Lex Luther Style Villains in RPGs (share your stories)

[Scalenex]

By Lex Luther Villains I mean villains who would go down very quickly should the PCs actually physically attack them, but they manage to be a recurring threat anyway. For example, Vaarsuvius fried Kubata nigh effortlessly.

See in my games, whether I'm the DM/ST or a player and whether it be D&D or a d10 WOD game, repeating villains are really hard. Repeating villains that are physically weaker than the PCs are even harder.

Pretty much as soon as the PCs realize"Hey this guy is behind all our problems" they say "Hey we should kill him." Sometimes we use naked force, sometimes very clever spy-style assassinations, but they never go on to be a thorn in the PCs side later. Not without some uncanny, almost certainly supernatural, escape plan that which usually requires the villain to wield powers at least on par with the PCs.

Thus our repeating villains tend to be faceless agencies and super powerful individuals. So if you guys have any successful stories about Lex Luther villains I'm all ears. Post your unsuccessful villain stories too if they are funny.

[elliott20]

it's hard to do with D&D mechanics.

But the only way I've ever managed to pull it off is if the system has some way that allows for a low character to pretty safely escape or if I give the villain some item too high for his level that he can use to quickly get on his feet and run. in SotC games, villains can just pay a fate point to activate some deus ex machina and let them get away. In D&D, you end up giving villains stuff like a ring of teleprot or some kind of nonsense to make it work.

[potatocubed]

The real problem is that PCs aren't Superman. They may have the powers of Superman, but most player characters will kill anyone who gets in their way without batting an eyelid. This leads to villains who have to be physically capable of fighting - or at least defending themselves against - the PCs or their entire plan gets ended in round one.

That doesn't mean that Luthor-style characters can't be done, it just means that they have to be extra-careful never to allow violence against them to become a viable option. Two methods include:

Anonymity. If the characters don't know who you are, they can't kill you. Except by accident.

Consequences. What if your death will lead to appalling consequences on a far greater scale than the characters can cope with?

[Dairun Cates]

I once irritated my players with a villain that literally could not be killed or restrained for any significant period of time. Fate wouldn't allow it.

Mind you, he also couldn't do anything significantly evil or to his own disadvantage or he'd get launched into space by that same fate, but he provided a definite tension. Eventually, the party gave up on trying to stop whatever thing he wanted them to do for him and had to wait for the inevitable confrontation.

[Narmoth]

Well, if the villain is protected by the law, and the pc can face consequences from the law, they would think twice of killing him:

The duke of Henchfort, a lvl 3 fighter is planning to depose the king, but he isn't himself a heir to the throne. The duchy of Henchfort is a powerful vassal of the kingdom, so if the players kill the duke without proving a conspiracy, the king will side with the dukes heir against the players, declaring the players enemies of the state and making it hard for them to stay in the kingdom, even if they are to powerful to actually be killed on sight by the guard.

[Scalenex]

Well, if the villain is protected by the law, and the pc can face consequences from the law, they would think twice of killing him:

The duke of Henchfort, a lvl 3 fighter is planning to depose the king, but he isn't himself a heir to the throne. The duchy of Henchfort is a powerful vassal of the kingdom, so if the players kill the duke without proving a conspiracy, the king will side with the dukes heir against the players, declaring the players enemies of the state and making it hard for them to stay in the kingdom, even if they are to powerful to actually be killed on sight by the guard.

My group would set up the mission to kill the duke without being tied to it. That's not an easy feat but once it happens the story is dead. Also a group of players can pretty much always outhink one DM or ST.

[Oslecamo]

it's hard to do with D&D mechanics.

But the only way I've ever managed to pull it off is if the system has some way that allows for a low character to pretty safely escape or if I give the villain some item too high for his level that he can use to quickly get on his feet and run. in SotC games, villains can just pay a fate point to activate some deus ex machina and let them get away. In D&D, you end up giving villains stuff like a ring of teleprot or some kind of nonsense to make it work.

Well, one or two scroll of teleport isn't that expensive, and it's a good plan C for any villain when it's minions go down.

It also explains why the villain isn't teleporting everywhere and anywhere, since he can't afford to burn scrolls of teleport like candy.

[Brauron]

Last year I ran the published Call of Cthulhu campaign, "Shadows of Yog-Sothoth." The villain of that, a sorceror named Carl Stanford, was something of a Lex Luthor type villain as written, but truly became so as I played him.

My players' hands still instinctively curl into fists at the mention of his name.

Some highlights:

A contingency teleportation spell cast on himself before the PCs got a chance to attack him, led to him disappearing in a cloud of red smoke just as one PC's baseball bat connected with him.

Having a contingency plan for raising R'lyeh in case the PCs foiled his main plan (which they did). When the PCs found artifact B, he was there almost immediately (dressed in a white panama suit) with a dozen armed cultists to take it from them, complete with a zeppelin to make his escape in.

He was always cheerful and polite with the PCs, occasionally attempting to convert them to his cause, but never bearing them the slightest ill-will. I think that, more than anything else, was what led the players to hate him so much.

[AslanCross]

In my current campaign, the MBEG is a traitorous Marquis who probably would get smashed really quickly if he engaged in melee. However, he's a Beguiler 10.
Despite his being a caster, he's not entirely "Haha feel your sword shatter against my stoneskin" though he could very well do so (UMD).

The Black and the Purple players, out.

Spoiler

Show

The final encounter with him has the villain, Voltemand Cormaeril, standing on top of a tower on the roof of his castle while various lackeys surround him and prevent the PCs from catching him before his ride arrives. The application of solid fog and various illusions will slow down the PCs before they get close. Cormaeril himself either fights with wands or uses his violin (a re-skinned chime of harmonic agony) to send painful sonic shockwaves at the PCs.

But he'll be reduced to tomato paste if the paladin gets close enough to touch him.

[random11]

The real problem is that PCs aren't Superman. They may have the powers of Superman, but most player characters will kill anyone who gets in their way without batting an eyelid. This leads to villains who have to be physically capable of fighting - or at least defending themselves against - the PCs or their entire plan gets ended in round one.

That doesn't mean that Luthor-style characters can't be done, it just means that they have to be extra-careful never to allow violence against them to become a viable option. Two methods include:

Anonymity. If the characters don't know who you are, they can't kill you. Except by accident.

Consequences. What if your death will lead to appalling consequences on a far greater scale than the characters can cope with?

There is a third method.
The "real" Lex Luther, survived because he never posed an immediate threat, and the heroes fighting against him were bound by law and morals not to kill an unarmed man.
Not easy to implement since in most fantasy campaigns the morals include "shoot first ask questions later", but if done correctly from the beginning of the world creation, and the party does not include chaotic or evil characters, they might be stuck and unable to kill the BBEG because he is physically weak.