A monster to serve as a twist villain (D&D/PF)

[quinron]

I've been interested for a while in the idea of an adventuring party working for a wealthy patron who is secretly a manipulative villain. The party perform seemingly good deeds that help people and make the world a better place but which also serve to accomplish steps in the villain's plan to seize greater power. My thinking is that after the twist happens, the villain will continue to accrue personal power gradually, leading to a series of confrontations that could last into the mid-to-high levels.

What are some interesting villains whose schtick is that they're been transformed from mortals? Obviously we've got vampires and liches, they're the classics, but I could also see a changeling embracing her transformation into a hag, or maybe an artificer or transmuter having his body transformed or replaced while retaining his intellect. Even someone undergoing an evil version of 3e's dragonborn transformation could be fun.

Any and all suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

[Robert's Dragon]

You could have the villain secretly be a transmuter that slowly gets twisted by the monster forms he transforms into. A large chunk of what he has the adventures do is collect creatures for his 'private collection'. Eventually the PCs realize that his creatures are causing some mayhem which is one of their first hints that things are wrong. Obviously the end fight would involve a modified True Polymorph spell.

[DrMartin]

I had this in a campaign once: the villain had unwillingly become undead contextually to the events that started the campaign, but still posed, through make-up and various artifices, as a living creature.
He was in fact, a politician in the city the campaign started, and was one of the quest givers and main political backers on the players' side.
His act got harder and harder to pull off as time went on, as his body would progressively decompose and rot. From some point he started using perfumes and incenses to cover the smell, would refuse to meet outside of his home, etc.
He would also progressively become more and more morally twisted as his undead state would also progressively take hold on him.
The players got hints of this because the favours he asked them to carry out become more ruthless and violent, this sort of thing.

In the end he was done in by a player rolling a wild magic surge when casting a spell during a meeting with him, resulting in a gust of wind which blew away the heavy perfumes he was using to cover the smell of his rotting flesh. The players were already suspecting at this time and quickly put 2 and 2 together, and started a plot to remove him from power - which was hard to do because he knew that they knew.

Good times!

[Drmccabe]

Come up with something the villain is after. He does all his hard work for something.
The seven basic emotions of the human are:
Anger
Happiness
Surprise
Disgust
Sadness
Fear
Contempt

Focus on one of these and give them a strong desire for it. Something they will go after no matter what the cost, and in this case the cost is through a lot of hard work and the help of others. He would be happy to work with anyone who can get the job done, including the PC's

An Example, Maybe this is a man (Kalifast of Coin) who was a slave as a child. Got out somehow. His motive surrounds a very particular woman (Penelope) in mind and all he knows about her was that she was known to be in this area several years ago.

quest ideas related to this villain
The Goat Farmer
- He's looking for a goat farmer he wants to do business with. He has a section of the woods he'd like to eliminate some undergrowth from and the goat farmer may like the spare feed for his goats, so long as anything toxic is cleared first by hand. This could be a win win. (That's how it's sold to the PC's).
- In reality, this farmer (Sven Goater) had ownership of Penelope for 2 years before selling her and Kalifast wants to know where she was sold to. So really he plans to interrogate.
- Perhaps, earlier in their adventure they made friends with a different Goat farmer who needed help with something (like a missing person quest) And if they suggest this other goat farmer who has ample resources, Kalifast immediately shuts the idea down with, "No it must be this man. I know his family and he is my prioritized pick." If they push more he gets more aggressive with his choice.
- On the way out to the farm, perhaps they run into something attacking the goats, a goblin on the road setting a trap, or some other small encounter just to give a "point" to the quest. Kalifast may even have said that there is some danger on the road, which is why he is hiring the PC's to do it.
- Rewards will change greatly for the quest depending on who the PC's are, but maybe Kalifast could offer to locate/collect/purchase (depending on the price) something the PC's are after or offer Information on someone or something they seek. If they are just looking for adventure, he has a story for them about a tomb of Jalrbuker, the Frost Giant Jarl of the Svejokival tribe. (or any other dungeon)
- Sven is actually quite the cautious, but negative man. During her time there, Sven would commonly beat Penelope for minor infractions. Sven makes some joke about her being worthless and the guy who bought her got screwed on the deal.
"What did you sell her for," he puts on a fake weak smile, trying to stay cordial, tying to keep his temper.
"I got three pigs for her. but she was barely worth one." he laughs for the first time in ages.
Kalifast swells with rage. "Who was the man?"
"I do not know, nor did I care. Why do you ask anyway?"
Kalifast stands from his chair, and in a flash, grasps the tunic of the aging farmer. And gritting his teeth he says, "Tell me what he looked like."
Sven flinches and looks around, unable to look Kalifast in the eye. "I..I do not know. He was a smithy from the area. One of the villages. He wore a green bangle, looked sentimental. I don't know the name, I swear." Kalifast releases Sven's collar, turning around to collect himself. "I don't know what I did to disturb you so. But I think I'll have my leave."
He cannot bear this wretched farmers presence any longer. Calmly he says "Yes. You shall." He reaches for his mug, grabs Sven again, and with a smoldering hatred in his eyes, and only his eyes, he beats Sven's head in, continuing to pulverize him long after he stops moving. The quiet, squishy thumps echoing in his mind for days after.
- You could let the PC's see this action. And if asked, he may say something like "That man did horrible things. He told me of those things and laughed about it, like it was a joke. Something came over me and I couldn't hold back, no matter how hard I tried."
- You could also NOT let them see this, instead having him close the shutters and excuse the PC's from his property. Maybe the PC's arranged the meeting for them, but did not have to show up to the property for the meeting.
- Clues for the PC's to notice something is a little off would be that if they revisit the farm or ask how the meeting went, Kalifast tells that he decided he had so much work to do he chose to buy the whole lot of goats and the farmers land for a fair sum. It was a good opportunity. If they Go to the farm, maybe one of the farmhands says they never heard of the farm being sold and Sven didn't return for any of his things.
- If they investigate the house, they may find that there are some wood boards of a different grain in Kalifast's home and that a rug has become somewhat discolored. They may also find a note between Kalifast and the church in town with the cemetery either requesting a burial, or letting Kalifast know which plot his loved one was buried into.
-None of these clues are particularly important or relevant, just fluff if the PC's choose to go looking for it. And it may change their mind on who this man really is.

Green Bangled Merchant - Hard to find him, Smithy died. Son released slaves.
Town She moved to - Find out she joined a cult
She joined a cult - Find out she was cursed somehow

She was turned to stone by an old god ritual and now they must collect some artifact or kill something nasty to get it's organs for the reversal ritual.


The whole time Kalifast gets progressively more excitable/angry at success/failure.

And of course, this quest may take months of in game time depending on NPC's and information rates. During these waiting periods he may give the PC's many other tasks to aide him in gaining influence, allies, magical items or powers, raw material, trophies, etc.

Endgame, some text they find is translated and tells him he has to become a powerful demon (or something)to break the curse on her, maybe the servant of a ancient dark god.

Make up the god, it’s more fun

[Duff]

There was a BECMI module which had a villain who'd used a magic jar spell to get a form of immortality.
In that version at least, the spell lasted until the jar was broken or the magic user returned to their own body
So if such a person was to possess a descendent or other household member, you could have different faces for the same recurring character

[Stonehead]

If its exposure to the general public is limited, it could be interesting if the villain was fully monstrous and using illusion magic instead of transformation magic.

Immediately, Dragons, Mind Flayers, and Beholders come to mind. But if you just give them a template that lets it cast spells, it could even be something weird, like a Cloaker, or a Roper, or any high-int monster.

[traskomancer]

I'm partial to Rakshasa for this kind of villain.

[quinron]

If its exposure to the general public is limited, it could be interesting if the villain was fully monstrous and using illusion magic instead of transformation magic.

Immediately, Dragons, Mind Flayers, and Beholders come to mind. But if you just give them a template that lets it cast spells, it could even be something weird, like a Cloaker, or a Roper, or any high-int monster.

I'm very into this idea, suddenly. It's like Charlie's Angels or Perdido Street Station - only the boss's closest lieutenants are allowed to see him, and even they might not know his true intentions. You could even cut out the illusion magic angle if you were willing to get into sufficient levels of intrigue, with the "good" characters not even realizing they're working for the monster due to the layers of obfuscation in organization.

[Clistenes]

The seven basic emotions of the human are:
Anger
Happiness
Surprise
Disgust
Sadness
Fear
Contempt

Today I learned that emotions suck...

[Wizard_Lizard]

A rakshasa that is secretly several npcs who the players run into, both as antagonists and protagonists. They can kill him a few times, but he's always back with a new face.

[Battlebooze]

Not to make fun of your concept, but your idea happens to be what goes on in every single Shadowrun style game I've ever played... I mean, I have to restrain myself from shooting the Mr. Johnson right at the start of the game to save time. :D

How about an adventuring party working for a powerful and rich patron, who eventually turns out to be an dangerous and evil monster. Only, TWIST not really!

Their patron could be a creature like a rakshasa, who was tricked by another enemy to put on a cursed artifact like a helm of reversed alignment. Now the Rakshasa wants to undo all the evils they have done before, and perhaps prevent something worse. They will still hide their nature all that they can, knowing no hero is going to trust them on face value.

A neat twist for this story could be that destroying the artifact that reversed the patron's alignment is an important eventual plot point. The Patron won't want it to happen because then they will revert to evil, but if the result of not doing it is worse...

[jjordan]

I've been interested for a while in the idea of an adventuring party working for a wealthy patron who is secretly a manipulative villain. The party perform seemingly good deeds that help people and make the world a better place but which also serve to accomplish steps in the villain's plan to seize greater power. My thinking is that after the twist happens, the villain will continue to accrue personal power gradually, leading to a series of confrontations that could last into the mid-to-high levels.

What are some interesting villains whose schtick is that they're been transformed from mortals? Obviously we've got vampires and liches, they're the classics, but I could also see a changeling embracing her transformation into a hag, or maybe an artificer or transmuter having his body transformed or replaced while retaining his intellect. Even someone undergoing an evil version of 3e's dragonborn transformation could be fun.

Any and all suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

How about murky patrons? The wealthy, self-made philanthropist (hospitals and orphanages) who is a crime-lord and using the players to take out his/her competitors? The local lord who is well liked and respected (in part because he hires adventurers to take care of threats to his people) who is plotting to discredit and kill the rulers of the territory next door in order to expand his economic base? The wealthy collector sending the players out to collect dangerous artifacts that are actively in use in order to atone for his past misdeeds by destroying them but is actually collecting them for a greater, nefarious goal? The patron who gradually succumbs to evil? It was the only way to achieve the overall goal? It seemed like a good idea at the time? Struck down by a curse?

[Glimbur]

I once ran an adventure where we convinced the party their quest giver was a dragon. He was not. He mostly added local color, the season 1 epilogue was in the form of a letter he wrote to the editor of the local paper. I forget what he did with the climactic battle at the end of the campaign, probably skedaddled.

[OldCouch]

How about an intelligent magic item? The players are initially hired to retrieve the magic item for the patron. Eventually they discover the patron has gone bad and stop them. Then the PCs are confronted by the evil villain again but it is clearly a different person. Cursed spell books can be useful (PCs copy the spells they are interested and then sell the book) or even better, a cursed coin. If the cursed coin plays possum, the PCs will spend it not even realizing that they had the main villain in their clutches.

Possession / magic jar abilities can be quite useful to allow PCs to defeat your evil big bad without having that villain out of the campaign. Also allows you to scale up the villain as it possesses bigger / better hosts.

[DwarfFighter]

Any and all suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

{Scrubbed}

[Pauly]

At the start the Patron is a warlock. With normal local political goals for an NPC of his/her level.
As time progresses the entity that the warlock has entered the pact into slowly gains control of the warliock. By the climax of the story the warlock is a mere flesh puppet for the power giver.
Possibly opens up a side storyline for saving the warlock from his power source if the party works out what is happening and are that way inclined.

[kazaryu]

I've been interested for a while in the idea of an adventuring party working for a wealthy patron who is secretly a manipulative villain. The party perform seemingly good deeds that help people and make the world a better place but which also serve to accomplish steps in the villain's plan to seize greater power. My thinking is that after the twist happens, the villain will continue to accrue personal power gradually, leading to a series of confrontations that could last into the mid-to-high levels.

What are some interesting villains whose schtick is that they're been transformed from mortals? Obviously we've got vampires and liches, they're the classics, but I could also see a changeling embracing her transformation into a hag, or maybe an artificer or transmuter having his body transformed or replaced while retaining his intellect. Even someone undergoing an evil version of 3e's dragonborn transformation could be fun.

Any and all suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

i mean, idk about interesting, not sure what you mean by that. i don't think the monster statblock has anything to do with creating an 'interesting villain'. that being said mummy lords are essentially liches, just...religious ones. so there's an idea there. some guy is promised 'eternal life' by his god. not realizing that whats being offered. so he does what his god wants, meanwhile his god corrupts him.

[King of Nowhere]

does the guy needs to be a monster in the first place?
i like it more if he's a regular dude.

heck, my very first long term plot was about a struggling frontier outpost facing threats from orc raiders. and then it turned out the orcs actually just wanted to be left alone, but they were being manipulated by the local noble, who was looking for an excuse to kick them away and put his hands on the land.
he gave the party easy jobs and good public relations, turning them into local heroes. then he set them up to be killed by orcs, to enflame the population.

when the party returned from the mission having barely survived, he tried to kill the party himself. the twist worked perfectly.

[quinron]

i mean, idk about interesting, not sure what you mean by that. i don't think the monster statblock has anything to do with creating an 'interesting villain'.

does the guy needs to be a monster in the first place?
i like it more if he's a regular dude.

I'm looking to fulfill a specific plot concept - the villain seems like a decent and pretty benevolent person until he literally gives up his humanity to gain power. I'm just not that into liches, who tend to be the go-to monster for the latter half of that concept.

[King of Nowhere]

I'm looking to fulfill a specific plot concept - the villain seems like a decent and pretty benevolent person until he literally gives up his humanity to gain power. I'm just not that into liches, who tend to be the go-to monster for the latter half of that concept.

So, you looking for "former human, gave up humanity for power" kind of monster?
I'm not aware of many of those. And all of them are spellcasters. A worm that walks is a possible alternative to liches, though conceptually similar. A werewolf can be supported by any class, but it's more of a curse people take unwittingly. Though perhaps in this case this villain got himself infected intentionally for the physical boosts.
I don't know other things that would fit. Personally, in such a situation i'd probably homebrew

[dspeyer]

Metallic dragons have the Change Shape ability and long lifespans that give rise to long plans. This one is protecting a port city and encouraging trade and industry so that wealth can be accumulated. (Sometimes he recruits adventurers to protect it if he doesn't want to do it himself for whatever reason.) Once *enough* wealth is accumulated, he'll take it all, kill everyone, and relax on a giant hoard.

Metallic dragons are always good? Maybe not in your setting. Or maybe he's half-chromatic (put the chromatic on the template side to get the evil alignment and the Change Shape ability): Half-Red Silver: immune to fire *and* cold! Or maybe there was a helm of opposite alignment. Or a sufficient rationalization can overcome the alignment.

The adventurers might try to convince him to leave the city intact and just tax it.

[quinron]

Metallic dragons have the Change Shape ability and long lifespans that give rise to long plans. This one is protecting a port city and encouraging trade and industry so that wealth can be accumulated. (Sometimes he recruits adventurers to protect it if he doesn't want to do it himself for whatever reason.) Once *enough* wealth is accumulated, he'll take it all, kill everyone, and relax on a giant hoard.

Metallic dragons are always good? Maybe not in your setting. Or maybe he's half-chromatic (put the chromatic on the template side to get the evil alignment and the Change Shape ability): Half-Red Silver: immune to fire *and* cold! Or maybe there was a helm of opposite alignment. Or a sufficient rationalization can overcome the alignment.

The adventurers might try to convince him to leave the city intact and just tax it.

I do really like the idea of a dragon's hoard being composed of non-liquid funds. Some dragons squat on piles of gold coins; this one squats on real estate equity and wheat futures.

[Baranthenkiola]

I Think neat twist for this story could be that destroying the artifact that reversed the patron's alignment is an important eventual plot point. The Patron won't want it to happen because then they will revert to evil, but if the result of not doing it is worse

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The adventures center around a mind flayer worshipping/converting cult. They recruit people and convince them to become mind flayers (which essentially kills them), and there's a lot of talk about being among the first to be devoured.

The Twist: There's an elder god sleeping deep beneath the city, every few thousand years he awakens ravenously hungry. Mind flayers have the right biology/intellect/power to satisfy its hunger, so long as there's a sufficient number of them present to cast themselves into its maw. If that works it goes back to sleep for several thousand more years, but if the PCs disrupt their efforts enough the elder god will go on an unstoppable rampage and devour everyone it can find (which would eventually be the entire world). The person they're working for is aware of this and thinks he can somehow control or manipulate the monster, then banish it to another plane or similar, enabling him to then take over rulership of the nation in the wake of its rampage.

[Democratus]

I'm partial to Rakshasa for this kind of villain.

Very much agreed.

In my last campaign we had a Rakshasa who was essentially "Q" from Star Trek.

He was condescending, snarky, and very entertaining. Immortality had brought him boredom, so he deicded that the party would be his personal entertainment.

[the_david]

A wererat vigilante leading the rat catcher's guild. The guild is just a front for a criminal organization. They might hire the party to get rid of some pests. This doesn't have to be a mischief of rats. Any kind of unwanted nonsentient creature will do. The guild has their own menagery of creatures they deem useful.

Possible rackets:
- The guild is secretly breeding rats to claim the reward for killing a rat.
- The guild is placing vermin into homes they want to burglar so they have a reason to enter the house and check the scene.
- The guild has acquired some dream spiders and has started to produce and peddle shiver.
- High ranking members of other criminal organizations have been found dead and ripped to shreds. The gray render has imprinted on the leader, and he has put the beast to good use.

[GravityEmblem]

I did that in my game with a Green Dragon, since in my world, all Dragons can transform into Humanoids at will (instead of just Metallic ones). The motivation was that Dragons are sort of pulled towards their particular alignment, kind of like Demons and Devils. Basically, "well, they're evil cause they're dragons" but with a bit more nuance. When the party found out, they basically said, "well, she's probably evil, but whatever" and left her alone, haha.

[quinron]

A wererat vigilante leading the rat catcher's guild. The guild is just a front for a criminal organization. They might hire the party to get rid of some pests. This doesn't have to be a mischief of rats. Any kind of unwanted nonsentient creature will do. The guild has their own menagery of creatures they deem useful.

I think I have to use this one as an introductory adventure, though tweaked: it's a broader "pest control"-style guild whose members are wererats and whose guildmaster can telepathically command rats, though not on a mass scale. He's moving the rats around to keep them out of basements, warehouses, etc., as he breeds and trains them, and he enlists the party as guild members to take care of all the things dwelling in the city that prey on rats. Once he's successfully bred and trained enough, he plans to take control of the city (or at least the neighborhood) with his rat swarms and wererat flunkies.

[Calthropstu]

Blue dragons are literally what you want.
Alternatives:
A cult working to create the amalgamation of brains from bestiary 5 (pf)
An illithid working behind the scenes
You find out the person you're working for is a worshiper of the king in yellow.
An oni would work.
A shapeshifted succubus/incubus
The guy turns out to be a robot.
The guy is possessed by (ghost, demon, devil, daemon etc)
The guy has made a strange deal with proteans who want something so strange it can't be beneficial.
The guy is performing numerous illegal (but not exactly evil) deeds at the behest of an azata. (Have fun with that one mr paladin)