As the old saying goes: a story is only as strong as its villains.
I'm currently struggling to come up with an idea for a villain for my next campaign, so I'm curious, if any of you would be willing to share what some of your favorite villains you've ever encountered and/or come up with were, and what they were like/what was their plan?
As for me, my favorite villain I've ever created is basically a play on Kara from Jake Long, but evil (or Junko form Danganronpa to some degree, really).
For those unfamiliar with the character, Kara can see the future, but only the positive stuff, so, over time, she became incredible apathetic and borderline depressed, as her life is completely devoid of any surprises, excitement or suspense for things yet to come, as she knows what's going to happen long in advance, ruining any sense of anticipation or joy at good news, a pleasant surprise or an unexpected turn of events.
My villain had the ability to divine things with a 100% accuracy, causing her to grow similarly apathetic towards the world as Kara was - until she met the players, that is. For some reason the players, and only the players, could subvert her predictions. Though nobody knew how or why.
Now, one could assume she got livid at them for ruining her plans, but in reality she absolutely loved it, since it was the first time she'd felt genuine shock and surprise in forever.
She slowly became obsessed with the players and started to send obstacle after obstacle their way, just to see how they'd react, and to feel that rush of genuine surprise and anticipation again. She basically treated them as her own personal interactive reality TV show, which the players did not appreciate.
Sure, if you're a battle maniac, fighting a new monster or army every couple of days is cool and all, but ruining their social lives and putting their loved ones in danger to heighten the drama? Now that's going to far.
Ultimately they managed to track her down and put an end to her, but not before many interruptions and derailments at the hands of our villainess.
Now, she may not be the most vile person ever, but she still remains one of my favorite creations I've ever made ever.
I don't keep much track of my villains, so I couldn't tell you what my favorite is, but if you need help coming up with one, something simple is to just peruse fantasy art until something catches your eye, then explain why that person is doing whatever they're doing in the picture, how they got there, and what they'll do next. Then you can build off of that. I find that, once I find the right inspiration, it typically starts flowing from there.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
I don't keep much track of my villains, so I couldn't tell you what my favorite is, but if you need help coming up with one, something simple is to just peruse fantasy art until something catches your eye, then explain why that person is doing whatever they're doing in the picture, how they got there, and what they'll do next. Then you can build off of that. I find that, once I find the right inspiration, it typically starts flowing from there.
Oh, I have enough resources that I could easily draw from. Heck, I have half a dozen characters inspired by a variety of movies, books, video games and historical events, that I could break out at any point. However, I was hoping for a fun discussion with people who were actually passionate about their work and wanted to share their creation. It's a lot more fun that way. But I guess this is the wrong site for that.
The most iconic villain from my campaign would be an Ettin named Throwdown. They stand out because, realistically, they are a party-made villain.
Throw was born with a gift for magic & mechanics, and this allowed them to apprentice to an artificer. Down, on the other hand, was born with a deep-seated rage and a shallow temper.
For the game, I made them into an armourer artificer, who could also rage (and take advantage thereof whilst in armour). They wielded two huge, curved swords with reach and had the sentinel/polearm master combo which they could use with them.
The party found them running an animal fighting arena in a colossal market, within a huge tent, and they opted to release all the animals, which resulted in the tent catching fire and collapsing. Their fight with Throwdown was brief, as they used Hold Monster to immobilise him, and then chance (being a large group of rhinos destroying the supporting structures of the building they were in) separated them, and Throwdown fled.
Next time they met him was when the artificer-paladin was brought to him at a tavern called the Pylon Inn in a solo-mission (they stayed behind and then aimed to catch up to the party), where Throw, reasonably, requested that the artificer-paladin retrieve a magical item for them from a dungeon, and their debt would be written off. Throw explained that they had been adventurers once, and then retired to run a business, which was recently burnt to the ground, and they lost everything. Throughout, Down (the other head) was obviously drugged, and made repeated attempts at violence, such as a hand creeping toward a knife. The Artificer-paladin retrieved the item, then decided it was too powerful to hand over, so claimed he found nothing and then left.
Later in the campaign, the party all arrived at the Pylon Inn, and the cleric opted to go and talk to Throwdown to try and gain access to a door in the top floor which led to the magical shop of an artificer they were trying to return to. They were extremely cagey, and Throwdown perceived that he was being deceived, so he told the Cleric he would tell him the truth when he came back, slapped two runes on the cleric and threw him from the building (many stories high). On the way down, the Cleric saw that one rune was Death Ward, and the other was a Glyph of Returning, so dispelled the glyph of returning, surviving the fall and fleeing back to the party. They sought assistance from the NPC Artificer using their sending stone, who promptly launched a folding boat through the door and destroyed the top floor. The party fled, and were pursued by Throwdown and his gang in mad-max-esque carriages with magical weaponry. In the ensuing fight, the Warlock attempted to hold monster on Throwdown, which failed - he tapped one of his helmets, and said directly to her "Oh no, not this time.". Eventually the party won, killing Throw with a blow to the neck. They went back for the corpse, but it was gone.
Later in the campaign, the Cleric used scrying to see Throwdown, and got nothing. Then he tried "Down", and saw the Ettin in a basement somewhere, still in armour, slowly rocking and muttering by a roaring fire. As he moved the viewer closer, he heard the muttering was "it'll be ok, just got to get you warm". As he moved around, he looked at their faces, and saw a rotting skull resting on the inside of one of the helmets - Throw was dead, and Down was clearly descending into madness. At this, they expressed confusion, and I directed the artificer player, who is also an armourer, to read the section on the artificer armour; when they read out "the armour replaces missing limbs, if needed", the table went into a stunned silence.
Much later, the Cleric checked in again, and found Down working on something on a workbench, still in armour, and realised that he was in a place owned by the BBEG of the campaign - a necromancer giant king. They are still speculating when Throwdown will reappear.
What makes Throwdown so amazing as a villain has been:
He comes back after some time.
He adapts to the party, creating a helmet to block hold monster.
He is being actively created by the party - he was retired, living comfortably, before they arrived.
His story is one of misery and horror. Most villains have a tragic backstory that the party tries to use to redeem them - for Throwdown, the party is the tragic backstory, and there is no realistic way that they can undo what they have done to him!
As a DM, my favorite villain that I ran was a cult leader named the Stirge Lord.
I originally had him designed as a "villain of the week" for the players, giving him a cult with only four members, and having an obsession with stirges.
He wasn't supposed to really be anything more than an obstacle, but I had made his personality on a dime, making him extremely wacky and zany, calling out his spells like an anime character, while maintaining several delusions. He looked extremely old and had a bowl cut while being 21 years old. He actually wound up killing one of my players (they entered melee while being a wizard and got hit with inflict wounds...)
However, I had so much fun playing as him that I would occasionally bring him back at points in the campaign after the party had already defeated him.
This weird man that I came up with on the spot became my favorite, if only because the power of improv. The players were also attached to him, as when I had mentioned he had been killed, they showed more emotion to his death then any other NPC in the campaign.
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As the old saying goes: a story is only as strong as its villains.
I'm currently struggling to come up with an idea for a villain for my next campaign, so I'm curious, if any of you would be willing to share what some of your favorite villains you've ever encountered and/or come up with were, and what they were like/what was their plan?
As for me, my favorite villain I've ever created is basically a play on Kara from Jake Long, but evil (or Junko form Danganronpa to some degree, really).
For those unfamiliar with the character, Kara can see the future, but only the positive stuff, so, over time, she became incredible apathetic and borderline depressed, as her life is completely devoid of any surprises, excitement or suspense for things yet to come, as she knows what's going to happen long in advance, ruining any sense of anticipation or joy at good news, a pleasant surprise or an unexpected turn of events.
My villain had the ability to divine things with a 100% accuracy, causing her to grow similarly apathetic towards the world as Kara was - until she met the players, that is. For some reason the players, and only the players, could subvert her predictions. Though nobody knew how or why.
Now, one could assume she got livid at them for ruining her plans, but in reality she absolutely loved it, since it was the first time she'd felt genuine shock and surprise in forever.
She slowly became obsessed with the players and started to send obstacle after obstacle their way, just to see how they'd react, and to feel that rush of genuine surprise and anticipation again. She basically treated them as her own personal interactive reality TV show, which the players did not appreciate.
Sure, if you're a battle maniac, fighting a new monster or army every couple of days is cool and all, but ruining their social lives and putting their loved ones in danger to heighten the drama? Now that's going to far.
Ultimately they managed to track her down and put an end to her, but not before many interruptions and derailments at the hands of our villainess.
Now, she may not be the most vile person ever, but she still remains one of my favorite creations I've ever made ever.
I don't keep much track of my villains, so I couldn't tell you what my favorite is, but if you need help coming up with one, something simple is to just peruse fantasy art until something catches your eye, then explain why that person is doing whatever they're doing in the picture, how they got there, and what they'll do next. Then you can build off of that. I find that, once I find the right inspiration, it typically starts flowing from there.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
Oh, I have enough resources that I could easily draw from. Heck, I have half a dozen characters inspired by a variety of movies, books, video games and historical events, that I could break out at any point.
However, I was hoping for a fun discussion with people who were actually passionate about their work and wanted to share their creation. It's a lot more fun that way.
But I guess this is the wrong site for that.
The most iconic villain from my campaign would be an Ettin named Throwdown. They stand out because, realistically, they are a party-made villain.
Throw was born with a gift for magic & mechanics, and this allowed them to apprentice to an artificer. Down, on the other hand, was born with a deep-seated rage and a shallow temper.
For the game, I made them into an armourer artificer, who could also rage (and take advantage thereof whilst in armour). They wielded two huge, curved swords with reach and had the sentinel/polearm master combo which they could use with them.
The party found them running an animal fighting arena in a colossal market, within a huge tent, and they opted to release all the animals, which resulted in the tent catching fire and collapsing. Their fight with Throwdown was brief, as they used Hold Monster to immobilise him, and then chance (being a large group of rhinos destroying the supporting structures of the building they were in) separated them, and Throwdown fled.
Next time they met him was when the artificer-paladin was brought to him at a tavern called the Pylon Inn in a solo-mission (they stayed behind and then aimed to catch up to the party), where Throw, reasonably, requested that the artificer-paladin retrieve a magical item for them from a dungeon, and their debt would be written off. Throw explained that they had been adventurers once, and then retired to run a business, which was recently burnt to the ground, and they lost everything. Throughout, Down (the other head) was obviously drugged, and made repeated attempts at violence, such as a hand creeping toward a knife. The Artificer-paladin retrieved the item, then decided it was too powerful to hand over, so claimed he found nothing and then left.
Later in the campaign, the party all arrived at the Pylon Inn, and the cleric opted to go and talk to Throwdown to try and gain access to a door in the top floor which led to the magical shop of an artificer they were trying to return to. They were extremely cagey, and Throwdown perceived that he was being deceived, so he told the Cleric he would tell him the truth when he came back, slapped two runes on the cleric and threw him from the building (many stories high). On the way down, the Cleric saw that one rune was Death Ward, and the other was a Glyph of Returning, so dispelled the glyph of returning, surviving the fall and fleeing back to the party. They sought assistance from the NPC Artificer using their sending stone, who promptly launched a folding boat through the door and destroyed the top floor. The party fled, and were pursued by Throwdown and his gang in mad-max-esque carriages with magical weaponry. In the ensuing fight, the Warlock attempted to hold monster on Throwdown, which failed - he tapped one of his helmets, and said directly to her "Oh no, not this time.". Eventually the party won, killing Throw with a blow to the neck. They went back for the corpse, but it was gone.
Later in the campaign, the Cleric used scrying to see Throwdown, and got nothing. Then he tried "Down", and saw the Ettin in a basement somewhere, still in armour, slowly rocking and muttering by a roaring fire. As he moved the viewer closer, he heard the muttering was "it'll be ok, just got to get you warm". As he moved around, he looked at their faces, and saw a rotting skull resting on the inside of one of the helmets - Throw was dead, and Down was clearly descending into madness. At this, they expressed confusion, and I directed the artificer player, who is also an armourer, to read the section on the artificer armour; when they read out "the armour replaces missing limbs, if needed", the table went into a stunned silence.
Much later, the Cleric checked in again, and found Down working on something on a workbench, still in armour, and realised that he was in a place owned by the BBEG of the campaign - a necromancer giant king. They are still speculating when Throwdown will reappear.
What makes Throwdown so amazing as a villain has been:
It's been a blast to roleplay him!
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As a DM, my favorite villain that I ran was a cult leader named the Stirge Lord.
I originally had him designed as a "villain of the week" for the players, giving him a cult with only four members, and having an obsession with stirges.
He wasn't supposed to really be anything more than an obstacle, but I had made his personality on a dime, making him extremely wacky and zany, calling out his spells like an anime character, while maintaining several delusions. He looked extremely old and had a bowl cut while being 21 years old. He actually wound up killing one of my players (they entered melee while being a wizard and got hit with inflict wounds...)
However, I had so much fun playing as him that I would occasionally bring him back at points in the campaign after the party had already defeated him.
This weird man that I came up with on the spot became my favorite, if only because the power of improv. The players were also attached to him, as when I had mentioned he had been killed, they showed more emotion to his death then any other NPC in the campaign.