BBEG assistance

Hey all!

Currently working on a new homebrew campaign that I'm working to revolve around a war of succession, wanting to give my players the option to side with any of the four potential heirs and the opposing heirs would then be pretty much your main antagonists. Problem is, I worry thats not interesting enough for your BBEG. The story would be set in a desert kingdom rife with magic and steampunk-esque technology, but all the main antagonists at the moment, are just humans.

Would anyone have any potential ideas on how to spice things up at all?

Thanks!

Have a generic mock up of your BBEG.   Have some specific items if the BBEG is a part of the 4 heirs, so 4 different BBEG.

Once the players pick a side merge the generic with the specific and now have a very interesting BBEG.  Almost like you were creating a class with 4 subclasses.  Now you can have that spicy BBEG just minutes after the party makes "public" their support.

Humans can still be compelling villains in their own right. How far are they willing to go to achieve their ends? Who will they sacrifice for power? Beyond the throne, what will they turn to if they win? 

There's also the option of introducing some kind of bigger power that's been lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment. Perhaps a demon or devil has been keeping the four heirs in a state of permanent war with each other, preventing them from banding together to be a strong enough kingdom when the fiend invades later.

It sounds like a tricky situation to DM, because it seems like you either have to: 1) make all of the heirs seem like viable choices, which means that when one of them turns into the BBEG it kind of comes out of nowhere, or 2) have one or more of the heirs be a "good" or "bad" choice, which kind of defeats the purpose of giving the party a choice in the first place.

Also, how onboard are your players with the idea?  A story focused on political maneuverings can be really fun... but it does require a bit of "buy-in" from the players.  If it's not what they were expecting, it's easy for them to get bored.

One thing you might consider, is a rumor that one of the heirs has made a pact with a fiend, or acquired a powerful evil artifact (or whatever), and is planning something sinister.  So the party knows there's a BBEG out there, but they don't know who among the heirs it is.  Then the party can be sneaking into royal vaults looking for clues, investigating ruins around the countryside for clues of whatever evil thing is spreading its influence there... all while not knowing who they can trust.  And the whole time, the party also needs to try to stop the feuding heirs from sabotaging each other, because eventually they'll have to stand against a threat to the entire kingdom.

Anyway, just another angle you might consider.

Humans can be perfectly reasonable bosses, as long as you build them as creatures, rather than classes. This gives them a lot more staying power and you can customize their abilities trivially.

The main thing I'd be concerned about is making each one too similar.to the others. They should all have different things going on, and I don't just mean "fighter type plus minions, wizard type plus minions, etc." Maybe one's a straight fight, one's some kind of puzzle boss, and one's piloting a giant technomagic mecha. Or something.

One twist you could have, sort of like Wings of Fire, is to have some of them seem reasonable, some totally out of the question, but when they actually meet the reasonable ones they learn that they are even worse options. Then it's up to them to decide on whether they'll support any of them or just figure out their own solution.

Humans can have interesting stats and abilities. Spellcasting and unique magical and martial abilities can make for a great fight, no matter who the antagonist is. You might have one heir who is all about being a warrior, covered in jagged plates of armor, and he's really fast. He runs around, grappling characters and damaging them with his spiked armor, and slamming them with a spiked flail. Another may be a greedy miser who shoots bursts of liquid gold that deal fire damage and then harden and restrain the characters. Humans can be all sorts of interesting, and the big part of them in fantasy worlds is their diversity and adaptability.

You can introduce other elements as well, such as large steampunk constructs carving up battlefields, magically bound elementals guarding vaults and eliminating key figures in the opposition, or fiends secretly providing hellish weapons to all sides. Just because the leader of a faction is human doesn't mean everyone under their command 9or secretly commanding them) is human.

Quote from TheScallop >>

Problem is, I worry thats not interesting enough for your BBEG.

 
Why do you need a BBEG?

And no, not being glib here. The BBEG Trope can be fun and all, but genuinely its not necessary for an engaging campaign. You've got a war of succession, great! These heirs aren't necessarily evil and don't have to be. Ignoring certain unexplainable world events currently, think about politics here right. You've got a choice of parties. In any sensible, mature system, you've got people who will all have different approaches to the same areas of politics. 

Come up with four challenges facing the kingdom (mines running dry will destroy the economy, an enemy kingdom is building up their armies, a black market is making essential goods difficult to get hold of, the nearby settlement of mages is conducting dangerous experiments). Each heir will have a specific area they see as important. This will be hopefully what drives your characters. They need to decide who to support based on who aligns with their views (be careful here though, at the same table you could have four different player characters with four different views).

Ultimately, for the right table this makes for an awesome campaign. However, if you've got a party of hack 'n' slash' heroes, this will be terribly boring. So it's about the composition of your party. Not every group of players can handle a political campaign. Not every table can handle a megadungeon. So, the bad news is that if the campaign doesn't suit the players and player characters, I'd suggest rethinking the campaign. 

The beginning of my campaign had a similar premise, but the other 'heirs' could be persuaded to join the party against the others (which might be an idea you could employ to mix things up).  In my campaign, the end guy was actually a fallen Diva.  There are a lot of ways for something powerful to masquerade as a human, but probably best only to do this once - save it for the final one - is there any reason he cannot be a Genie in disguise

Otherwise, think anime (or old Kung Fu movies).  Each of the bad guys has their own schtick - think of the pirates who ate a demon fruit in One Piece.  Pick a flavor and go wild.

Quote from WolfeCriedPup >>

One twist you could have, sort of like Wings of Fire, is to have some of them seem reasonable, some totally out of the question, but when they actually meet the reasonable ones they learn that they are even worse options. Then it's up to them to decide on whether they'll support any of them or just figure out their own solution.

Humans can have interesting stats and abilities. Spellcasting and unique magical and martial abilities can make for a great fight, no matter who the antagonist is. You might have one heir who is all about being a warrior, covered in jagged plates of armor, and he's really fast. He runs around, grappling characters and damaging them with his spiked armor, and slamming them with a spiked flail. Another may be a greedy miser who shoots bursts of liquid gold that deal fire damage and then harden and restrain the characters. Humans can be all sorts of interesting, and the big part of them in fantasy worlds is their diversity and adaptability.

You can introduce other elements as well, such as large steampunk constructs carving up battlefields, magically bound elementals guarding vaults and eliminating key figures in the opposition, or fiends secretly providing hellish weapons to all sides. Just because the leader of a faction is human doesn't mean everyone under their command 9or secretly commanding them) is human.

 The Wings of Fire idea could actually work... and the person they side with may not even necessarily be an original option...

So if the party helps one heir, alliances are formed and people are betrayed. Heirs killed leading to 2 heirs and a large scales battle cumulating  with the death of the opposing heir