How to Build a memorable BBEG

Introduction: I have seen many threads asking about this sort of thing, so instead of answering all I thought I would just make a fresh thread and hope some of it helps. If you have some killer tips feel free to add.

A failure-prevention guide rather than a recipe.

Rule 1: Pressure Habits, Not Characters

 There is no universal BBEG.

Observe your players.

Ask: What do they always do?

Then pressure that.

A villain for a tactical group is different from one for a highly social group.

The party defines the pressure point.

Then make that approach less effective.

Not impossible.

Less effective.

A fighter should still be able to fight. A wizard should still be able to cast. A rogue should still be able to sneak.

You're attacking routine, not builds.

So to help we are going to build a low tier BBEG and a high tier one.

Low tier in a group with 2 Paladins a rogue and a druid, there are a lot of slashing weapons and clearly a lot of martial power so we are going to target slashing weapons.

High tier group with a sorcerer, fighter, cleric and Paladin does high damage, we will target damage.

 

Rule 2: Create Problems, Not Solutions

Just think what naturally opposes the target, mild is resistance, and harsh is shutdown or immunity.

Do the bare minimum to get the ability into play, don’t be concerned with balance and stick with one, it can be complicated sure, but it counters one habit.

So for our low level option they are getting resistance slashing our high level option is getting at the start of their turn even if utterly destroyed they are restored to full hit points.

Rule 3: Counter play must exist

Apparently unfair powers are fine.

Provided players can do something about them.

This where the bare minimum ability comes in, you can see I am sure several paths around negating the examples powers.

You can also add counter play, this is the McGuffin play, mostly something, someone or some circumstances that either negate or provide a new avenue of attack.

Examples:

So our resistance to slashing is clearly avoided by using anything that does not deal slashing, want a McGuffin? There is a whetstone that can sharpen a weapon to the point it negates slashing resistance. But now you have a side quest to get it.

Total HP regen can of course be negated by nerfing them into next week, bury them alive, imprison them forever. Need a McGuffin? Implements used in the ritual that allowed this ability exist and they are tied to the elements, by touching one of these to the villain their regeneration vs this element is negated and is never recovered. Again side quest to attempt to recover.

The question is never:

Is it unfair?

The question is:

Can players intelligently respond?

Rule 4: Telegraph Everything Important

The players should be able to discover:

Strengths.

Weaknesses.

Goals.

Behaviour.

No gotchas.

The fight should feel difficult because they missed clues, not because information was hidden.

So in our examples: The low level villain loves treating Paladins of Tyr badly but hates dealing with Cleric of Moradin. The high level villain is reckless to the points of insanity, he destroyed an army, it took him 10 days but he killed everyone even though they tried everything to stop him.

Rule 5: The Villain Acts

Villains don't wait in Room 37.

They:

Raid towns.

Kill witnesses.

Recruit allies.

Attack objectives.

Change the world.

The players should feel their influence before they meet them.

Don't say:

"The undead horde is unstoppable."

Show:

Refugees.

Famine.

Banditry.

Panic.

That fan out ahead of the undead horde as it moves.

Potential means little.

Impact matters.

People care when it starts affecting their lives.

So in our example our low level villain invites duels like candy when he thinks a sword or axe is involved, he loves breaking such opponents. He uses this reputation to act like a small time mob boss. So when you next go to the store your favourite shopkeeper has been clearly beaten.

Our high level does attack alone he is known as the unbeatable foe, he likes turning up and challenging champions to demoralise a foe. His slaughter means caskets now roll through the street, the local champion went in knowing he wouldn’t make it out just so some of the army could flee.

Rule 7: Solve Action Economy through the World

Prefer:

Lieutenants.

Minions.

Allies.

Terrain.

Positioning.

Over:

Extra actions.

Special exceptions.

Boss-only rules.

If necessary drop the villain by a few CR to make room in the XP budget, I am sure you are using the old deadly column so it’s a little power for some pretty powerful allies.

In our examples, our mini mob boss needs allies as its low tier these can be bandits or the like so let’s give him some of those, say 4 or so at the climax. Our high level needs actually serious help so for him let’s add a lich and a demon. He clearly has more help elsewhere but these are at the climax.

Rule 8: Battlefield Matters

Interesting battlefields create decisions.

Examples:

Ice lakes.

Ritual circles.

Collapsing bridges.

Multiple elevations.

Chokes and escape routes.

Avoid "empty room syndrome."

It should make sense so our low level villain is not going to be in a smithy full of hammers in the finale, not unless the players force it anyway.

Our high level villain is oft found on a battlefield but could be bargaining with demons with all the esoteric magic stuff lying around or so on, not likely to have a 500 gallon drum of acid lying around to handily fall into.

Rule 9: The Villain Is Not Psychic nor a Moron

The villain knows:

What they could reasonably know.

What they have learned.

So assuming intelligence, if the group start foiling them continually they are not passive and will attempt to learn and eventually remove what is stopping the villain’s plans

Nothing more.

Players should lose to intelligence gathering.

Not author omniscience.

In our examples: The players find out who beat up their shopkeeper and mete out justice, those bandits return to our villain and tell him that the players are fighting back, he may now act, the players do the same but are like Ninjas with no witnesses the villain reacts by being defensive but cannot directly act.

For the high level the players have halted armies, stopped the lich getting an artefact, the villain starts sending out spies paying people off to learn about his foe. If they have done none of that he just continues his plans.

Equally if you have an extraordinary ability and you hung around long enough to be a villain you most likely know some of the methods of negating it and you will take precautions. You might even know of the McGuffins.

In our examples: This is why our low level BBEG stay away from clerics or Moradin and likely anyone likely to use hammers, our high level villain has figured out petrification can work so his lich buddy is hampered by always holding a counter spell just in case it appears.

Rule 10: Follow the Rules

The villain is a participant.

Not the author.

If players discover a valid plan:

Let it work.

If the villain has a weak save and players exploit it:

Let it work.

If the villain dies earlier than expected:

Let it happen.

The campaign continues.

So our low level villain has a low Wisdom save so they use command and the like to turn the fight. In our high level one, they create a pit underneath the villain and then use stone to mud and then mud to stone to entomb him for several millennia at least.

Rule 11: Weaknesses Should Help, Not Auto-Win

A weakness should:

Reduce difficulty.

Create options.

Reward investigation.

It should not:

Instantly solve the encounter.

In examples: None of the McGuffin’s win the fight outright, you still have to hit the low level villain even if your sword bypasses the resistance now, you still have to match your damage type to the implement.

Rule 12: Multiple Solutions Should Exist

The moment there is one correct answer, you've built a lock.

Instead build a situation. This is why the single counter comes in as you can quickly assess the likelihood of success without trying to balance a hundred options. Even if the villain is aware of some weaknesses it should never be exhaustive and never intrinsic, i.e. the weakness covering can be removed somehow.

In our examples the low level BBEG clearly has lots of ways of being overcome the issue is not multiple ways but rather if the group has access to the tool, none the less anyone can pick up a staff and use it, it’s not great but it avoids the problem. Our high level one has lots of ways too, just never damage, and so knock down, sleep, petrification, and entrapment might all be ways and even if he has covered petrification if you take  down the lich first and its back on the menu.

Rule 13: Escapes Are Rare And Costly

As a rule of thumb:

One villain in the entire Campaign.

Escapes once and once only.

Maybe, whatever the method the players should be able to intercede and as all escapes are within the rules it’s a spell, just running or something that requires one or more actions to do.

And if they escape:

It costs them something that the players know they no longer have.

So in our examples the low level villains runs away he is no longer a mini mob boss and will never be one again. In the high level version the villain steps though a portal and it closing lops off his arm that still clutches his sword and when the players see him again he has some prosthetic and another sword, the greatest regenerating villain never gets that arm back.

Rule 15: Fairness Matters More Than Balanced

Perfect balance is overrated.

Fairness is crucial.

Players should feel:

We won because we earned it.

Or:

We lost because we made mistakes.

Not:

The DM decided.

The memorable outcomes are:

The impossible victory.

The disastrous defeat.

The clever trick.

The desperate retreat.

Perfectly balanced attrition fights are often forgotten.

So in our examples this might be the hard ways you take on the low level mini mob boss with your swords, it takes forever, he nearly kills two of you it takes so long, what you do not do is to forget to apply the resistance or lower HP half way through, or for high level one of your players mentions chill touch and you freeze, not something considered, all that power and you missed a can trip. So one easy fight later…

 You will notice I have not talked stat blocks and barely any background at all, stat blocks you can do; it’s in the DMG and whilst you may care about the villains back story unless it helps or explains actions the players see it matters very little to them.