Tell me about an awesome villain you created or you ran into in a game. My Patreon ▶▶ www.patreon.com/thedmlair Complete Book of Villains ▶▶ amzn.to/2W12aoi

"I wanna stab the villain in the eye!" "But what if he doesn't have eyes?" brilliant XD

"Any novice Dungeon Master can beat his players." Some extraplanar entity has been whispering "....Tarrasque....... Tarrasque........ Tarrasque........... TARRASQUE" in my head.

My players favorite villain was Pembly. Pembly was seemingly weak both physically and mentally. He’d give the party tips about the goings on of the city. He appeared to be a low level criminal. A pretty unassuming guy. He picked his nose as he’d talk. Like a lot. He’d also wander around muttering things to himself. Pembly was using the party’s trust to dispose of the city’s underworld elite. Effectively doing his dirty work for him. The party liked to rid places of organized crime because it was legal looting and they got praise by the local authorities for doing so. After the party had rid the city of the criminal underworld they took on a quest that took them to another city and they put Pembly and the city behind them out of sight and out of mind. Eventually their adventures brought them back to the city. Only everyone was scared and angry. With the underworld gone the garrison had been sent to the front. (I almost always have a major conflict going on in my worlds) the remaining forces were easily bought by the newly emerged shadow group that had started extorting all the locals. I’ll skip some of the details because this is already really long. The party pokes around a bit and looks for Pembly to get some information on this new criminal organization. Pembly, being the head of this organization, hears that the party is looking for him. Pembly sets up an elaborate trap and seeks out the party and tells them to go to a place at a certain time. The party gets captured. Pembly then reveals himself to the party as they’re tied to chairs. A barbarian stood behind each character and put them in headlocks. THEN PEMBLY STRADDLES THE BARD AND PICKS THE HEAD-LOCKED BARD’S NOSE. I had the bard roll a save, which he failed. That meant Pembly found a booger while picking his nose and ate it. It was vile. My players loved it. When the party eventually defeated and killed Pembly they all picked their noses and wiped boogers on Pembly’s corpse. “It’s the least I can do.” “This is what the sick b**tard would’ve wanted” Every once in a while someone will bring up Pembly. If someone from the group sees someone pick their nose IRL they’ll alert the group that they just saw someone “pulling a Pembly”. I’m glad I was able to create such a memorable villain for my players.

Fair warning, this story gets a little dark. But has a funny ending. My favorite villain I ever created was by accident, he was just meant to be a low level member of a cult, but the players ended up having such an emotional investment with him (they utterly hated him) because he was using the cult to help him kidnap people so he could use them for experiments. Nothing to radical; he would just do surgery on them, cut into them, open them up to see inside, then sew them back up. Most of his victims he let live, so he could watch how there bodies healed from the surgery. However, one victim, who just so happened to be the PCs favorite, he dissected. Alive. Cut into every inch of him and removed all his organs and everything. Needless to say, it really drove them to kill him. Which they did. But I was a little sad at that, so I brought him back by having him use the spell “Clone”. It really drove them to hunt him down and kill him. I was expecting an epic final battle with him, however that’s not what I got. Like all good PCs they found a creative solution to finally stop him. By turning him into a book.

I tend to work with 4 things. 1) Distinctive Look: the character has to have a visual personality, with some distinctive element to their appearance to help the players remember him and to understand what he is about. Think in terms of a video game in which many opponents are color-coded for the player to understand their vulnerabilities, "The Blue minions are vulnerable to fire". I suggest using color theory or even the color wheel of Magic the Gathering to draw inspiration, if the character is selfish and will to make sacrifices, Black, but at the same time they have pure motivations or utilize protective magic, White. Having a character with a distinctive Black and White color scheme reminds your players who they are fighting, and what that person is about. 2) A Memorable Name/Title: he ability for the Players to say, "Oh god, it is Janus again." Or to be able to talk to characters by name because the name is something that sticks in their brains just makes things easier. I freely admit that this is one of my weaknesses, I am bad with names and tend to default to portentous sounding nouns like, "Green Star" or "The Dread Necromancer". 3) Ostensible/Short-Term Goal: This is what the villain appears to want, and appears to be working toward. This allows for short adventures where the players seek to prevent the big bad from gathering more resources or accomplishing this minor goal. "Why a wizard wants control of a mine" or "why the criminal organization wants a collection of documents" is the key to the next thing. 4) Ultimate Goal: this is the villains larger motivation, bring their dead child back to life, blow up his rival's homeland, attain self actualization by seizing power. This ties into entry 3 because, "The wizard wanted the mine because it's tunnels connect into a dungeon with a super weapon in it" and "The criminal organization's documents are lineage papers that prove who has to be killed in order for a new more radical king to take power". For each of these a mix of "Methodology" and "Motivation" takes place. In my game a villainous character, "Rashomon, the Infamous Red" is a half dragon Fighter who has spent the last decade gathering resources, allies, titles, and reputation all so he can take over a particular empire. He is an ally of the Players and frequently provides them with assistance, they in turn have given him assistance, up to and including giving him a valuable hostage and an important title. Red was so touched by them giving him the title without him having to ask he cried and then yelled, "Take that Dad! They think I am good enough." The character is motivated entirely by showing up his dad's demeaning treatment of him. Red has the Look, the Name, Numerous Micro Goals, and an Ultimate Goal... and his motivation is very human and identifiable... petty even. I consider him one of my most memorable characters.

I made an NPC with a pet that was secretly the Villain and no one saw it coming.

I understand the concept of keeping your villain a mystery or letting his/her vassals do their bidding, but I also feel sometimes it's cool for the OP villain to toy with them and build future fear and tension, a la Strahd (your thumbnail pic).

I had a campaign that had 2 BBEGs. I introduced one in session 4 as a kindly wandering arms dealer/sheriff who would equip the party and give them quests. Turned out that he was assembling magic items to spread a deadly plague that would turn people into mindless automatons (think magical Borg). The second the party never got to (campaign ended before they got to him). One of my players had to drop out due to scheduling problems, so he told me to do whatever I wanted with his character. He was playing a neutral evil minotaur, so I gave him the Eye and Hand of Vecna, and planeshifted him away for later villainy.

My favorite villain was an Olympian named Mariana. She was using Krakens to raid shipping lines and was hated by all the world. The players had to race against another kingdom to find her hideout and defeat her. She was also an animorph and could shapeshift into huge beings because of her godly powers. After an intense battle with a leviathan, the players recently defeated her and found a key into a portal she controlled. What the players didn’t know, was that she actually was created by magic by some of their allies to test their abilities for an even harder quest! The reason the players fought her, was because the Bard always wanted to kill a god and he was super proud of hunting down some krakens, and she killed an NPC they were friends with for betraying her cult. However, it was the rouge that actually killed her in the end, and then the bard quit right afterwards and never showed up again. Really fun!

this video came just in time, im creating a villain that the party have already thwarted 2 seperate schemes of, but are unaware it even hapaned. the villain doesn't know the party's identity yet either. the villian is kind of a mix between the mastermind and the vengeful one. scheming to get revenge on a powerful npc by slowly but surely destroying everything that npc has, the targeted npc is one that my party cares about. so this will be fun

Sleeping is overated aparently! My Villain is, Felix Mendax (or Happy Liar in Latin), 10th lvl Lore Bard, 10th lvl Rogue Mastermind (boys got skillz) I'm introducing him at the very begining where they meet him just as he's leaving a small town before it is attacked by _____. After meeting him multiple more times at different towns, before they're attacked - obviously giving some space before each meeting to keep the players in the shade. Each time they meet him he tells them about something he "Heared about" to get the players to look into it, hopefully trying to get them interested enough to get themselves killed so they can get off his tail. What the players don't know is that he is gathering his own "Party," so when he finally reveals what his true plans are, there will be a Villain for each PC. *And even if they "Defeat" him, it was just another Illusion, they will never know what he truely looks like as he's a master of Deception. It could be a Woman for all they know! X'D

I've recently tried to do what George RR Martin does in a Song of Ice and Fire: the guy I originally intended as a villain is turning out to be more of a tragic hero, while the leader of a supposedly righteous group of sorcerers has been manipulated (by his greed) to make a deal with the Drow. The original villain used to be part of this mages guild, but then he found out that the guild master started selling dangerous artifacts to the Drow. He then left and was outlawed and his reputation destroyed, so all he had left to try and stop the guild was to turn to the forces of evil (orc/goblin). As a good at heart person, he became cold, but still ashamed and conflicted of the atrocities his minions have committed in order to stop the guild for the benefit of humanity. This Backstory will be hinted at this campaign, but im still wondering if I should make it so he becomes devious and vengeful and tricks the group into destroying more of the sorcerers guild than necessary

I'm getting some advice from a group on FB on designing a villain that I've got in mind, and I've already got great tips for it AND for his fortress. They are a Necromancer (possibly a lich) with an Orchestra of Undead that he, or his minions, have butchered and then raised. Tips I've been given is to have the mini-army be a Choir of Banshees, a massive castle that works like an organ that the BBEG plays that can throw the players out the top of the towers to battle that haunting choir, a string section composed of Giant spiders and a Drider Druid Harp player. Just to name the things they specifically mentioned. I imagine there will be numerous skeletons beating drums or playing instruments that don't require breath, zombies that serve as the brute force, or "body guards" for the orchestra, and that's just from the original idea before I was granted extras! Already, as a lich, I get the idea they are a mastermind, working to create a spell so destructive and played out like a true masterpiece of music, where a slight hiccup might make it less than perfect, but will not halt the standing ovation he'll earn when the piece is finished. Oh heavens, I'm excited to start a full campaign that has this guy as the end game! I'll have to link the character arks to this campaign as well so that while we progress closer to the finale, the players still get to fullfil their stories as characters in this world.

My party is going up against The Talons, a mercenary army hired by a tyrant King named Garrick Thrax. One of the PCs tried to defeat Thrax in his backstory so he wants revenge on him and on the people and nations who tried to stop his rise to power. He wants to build an immortal, pure dynasty without conflict. I have given each Talon General their own title and traits. So far they've defeated and captured one who has a femme fatale vibe. Findryt, a Devil trapped in the form of an Elf after being cast out of Hell and who is the Talon's Master of Subjugation. She basically uses tactics from Hell to break the spirits of her victims, adding them as slaves to the Talon army. There's 8 Generals so won't go through them all. So far the only one the party has heard mentioned by name is Asithis, who leads the Talons. Warriors, masterminds and manipulators make them up.

This is perfect for my campaign building!

"it's almost like he was intentionally created to make our lives difficult."

Bogren the Eternal is a villain I've been designing since my first session. After hearing stories of Bogren the Emaculate, the deity that watches over the valley they've found themselves in, the players find a dias on Mt. Nerbog, a massive, beautiful mountain that stretches high into the sky (this is important for later), which they find has several different indentations scattered about it, one being hand-shaped, which, when a curious player puts theirs in it, lights up an ancient map showing the locations of the pieces needed to complete it. The players get to do whatever they like, but will always gain a piece of the dias upon overcoming adversities. There are 13 pieces, in total, including the hand-shaped indent. Each piece is relative to its holder, so they change based on the party's actions, yet one uses the stone hand puzzle, with a twist: the magic'd hand/arm is not frozen in place, but fully dexterous, and coated in a mercurial metal, instead of solid stone, giving unarmed and AC bonuses, as well as hit bonuses (I don't have 5e materials, so I run modified 2e, drawing PF and 5e elements from online, so THAC0 is what I go off of), due to having a steadier limb and tighter grip. Upon finding each piece, it glows brightly, and flings itself through walls, creating an easy path back outside, or making everything left in the dungeon aware of the party's presence. After finding the last piece, the party gets portal'd to the dias, discovering that each piece has left itself hovering above its slot, and can be clicked into place (if they come back at any time before collecting them all, the pieces cannot move, and are just solidly suspended in the air, as if frozen in time), the last being the space for the hand, which only glows upon the metal-limbed player inserting it into the stone. After the glow, a large, metal ring tears it's way through layers upon layers of ice, a black flame emiting from its center, which melts all the snow and ice now cascading down the mountain, turning a massive avalanche into a great waterfall that floods the nearby towns and villages. After these events, it's revealed that the mountain was really a spire, pooling dark energies and magics for millenia in preparation for this day: when the great Lord Bogren the Eternal would rise again. Bogren resembles a Troll in build, but much larger and red, with two massive eyestalks on either side of his head, and wields an enormous chakram, the gate he entered through, coated in dark fire. 2e uses hit dice, with each die for monsters being worth 8hp. A hydra has a maximum of 12HD, or 96hp, plus 1HD per head, up to ~8 heads. Bogren has 22HD, or 176hp, with a -2AC, or needing a 22 to hit without modifiers, making him a formidable foe even without his other abilities, which include, but are not limited to: telekynitic control of his weapon, 4 actions per turn, 2 reactions per turn, minion summoning, use of every fire spell, and firing "burning gazes" from his eyes, which have a 25% chance per eye, each counting as an action with a 10 turn cooldown, to make PCs think they've been set on fire for three turns. This is a level 15-18 adventure for a reason. XD The overarching villain behind everything for my campaigns is the Dark Master (DM), who pulls the strings behind everything, as the God Maker (GM) assists each party to thwart his plans. The secret gimic? The GM & DM are the same person: me. XD I plan on ending the massive, multi-part campaign abruptly after the Main Villain is defeated, using the line, in a narratorial voice: "You've defeated me, now it's time for one of you to take my place, as the... *Dungeon Master*!"

Hey Luke, I am a new DM and your videos have helped me out tremendously, thank you. My players are in a sidequest right now to save a village from a plague of undead. My villain is Nick Gravestone (naming NPC's has been my biggest challenge so far) a human necromancer who has gone mad after the death of his family. He is sick and believes that the undead are still people who should join society, and doesn't understand why people won't accept them. He has been outcast from the town and now wants to conquer it so his community of undead can survive. I think that this will be a memorable villain that my PC's may even take pity on. Thank you for the content!

Introduced my players to the villain (a Charming tiefling noble form the south come north to reclaim an ancestral manor of his family) at level 2, laid him out to be an info source and later a mission giver as he needed help with protecting his workers getting to the manor and clearing it out. Only to later have them return from a brief mission and the city ablaze, the villain had done as he said rebuilding the manor them used it as a staging ground to launch his forces for his true plan of taking over the city from the current lord's family and assume lordship for his own. And my players had to choose stand with their home and friends or help someone who had very much become their friend take over and then help him rebuild it and lead it.

Thank you! This will better improve my next D&D session! I’m grateful there’s awesome people like you helping Dungeons masters improve There sessions! ^w^ You have given me the perfect idea for a great twist villain changeling!

I actually introduced my main villain at pretty much the start of the campaign. However, I made him seem like a standart bastard that, while really powerful, is only a nuisance. I also introduced a different enemy right beforehand, that gave the false impression of a much greater threat. The truth of the matter is that the first enemy they were introduced to (and are actively trying to stop) is actually opposing the main villain, just going about it with the "at any cost" mentality.

I'm making a 90% murderer, 10% mastermind villain that I love. I'm making his story part of a 4 campaign story, stemming from the lost mine of phandelver. Each campaign takes characters through 5 levels, ultimately going from level 1 to 20. This character is the main villain in the second campaign, then is one of the main generals running one of 3 villain groups. He is jevil, an imp turned magical demon lord. He was created with abyssal influence, giving him a 4 ft tall body, straight white skin, black eyes, and an love for demons, chaos, and evil. When the location of a long-lost powerful magic item called "the gem of the gods" was revealed in the material plane, demons and devils had a ceasefire. They decided to create a fiend army of demons, devils, and their various followers. However, no archdevil could find a good demon or devil to lead these opposite factions.....except for a strange, demonic, imp. Because he was still weak, asmodeus and zariel imbued him with greater ability, as well as high level spellcasting. With that, he devised a plan to take all planes using the gem of the gods. He would be summoned into the material plane by cultists and monsters that work for demons and devils alike, create a magical sphere of fire and ice around the residing towns, and fill it until it was bursting with fiends. Jevil is maniacal, proud, choatic, and evil. After a while in these campaigns, jevil will fully become a demon lord and find one of the journals that keep the true names of many yugoloths and devils, effectively making them his "demonkin", devils and yugoloths changed by abyssal control. He'll become the demon prince of betrayal, basically create cybermen, and will forever fight against the devils that once ruled him, and the creatures that continue to oppose him

I run two games in the same world where the actions of one game can and do influence the other. The goal is that both parties will eventually come together to face the BBEG. For Girls Game, the hatred for this villain is palatable and personal. For the Guys Game they know of the BBEG but have yet to have a confrontation.

I'm currently developing a mastermind wizard kind of villain who has a fem fatale archfey warlock as a lieutenant, she'll be the main villain for now until she is defeated while the mastermind will pose as an ally. She manipulates people so the mastermind can put his pieces in the right spot. She only works for him due to a curse or something, so she must rely on him and his studies of magical items he's been hoarding for cure or something.

I think I might make a Mastermind, murderer, hybrid for my party to deal with next. Probably going to call him a warmaster. Seems fitting for the father of one of my players characters who is a tiefling. I may add a little of the charm villain as well since the players character has high charisma, they might have gotten it from somewhere. This is going to be fun if I can pull it off right along with the siege of a dwarven City.

I've revealed the villain since session 0, my players just don't know she's the villain, can't wait to see their reactions, because, well... They're working for them!

My villain is the Vein of Madness, an incorpreal abberation residing trapped beneath Mount Waterdeep.(I am doing the Waterdeep campaign, including DotMM, with a lot of homebrew mixed in) Before Waterdeep was the bustling city, it was an elf empire, with dwarves residing beneath, before a warlord came along, claiming it for his own, laying the foundation for Waterdeep. I am adding a tad bit more history to that short story. The warlord was just planning his assault on the empire, which sat upon a way larger mountain, about the size of Denali. Little did he know, the elves knew of his assault. The warlord was very powerful, so they knew they had no chance defending themselves against him. They became desperate, contacting a mad seer to help build a portal to the Far Realm, in hopes that they could summon a monster, let it ravage the warlord's forces, then trap it. they had the dwarves build a secret temple far underground, with the purpose of trapping this abberation once it had done it's work. Once it was finished, they waited for the warlord to ready his assault. Before that happened, the mad seer triggered the portal, and out came the Vein of Madness. Looking like a giant incorpreal snake, with tentacles in place of scales, it came through the portal, and started ravaging the elven empire. The elves had only one hope. Trap the Vein in the temple. They brought forth their best wizards, and in the resulting chaos, much of the mountain was destroyed. They finally trapped it, at the cost of the whole civilization. Then came the warlord, who settled with his people there. The Vein still had some influence however, and he was able to entice a certain wizard down into the ruins of the dwarven city. That wizard's name was Halaster.

Love these videos, man... just floating about catching different angles and takes on subjects like villains, NPC's in general, and some of the methods behind the screen (and the madness...lolz). AND I don't know about "truly great villain"... BUT one of my earliest GREAT successes in villainy was "Demon Bob"... who consequentially "founded"(?) the "Red Lodge of Chaos" in Hell... er... at least in his origin story-game. Basically, a Pixie had created the illusion of a horrible demon, to scare off enemies... and of course, to prank locals, friends, and whoever happened on his path along the way. As he practiced and applied this illusion over and over, his magic grew and the stories of the thing became sort of a source of lore through the woods... and a few towns. Over time, Pixie Bob (I regretted that name after a couple months of the campaign... and ever since)... Thought the "joke" was too good (and funny) to stop, and the legendary status of his illusory "Demon Bob" just grew from there... At the table, the Party was no small component to "Demon Bob" and his eventual ascension to a status of "living illusion... We had a Bard (apparently too under-appreciated by some tables)... AND this spawned what would have been a relatively localized encounter source for laughs... into a reason to pursue a full blown campaign. At some point, I just decided the mystical energies of belief in "Demon Bob" could empower the illusion to actually grow an ego of its own and turn on Pixie Bob, kind of the way demons are already supposed to be able to "possess" people... etc... AND Since the whole premise of this friggin' thing was a joke to begin with... well... Chaos became the primary sphere of influence... We spent months (twice a week, several hours minimum and some sessions upwards of a day at a time) on the growing campaign over the cataclysm of the Red Lodge of Chaos growing its infamy and influence throughout the Forgotten Realms and beyond... Think "Supernatural" taking place in D&D territory and a LOT more insanity. HP Lovecraft would've crowed delightedly over this clusterf***k! AND the punchline of defeating the demon, to rescue the Pixie under its possession... ONLY to find out that the PIxie had created the illusion in the first place... well... Stories like that linger. Shocks like that (around our Tables anyways) leave behind indelible footprints regarding insane magical items, weird curses, and mystifying consequences to ridiculous things... from naked priests bearing brass cutlasses to magical "Cans of whoop-ass"... the remnants of the Red Lodge's influence being eventually evicted back to nether-regions where it belongs still plague games and conversations to this day... some twenty years after the original misadventures that went HOPELESSLY off the rails, off book, out of bounds... and just further and further out of control and away from anything even resembling sanity. ;o)

One of my favourite villains I made was Clergoth. My players were trying to rescue a friend NPC from a cult, sacrificing captured villagers to build up their good, Clergoth’s, strength. The party was going through their main base in a cave, cutting down cultists and demons, when one of them got effected by a dominate spell. The demon who cast the spell was killed quickly and the party thought that was the end of the spell. The party member also has a cat named Muffins by the way. The party finally got to the end room, with an orc named Toraash standing there by himself. They exchanged threats and bribes, until Toraash cut his arm, activating runes, hidden in the floor. Muffins transformed into the Drak Lord Clergoth and the party member was set against his comrades. The fight was awesome and the party ended up bringing the cave down on top of Clergoth, ending its reign. Now the party is very careful around spells.

So I am currently working on a villain. So throughout the campaign they will hear of but not reach the King of the Su Elves (this is for a custom world so the sun elves are different than normal). He will be painted as paranoid, wicked, and power hungry. Hen he will revealed to be a little boy, a young king following the advice of the wicked advisor, unknowing of the power his gives to his advisor nor the harm he does.

My villain became the players leader so now I'm working on a replacement. I just know he's going to be the leader of the cult of the Dragon. they think is the 16 year old King tho

There is an old ad&d 2nd ed. supplement, "The complete book of Villains" by Kirk Botula, which was really, really good. Much too good for the series it was crammed into. Like, when he listed up the different fundamental motivations a player could have, there were some real eye-openeers, and I had real trouble coming up with one that did NOT fit into that framework. He discusses depth and complexity (you don't want ALL your villains to be too "deep"), villainous organization dynamics, and a lot of other great stuff. He must have given the villainous organizations a lot of thought, because apparently he's a successful management guru these days xD

My first character I ever played was a goofy Bronze Dragonborn named Baahze. I remember all the fun times my table had running good ol' vanilla adventures and bonding. Cut to years after our first campaign when I decided to take everyone to my particular country in our shared setting. This campaign taking place decades after the first's conclusion, the PCs had the goal of escaping the country and the only indication of exit was a magic gate at the base of a mountain where the magical lights in the sky (the thing keeping people from leaving once entering) housing locks which needed specific keys to open. Fast-forward to defeating numerous bosses that each lock corresponded to (big map on gate) and the PCs began to climb the mountain. As they got higher, they realized they could hear music faintly echoing from the peak. They get to the top and find a small field filled with Moonflowers (blue Sunflowers) and a lonely old lizard playing his lyre (which sounded like a uklele for reasons). Baahze stands up, greets the PCs and offers them tea. He's aged, certainly, but the players are trying to figure out why he's alive after so long and only having aged slightly. Baahze reveals he's but a soul bound to his sword given to him by the leader-PC of the first campaign. They chit-chat for a while and Baahze, after agreeing to answer whatever questions the PCs had for him, explains why he enacted his plan to trap this country in a gigantic civil war in order to strengthen them as a people against a coming threat. Things are pretty chill in all honesty. Of course they gotta fight and Baahze, despite being just a single old man, puts up a damn good fight as he is a Level 20 Bard with a few extra tricks (courtesy of the DM) such as ghosty-ghost movement and a recharging breath weapon. Although he was eventually defeated, I find that to be one of my favorite antagonists during a campaign due to how much things clicked at the end (plot stuff too numerous for this already-long comment) and how I got to use the distinct voice of Baahze one last time. (Every time I've ever tried to give his voice to anyone else, it just feels weird) My players said they enjoyed seeing Baahze again, even if it was rather bittersweet, but my favorite thing to hear was how _different_ Old Man Baahze was compared to any villain they had seen in D&D or other media; he was just some dude chilling on a mountain and happily sat down to have a conversation with complete strangers. - Awsm Chimera

I’ve been trying to create Laj, a half elf from one of my characters backgrounds where Laj murdered his mother. I started thinking about why he did it, as “hey I just like being evil” wasn’t going to do it, and this really helped! I believe in the beginning that he would be someone preying on insecure, lonely individuals, befriending them, learning weaknesses, where they live, and murdering them in the night. I would imagine later on, he became more careful, still using his manipulation, but this time to make others do his bidding, learning information and eventually murdering the victim. I imagine with his ‘minions’ he would go for more well known people, gaining instead information on a specific person, they get it on people with wealth, or monsters like orcs, kobolds, goblins, and Lajs favorite victims, Tieflings. I imagine Laj is doing this because of the way he was raised, as a sociopath who murders these “evil races” to better the world, but as he grew older, he no longer cared for a better world, he only wanted to kill for the fun of it, to see how he could test his skills and ruin people from the inside. Hating failure, he would still be hunting my character, furious that something so young and weak got away from him, even though he had done everything ‘perfect.’

Outstanding video! Full of VERY valuable information! Great job!

This is an excellent video! You really deserve more subscribers. I had a slightly different method of making villains, but I'm definitely going to give this a shot! I usually start by thinking of something that would negatively affect the party and something they care about (usually it takes a short while for me to reveal the villain or slowly show who the villain is. Sometimes I start the first session before I figure everything out myself). Second, I think about why someone would realistically want that thing to happen. Then I try to build an interesting/memorable character around that. It doesn't ALWAYS work, but I usually get pretty good results this way. In my current game (a home-brew sci-fi setting), the main villain is creating dangerous mutants and unleashing them on unsuspecting civilians. His reason for doing that is that he wants to perfect humanity by forcing us to evolve. After that, I made him a weird, quirky scientist guy who talks with his hands way too much and believes in crazy alien conspiracy theories. He doesn't care what happens to "inferior humans" and he doesn't care who's funding his research, as long as he's moving closer to his goal.

My best Villain to date is Vector Zirul. Vector is a charismatic mob boss who is slowly working to dethrone the king and rise up to take his place. When my PCs first met him, he was offering advice to the King on how to deal with the sudden increase in monster attacks, Vector also provides missions that seem like they're helpful to the king, Vector even pays for relief supplies to all the victims. Although in reality, Vector is the one having all these monsters smuggled in and having them released to attack the people while also having rumors spread about the King, about how the King isn't doing anything to help his people. All this was to start a revolution where he'd be the secret head. He even funds the experiments of a dragon obsessed insane mage whose goal is to make the ultimate monster using "the essence of dragon" which lead to a few fun monsters, my personal favorites being the Draconic Wasps and Draconic Black Pudding. Downside though, almost as soon as one of my PCs saw him, they instantly suspected he was the BBEG, before Vector even got to say a word, I just showed the images I was using for all the characters and my Sorceress was like "The guy in the White Clothes is the evil one", so the party never actually trusted him, so I never got to fully use his potential

I found this pretty helpful. I created a one shot that is now getting a sequel because my players enjoyed it so much (plus it left off very dissatisfyingly) and my villain definitely needs work given were the one shot will be going. He qualifies under the seeking revenge category, I believe, with maybe a little mastermind sprinkled in.

Well, while I've never played D&D, I have been in a few completely homebrew games that I enjoyed. I've never been called on to be the DM (well, that's not quite true, but I turned it down the last time I was asked,) but I've been watching these videos to get a bit of inspiration for my writing. Anyway, before I dip into the story of one of the better villains our group encountered, I'd like to say "thank you" for doing these videos. I'd also like to say that I've subscribed, because there is a great balance of information and comedy in your videos. So, as said above, I've only ever been in 100% homebrew games. The world, the enemies, the spells, even our choice of player races, so long as we could describe it and keep the characters balanced. My character was a tiger-shifter, but a sorceress had locked him into his half-form, part tiger and part human. To balance out the more powerful form, I had three negative traits, Lust for Battle, No Magic, and No Edged Weapons. I ended up favoring a steel-capped quarterstaff. Our group had a lot of elven spell-slingers, (4 of our 6) one tiger-shifter battle-monk, and a half dragon warrior. Now, at the time, we were going after the Sorceress Jenifer, who my character had, shall we say, a very compelling reason to want her dead. We, as a group, were aware that two things were true: the world was alive around us, and we weren't the only adventurers in the world. Outside of the game, we knew our DM was running another campaign for a different group. Well, after about a year of sessions, we managed to catch and kill the Sorceress, though not before she made my character's mode-lock permanent. Even as the sorceress was bleeding out, the six of us tried to figure out who hired her. We failed. However, we did discover a string of odd events along the edge of the mountains. Deaths, some people broken out of jail, a bounty on their heads. We traveled to take up a bit of bounty hunting. What we didn't know was that we were hunting the other group, hired by none other than their BBEG, Lord Maximillian Hunter-Morganson, who had offered the other group a "deal" to join him in the creation of his new empire, or forever be hunted by assassins. It took a few long sessions to catch up to the other group. When we did, instead of starting downstairs like usual, we were led into the dining room, where 6 people were waiting, dice and character sheets in hand. The other team of adventurers. The ones we had been tracking for weeks. It's scary enough when you're up against whatever the DM throws at you. When the DM described the scene, most of us were looking more than a little poleaxed. "While you are in the market of Ethe Brue, there is a sense of unease. The air feels tense, like lightning about to strike. A deafening, deadly silence falls over the city as merchants close their stalls and retreat to their homes. The six of you, the Warriors of Elamin, turn to see the source of the disturbance. There, walking through the gate, are the Wild Riders of Crugandr, who have pursued you for the last six weeks." Because there was a potential for battle, I rolled my d6 for whether I'd initiate combat, and for once, I rolled a 2, allowing cooler heads to prevail, instead of starting the fight. The whole time, both groups were trying to avoid a fight. Eventually, we reached an understanding and agreed, at least for the time, to not fight each other, because we had a mutual enemy now. (They were able to prove that Lord Maximillian had hired Sorceress Jenifer to cause our group trouble and to test us to see if we could solve a 'problem' for him.) What we didn't know was that Lord Maximillian was a half-demon looking to set up a little vacation home for his pals from Hell. By the time our team of 12 got there, we knew we were in for a nasty fight. By then, we had a strategy, but that got thrown out and the crazy backup plan got used when we saw all the demons. Five spellcasters enhanced one tiger-shifter with a love for battle and sent my character in first. A moment later, I was joined by two warriors, an assassin, and three archers. Lord Maximillian Hunter-Morganson died that day. So did Marcus Hunter-Marshall, the crazy tiger-shifter who fought his half-demon half-brother alongside 11 friends. I will always remember that moment, when all of us won. The DM led us out of the story, and even the bad news didn't ruin the feeling of victory. "As Auriana Thrice-Blooded's axe swings through the air, Lord Maximillian stares back at her with a hollow look of shock. Before his head can fall to the floor, Marcus, limping and bloody, swings his staff and sends Lord Maximillian's head soaring into the back of the throne room. Arrigal and Roland rush forward to catch Marcus before he can fall, and the Twelve Heroes walk out of the castle and into the City of Purecliff, victorious. However, before the group can make it to the Tipsy Turtle Tavern, Marcus stumbles and falls to the ground. In the light, it is plainly obvious that his robe is soaked through with blood, and that much of it is, unfortunately, his. Though he walked out triumphant, he has succumbed to the wounds gained in battle against his half-brother." When we started our next adventure, our Session Zero involved a discussion about how to handle our group. We decided that it would be nice to advance time about 20 years, and have it be the sons and daughters of the last group of Heroes. I got asked how I planned to handle that, and I just smiled. "You do remember that we weren't the only adventurers around, right?" But, Russell Woulfe, the Lupine Warrior, is a whole other story, and this is already way too long.

Great videos! These really help.

Alternatively to keeping the villain secret, you can always just make a bigger villain that was actually hidden that when you reveal re-contextualize previous events that were originally entirely unrelated but are now revealed (aka sublty retconned) as having a hidden nefarious intent behind. The previous villain was a henchman all along.

Hold tight, this is a long one about a Major Antagonist of one of my campaigns, and easily one of my favorites. I'd started a game for new players that I wanted to run through some og dnd. Around 5th-6th the party arrived in a town that had a problem with items going missing, particularly tools and clothing. The few Gnome craftsmen in town all claimed it must be Kobolds as only their workshops were being destroyed by the mysterious thieves. The guard captain didn't really see it as a massive problem because even though they complained, he didn't really see much actual damage being done to the area. So when a party of adventurers wandered into town, he passed off the problem to them. After some shenanigans involving someone accidentally knocking a Gnome out a window, the party managed to find a cave entrance under the town, one large enough for them to explore. Deeper in the cave they began finding winding tunnels that led to small caverns where mushrooms were growing in carefully tended rows. The encountered a gelatinous cube and had several run ins with Darkmantles and Piercers in different caves. But as they went on they were certain these caves were inhabited. Then a floor trap opened up beneath the party, only half making the dex saves not to fall in. What followed was a series of minor combats with Kobolds all leading up to a throne room where the split party regrouped. They talked things over and decided to go in. Lava flowed in carefully carved moats, pillars of dark red crystals glowed with evil light. On the far end knelt a winged Kobold before another one on the throne. In the following battle the 3rd level barbarian Kobold took the most attention as he was up front with the party. Behind him the 3rd level Kobold Dragon Sorcerer peppered the party with fire bolts and one or two scorching rays. Finally the Barbarian Kobold was killed and the Sorcerer shouted something only one of the players could understand: "You Killed My Brother!" and the room began to violently shake. The party made a decision that I took full advantage of: They fled the room. FireJaw the Dragonborn, Kobold Sorcerer of Draconic bloodline would return. As time went on this Kobold began to grow in power as other kobolds began worshiping him as a god. On occasion he would send assassins to test the party. They party began noticing strange forces racing them to some of their objectives and stealing certain artifacts. Artifacts related to the Elder Wyrms of the age before the Cataclysm. Through hints and clues they pieced together that FireJaw had indeed survived the cave in, and was amassing an army of his own. Further he used sorcerers of his own descent against his enemies. Something forbidden to do in the world as spell casters in conflict tend to destroy everything around them. Eventually they began to thwart him, capturing artifacts that he needed, and either capturing or killing his agents who tried to steal them. Soon he had had enough of their meddling. After one such adventure to secure the talon of a Red Elder Wyrm, the party found their castle empty. The guards they employed and friends left behind were gone, and the main hall barred against their entry. They forced an entrance to find, what they thought, a dragon born standing with his back to them looking at their map of the Empire. When they questioned him the figure answered that it was time for retribution. He drew himself to his full 10 ft. height and flared his wings as he turned to face them. The scales of his jaw and neck glowed and pulsed like lava. Fire erupted from his nose with every breath. Scars from his own battles marred what parts of his body they could see. As they battled he unleashed the powers of each of the relics he had acquired, including the ones he had seized while waiting for the parties return. The main hall of their castle was ripped apart by the force of the weapons and spells they used against each other, both sides growing more desperate as the battle wore on. Ultimately the party brought FireJaw to his knees. The fighter went for the finishing blow, but FireJaw lifted his scepter for the last time and snapped it in two before collapsing to the ground. There was a surge of magic and as they looked up through the shattered roof meteors began falling from the sky. When the party awoke they were in the temple of Aegir, chief god of the pantheon of the empire. The gods themselves praised the party for defeating that menace. But even though they had won, and all the artifacts had been seized by the temple to be imprisoned forever. The party still sometimes wonders if they actually managed to kill FireJaw. He had achieved a level of divinity after all. And that is the story of how a humble kobold became the arch-nemesis of my campaign. And why kobolds will forever hold a special place in my heart.

I created the Solar and Lunar King, the two kings who were once humble and good hearted adventurers, but power rushed to their heads. Once defeated, they can still use a homebrew item called the Fusion Stone in an eclipse to form the Eclipse King, who is as powerful as both kings combined into a hulking 15 foot tall “human”. He is at max health, and fully healthy, so it’s like a brand new encounter right after the last. My players had the best reactions. When they found out about this homebrew mechanic, while they were beaten up, my Rogue left for five minutes to take this information in, my Barbarian was silent and frozen on the spot, my Fighter was yelling at me and saying this isn’t super fair, and my other Fighter was on his phone. I had to repeat the big climactic speech/monologue/description of what was happening. It was so fun for me. Not so much fun for them until they embraced my homebrewed Fusion Stone.

I have my main villain that is based on Nicolau Flammel, the alchemist, he is looking to just generate war and chaos in the world as he is looking for the philosopher stone so he can essentially become a war broker, he uses some rakashasas as foot soldiers throughout the land to be his eyes and chaos generators everywhere because of their shapeshifting ability and charismatic personality

Some other good things for a villain to have: -A leg to stand on. What this means is you should on some level understand where the villain is coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing. You can see why they think they might be doing the right thing. Funny enough, a good example of this is the villain from The Rock. He’s actually fairly sympathetic. -A knack for antagonizing the heroes in a way that’s personal to them. This is sort of how Loki works in the original Avengers. He says and does things that make the Avengers personally uncomfortable, which forces them to confront things in their own histories and personalities.

Ok, I like how you think :D - Subbed keep up the good work!

Currently they're working through my newest villain, an immortal man bonded with an ancient demon who had been sealed for centuries in an ancient prison built to house devil's and demons and vault away dark magic items in order to drain both prisoners and itmes of their strength over time leaving them to rot. They had to help the last remaining wizard of the original 7 who sealed him away stop his minions from interrupting the ritual to reinforce the seal as it has weakened. Their first sight is of a 15 foot thick metal grate atop a massive pit sealed by runes and the villain voice shaking the air around them as he spoke, the ritual was disturbed by the villains 5 generals this band of supernatural being with these odd powers. As the seal failed the villain forces the grate off blasting it through the roof climbing out of the hole 6'4" muscles long white hair and scars all along his body absorbing magic only to then gather his generals and vanish leaving the group stunned and in awe of the overwhelming power.

What if your players are the villains?!

You gave me an idea for my own BBEG: being so power-hungry that they want to wipe out every known pantheon and become the only deity to worship, serve, etc. I'm still working on how to do it though. THX!

What makes a GREAT D&D Module/Campaign/etc. is a GREAT Villain.

made a whole group of Villain's that I ended up only revealing 2 to the players. I plan on running the campaign again when I get the chance, but one of the main things about the group is that each member (besides the main BBEG) had a mark somewhere on there body that was sort of an Insignia, and all of them either gave them powers or enhanced old ones to superhuman levels. as well, the main BBEG could forcefully teleport any of the members wherever they wanted them to be at that time. the main thing besides all of that however, was that, if one of the members died, he could just choose any other person including the player characters. and they would also fall under the effects of the mark. basically becoming the BBEG's servant who, if they decided to betray, he could just teleport them to the middle of nowhere

I created an aarakocra with the bird qualities of a Spanish eagle named Dela Frente and she had been a mind-controlled villain hell-bent on making sure that every animalistic race got equal treatment in a kingdom which was otherwise slightly prejudiced towards them my party having some of these people in the group already were constantly poised with the question of do I do what's right for everyone or do I do what's right for myself almost tearing the party apart and that was just our first Arc I'm super excited for the rest of my plans

So villains from my campaigns, I'm always drawn to one, that a character I played was related to. For context I've been playing a character named Hana for about 6 months she's a half oni that was abandoned and taken in by a teifling and up until a few sessions ago thought both her birth mother and father where dead. Well she was wrong daddy dearest is still kicking and is trying to take over a small nation Gangus Kong style. So yeah, I think since he's apart of my characters backstory that's why I love him so much, but still.

I think a way to present the villain early is to either make it ambigious if they are really the villain or if they really just gonna be a contextual antagonist (or not at all) OR that not killing the villain and going allong them may be beneficial for the players in some way (like, doing their quest give a wish or something) that way you make the players ponder their actions, instead of going "killing mode" when they see the villain. an exemple is a villain I am trying to make, being a creature that bring the players to their lair in exchange for "the ability to realise their wildest dream". the quest being that they must dungeon crawl their way up to a final room, fight the final boss and win the day. throught all the quest, the "villain" is both the quest giver and one that will reward, and the one they will face to complete the quest. all in the creature hidden interest. idk if that will truly work, but i'm confident it can be interesting if done right, having that ambiguity just here.

That part where you said the DM should think back to the PCs' backstories really resonated with me. For the second season, our DM wanted to give the spotlight to my Tiefling to give him a good sendoff, since that was the last season I was gonna play as him. Timothos, or Timmy for the homies, was the 7th lord of hell, but was kicked out of his home for not being as evil as the rest of the demons and he's been rather insecure ever since, but along the journey he's grown much braver and learned to recognize his own value. In this season, the main villain is no other than his father, Satan himself, so the character in search of revenge is not the villain but the main hero instead, and Timmy has death in his eyes as he stares at his father... who's piloting a giant mech suit. And also Hitler is there for some reason. Not sure why... (yeah, we're not taking the game particularly seriously :V)

My favorite thing one of my antagonists has ever done was walk down the street into the story. The campaign had gone on for so long with the PCs knowing the antagonist was behind their numerous fights and encounters, but him not knowing who they were. They were on a hunt for totally-not-dragonballs and used their anonimity to travel the country. As soon as someone on the antaginist's side got away to tell him what was up, the next session started with him showing up during a conversation by the PCs walking straight towards their ally (holding the not-dragonballs) and having a brawl with weird shadow-abilities. The PCs did not expect him to just *show up* walking down the street, beating them, taking what he was looking for and leaving. My favorite thing was them thinking I had made up that fight scene for roleplay purposes only to meet him later and see that he actually was playing by rules with a fairly filled-in (but not actually too complex) stat sheet I flashed them. He basically had *two* actions involving his power and a long description of the exact limits of how it worked. (He could either manipulate his shadow as a physical object to fight or jump into a "shadow dimension" to run along the surfaces of things as a 2D shadow) Fun stuff. - Awsm Chimera

8:55 This reminds me of the Roman Empire's policies, and Caesar's, during his conquests. It was impossible to hold the land without dropping the population, so he committed horrendous genocides, killing off entire cultures, and the empire would later supplant the remaining ones. This is often glossed over in history books, though. Also reminds me of the Kou Empire in the anime/manga Magi. Their methods cause the destruction and replacement of social classes, architecture, currency and overall culture, but bring prosperity to all the lands they conquer.

Do you have the entire futhark collection cause everytime i watch your videos its another rune. Also love the video man really needed this for my game.

Markus Lacerta. He is the father of one of my PCs and is an insanely powerful Warlock. He’s not our BBEG but is the servant of him. He is only the tease for the BBEG

My main villain is named Vukate Argroth he is a Goliath Barbarian and he ruled the clan hellbane that is focused on destroying the country of andland its very basic Ik

I’m doing something different. My players consist of 1 good, 2 evil , but the majority are neutral. I tempt them with adventures that either aid “team good guy” or “team bad guy”...and what they do determines the outcome. Thanks for this video, after watching it I threw in a “charmer” 😇. And no, who they are helping is not always clear 😈. They are just having fun.

Thank you for doing villains

Does Lord Paxton happen to have a long pink hair with black dots and a split personality that acts as his most loyal servant? Sorry for my english, it's not my main language.

The very first campaign I played in, the main villain ended up being my Tiefling paladin's demon dad, who kept burning and/or otherwise destroying every city she went to. She was overcome with this intense rage and desire to kill him for much of the beginning of the campaign, which led to another player's NPC companion (he was a noble, so he got a butler) having to sacrifice himself to save her. Needless to say, it led to some pretty fantastic roleplaying moments as she struggled between her rage and her guilt.

In a game I was running I had a few villains not sure if any of them are memorable my players wasn't exactly paying attention so I guess that was a failure! 1) Endemon the Guild Master the head of the Mage's Guild he was one of those responsible for the prologue and opening adventure events. He had assumed the king's form and charmed the queen so she gave birth to his child (a daughter) and then quietly eliminate the heir so his child would inherit the throne (The King had a son from a marriage before he ascended to the throne, but he abandoned his first wife and son for the chance to inherit his family lands and title. His noble born wife however gave birth to two children both of whom aren't his the first the result of a relationship with the king's older brother whose death is why the King got the chance to inherit.) However his partners wanted the king under their control and unaware of their machinations his daughter stole back a dagger holding a drop of the king's blood allowing them to dominate the king. (The right to rule was by drawing forth a sword from an altar in the heart of the palace, however because he was still married to the true ruling scion of the kingdom he was able to draw the sword and was sworn in as king. However his then marriage to his current wife stripped him of this ability, but why would anyone bother asking him to draw it again once he had done it?!) Ultimately the king's only biological son was killed thwarting the attack that threatened the daughter who fled rather than face the wrath of those she endangered with her actions. The PCs eventually confronted Endemon, but he immediately fled when they broke his control over the spellcasters he was dominating into locating the dagger in his efforts to cover up the incident. The daughter is still missing as the PCs went looking for the king's heir who was later captured by members of the Cloaked Serpent Cult before being rescued by the rogue's sidekicks. 2) Adam Veto the Paladin of the Strife Emperor and former Royal Guard Commander Directly responsible for the murder of the Paladin's parents and took part in the attack that wiped out the half elves village. Last seen collecting two artefacts on behalf of Torag the Hierarch. Had the Paladin's player been bothered enough to pay attention he would have recognised him as the "Grinner" that caused the Fallen Aasimar to fall. Nope even the half elves players' reacted more when I pointed out the Orcs under his command are clearly the same that attacked their village. Sigh... 3) Torag the Hierarch a dwarven Cleric of the Strife Emperor originally a Cleric of the Dawnfather who fell in love with the Paladin's mother. He caused her to leave the order becoming a member of the Everlight eventually marrying a peasant farmer who has a twin identical brother who is a member of the Royal Guard and a Draconic Knight Rider. Wrongly assuming she had married a member of the Royal Guard he arranged the murder of her husband only for both to be killed. When they tried to raise them he used a Soul Gem to steal the soul of his beloved and is still wearing it in hopes of one day being able to resurrect her so they can be married. The Dawnfather Cleric player witnessed Torag banish the NPC Cleric mother of the Paladin's mentor and it was mentioned the Cleric's mentor knew more about him. However they went to rescue the heir rather than help the mentor of the Cleric despite hearing the Monastery he was at was under attack by members of the forces usurping the capital. It was more of eventually getting there but oh well...

My group is currently playing Curse of Strahd and defeated Strahd at level 3. Our DM decided to use a time jump and a potentially “new” dark lord to continue the campaign, although let’s be honest it’s probably Strahd or someone close to him! In our last session this new dark lord invited us to the newly constructed castle for dinner. Some things we noticed were how he seemed to just know things about our group especially about my character (Zelda) and Anthony our vampire rogue. He also seemed to have a particular interest in Zelda but I don’t know why yet. During the dinner he took me away from the group to talk and I didn’t know what to do. I played up my charisma and nobility as the main thing we know about this guy is that he is the new king of Barovia. My character is smart enough to not intentionally get herself into trouble. Some other possibilities of who this person could be are someone related to or in Strahd’s court or a previous ally who was presumed to be dead or missing.

I love the Marmalade Dog shirt!

I loved your intro skit! =D

Share a villain, eh? Well... Alright. And I'll give a bonus on top of that which drove me insane. In a campaign I'm in, I'm playing a Loremaster Wizard, someone specializing in lore rather than a school of magic, and I purposefully built the character to have all the knowledge skills and Investigation (which turned out to be great because the group doesn't have a rogue.) The setting is Tal'dorei, the one Matt Mercer ran, so my DM is using his book. Our task was to gather weapons to help a rebellion in Westruun against a margrave abusing his authority. The party was instructed to go to Kraghammer to procure these arms and armor, citing a writ for payment would be given for services rendered. However, we discovered the city was distressed by tensions going on in the mines. Someone was swindling the workers out of their pay, yet Nostoc Greyspine was saying he was paying them, and thus he hired us to handle the problem not just to award us with what we asked for, but also for additional pay (win-win situation,) but we had only a couple days before the workers would rebel. Thanks to giving the foreman money to supply the workers, we bought ourselves an extra day to investigate before things got out of hand. Good thing too because a Cobalt Soul spy had dirt on my character and blackmailed me into making sure the miners did not rebel. We had all kinds of headaches trying to figure out what was going on, and for hours on end, I sat on a bench focused entirely through Find Familiar to look through my imp's eyes (There's a story reason I have an imp... my guy might not have a soul! Devil contracts, am I right!?) to find out what Dulgrim, the guy directly working under Nostoc, was doing with the accounting books while everyone else dealt with the foreman. I instructed the imp to watch the guy for a while as I went to rub my aching head from doing all kinds of mathematics for hours on end, complaining quietly, "So much math..." and I wanted to kill one of my party members for starting to give me a basic math problem to do as we discussed what we had learned. Just as we were going to bed, I was warned something was happening, so I switched back to my imp's POV to see Dulgrim got up, went back to the books, and with a wave of his hand, several pages immediately became blank, indicating right away he was a magic user. He began writing again, but this time, the numbers didn't quite add up, and I knew this for a fact because I had the feat Keen Mind. All I could do was figure out that magic was coming out of his pen, and that right there drove me entirely insane when I used Detect Magic, and discovered it was an Illusion based spell. As the player, I knew what this spell was: Illusory Script. He wrote a hidden message, but to whom, we didn't know. In spite of having a wonderfully high bonus to my Arcana, what did I roll to figure out what the spell was? Yes, you guessed it: Natural 1, the beginnings of excellent roleplay! My character was stumped. He never saw it before. I even used Dimension Door to get into his home, take the book and teleport right out, and still didn't know what to do with it, even with the Identify spell telling me what the spell was (thank goodness for that; I almost used Dispel Magic on it to destroy the enchantment, which would also destroy the message too.) Eventually we moved in to deal with him after getting further evidence against him, kept him from teleporting away using the Teleport spell with a well timed Counterspell (which told me right we were dealing with a powerful caster of some kind, turned out later to be a Collage of Whispers Bard,) destroyed his Shield Guardian while keeping Nostoc under his own power through the combination of Calm Emotions and Suggestion spells, found a secret passage in Dulgrim's home which led to a room with animated armor, but more importantly, a Rug of Suffocation that grabbed our paladin when she least expected it, then finally we found our way into a maze of tunnels and into a place where we confronted the bard... who escaped down an underground river, and kept our own bard at bay from following him with his Boots of Flying by using Wall of Force. I'm telling you what, if I see this guy again, it won't be soon enough. I'm just wondering what kind of trouble he's stirring up elsewhere now that he's been banned from Kraghammer. And considering I only had just gained access to level four spells at the time, I'm certain he's probably gotten better too. And guess what? He was just a SIDE VILLAIN. He wasn't the main focus! This means he's gonna come back to haunt us later when we least expect it. Also, the use of a mere level one spell that was driving me and some of the other members of the party crazy was fantastic! How many messages to players come across and read in their adventures on a daily basis? Now ask yourself this question: how many of them are actually secret codes, either through ciphers or spells? This was another fun little feature put into the Linguistics feat which I ended up getting for different reasons, but turned it into a main focus after finding a book that I now have to keep secret from the world due to the dangers of what I found inside. I'm sure it'll be tough for the average person to succeed on a 23 DC Intelligence check, but to have it rewritten in seven languages (Abyssal, Infernal, Elven, Sylvan, Dwarvan, Draconic, and Celestial) other than Common? It's going to be very, very hard to crack this one, even if someone were to try and use Comprehend Languages. Now to get a better lock on that metal casing I bought for the book and then find a proper place to stash it away forever other than the Cobalt Soul since they're untrustworthy (due to story related purposes on my point.)

I find this video really helpful for giving my big bad not character. I have a question that I really need help with. I offered my players entrance into a medevil tournament. I'm not sure how to make challenging events such as jousting. I guess what I'm asking is how do I do events such as jousting without them being just dice rolling/luck

In my session we have a villain called Erin Writer, he is the brother of the guy that have them the quest. He achieved the power of a god. He has been disguised as many people that the players have met. He sent them into midgard the Norse world. In the end of the campaign he will send the moon into the world and they will have to fight him in an alternate dimension

My party is going up against a bunch of terrorists led by a man named Vinsfeld. The party has not met him yet. I am having trouble fleshing him out though. His main goal is to resurrect a demon lord that has been trapped behind the event horizon by other adventurers, since they could not defeat him. He has 6 main vassals, one of which he is in love with, but that same vassal only joined him so she could get revenge on him, so...

I created a Vampire king in Pathfinder RPG. He also was an anciant ruler of Kingdom Groden. So his motivation was to take his Kingdom back. He showed up before the PCs at 12 Lvl of characters with his family for temporary alliance due to demons threat. The vamire king showed to PCs his love to the Family and the interest in kingdom. But also he was playing with them a bit. I had a great plan for him but unfortunatly I had to drop my entire campaign because of my PCs conflicts with each other.

I'm thinking about doing a Changeling spellcaster (or warrior with a spellcaster underling) villain who is tried of the world he has seen from every face and wants to remake society from its twisted view.

I’m currently running a campaign that’s a reboot of a home brew campaign I previously ran and my best villain is the main one Sydanis. He’s a fallen god who’s the creator of all dragons but he was sealed away by the order of the risen (my campaign has resurrected beings kind like destiny). My players get resurrected and over the course of them traveling around they fight his children who are attempting to release him and destabilize the continent so Sydanis can easily destroy it as revenge against all mortals who he hates. One of the best parts tho is that one of my players is one of the children of Sydanis who betrayed the others and ran away

Thanks for the great video.

So, I recently introduced my Radiant Citadel party to the Pale Dragon. He's one of four cult leaders, each devoted to a different Water Elemental. You see, each of these cult leaders use Simulacrums to fight the party, as there are still heroic forces running around they themselves do not want to risk a fight with other than the party, and they're busy running their cults. This allows the party to directly encounter, fight, and possibly score a win against them without risking them dying or ruining their sense of menace, as it's established these Simulacrums are much weaker than the real deal. The Pale Dragon has been built up as the most dangerous of the four, and the party were aware he has brain damage that means he both cannot feel fear and is completely unfettered outside of his own willpower to resist his impulses. As such, they were terrified. They finally met him, and the first thing he did was list the characters one by one, pointing to each and telling them a summary of their backstory. He came to this beloved NPC, Limette, a Cleric the party had taken to calling 'Dragon Mom,' due to being a motherly dragonborn who'd kinda become the team mom, and revealed not only did he know things about her she didn't know about herself, but that due to certain aspects the party knew but hadn't thought of the full ramifications of, she might not be able to be resurrected if she dies. And that he's intrigued to see if it was true. Note, the Pale Dragon goes out of his way to make sure the party learns very little about him intentionally, as he's very secretive due to his motivations. He's basically Brainiac, a fanatical seeker of knowledge who destroys things after learning everything he possibly can about them to keep that knowledge exclusive to him, and thus more valuable. Party is really tense and their characters are fearful. Boss battle begins after the Pale Dragon has his servant turn into a Water Elemental Myrmidon to support him, and the Pale Dragon gets a nat 20 intiative. First turn? He rushes straight for Limette after landing two attacks on the Paladin/Rogue and does his Flurry of Blows, breaks her nose, denting her helmet in the process with a crit. Second attack punches her in the gut. While she's reeling from that, he takes her chin, opens her face plate, and slowly shows her broken nose and terrified face to the party while commenting "I find if expedites the pace when killing an adventuring party if you kill the healers first. Even if I'm particularly interested in yours." The party was terrified...but absolutely furious with the Pale Dragon and out for his blood. That villain intro went perfectly, exactly as I envisioned it.

My villain is a mind flayer that wears the clothes of a plague doctor. Instead of showing up places himself, he sends shadows that look like him when there is a possibility of being attacked

could you make a video about how to introduce a villain and their plans, Im lost when it comes to that stuff

I’m a novice dm and I’m gonna be doing my first proper campaign with four of my friends My bbeg is the Kobold king and will be leading a uprising to overthrow the rulers of the capital city and free all kobolds of slavery however he wants revenge on the Druid pc, due to a one shot I did with my friend who is the Druid pc, where he killed all his people in his Kobold cave, however he managed to escape from the Druid and that led to the end of the session. Can’t wait for my players to meet and get frustrated when the Kobold king flees the scene when it gets bad.

I'm dming for the first time tmr. And while it will be a oneshot. The (strongest) villain will not be my own thought up villain but rather a monster I've picked to be the villain. Titivulis. As a devil I plan to roleplay him as a cunning and conniving being who forces the party to do his bidding even he they don't realize it. Hopefully it'll be fun lol

If you want to reveal your villain early on, there are plenty of spells and effects for messing with the party via dreams. Illusions are good too.

I'm working on a death knight shadow dragoncentuar based off of soulcalibers knightmare along with the cohorts

My bad guys:”we are masterminds who act like good guys at first to see if these fools get in our path!” My players:”umm, some hag told us to take this item” Villain should have done:”I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR THAT!” Players pet wyvern:”hi” Villain dose because is afraid of dragon creature:”oh go ahead and have it, I don’t have an need for it!” Players:”thanks!” Villain after hero’s leave:”MINION!!! Get me that item back!” Minion:”but!” Villain:”DONT BUT ME YOUR MISSION IS TO FOLLOW MY RULES FOOL” Minion later:”hay, could I have that item” Players:”will it help you?” Minion:”ye...” Players:”no you can’t have it.” Villain:”I will go see if my friend can help me.” Villain’s friend:”can I do you something!” Villain:”yeah I need this item.” Villain’s friend goes and fights players. Players:”...LOL” Villain:”ahhh shoot, well then.” Years later... Villain:”I have a better plan...”

I see that Fehu Rune and I appreciate it!

From a 3.5 campaign: We had a recurring villain who was simply more powerfully built than the entire party. We couldn't harm him, and as we went about the path of the quest, Murton would arrive at the end of each area to claim the mcguffins for himself. Our city's ruler barely survived an assassination with an artifact dagger of green metal that broke upon use. Our paladin retrieved one sliver of the metal and kept it wrapped up for later. Murton was obliterated when he was hit with a singular point of damage. Threw our DM's plans into chaos, but was extremely satisfying.

I must ask, is that the Wheel of Time I spy on your bookshelf? Because I absolutely love the Wheel of Time series (and spent roughly a minute comparing the cover of my book to what I could see to determine if it was the Wheel of Time lol).

I love playing against murder villains One of my favorite dnd games to play in is where the villain isn't a sad relatable villain. I just want to beat a guy with a monster army. His motive is greed, chaos, and death.

The villain I created for my campaign is someone who works for very powerful dragons, acquiring powerful magic relics for his masters. The dragons have granted him immortality as well as a few powerful boons and have had a Fire Giant bent to their will, craft him a blade of such power, that only his blood line is able to weild it. In my story, the party really has no choice but to work for him, and he grants the party members certain treasures that would aide them. It's not the party that does him in, but a mission he is sent on by his masters, and the party witnesses his demise (or so they believe) and it up to the party to decide if they flee, or unite and fight. He comes back later, and his grandson wants to redeem him (being a Paladin) and ultimately, his redemption is what ends his life in flesh, but comes back as a very good NPC spirit that helps the party that helped redeem him.

My player's villain at the moment is a woman named Valkia Norn the Demon Blooded. A viking esque queen who is the Jarl of dozens of northern tribes, rumored to be the consort of Geryon in the mortal realms. Worshiping the bitter coldening of the earth every winter which is known to her people as the time of war, she unites the raiding tribes into a massive army of raiders, monsters, white wolves, wyrvens and more. None have defeated her tide as winter has come, but her people, ever zealous, dare not tred on unfrozen ground protected by the volcanic blackshroud mountains, least curses and ill fortune befall them! However, there is something different about this coming winter, storm-couds hang over the mobile city of Visago in the north, and some months ago there were rumors that some saw a lone rider carrying a package to her keep under cover of nightfall, a package in the shape of an egg... White Dragons, can be beautiful and terrifying catalysts for change~

Please make a video on build a stat block on a evil villain :)

I absolutely love the way DIO from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is depicted in Over Heaven. The book is written as his diary from the original manga, and explains the world and his goal of 'achieving heaven' through his skewed perspective. It really makes you think about how a good villain's mind works.

I sometimes base villains off of historic people with little twists that made them seem like the hero. Basically someone that wants to do good but through terrible ways. Like Magneto, who wants to protect mutants and free them from homosapiens and goes about it by manipulating or physically hurting/killing them.

Had a villain named Mafeq. A human magician who performed shows in a kingdom my players were in. As a bit of a sidequest there favorite npc -a cute little panda person named Jelly - wanted to go to one of his shows. While Mafeq performed one of the players noticed a shady group sitting a couple seats away from them. In the middle of the performance this group stopped the show and attempted to rob everyone in the room. The party easily defeated them and afterwards were thanked by Mafeq and offered necklaces. Every player but one accepted the jewelry and were on their way. Later the players attempted to use magic and couldn't. None of the players magic was working, none but one. The player who hadn't taken the necklace was still able to use their magic so it was obvious what the cause was. This is already long so I am going to simplify from here. Mafeq is confronted players are captured by Mafeq Mafeq forces them to compete in some tournament he made (think thor ragnorok) The players compete and eventually start a rebellion with the other forced contestants They hatch a plan to distract guards so the players could fight Mafeq and his champion Mafeq has his evil yet charming speech Mafeq turns himself into a rabbit monster The epic battle begins Mafeq constantly taunts the players as they fight aswell as insulting them Mafeq is defeated and presumed dead turns out he's not because he returns much later in the campaign switching from a villain who wants entertainment to a villain who wants revenge as they destroyed his entire career. Mafeq kidnaps Jello and locks her in a box filling with water at his old stage The party sneaks behind the stage and form a plan, 4 players distracts Mafeq by having banter and lure him under a spotlight while the 5th player waits until he's under the spotlight and drops it on him The plan works and they save Jello Mafeq returns yet again when he is resurrected by another villain Mafeq becomes one of the villain's four head goons Mafeq is prominent for a while as the villain who resurrected him was the final villain of the campaign Mafeq fights the players one last time on a magical stage created by him One of the players hold a magical crystal that when broken opens a portal to a pocket dimension of darkness Mafeq is pushed into the dimension by one of the players but grabs them and pulls them in with him The portal closes and the players later on find a way to go into the dimension again so they set off to save there friend Guess who's there? It's Mafeq he uses this opportunity to escape the dimension and attempts to close the portal but the players left one of them behind and that player just so happened to be the one who didn't take the necklace "Sup."Says the player ○__○ goes Mafeq The player then throws the necklace at Mafeq who unknowingly catches it Mafeq realizes what he just caught Mafeq is then stabbed with a knife that causes boiling blood which kills him Sorry for bad formatting i'm on phone but I personally loved Mafeq and the players hated and loved him at the same time. I consider him the best villain I have ever made. Oh and if it's not clear Mafeq paid those guy's to interrupt his show and steal from the attendees so they could split the profits. But Mafeq found a much more interesting prize in the players instead. He used the necklaces to take there magic so they wouldn't be able to fight back when he kidnapped them.

So not precisely related to the content of the video! Buuuut whereabouts did you get that shirt and is it available for purchase? I love the design!

before the pandemic i had a campaign going. and the villain was helping the heroes. Basically he needed them to help retrieve an artifact that belong to him, that would allow him to open a portal to his realm. One that would allow him to call forth his army. Unfortunately, the twist for him was that his army was not ready. In his absence form his kingdom, his army has dispersed, so he now needed to return to his realm to fix it. So he is giving the heroes time to prepare since, get stronger and rally forces. Another plan i had was to have a woman seeking help from my player, she has a stone tablet that is missing pieces. She knows where they are but is not string enough them herself. She gives this sob story about how if the tablet is not repaired by such a time, it will open the gates of hell and there would ten thousand years of darkness with Demons slaughtering or enslaving the creatures of the realm. So essentially the heroes would be rushing to retrieve the pieces, but the fact is. the tablet itself, upon completion, is what opens the gates to hell. The woman they are helping is also ushered away by other bar patrons when she is "Pleading for help" For having stolen the tablet and the bandits (Guards) are after her. So in addition to helping the demon queen, they also become villains themselves as she killed the "cops" Of course you had my one edgelord go "I stab her *Rolls* nat 20?" So that campaign ended within about 7 minutes as stabbing her did not kill her, instead just pissed her off and she unleashed her demonic power upon the party, and the bar patrons since they too witness her power. She then burnt down the bar, tossed the bodies into the inferno, and ran again trying to fins other chumps to help her. The pieced of the tablet are in shells of anti demon magic so she could be mere inches form it, but cannot grab it herself. (OF course she also may just take a weak human, and tell him that so long as he does as she asks, when her demons enter the world, he would be spared. (And maybe even promise him a harem of succubi. But once her tablet is complete kill him herself, or let the harem of succibi do it)

Doing the starter set..they give Nezzner the Black Spider as the villain. However the module never gives a good back story as to why he wants the Forge of Spells or for what purpose. So..I decided to make it to where he was sent on a seceret mission to find the Forge of Spells by any means necessary because the Drow caught wind of the Temple of Elemental evil opening and of the looming apcalypse. I plan to connect this story to Princes of Apocalypse. Because thats the next one I want to run. So essentially all the killing,kidnapping, and everything else Nezzner did..was to help stop the Apocalypse. Now I know in PoA the heroes are to find magical weapons to help fight the Elementals, celestials and whatever else..but the drow thought it better to have the ability to create them. And again by any means necessary. So while Nezzner did things in a bad way..it was for a good cause. Adding a grey line between good and evil and what is right and wrong. Chances are the players will just murder him. Or maybe they will help him. If they even let him do his monologue to explain. My wife...already threaten to shoot an arrow at anyone monologing lol.

Best bbeg I wrote was a master manipulator. He was secretly manipulating player X, into manipulating player Y, into manipulating player Z to eliminating all of the bbeg's enemies. Then at the end reveals all the duplicity at the end, turning the party against each other.

My PC's have actually already met my BBG. None of them know it yet though. She's a Elf sorceress who specializes in illusions and mind magics. She was the neglected child of the lord of the main city and swore revenge against her father when she discovered her latent powers, powers her father tried to suppress. Currently she's masquerading as a human female shopkeeper and a longtime friend of the players guide npc. I've got sooo many encounters planned where the minions are mind controlled by her - something I've foreshadowed already - or she illusions the hell out of a place and makes the party fight the town guards. My player group also each run campaigns, but they're mostly 'shoot em up' style and I wanted to get my players into the mindset of 'investigate everything' and 'nobody can be trusted'.