They want to resurrect a loved one. They want friends/to be known. They just want people to leave them alone. They want to have their own adventures. They want to have their own civilization/tribe. I don't know, these are just some ideas.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
Motivations can be simple, but underline reasoning behind them can be complicated. They seek power; simple, but maybe because there is a greater threat on the horizon. They mean to save this plane from extra planar threat. An old god tries to leech it's way into the current world.
Maybe the world unbeknownst to PCs is dying and they seek power to save those they can, but at a cost.
Can always pull a Thanos. Kill half the world to save the other. Reasoning is relative people can justify just about anything.
I'd try making a relatable bad guy so at the end the players partially agree with the BG ideals or kind of feel bad once they've thwarted them. Could make the PCs doom the world by thwarting the BG leading into another story arch...the list goes on.
Your complex idea might be the perfect one for all I know.
I agree with Fatts, the best villain's motives are relatable, up to a point, that point is where the villain takes it farther than the layman, solidifying himself/herself as the villain.
My favorite one was a quite powerful necromancer that was planning on enacting a plan that would destroy the world according to all the legends and NPCs our party talked to. His henchmen had stolen the king of the lands firstborn male heir days after his birth, supposedly with the intention of using him in some kind of ritual. Turns out the lands we were in were slowly wilting from an unknown plague that was thought to have originated from the necro's home base, however come to find out the necro was just investigating the plague and what he could do to stop its spread across the land. With the plague growing out of control laying waste to all forms of drinkable water and laying bare or mutating any form of food, the necro decided to turn all the inhabitants of the land into undead in order to prevent their agonizing starvation/dehydration. In order to do this he needed to sacrifice the life of the newborn heir.
When our party busted in on the final ritual and the necro bad guy monologues it all out for us, half our party was conflicted. We ended up agreeing work towards a cure for the plague with the necro without harming the baby. but he was convinced his way was the only way. That got the half of the party off the fence and into the fight. We ending up killing the necro and undead minions and returning the heir for a handsome reward and another quest to stop the plague somehow.
So basically the DM just flipped it from an end battle to a midway battle on our road to the "ultimate baddy" which would be the plague.
I'll add that yes, while wanting power or revenge are often common motivations for villains, they are a trope for a reason. Desire for power is one of the more realistic motivations often used in fiction, to the point where we've kind of half-forgotten that some people in the real world are constantly reaching for more power for its own sake. And what's more relatable than reality? Same with greed.
Revenge as a motive is something that is more relegated to fiction and certain types of drama, and less so in the real world, but again, it's so oft repeated because of how well it resonates with an audience. People can always understand a desire for revenge, even if they oppose it. It's dramatic and can introduce notes of complexity if done well.
So while some motives may seem cliche, feel free to still safely use them without being derivative. Instead, focus on *why* they're after revenge, against *who*? *How* are they going to get power, *what* are they going to do with it? These questions open up opportunities to introduce unique elements to tried and tested villain motivations that will make them truly memorable to your players. You can get really creative while still having a framework without having to generate everything about your villain whole cloth.
TL;DR, do whatever you want, just don't be afraid to re-tread the classics just because they're classics. They may've been done before, but not by you.
Have you thought about introducing some sort of broken magic mechanic? Maybe something that sounds good in theory, but on the whole actually relegates half the game to some sort of exercise in the punishment of fun?
Most villains fall into four categories. Either the villains either wants what's best for themselves, the villains insist that they know what's best for everyone, the villains were driven mad for known reasons, or the villains were driven mad for unknown reasons.
The first category is easy. The "7 deadly sins" and all that rubbish.
The second category is a little tricky, but a good thought process is my old adage of "Those, who think they know what's best for everyone, likely don't."
The third category is most often based on grief. The "stages of grief" provide the best source of material.
That final category is both free to do anything and the most difficult. The motives are completely alien to a sane mind, but motives there are all the same. Anything that actually makes some sense is not part of this category.
In motives based on coercion or duress, that villain is not the real villain and the real villain must have its own motives that usurp the motives of its thrall. Back to step 1 in finding a motive for the real villain.
The method of coercion or duress can be any of the four categories - threats against the individual, threats against the world, promises of redemption or relief, or madness by understanding "the plan" of someone who's equally mad.
(For an example of the latter: Those from the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus appear insane and their actions make no sense. The irony is that everything they do is with a purpose, but to date, nobody else was able to understand that purpose, or they were considered to be mad once they understood because nothing they say about it made sense to anyone else. What they do seems random but is not random. Such a difficult balance to maintain.)
EDIT: Who the villain is is less important than the villain's motive, but who the villain is sets the stage of it all. Beloved by all? Hated/feared by all? Nobody in particular? A consensus? Never seen but ever felt and discussed only in whispered conjecture? Someone who demonized someone else to appear as a villain?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
There are a few tables in the DMG for determining this, or giving inspiration.
A few options that I like are that they are trying to become Immortal, want to rule a country or region, or want to save a loved one's life/bring them back from the dead.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Emotional psychology could be an interesting place to start for motivations. According to one of my favorite models, there are a few fundamental emotions, each of which could drive good, or in this case bad. Here are three of the top six or so:
Appetitive desire -- think generalized hunger. If a magical being, it could be some kind of literal, innate hunger for which they need to hurt other people (e.g. Vampires), or it could be a resource that the baddie or his society have come to expect and take for granted (some examples: soul-powered magic, perhaps a natural flow of souls has been clogged or diverted so they're around to get more; or perhaps there's a special material that's a byproduct of making magical items that he uses for some other magical purpose [and since he needs magical items, he wants to attract, entrap, and rob adventurers, but killing them sounds nice too because otherwise they'd try to get their stuff back])
Fear - if the baddie or his tribe were running away from something big and scary, they might want to take new lands to live in, and for them it would be a life or death battle to find a new home. Or there could be some great extra-planar being giving commands, threatening torture in the afterlife or torture of loved ones already in some afterlife if their designs are not followed. Or a baddie might be scared of some societal change or expected change and thus pit himself against all of civilization in a misguided (or perhaps wise) attempt to save it.
Anger - pretty often used, someone has hurt the baddie so they want retribution. An interesting thing about anger, though, is that even if the cause of harm is nonspecific or unknown, people have an inherent need to find a target for their anger, even if it doesn't make sense (think: yelling at your computer, or getting mad at your table when you stub your toe). Misprojected anger could easily fuel a quest for vengeance against something pretty obviously not at fault, because that lets the subject of the anger feel like they're at least doing something and taking control.
"Everyone's the hero in their own story." -Handsome Jack
Not all villains start out as heroes, though. There are those who simply want what they want and don't care who or what gets in the way. One might be surprised how Apathy in the wrong hands can be extremely dangerous - no limits. All the evils in the world can be traced to not caring about those who suffer.
I rolled a Villain from the DMG. Here's what I got:
Passion - Destroy rivals for another person's affections Method: Neglect. Weakness: The villain loses its power if a mystic bargain it struck long ago is completed.
Well... now that's a strange villain doomed to fail without any help from adventurers. I didn't realize that neglect could be a method for destroying rivals.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Also remember, every villain believes they are right in what they're doing, from a simple thief taking bread from a shop to a maniacal warlord who wants to dominate the world.
Also remember, every villain believes they are right in what they're doing, from a simple thief taking bread from a shop to a maniacal warlord who wants to dominate the world.
I'd actually strongly disagree with that. Some villains might think that what they're doing is "right", but many could recognize the harm or selfishness and just not care. Some people have a nihilistic desire just to watch the world burn (imagine something like a desire for vengeance against gods / against the nature of reality). Some might be deeply conflicted because they have fits of passion where they commit to some evil plan of action, whereas most of the time they feel guilty but have already locked themselves in. Some might be pursuing the wrongness for its own sake, as an act of exploring boundaries (think: teenagers, except looking for boundaries of society instead of of their parents). In short, there are a myriad of situations in which a villain would not believe they are right in what they're doing, but would do it anyway.
Since by the OP we're trying to focus away from "pure Evil" things like greed, power (which is a kind of greed), or revenge, I think the "hero of their own story" is the way to approach this.
Who does this villain wish to champion and why? I know the details can't be discussed here, but try starting there.
Does the villain want what those they seek to champion actually want or does the villain want something that the villain is convinced is good for those people whether those people want it or not?
What are some options on how the villain could achieve or enforce what the villain seeks to accomplish?
What does the villain need to carry out the villain's plan? An army? A secret sect of those in power? A secret revolution of people swayed by the villain's silver tongue? Powerful magic? Combinations thereof?
What is standing in the villain's way? Is it a lack of supplies for the army? Is it an opposing political movement? Is it powerful magic that will take something dire and abhorrent to defeat?
What are the plans to acquire what's necessary to get past the obstacles?
The process is usually a question that leads to the next and to the next. Some questions have multiple answers and some answers have multiple parts. Notes are essential while building the villain.
(As I mentioned previously, it could be a phantom villain that doesn't really exist but is the creation of a group of villains. That opens an additional can of worms.)
EDIT: People usually are suffering due to a villain's plan. Are they suffering now or will the villain's plan cause suffering during the villain's campaign or at the conclusion of the campaign? How are they suffering or how will they suffer? Why is their suffering acceptable to the villain? Are the people yet aware of the outcomes that cause their suffering?
EDIT EDIT: A simple motive is being disgusted with the world and seeking to remake it in a perfect image where everyone's happy - after destroying the world, of course. The suffering of the current inhabitants won't matter. Cultists equally disgusted with the world would be rather easy to find - downtrodden... likely unaware of their demise in the villain's grand plan.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Also remember, every villain believes they are right in what they're doing, from a simple thief taking bread from a shop to a maniacal warlord who wants to dominate the world.
I'd actually strongly disagree with that. Some villains might think that what they're doing is "right", but many could recognize the harm or selfishness and just not care. Some people have a nihilistic desire just to watch the world burn (imagine something like a desire for vengeance against gods / against the nature of reality). Some might be deeply conflicted because they have fits of passion where they commit to some evil plan of action, whereas most of the time they feel guilty but have already locked themselves in. Some might be pursuing the wrongness for its own sake, as an act of exploring boundaries (think: teenagers, except looking for boundaries of society instead of of their parents). In short, there are a myriad of situations in which a villain would not believe they are right in what they're doing, but would do it anyway.
What you really want, is for the PCs to /love/ your villain so that when he comes out as the villain, your players /hate/ them. You want them emotionally involved, you want them to want VENGEANCE. Something I have found in the 30 years or so I've been playing, we players get attached to certain NPCs. We'd rather our own characters die, than the orphan we saved and have been toting around with us.
Not knowing what's going on in your campaign, it's hard to advise directly to your story, but something along the lines of a trusted servant of the king, perhaps even the kings bastard-born older brother. Secretly, he wants the throne for himself, so he's trying to exterminate the King and his line. But, he's playing the long game. He helps the PC foil his own "plans" to earn both the PCs and the King's trust. Perhaps he even saves the King and the PCs from his "own" assassins...after all, when this is over, he needs to look pure as the driven snow, and this is a good way to prove he's a "good guy" beyond all reasonable doubt.
As the PCs rack up successes, while the villain rewards them with money, equipment and fame...he's moving on with his plan. The PCs can't always be successful, and he slowly picks off the king's family. When only the king is left, he murders the king and blames the PCs. Maybe they were all rewarded with matching daggers, and one of them is stolen and the villain uses this to murder the king and frame them. At this point, the guy who's been a mentor, confidant and patron, has taken /everything/ from them. Their reputation, burned to ash, in seconds, while a grieving nation turns to the king's bastard brother to lead them. The villain has it ALL.
How do you think your PCs are going to feel about this? First, you make your players fall in love with an NPC. Then, you betray them brutally. That will hook them in. They will want their revenge.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Unfortunately, I'll have to be vague, because my players visit dndbeyond regularly.
I have a villain with a motive that is so complex, I think it has become ridiculous.
I don't want the motive to simply be power, greed, or revenge (unless there is a clever way to make those motives interesting).
What are some interesting evil plans and motives have you use or encountered?
The villains desire for power or wealth with no clear reason is boring. A person who needs power or wealth so that they can accomplish some goal that they truly believe to be “good” in their own mind, but leads them to do anything necessary to gain that power/wealth is what makes an interesting villain.
For example: A parent looses a child to war. They decide: “I’m going to fix the world so nobody else ever has to suffer that fate.” That “noble reason” leads them to attempt to conquer the world so there are no more nations in an attempt to stop all future wars. “Sure, many people will loose children in this war, but afterwards nobody ever will again. And they wouldn’t have to loose those children if they just went along with my plan. That’s certainly an acceptable trade off for the sake of the greater good. Why can’t you meddling heroes see that?!?”
Unfortunately, I'll have to be vague, because my players visit dndbeyond regularly.
I have a villain with a motive that is so complex, I think it has become ridiculous.
I don't want the motive to simply be power, greed, or revenge (unless there is a clever way to make those motives interesting).
What are some interesting evil plans and motives have you use or encountered?
They want to resurrect a loved one. They want friends/to be known. They just want people to leave them alone. They want to have their own adventures. They want to have their own civilization/tribe. I don't know, these are just some ideas.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
Motivations can be simple, but underline reasoning behind them can be complicated. They seek power; simple, but maybe because there is a greater threat on the horizon. They mean to save this plane from extra planar threat. An old god tries to leech it's way into the current world.
Maybe the world unbeknownst to PCs is dying and they seek power to save those they can, but at a cost.
Can always pull a Thanos. Kill half the world to save the other. Reasoning is relative people can justify just about anything.
I'd try making a relatable bad guy so at the end the players partially agree with the BG ideals or kind of feel bad once they've thwarted them. Could make the PCs doom the world by thwarting the BG leading into another story arch...the list goes on.
Your complex idea might be the perfect one for all I know.
I agree with Fatts, the best villain's motives are relatable, up to a point, that point is where the villain takes it farther than the layman, solidifying himself/herself as the villain.
My favorite one was a quite powerful necromancer that was planning on enacting a plan that would destroy the world according to all the legends and NPCs our party talked to. His henchmen had stolen the king of the lands firstborn male heir days after his birth, supposedly with the intention of using him in some kind of ritual. Turns out the lands we were in were slowly wilting from an unknown plague that was thought to have originated from the necro's home base, however come to find out the necro was just investigating the plague and what he could do to stop its spread across the land. With the plague growing out of control laying waste to all forms of drinkable water and laying bare or mutating any form of food, the necro decided to turn all the inhabitants of the land into undead in order to prevent their agonizing starvation/dehydration. In order to do this he needed to sacrifice the life of the newborn heir.
When our party busted in on the final ritual and the necro bad guy monologues it all out for us, half our party was conflicted. We ended up agreeing work towards a cure for the plague with the necro without harming the baby. but he was convinced his way was the only way. That got the half of the party off the fence and into the fight. We ending up killing the necro and undead minions and returning the heir for a handsome reward and another quest to stop the plague somehow.
So basically the DM just flipped it from an end battle to a midway battle on our road to the "ultimate baddy" which would be the plague.
I'll add that yes, while wanting power or revenge are often common motivations for villains, they are a trope for a reason. Desire for power is one of the more realistic motivations often used in fiction, to the point where we've kind of half-forgotten that some people in the real world are constantly reaching for more power for its own sake. And what's more relatable than reality? Same with greed.
Revenge as a motive is something that is more relegated to fiction and certain types of drama, and less so in the real world, but again, it's so oft repeated because of how well it resonates with an audience. People can always understand a desire for revenge, even if they oppose it. It's dramatic and can introduce notes of complexity if done well.
So while some motives may seem cliche, feel free to still safely use them without being derivative. Instead, focus on *why* they're after revenge, against *who*? *How* are they going to get power, *what* are they going to do with it? These questions open up opportunities to introduce unique elements to tried and tested villain motivations that will make them truly memorable to your players. You can get really creative while still having a framework without having to generate everything about your villain whole cloth.
TL;DR, do whatever you want, just don't be afraid to re-tread the classics just because they're classics. They may've been done before, but not by you.
Have you thought about introducing some sort of broken magic mechanic? Maybe something that sounds good in theory, but on the whole actually relegates half the game to some sort of exercise in the punishment of fun?
Most villains fall into four categories. Either the villains either wants what's best for themselves, the villains insist that they know what's best for everyone, the villains were driven mad for known reasons, or the villains were driven mad for unknown reasons.
The first category is easy. The "7 deadly sins" and all that rubbish.
The second category is a little tricky, but a good thought process is my old adage of "Those, who think they know what's best for everyone, likely don't."
The third category is most often based on grief. The "stages of grief" provide the best source of material.
That final category is both free to do anything and the most difficult. The motives are completely alien to a sane mind, but motives there are all the same. Anything that actually makes some sense is not part of this category.
In motives based on coercion or duress, that villain is not the real villain and the real villain must have its own motives that usurp the motives of its thrall. Back to step 1 in finding a motive for the real villain.
The method of coercion or duress can be any of the four categories - threats against the individual, threats against the world, promises of redemption or relief, or madness by understanding "the plan" of someone who's equally mad.
(For an example of the latter: Those from the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus appear insane and their actions make no sense. The irony is that everything they do is with a purpose, but to date, nobody else was able to understand that purpose, or they were considered to be mad once they understood because nothing they say about it made sense to anyone else. What they do seems random but is not random. Such a difficult balance to maintain.)
EDIT: Who the villain is is less important than the villain's motive, but who the villain is sets the stage of it all. Beloved by all? Hated/feared by all? Nobody in particular? A consensus? Never seen but ever felt and discussed only in whispered conjecture? Someone who demonized someone else to appear as a villain?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
There are a few tables in the DMG for determining this, or giving inspiration.
A few options that I like are that they are trying to become Immortal, want to rule a country or region, or want to save a loved one's life/bring them back from the dead.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
lol
Here's some links that might help
https://rollforfantasy.com/guides/writing-evil-characters.php
https://rollforfantasy.com/tools/villain-generator.php
https://rollforfantasy.com/guides/character-goals-motivations.php
Hope they help!
Emotional psychology could be an interesting place to start for motivations. According to one of my favorite models, there are a few fundamental emotions, each of which could drive good, or in this case bad. Here are three of the top six or so:
Every villain starts out as a hero. Over time, obstacles and failures can twist them into a shadow of their former self.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
"Everyone's the hero in their own story." -Handsome Jack
Not all villains start out as heroes, though. There are those who simply want what they want and don't care who or what gets in the way. One might be surprised how Apathy in the wrong hands can be extremely dangerous - no limits. All the evils in the world can be traced to not caring about those who suffer.
I rolled a Villain from the DMG. Here's what I got:
Passion - Destroy rivals for another person's affections
Method: Neglect.
Weakness: The villain loses its power if a mystic bargain it struck long ago is completed.
Well... now that's a strange villain doomed to fail without any help from adventurers. I didn't realize that neglect could be a method for destroying rivals.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Also remember, every villain believes they are right in what they're doing, from a simple thief taking bread from a shop to a maniacal warlord who wants to dominate the world.
I'd actually strongly disagree with that. Some villains might think that what they're doing is "right", but many could recognize the harm or selfishness and just not care. Some people have a nihilistic desire just to watch the world burn (imagine something like a desire for vengeance against gods / against the nature of reality). Some might be deeply conflicted because they have fits of passion where they commit to some evil plan of action, whereas most of the time they feel guilty but have already locked themselves in. Some might be pursuing the wrongness for its own sake, as an act of exploring boundaries (think: teenagers, except looking for boundaries of society instead of of their parents). In short, there are a myriad of situations in which a villain would not believe they are right in what they're doing, but would do it anyway.
For more references on this, take a look especially at akrasia, aboulia, super-ego, and psycho-analytical resistance.
Since by the OP we're trying to focus away from "pure Evil" things like greed, power (which is a kind of greed), or revenge, I think the "hero of their own story" is the way to approach this.
Who does this villain wish to champion and why? I know the details can't be discussed here, but try starting there.
Does the villain want what those they seek to champion actually want or does the villain want something that the villain is convinced is good for those people whether those people want it or not?
What are some options on how the villain could achieve or enforce what the villain seeks to accomplish?
What does the villain need to carry out the villain's plan? An army? A secret sect of those in power? A secret revolution of people swayed by the villain's silver tongue? Powerful magic? Combinations thereof?
What is standing in the villain's way? Is it a lack of supplies for the army? Is it an opposing political movement? Is it powerful magic that will take something dire and abhorrent to defeat?
What are the plans to acquire what's necessary to get past the obstacles?
The process is usually a question that leads to the next and to the next. Some questions have multiple answers and some answers have multiple parts. Notes are essential while building the villain.
(As I mentioned previously, it could be a phantom villain that doesn't really exist but is the creation of a group of villains. That opens an additional can of worms.)
EDIT: People usually are suffering due to a villain's plan. Are they suffering now or will the villain's plan cause suffering during the villain's campaign or at the conclusion of the campaign? How are they suffering or how will they suffer? Why is their suffering acceptable to the villain? Are the people yet aware of the outcomes that cause their suffering?
EDIT EDIT: A simple motive is being disgusted with the world and seeking to remake it in a perfect image where everyone's happy - after destroying the world, of course. The suffering of the current inhabitants won't matter. Cultists equally disgusted with the world would be rather easy to find - downtrodden... likely unaware of their demise in the villain's grand plan.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Okay, maybe I should have said "several villains" .
What you really want, is for the PCs to /love/ your villain so that when he comes out as the villain, your players /hate/ them. You want them emotionally involved, you want them to want VENGEANCE. Something I have found in the 30 years or so I've been playing, we players get attached to certain NPCs. We'd rather our own characters die, than the orphan we saved and have been toting around with us.
Not knowing what's going on in your campaign, it's hard to advise directly to your story, but something along the lines of a trusted servant of the king, perhaps even the kings bastard-born older brother. Secretly, he wants the throne for himself, so he's trying to exterminate the King and his line. But, he's playing the long game. He helps the PC foil his own "plans" to earn both the PCs and the King's trust. Perhaps he even saves the King and the PCs from his "own" assassins...after all, when this is over, he needs to look pure as the driven snow, and this is a good way to prove he's a "good guy" beyond all reasonable doubt.
As the PCs rack up successes, while the villain rewards them with money, equipment and fame...he's moving on with his plan. The PCs can't always be successful, and he slowly picks off the king's family. When only the king is left, he murders the king and blames the PCs. Maybe they were all rewarded with matching daggers, and one of them is stolen and the villain uses this to murder the king and frame them. At this point, the guy who's been a mentor, confidant and patron, has taken /everything/ from them. Their reputation, burned to ash, in seconds, while a grieving nation turns to the king's bastard brother to lead them. The villain has it ALL.
How do you think your PCs are going to feel about this? First, you make your players fall in love with an NPC. Then, you betray them brutally. That will hook them in. They will want their revenge.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
The villains desire for power or wealth with no clear reason is boring. A person who needs power or wealth so that they can accomplish some goal that they truly believe to be “good” in their own mind, but leads them to do anything necessary to gain that power/wealth is what makes an interesting villain.
For example: A parent looses a child to war. They decide: “I’m going to fix the world so nobody else ever has to suffer that fate.” That “noble reason” leads them to attempt to conquer the world so there are no more nations in an attempt to stop all future wars. “Sure, many people will loose children in this war, but afterwards nobody ever will again. And they wouldn’t have to loose those children if they just went along with my plan. That’s certainly an acceptable trade off for the sake of the greater good. Why can’t you meddling heroes see that?!?”
That is a person that would scare me IRL.
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