's motivations are, I mean other than I want this country to myself so I will wipe it clean....i mean why does he want to this.

Backstory on the BBEG
He is a Bronze Dragon, he takes the form of a man, and he is a younger dragon hardly even an adult when he killed his first dragon. a green.
now a few hundred years later he keeps dragons he has hunted down chained in his fortress, keeping them half alive and weak as living trophies.
but again why. now my players will probably never learn why he is doing this it won't matter to them. but in order for me to play the best most horrid bad guy ever I have to know this I have to figure it out. that all being said: Garsilith (the name I gave him) is only in the middle of his adult stage the absolute prime of his life. I lean heavily into the fact that a dragon's presence affects the world around it. so when you go there you know there is a bronze dragon there. but to top it off he has other chromatics and a few metallic in there as well. so it is safe to assume that the area that he calls home is a chaotic mess.

some ideas I have kinda come up with that may have made him loony:

Drinking dragons blood from his first kill Dragons blood is used by some humans as a drug give people wild magic abilities for a period of time is addictive and euphoric. soo maybe.

Blood lust he just got a hard-on for killing dragons bigger than him and is saving them like a big game hunter would. (I don't like this idea its lame as hell)

he is being corrupted by the magic of the chromatic dragons he has imprisoned

this is all I have for now. please if you have any other Ideas or tidbits of lore that may help me round this mad dude out that would be fabulous

[Unoriginal]

How about he's trying to prove a point to Bahamut? Specifically, that metallic Dragons should deal with the chromatic ones, since they can.

[Gecks]

A few ideas, kind of related:

Dragon serial killer. He killed a dragon once, and realized he liked it. He focuses his twisted desires on chromatic dragons so that he can tell himself what he is doing is somehow righteous, but it is really filling an addiction, a need, to cause pain to other dragons. The living trophies he keeps aren't just starving and weak, he's been hurting them, and the PCs will find them missing eyes, limbs, teeth. Some will have lost their minds and need to be put down- this will feel not like a mini-boss battle, but a grim mercy.

Achilles dragging Hector's body behind his chariot. The green dragon he killed wronged him in some way , and he truly hated it. After he finally killed it, nothing really changed; he was still consumed with hatred- it had become a way of life at this point- but now he had nowhere to put it. So he just kept hunting evil dragons, with each dragon really being a stand-in for the green dragon he could only kill once.

Why not both? The above motivations aren't mutually exclusive, and are in fact probably complimentary, so you could layer-cake both motivations into the same BBEG for depth.

[GooeyChewie]

Bronze dragons are typically Lawful Good, so you could go the "over-enthusiastic enforcer" route. Perhaps Garsilith attacks anything he considers evil on sight, and automatically considers anyone who dares have even a slightly different opinion on something to be evil. Dare to be born a chromatic dragon? Attack! Dare to commit a crime in my territory? Attack! Dare to like chocolate better than vanilla? Attack! If you do go this route, Garsilith might even consider it a "mercy" to keep those other dragons locked up and mostly dead rather than outright killing them as they deserve.


I'm curious how the Army of the Black Dragon plays into the story. Is it aligned with the players? The dragon? A third party? Knowing how they factor in could lead to some potential story ideas.

[Democratus]

If this branding of bodies prevents ressurection, the brand must be a powerful artifact of some kind.

It begs the question: where do the souls of these "branded dead" go? Is he collecting them for some grand purpose?

What would a Bronze Dragon be able to accomplish with a large number of weakened chromatic dragon and thousands of collected souls?

Maybe the answer to your question lies in that.

[Bigbadpanda]

Bronze dragons are typically Lawful Good, so you could go the "over-enthusiastic enforcer" route. Perhaps Garsilith attacks anything he considers evil on sight, and automatically considers anyone who dares have even a slightly different opinion on something to be evil. Dare to be born a chromatic dragon? Attack! Dare to commit a crime in my territory? Attack! Dare to like chocolate better than vanilla? Attack! If you do go this route, Garsilith might even consider it a "mercy" to keep those other dragons locked up and mostly dead rather than outright killing them as they deserve.


I'm curious how the Army of the Black Dragon plays into the story. Is it aligned with the players? The dragon? A third party? Knowing how they factor in could lead to some potential story ideas.


so the Black Dragon Army is HIS army he gave the MAge the power to destroy the souls of those he brands. and while yes they are typically LG or just Good in general its the reason I chose it. your race does not dictate your path, just because he is born a metallic dragon does not mean he falls within their personality norms. he is evil he loves it. and if you arent with him...you are in the way.

[Bigbadpanda]

If this branding of bodies prevents resurrection, the brand must be a powerful artifact of some kind.

It begs the question: where do the souls of these "branded dead" go? Is he collecting them for some grand purpose?

What would a Bronze Dragon be able to accomplish with a large number of weakened chromatic dragons and thousands of collected souls?

Maybe the answer to your question lies in that.

so the brand that is used doesn't collect the souls, it destroys them...I honestly half-ass created this thing to set off my grave cleric. The god is a god of revival and second chances to learn that these souls will not ever move on much less have the ability to raise them in fashion is a complete slap in the face to her beliefs. IT had such a larger effect than expected so now it is playing a greater role than I meant it to because even the soldiers in the army are marked so when they die they can't be resurrected and forced to betray their master.


as far as Garsilith's Trophies are concerned, I first felt maybe he is siphoning off their magic, then I read about dragon's blood is an addictive drug and thought well maybe that it. but at the same time, it doesn't seem enough. for the most part, he keeps them around as reminders of his "greatness" he beat them, dragons bigger and older than himself. I do know for the most part these dragons are no longer a threat to humanoids they have no strength left to live much less fight. I should also say his collection isn't limited to Chromatics and that he will have one or two Metallics in his prison.

[Sorinth]

It's somewhat strange for a dragon to make an army but then use a different colour in the name. Especially given his hunt/kill all other dragons philosophy.

Is it intentionally trying to be misleading? And if so why it shows a degree of not caring about Ego which would be rare for an evil dragon intent on killing other dragons.


I would probably have Dragon blood from many different types of dragon be essential to the ritual that prevents souls from being resurrected. That gives the dragon a reason to keep the other dragons alive as they are the source of the blood. This way it can also be used as clues when the players/npcs investigate a branded dead person. Discovering that it's a mixture of fresh dragon blood that should be super rare/expensive but is used so commonly by the mage can be lead for the players to follow in identifying the BBEG.

[Bigbadpanda]

It's somewhat strange for a dragon to make an army but then use a different colour in the name. Especially given his hunt/kill all other dragons philosophy.

Is it intentionally trying to be misleading? And if so why it shows a degree of not caring about Ego which would be rare for an evil dragon intent on killing other dragons.


I would probably have Dragon blood from many different types of dragon be essential to the ritual that prevents souls from being resurrected. That gives the dragon a reason to keep the other dragons alive as they are the source of the blood. This way it can also be used as clues when the players/npcs investigate a branded dead person. Discovering that it's a mixture of fresh dragon blood that should be super rare/expensive but is used so commonly by the mage can be lead for the players to follow in identifying the BBEG.


I did choose it to be misleading, but his main prized Trophy is a black dragon, it even has a place of "honor" at his feet. and I suppose I named the army before even creating my bad guy. initially, it was an army attacking the school killing people on the continent, and overall destroying everything that the Headmaster of the school build. the players don't know this but this is a Dragon-heavy game, the headmaster is a dragon.

so I didn't come up with Garsilith until later, because what if the bad guy doing all this was a Metallic dragon because that would be super messed up he is supposed to be good. I chose Bronze because my Mage's mentor who took care of his is a Bronze half-dragon (I know that doesn't exist either....3.5 spiciness) so when they confront this guy and my mage sees what he is he will be conflicted, he hates this guy but he is also just like his Mentor. I like creating emotional conflict for my players if keeps them on edge so everything I do caters to them.

though the blood being a component thing maybe something to think about, It didn't occur to me that could be an option for why he keeps them alive other than his pride.

[Sorinth]

I did choose it to be misleading, but his main prized Trophy is a black dragon, it even has a place of "honor" at his feet. and I suppose I named the army before even creating my bad guy. initially, it was an army attacking the school killing people on the continent, and overall destroying everything that the Headmaster of the school build. the players don't know this but this is a Dragon-heavy game, the headmaster is a dragon.

so I didn't come up with Garsilith until later, because what if the bad guy doing all this was a Metallic dragon because that would be super messed up he is supposed to be good. I chose Bronze because my Mage's mentor who took care of his is a Bronze half-dragon (I know that doesn't exist either....3.5 spiciness) so when they confront this guy and my mage sees what he is he will be conflicted, he hates this guy but he is also just like his Mentor. I like creating emotional conflict for my players if keeps them on edge so everything I do caters to them.

though the blood being a component thing maybe something to think about, It didn't occur to me that could be an option for why he keeps them alive other than his pride.

Ok, so here's my take. Hope you like it.

Garsilith is just your classic evil scientist villain. Whether there's some overarching research goal or it's just about pushing the boundaries of knowledge is mostly irrelevant. Garsilith with the help of the army/followers go out and capture magical beings and experiments on them. In particular the focus is on dragon blood which holds lots of magical properties but is inherently unstable and usually loses those properties within a week.

Garsilith has a menagerie of weakened dragons and possibly other magical creatures (Unicorns, Manticores, etc...) that are experimented on and fuels potions/magic items that Garsilith provides to the army. Since the items require fresh blood (no older then 1 week) you can even have some of these fall into the hands of the PCs and not worry about balance since they will become inert fairly quickly. Garsilith's next set of experiments requires Prismatic dragon blood so Garsilith wants the headmaster. The previous attacks are/were about weakening/misleading the headmaster in order to put the headmaster in a vulnerable situation so that Garsilith and the army can attack and kidnap the headmaster.

For the name it's either a complete misdirect, maybe the headmaster has a black dragon archnemesis out there. Or Garsilith captured the original black dragon who already had the army and Garsilith simply took over the followers and didn't bother to change the name. Or the first experiments were on a black dragon, the name comes from those initial magic items that were fueled with black dragon blood.

[GooeyChewie]

so the Black Dragon Army is HIS army he gave the MAge the power to destroy the souls of those he brands. and while yes they are typically LG or just Good in general its the reason I chose it. your race does not dictate your path, just because he is born a metallic dragon does not mean he falls within their personality norms. he is evil he loves it. and if you arent with him...you are in the way.

That helps a lot!

If he's evil, he might have 'defected' from Bahamut, opting to serve Tiamat instead. Perhaps he resents the common assumption that he HAS to be a goody-goody-two-shoes just because of his scales. Latching on to the idea that he keeps the dragons for ritual components, perhaps he's trying to give Tiamat domain over metallic dragons. Perhaps he named his army after a chromatic dragon because he respects their pragmatism (evil will win because good is dumb!), and chose black because they share a breath weapon. I would probably stop short of having him want to become a black dragon, because at that point you risk slipping into some heavy real-world issues regarding identity.

[Democratus]

An artifiact that can destroy an unlimited number of souls is a pretty big deal. You might even get some gods involved, due to its ability to basically short-circuit the entire afterlife cycle.

Maybe the brand was first used on the dragon. And the only way for the dragon to break the curse and get its soul back is to destroy 10,000 other souls.

[Bigbadpanda]

An artifiact that can destroy an unlimited number of souls is a pretty big deal. You might even get some gods involved, due to its ability to basically short-circuit the entire afterlife cycle.

Maybe the brand was first used on the dragon. And the only way for the dragon to break the curse and get its soul back is to destroy 10,000 other souls.

its not an item, its more of a spell. and he isn't the one using the spell, he taught it to his High mage who marches with the army. While the spell is powerful and the gods have already gotten involved, it is not the core of the issue. while the idea that he is using the spell to break a curse would be good in another situation it doesn't fit the image that I have for Garsilith. Thank you very much for your Idea though I may well put it to use somewhere else.

[cullynthedwarf]

Still though, the idea of an artifact (meant as an object not power level) as the source of the soul destruction spell is a good one, it also provides a dual purpose for his trophy hunting. Perhaps each unique Drago type he subdues is another charge on the item before it must be recharged. One type, one charge, two types two charge, ect. ect.

I do like the idea as well that this bronze is a psychopath and is hunting other dragons. Since we haven't heard much about the gods in this, it's possible that garsilith is not doing this to break from one dragon god or beseeching another with his actions. Some times a lunatic is just a lunatic.

Throwing out this bad "good dragon" as an option will there be others that have broken from the norm, a good evil dragon or atleast neutral? Or an ethics shift? A white or black dragon that becomes honorable though still evil? A gold or silver that likes to play tricks or pranks? Just a thought

[Bigbadpanda]

I am still look for more ideas to round out my bad guy. I have had some good ones so far

[Unoriginal]

What if the BBEG is using the corpses of the dragons he kills to build a enormous combat suit/mecha?