I'm looking for some suggestions/advice on the Main Villain of my newest campaign. For some background, I'm still a relatively new DM, and I'm DMing for a group of almost all new players, who also happen to be the first group I've played with outside of my normal group. Due to this, I decided to go with a relatively simple (as much as possible) and easy to create plot that can go as long or short as I want it too. That all being said, I am finding a little Writer's Block with the Main Villain of this campaign.
The plot I'm aiming for is something like this:
Over the past few months, residence of a small(yet to be determined) city have been encountering some troubles in the form of a new criminal organization called "The Sect". The players will (depending on the characters I'm helping them work on) start the story as people who were all in the city and one way or another ended up captured by this organization. I'm angling for some revenge hooks for them, so I was going to have people or things important to them viciously destroyed in front of their eyes. The first arc will probably be a few episodes where they make their way to the" head" of this organization, only to find out that he is only a very small branch of the true organization. They'll come to find out that "The Sect" has been spreading through cities for years, and has massive and impressive control over large parts of the known world.
That all being said, I'm having trouble envisioning the head over the entire organization. I know he will be inhumanly charming, genius , ruthless, and will "collect" interesting people and things to further his own ends, but besides that I just don't know. Should I keep him a relatively normal humanoid, or should I go with something more intense like a vampire, demon, or incubus? What sort of abilities and magical items should he have?
Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for me!
The bad guy is the tavern keeper the party first encounters. What better way to keep track of the opposition? Listen to their tales, send them against minor rivals.
The bad guy is a ghost who takes over the bodies of other folk so even when the party catches him, they don't really catch him.
The bad guy is a tree deep in a forest with mis-guided druids and such doing its will.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I really like the idea of him making himself someone they trust and even who controls them for a bit of time! All great suggestions, but the top is my favorite so far!
Alternatively, he could be a shapeshifter who poses as a friendly face, and sends them on set-up suicide missions, after using them to dispose of his rivals.
This way he can use them, and even if they find out about him, they find out he murdered someone and impersonated them, so he can find ways to dispose of the party.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
hey kids do you like violence? wanna see me shove nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids?
all i can think of is someone like Giovanni from the pokemon universe. i mean make the main villain somebody that is a famous celebrity that is well liked by the general public, but in reality he is the head of the evil organization. he/she could be a succubis and that could explain how the main villain got to be at such a stature
There will be 6 players, and I was planning on keeping it sort of loose since they are all in college. Since I've never been higher than level 11 in my player games, I don't know what to expect. I did want to give the players the option of a full campaign though. I dont want to reveal the big baddie for a while though. I kinda want to give them the "chasing his coat tails" feeling. What do you think? Any suggestions?
Alternatively, he could be a shapeshifter who poses as a friendly face, and sends them on set-up suicide missions, after using them to dispose of his rivals.
This way he can use them, and even if they find out about him, they find out he murdered someone and impersonated them, so he can find ways to dispose of the party.
Hey Death_grips_is_online!
This is great, but I'm not sure it fits with the feeling I'm after for this. I probably should have made it clearer in my first post though. Yes, I did want them kidnapped by "The Sect" and hounded by them, but I was aiming more for them being "vaguely interesting but disposable" by the lower subordinates, and the destruction of all they hold dear was just a passing fancy. I was planning that the villain did directly order the destruction of the things they loved, but it was more just him being bored and playing with some new toys. He wont even remember it till the players actually start dealing major damage and he gets interested. I still like the idea of him using them to dispose of his rivals, but I don't really want him to think of the players of a threat till it's too late. I have the characteristics down for him, I just can't figure out what shape they will take.
all i can think of is someone like Giovanni from the pokemon universe. i mean make the main villain somebody that is a famous celebrity that is well liked by the general public, but in reality he is the head of the evil organization. he/she could be a succubis and that could explain how the main villain got to be at such a stature
Hey TallHats!
That was a lot like what I was going for! I just was unsure about making him a incubus(since yes, he will be a male) or another sort of demonic or monstrous being, or if it would have better impact as a human. I also have no idea what type of class I want to go for. My other campaign has a Animancer human woman as the main villain ( Animancer uses souls for their magic) and it just fits the story so well! I'm usually pretty great with characters and understanding where they fit, I'm just having MAJOR writers block with this one. *pout* I'll look more up about Giovanni though, and maybe it will spark some ideas. Thanks!
There will be 6 players, and I was planning on keeping it sort of loose since they are all in college. Since I've never been higher than level 11 in my player games, I don't know what to expect. I did want to give the players the option of a full campaign though. I dont want to reveal the big baddie for a while though. I kinda want to give them the "chasing his coat tails" feeling. What do you think? Any suggestions?
thechimericalcookie
Six players is a good high number. That means you can turn up the difficulty on your monsters a little bit. I get what you're saying and it's quite possible you may not be that far along in the story yet and that's ok too. But if you have some kind of idea of when you want them to hit this guy, it will go a long way toward deciding how powerful he should be and that will go a long way toward picking the particular type of enemy they will be facing.
If they will be at level five when they wrap up the arc and throw down with this guy, then you can stick to powerful humanoids--maybe a spellcaster who is behind the scenes running the show. If you expect them to be higher, then you might still want to consider using that guy as a low/mid-level local boss within the syndicate for them to go up against at that point. If the players will be level 10 when they face the big boss, then a CR15 Vampire Spellcaster and three of four Vampire Spawn could be a great villain to confront in his lair. You may wonder why a powerful vampire would be interested in organized crime. Maybe he feeds on the people he kidnaps or runs assassination contracts on. If he's dealing in drugs, perhaps he is lacing the drugs with something to watch the effects on the people for his own purposes. You'd think a big guy like that is interested in more than just running an organized crime ring for the money.
If you think the players will be level 15 when they wrap things up, again, you can use the vampire as a high level regional boss--perhaps one of a few the party has to kill to figure out how to get at the big boss. You can really pull out the stops at this point and throw something like an Ancient red Dragon along with some minions at the party. Why would a dragon be behind the scenes of an organized crime syndicate? I imagine something that powerful would be more interested in corrupting an entire kingdom from within. If he has a grudge against a king, I could see a dragon spending decades or centuries (which works for the vampires too) putting together a shadow society and slowly worming its way into the underbelly of the city or kingdom he wants to corrupt and destroy.
Just a few thoughts there for you. If you get your players to level 15 or higher, then you've got one hell of a campaign on your hands and by that point, the story will be writing itself so you won't need more than a framework and the players' adventures will fill in the blanks for you as you go.
There will be 6 players, and I was planning on keeping it sort of loose since they are all in college. Since I've never been higher than level 11 in my player games, I don't know what to expect. I did want to give the players the option of a full campaign though. I dont want to reveal the big baddie for a while though. I kinda want to give them the "chasing his coat tails" feeling. What do you think? Any suggestions?
thechimericalcookie
Six players is a good high number. That means you can turn up the difficulty on your monsters a little bit. I get what you're saying and it's quite possible you may not be that far along in the story yet and that's ok too. But if you have some kind of idea of when you want them to hit this guy, it will go a long way toward deciding how powerful he should be and that will go a long way toward picking the particular type of enemy they will be facing.
If they will be at level five when they wrap up the arc and throw down with this guy, then you can stick to powerful humanoids--maybe a spellcaster who is behind the scenes running the show. If you expect them to be higher, then you might still want to consider using that guy as a low/mid-level local boss within the syndicate for them to go up against at that point. If the players will be level 10 when they face the big boss, then a CR15 Vampire Spellcaster and three of four Vampire Spawn could be a great villain to confront in his lair. You may wonder why a powerful vampire would be interested in organized crime. Maybe he feeds on the people he kidnaps or runs assassination contracts on. If he's dealing in drugs, perhaps he is lacing the drugs with something to watch the effects on the people for his own purposes. You'd think a big guy like that is interested in more than just running an organized crime ring for the money.
If you think the players will be level 15 when they wrap things up, again, you can use the vampire as a high level regional boss--perhaps one of a few the party has to kill to figure out how to get at the big boss. You can really pull out the stops at this point and throw something like an Ancient red Dragon along with some minions at the party. Why would a dragon be behind the scenes of an organized crime syndicate? I imagine something that powerful would be more interested in corrupting an entire kingdom from within. If he has a grudge against a king, I could see a dragon spending decades or centuries (which works for the vampires too) putting together a shadow society and slowly worming its way into the underbelly of the city or kingdom he wants to corrupt and destroy.
Just a few thoughts there for you. If you get your players to level 15 or higher, then you've got one hell of a campaign on your hands and by that point, the story will be writing itself so you won't need more than a framework and the players' adventures will fill in the blanks for you as you go.
That really helps a lot TexasDevin! Thank you so much. I can really see my inexperience come out as I'm planning higher level things and so the "per level" advice really helps! I'm still gonna have to work though it, but this gives me a better framework to play with.
I really like Wysperra's Idea, the villain being the inn-keeper they encounter in the very beginning of the campaign. A classical mind-f*ck which reminds me of an awesome English movie a saw some years ago. Or the innkeeper could be the main villain's right-hand man, looking to supplant or overthrow him/her/it... Perhaps using the PCs as proxies or even allies, in the end?
As for what the main villain really is -- the fact that the organisation is called the Sect leads to sinister connotations. Perhaps it is only a ruse to frighten outsiders, the main villain being an ordinary human being. They can often be the worst villains, after all. Otherwise beings such as mind flayers and aboleths can lead to fun and horrifying continuations to the campaign in the underdark.
I really like Wysperra's Idea, the villain being the inn-keeper they encounter in the very beginning of the campaign. A classical mind-f*ck which reminds me of an awesome English movie a saw some years ago. Or the innkeeper could be the main villain's right-hand man, looking to supplant or overthrow him/her/it... Perhaps using the PCs as proxies or even allies, in the end?
As for what the main villain really is -- the fact that the organisation is called the Sect leads to sinister connotations. Perhaps it is only a ruse to frighten outsiders, the main villain being an ordinary human being. They can often be the worst villains, after all. Otherwise beings such as mind flayers and aboleths can lead to fun and horrifying continuations to the campaign in the underdark.
Yay! Sinister connotations for the name was what I was aiming for. I was worried that it would sound stupid, since I suck at naming things, but if it manages gets the feeling across then it can't be too awful! So I didn't roll a nat 1 on the name at least!
I agree with you on the "humans can be the worst villains" concept, but I also wanted to give the new-to-D&D players a chance to get the full experience, including playing against cool monsters and villains. I realize I can incorporate those things in other places, but I also wasn't sure whether a human or a monstrous or demonic humanoid would pack more of a punch story-wise.
I had not thought about delving into the underdark though, so that is definitely something I will consider.
Thanks for the input!
-thechimericalcookie
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Hello All!
I'm looking for some suggestions/advice on the Main Villain of my newest campaign. For some background, I'm still a relatively new DM, and I'm DMing for a group of almost all new players, who also happen to be the first group I've played with outside of my normal group. Due to this, I decided to go with a relatively simple (as much as possible) and easy to create plot that can go as long or short as I want it too. That all being said, I am finding a little Writer's Block with the Main Villain of this campaign.
The plot I'm aiming for is something like this:
Over the past few months, residence of a small(yet to be determined) city have been encountering some troubles in the form of a new criminal organization called "The Sect". The players will (depending on the characters I'm helping them work on) start the story as people who were all in the city and one way or another ended up captured by this organization. I'm angling for some revenge hooks for them, so I was going to have people or things important to them viciously destroyed in front of their eyes. The first arc will probably be a few episodes where they make their way to the" head" of this organization, only to find out that he is only a very small branch of the true organization. They'll come to find out that "The Sect" has been spreading through cities for years, and has massive and impressive control over large parts of the known world.
That all being said, I'm having trouble envisioning the head over the entire organization. I know he will be inhumanly charming, genius , ruthless, and will "collect" interesting people and things to further his own ends, but besides that I just don't know. Should I keep him a relatively normal humanoid, or should I go with something more intense like a vampire, demon, or incubus? What sort of abilities and magical items should he have?
Thanks in advance and please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for me!
thechimericalcookie
The bad guy is the tavern keeper the party first encounters. What better way to keep track of the opposition? Listen to their tales, send them against minor rivals.
The bad guy is a ghost who takes over the bodies of other folk so even when the party catches him, they don't really catch him.
The bad guy is a tree deep in a forest with mis-guided druids and such doing its will.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I really like the idea of him making himself someone they trust and even who controls them for a bit of time! All great suggestions, but the top is my favorite so far!
Thanks Wysperra!
thechimericalcookie
Alternatively, he could be a shapeshifter who poses as a friendly face, and sends them on set-up suicide missions, after using them to dispose of his rivals.
This way he can use them, and even if they find out about him, they find out he murdered someone and impersonated them, so he can find ways to dispose of the party.
hey kids do you like violence? wanna see me shove nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids?
all i can think of is someone like Giovanni from the pokemon universe. i mean make the main villain somebody that is a famous celebrity that is well liked by the general public, but in reality he is the head of the evil organization. he/she could be a succubis and that could explain how the main villain got to be at such a stature
How many players in the party? What level do you expect them to be when your story arc wraps up with final conflict with the boss?
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Hey Texas Devin,
There will be 6 players, and I was planning on keeping it sort of loose since they are all in college. Since I've never been higher than level 11 in my player games, I don't know what to expect. I did want to give the players the option of a full campaign though. I dont want to reveal the big baddie for a while though. I kinda want to give them the "chasing his coat tails" feeling. What do you think? Any suggestions?
thechimericalcookie
Hey Death_grips_is_online!
This is great, but I'm not sure it fits with the feeling I'm after for this. I probably should have made it clearer in my first post though. Yes, I did want them kidnapped by "The Sect" and hounded by them, but I was aiming more for them being "vaguely interesting but disposable" by the lower subordinates, and the destruction of all they hold dear was just a passing fancy. I was planning that the villain did directly order the destruction of the things they loved, but it was more just him being bored and playing with some new toys. He wont even remember it till the players actually start dealing major damage and he gets interested. I still like the idea of him using them to dispose of his rivals, but I don't really want him to think of the players of a threat till it's too late. I have the characteristics down for him, I just can't figure out what shape they will take.
Thanks for your addition to this!
thechimericalcookie
Hey TallHats!
That was a lot like what I was going for! I just was unsure about making him a incubus(since yes, he will be a male) or another sort of demonic or monstrous being, or if it would have better impact as a human. I also have no idea what type of class I want to go for. My other campaign has a Animancer human woman as the main villain ( Animancer uses souls for their magic) and it just fits the story so well! I'm usually pretty great with characters and understanding where they fit, I'm just having MAJOR writers block with this one. *pout* I'll look more up about Giovanni though, and maybe it will spark some ideas. Thanks!
thechimericalcookie
Six players is a good high number. That means you can turn up the difficulty on your monsters a little bit. I get what you're saying and it's quite possible you may not be that far along in the story yet and that's ok too. But if you have some kind of idea of when you want them to hit this guy, it will go a long way toward deciding how powerful he should be and that will go a long way toward picking the particular type of enemy they will be facing.
If they will be at level five when they wrap up the arc and throw down with this guy, then you can stick to powerful humanoids--maybe a spellcaster who is behind the scenes running the show. If you expect them to be higher, then you might still want to consider using that guy as a low/mid-level local boss within the syndicate for them to go up against at that point. If the players will be level 10 when they face the big boss, then a CR15 Vampire Spellcaster and three of four Vampire Spawn could be a great villain to confront in his lair. You may wonder why a powerful vampire would be interested in organized crime. Maybe he feeds on the people he kidnaps or runs assassination contracts on. If he's dealing in drugs, perhaps he is lacing the drugs with something to watch the effects on the people for his own purposes. You'd think a big guy like that is interested in more than just running an organized crime ring for the money.
If you think the players will be level 15 when they wrap things up, again, you can use the vampire as a high level regional boss--perhaps one of a few the party has to kill to figure out how to get at the big boss. You can really pull out the stops at this point and throw something like an Ancient red Dragon along with some minions at the party. Why would a dragon be behind the scenes of an organized crime syndicate? I imagine something that powerful would be more interested in corrupting an entire kingdom from within. If he has a grudge against a king, I could see a dragon spending decades or centuries (which works for the vampires too) putting together a shadow society and slowly worming its way into the underbelly of the city or kingdom he wants to corrupt and destroy.
Just a few thoughts there for you. If you get your players to level 15 or higher, then you've got one hell of a campaign on your hands and by that point, the story will be writing itself so you won't need more than a framework and the players' adventures will fill in the blanks for you as you go.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
That really helps a lot TexasDevin! Thank you so much. I can really see my inexperience come out as I'm planning higher level things and so the "per level" advice really helps! I'm still gonna have to work though it, but this gives me a better framework to play with.
Thanks for the help!
-thechimericalcookie
I really like Wysperra's Idea, the villain being the inn-keeper they encounter in the very beginning of the campaign. A classical mind-f*ck which reminds me of an awesome English movie a saw some years ago. Or the innkeeper could be the main villain's right-hand man, looking to supplant or overthrow him/her/it... Perhaps using the PCs as proxies or even allies, in the end?
As for what the main villain really is -- the fact that the organisation is called the Sect leads to sinister connotations. Perhaps it is only a ruse to frighten outsiders, the main villain being an ordinary human being. They can often be the worst villains, after all. Otherwise beings such as mind flayers and aboleths can lead to fun and horrifying continuations to the campaign in the underdark.
Yay! Sinister connotations for the name was what I was aiming for. I was worried that it would sound stupid, since I suck at naming things, but if it manages gets the feeling across then it can't be too awful! So I didn't roll a nat 1 on the name at least!
I agree with you on the "humans can be the worst villains" concept, but I also wanted to give the new-to-D&D players a chance to get the full experience, including playing against cool monsters and villains. I realize I can incorporate those things in other places, but I also wasn't sure whether a human or a monstrous or demonic humanoid would pack more of a punch story-wise.
I had not thought about delving into the underdark though, so that is definitely something I will consider.
Thanks for the input!
-thechimericalcookie