What are some of the big bads that you have put against your players? Were they great and powerful monsters? Calculating entities who hid in the shadows? Corrupt magic welders or brutes who used their political or physical power to subjugate others? For me, one of the villains I threw against the party was a cult fanatic named the stirge lord. He had extremely goofy mannerisms, and a nose like doogenshirtz. He managed to kill a player, and has a memorable theme. I'm interested to know what your villains did.
A community that believe that magic makes people lazy and entitled. As a result their council (and council leader) sought to literally tear the weave apart.
The council's leader - Elore - was a Drow who as a young girl saw her town attempt to kill a god through a ritual. The town were partially successful, but the gods punished the country by destroying the entire area and turning every humanoid in the country into some form of monstrosity or abberation. Elore was the only survivor. Find refuge in a city, she soon developed a network of friends and began to tell her tale. Convincing most people she met that the gods were in fact evil, the society she had found herself in soon began to side with her. As a result the city and it's people found out that destroying the weave and eliminating magic would also kill all of the gods.
By the time the party come into the world and begin adventuring, Elore has found the location of an artefact needed to begin the work. The city has amassed an alliance of likeminded people and have sent out forces to track down the other artefacts.
When the party meet with Elore, they have the opportunity to speak with her people. She welcomes them in and offers not to hurt the party so long as they agree the same. The party then have a choice to join Elore and her people, or to stand against them.
One party heard her out, spoke with her people, but left the stronghold to ultimately steal the artefacts. Another party outright refused the offer and didn't engage with Elore, having secured all but one artefact. They now need to track down the last artefact before Elore's forces.
You've got a pretty good villain there. I wonder how far she would go to achieve her goals, and whether or not if she could be redeemed by the party.
She is unwavering in her beliefs. It's taken her 40 years of work to get to the point where the party learned about her and the army she leads. In her eyes, she's actually trying to redeem the party. The ritual in question required the sacrifice (willing) of 100 sentient humanoids. Said ritual would need to be repeated five times (mechanically I didn't want to risk spells just no working, so I made it five artefacts of the gods...so all five artefacts are used to kill the gods, destroy the weave, and eliminate magic). That's 500 lives sacrificed. On top of that, she gave three settlements 48 hours to surrender or allow peaceful access to their libraries or resources. All refused and as a result were destroyed. The body count of the army and thus the society was like 4000-7000 people.
A good villain though is never a big bad wolf. The BBEG is, in my opinion, a boring, stale and lazy example of worldbuilding. An antagonist that has an understandable motivation is always so much more real, grounded, and in most cases terrifying.
It's about the methods that the antagonist(s) use to achieve their goals.
What are some of the big bads that you have put against your players? Were they great and powerful monsters? Calculating entities who hid in the shadows? Corrupt magic welders or brutes who used their political or physical power to subjugate others? For me, one of the villains I threw against the party was a cult fanatic named the stirge lord. He had extremely goofy mannerisms, and a nose like doogenshirtz. He managed to kill a player, and has a memorable theme. I'm interested to know what your villains did.
A community that believe that magic makes people lazy and entitled. As a result their council (and council leader) sought to literally tear the weave apart.
The council's leader - Elore - was a Drow who as a young girl saw her town attempt to kill a god through a ritual. The town were partially successful, but the gods punished the country by destroying the entire area and turning every humanoid in the country into some form of monstrosity or abberation. Elore was the only survivor. Find refuge in a city, she soon developed a network of friends and began to tell her tale. Convincing most people she met that the gods were in fact evil, the society she had found herself in soon began to side with her. As a result the city and it's people found out that destroying the weave and eliminating magic would also kill all of the gods.
By the time the party come into the world and begin adventuring, Elore has found the location of an artefact needed to begin the work. The city has amassed an alliance of likeminded people and have sent out forces to track down the other artefacts.
When the party meet with Elore, they have the opportunity to speak with her people. She welcomes them in and offers not to hurt the party so long as they agree the same. The party then have a choice to join Elore and her people, or to stand against them.
One party heard her out, spoke with her people, but left the stronghold to ultimately steal the artefacts. Another party outright refused the offer and didn't engage with Elore, having secured all but one artefact. They now need to track down the last artefact before Elore's forces.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
You've got a pretty good villain there. I wonder how far she would go to achieve her goals, and whether or not if she could be redeemed by the party.
She is unwavering in her beliefs. It's taken her 40 years of work to get to the point where the party learned about her and the army she leads. In her eyes, she's actually trying to redeem the party. The ritual in question required the sacrifice (willing) of 100 sentient humanoids. Said ritual would need to be repeated five times (mechanically I didn't want to risk spells just no working, so I made it five artefacts of the gods...so all five artefacts are used to kill the gods, destroy the weave, and eliminate magic). That's 500 lives sacrificed. On top of that, she gave three settlements 48 hours to surrender or allow peaceful access to their libraries or resources. All refused and as a result were destroyed. The body count of the army and thus the society was like 4000-7000 people.
A good villain though is never a big bad wolf. The BBEG is, in my opinion, a boring, stale and lazy example of worldbuilding. An antagonist that has an understandable motivation is always so much more real, grounded, and in most cases terrifying.
It's about the methods that the antagonist(s) use to achieve their goals.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.