I am going to write a campaign, I haven't gotten past ideas, but the biggest thing is that I can't think of a BBEG. The campaign is going to initially be from level 1-7 or something, so can you please give me some ideas for what to use. I only have the PHB, so the BBEG have to be with in either the PHB or the basic rules
(Me and all my players are very new to D&D and I don't think that my players are going to like intrigue.)
I'd likely stick to something a bit cliched such as a Necromancer. Have some investigation sessions that lead to dungeon crawls and lots of combat as the players try to track down the vile Necormancer. Motive wise, the Necromancer is trying to build a flesh golem so the players might stumble across a body with a limb missing or you can have town criers giving out news of murders and the local watch/militia are looking to hire mercenaries to investigate. Depending on how confident your players are and you are as a DM you can start of with traditional undead such as zombies and skeletons, work your way upto ghosts and flameskulls and have a final boss fight against the Necromancer and their newly awakened flesh golem, go for a slightly more evil version of Dr Frankenstein.
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you say you haven't gotten past ideas So what ideas have you got for your campaign so far, I think ideally your BBEG should fit in and almost grow naturally out of those ideas give us a taste of what your thinking, what do you think you and your players will have fun doing?
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
What ideas have you thought of so far? Where will the campaign take place? Is it high magic or low magic? Are there any important NPCs you've come up with? Any important locations?
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
There's one thing you should think about, then. Why not run an official adventure?
I'm not saying that you should, but what makes it so that you would rather run a homebrew adventure? Why do you want to do additional work when you could use a prewritten adventure instead? That's something every DM should consider.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
My current campaign the first bbeg is an aboleth, intending them to fight it at about level 6. I am running it as an invasion of the body snatchers story, the whole start of the campaign is based in and around a town meaning the players can start getting to know a large number of NPCs really well, from about level 3 the Aboleth will start enslaving towns folk. A number of adventures from level 4-5 are designed to take them away from town for several days or maybe a week or 2 meaning that they will slowly find the town shifting against them, the town council offering them less jobs, becoming less concerned about the strange things happening. At level 5 I am going to have a child the players have already started to like come to them and tell them mummy and daddy are acting strange and get to the point where they feel the key members of town are against them.
At this point I will let them start to find out about aboleths as a species, I also have a wizard in town, who actually released the Aboleth, is immune to its enslave ability and is helping the Aboleth by undermining the town council initially and then giving false clues mis way through (players think it’s a demon cult that is the bbeg).
You can run a good campaign with just smaller villains for each adventure. There doesn’t need to be any connection between episodes! It can be like the first season of The Witcher, where Gerald faces different foes every time.
I guess it depends on where do you want your campaign setting be. If it happens on a city state and its surroundings it could be a crime boss whose different operations (drug trade, slavery, kidnappings, murder of witnesses, theft of magical artifacts) they interfere with and then they decide to get rid of the players. Or a prince trying to discredit their elder sibling to inherit the throne themselves (just make up succession rules that would allow that).
Like, what do you feel DM? Sea adventure? Urban setting? Western? Escape from slavery? Exploration and colonization of a frontier/new land? The smurfs dnd version? School for heroes? Space opera? Underdark? Political intrigue? Straight up fight against demon king or undead army? Post apocalyptic setting? Monsters defending their home from adventurers?
Mmm... would have to support Thauraeln_The_Bold and NaivaraArnuanna there I'm not getting the basic skeleton of what you want your campaign to be... I started with The Lost Mine of Phandelver and then added scenes of my own little one off's if you like...
Other then that I would highly recommend Sly Flourish Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
oh and if your really just looking for cool mastermind end boss type monster from the basic rules I think you could do alot worse than a Oni It's Change Shape ability really lends itself to allowing you to have the players interact with it well before the big BBEG showdown
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
You could always have your players make their characters and write their backstories and then base your BBEG off of one of their backstories. Bonus points if you can take their separate backstories and find a common ground between them to grow into your adventure and your villains. For example, I once had a player that had a backstory where their whole village was wiped out by a local criminal syndicate and they wanted revenge. In the same group a different player gave me a backstory about how he was raised in a life of crime and grew up around others who used his natural magical abilities to create black market spell scrolls and alchemical drugs until he got fed up and ran away.
So I just combined the two and revealed that the same syndicate that had slaughtered said village was also the one that raised the other player. In their adventure they were forced not only to reconcile their view of each other (one originally thought anyone with criminal origins was scum and the other that the people he hurt weren't nameless and faceless, but actual people's lives) but also to confront their respective pasts and ultimately fight the BBEG in charge, who was originally created in one of their backstories. Doing something like that not only makes it more personal for the characters, but the players as well. I find that players really respond well to their own ideas being incorporated into the adventure, rather than just being along for the ride you have planned. Plus, I never had a player who wasn't involved directly get bored or respond poorly, I think because A) I still give them plenty to do and think about along the way and B) they quickly realize that, if they keep playing after this story's conclusion, then it's possible the next adventure will be all about THEIR tragic backstory.
So basically you get your players to do the work for you and then they end up loving you for it.
If your party is chaotic evil. You can get a failing paladin to confront the party,the party kills them without a thougt and goes. This paladin becomes a death knight thats hellbent on revenge. Scouring the continent for their killer.
I reckon that as time goes on, you should reinforce the idea that some evil force is influencing the area. Maybe begin with some disappearances, and then eventually the characters confront the evil cult that is behind them and discover that they were sacrifices to open a gate to the Nine Hells. Then, slowly make the characters realize that the rift is still active as minor devils begin appearing around the area, and slowly begin to build a force to take the town and establish a foothold in the surrounding area. Eventually, the characters find the most powerful devil that escaped, a Bone Devil, and battle it for an epic boss battle. Once the battle ends, it becomes clear that the bone devil was linked to the portal and the rift closed after it died. If the boss fight is going too easy, maybe give the devil some special abilities related to its special link to the portal (maybe some lair actions related to teleportation or summoning hellish effects like fire?). Hope this is helpful!
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I am going to write a campaign, I haven't gotten past ideas, but the biggest thing is that I can't think of a BBEG. The campaign is going to initially be from level 1-7 or something, so can you please give me some ideas for what to use. I only have the PHB, so the BBEG have to be with in either the PHB or the basic rules
(Me and all my players are very new to D&D and I don't think that my players are going to like intrigue.)
I'd likely stick to something a bit cliched such as a Necromancer. Have some investigation sessions that lead to dungeon crawls and lots of combat as the players try to track down the vile Necormancer. Motive wise, the Necromancer is trying to build a flesh golem so the players might stumble across a body with a limb missing or you can have town criers giving out news of murders and the local watch/militia are looking to hire mercenaries to investigate. Depending on how confident your players are and you are as a DM you can start of with traditional undead such as zombies and skeletons, work your way upto ghosts and flameskulls and have a final boss fight against the Necromancer and their newly awakened flesh golem, go for a slightly more evil version of Dr Frankenstein.
Don’t plan one yet, let your game start and have the early levels play out and you will get some inspiration from the sessions.
you say you haven't gotten past ideas
So what ideas have you got for your campaign so far, I think ideally your BBEG should fit in and almost grow naturally out of those ideas
give us a taste of what your thinking, what do you think you and your players will have fun doing?
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Not really anything substasial, the biggest thing is that i would like haveing the BBEG, but also some other less dangerous foe
What ideas have you thought of so far? Where will the campaign take place? Is it high magic or low magic? Are there any important NPCs you've come up with? Any important locations?
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Of the thing you said I have thought of none of them
There's one thing you should think about, then. Why not run an official adventure?
I'm not saying that you should, but what makes it so that you would rather run a homebrew adventure? Why do you want to do additional work when you could use a prewritten adventure instead? That's something every DM should consider.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
My current campaign the first bbeg is an aboleth, intending them to fight it at about level 6. I am running it as an invasion of the body snatchers story, the whole start of the campaign is based in and around a town meaning the players can start getting to know a large number of NPCs really well, from about level 3 the Aboleth will start enslaving towns folk. A number of adventures from level 4-5 are designed to take them away from town for several days or maybe a week or 2 meaning that they will slowly find the town shifting against them, the town council offering them less jobs, becoming less concerned about the strange things happening. At level 5 I am going to have a child the players have already started to like come to them and tell them mummy and daddy are acting strange and get to the point where they feel the key members of town are against them.
At this point I will let them start to find out about aboleths as a species, I also have a wizard in town, who actually released the Aboleth, is immune to its enslave ability and is helping the Aboleth by undermining the town council initially and then giving false clues mis way through (players think it’s a demon cult that is the bbeg).
You can run a good campaign with just smaller villains for each adventure. There doesn’t need to be any connection between episodes! It can be like the first season of The Witcher, where Gerald faces different foes every time.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I guess it depends on where do you want your campaign setting be. If it happens on a city state and its surroundings it could be a crime boss whose different operations (drug trade, slavery, kidnappings, murder of witnesses, theft of magical artifacts) they interfere with and then they decide to get rid of the players. Or a prince trying to discredit their elder sibling to inherit the throne themselves (just make up succession rules that would allow that).
Like, what do you feel DM? Sea adventure? Urban setting? Western? Escape from slavery? Exploration and colonization of a frontier/new land? The smurfs dnd version? School for heroes? Space opera? Underdark? Political intrigue? Straight up fight against demon king or undead army? Post apocalyptic setting? Monsters defending their home from adventurers?
Mmm... would have to support Thauraeln_The_Bold and NaivaraArnuanna there I'm not getting the basic skeleton of what you want your campaign to be... I started with The Lost Mine of Phandelver and then added scenes of my own little one off's if you like...
Other then that I would highly recommend Sly Flourish Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
oh and if your really just looking for cool mastermind end boss type monster from the basic rules I think you could do alot worse than a Oni It's Change Shape ability really lends itself to allowing you to have the players interact with it well before the big BBEG showdown
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Go for an Alhoon, because I love those
You could always have your players make their characters and write their backstories and then base your BBEG off of one of their backstories. Bonus points if you can take their separate backstories and find a common ground between them to grow into your adventure and your villains. For example, I once had a player that had a backstory where their whole village was wiped out by a local criminal syndicate and they wanted revenge. In the same group a different player gave me a backstory about how he was raised in a life of crime and grew up around others who used his natural magical abilities to create black market spell scrolls and alchemical drugs until he got fed up and ran away.
So I just combined the two and revealed that the same syndicate that had slaughtered said village was also the one that raised the other player. In their adventure they were forced not only to reconcile their view of each other (one originally thought anyone with criminal origins was scum and the other that the people he hurt weren't nameless and faceless, but actual people's lives) but also to confront their respective pasts and ultimately fight the BBEG in charge, who was originally created in one of their backstories. Doing something like that not only makes it more personal for the characters, but the players as well. I find that players really respond well to their own ideas being incorporated into the adventure, rather than just being along for the ride you have planned. Plus, I never had a player who wasn't involved directly get bored or respond poorly, I think because A) I still give them plenty to do and think about along the way and B) they quickly realize that, if they keep playing after this story's conclusion, then it's possible the next adventure will be all about THEIR tragic backstory.
So basically you get your players to do the work for you and then they end up loving you for it.
My BBEG ideas are pretty terrible,mostly it’s eldritch creature after eldritch creature.
If your party is chaotic evil. You can get a failing paladin to confront the party,the party kills them without a thougt and goes. This paladin becomes a death knight thats hellbent on revenge. Scouring the continent for their killer.
I reckon that as time goes on, you should reinforce the idea that some evil force is influencing the area. Maybe begin with some disappearances, and then eventually the characters confront the evil cult that is behind them and discover that they were sacrifices to open a gate to the Nine Hells. Then, slowly make the characters realize that the rift is still active as minor devils begin appearing around the area, and slowly begin to build a force to take the town and establish a foothold in the surrounding area. Eventually, the characters find the most powerful devil that escaped, a Bone Devil, and battle it for an epic boss battle. Once the battle ends, it becomes clear that the bone devil was linked to the portal and the rift closed after it died. If the boss fight is going too easy, maybe give the devil some special abilities related to its special link to the portal (maybe some lair actions related to teleportation or summoning hellish effects like fire?). Hope this is helpful!