Favorite D&D Villian

[Maelstrom]

I apologize if this has been done before. I'm new to the forum and feel too lazy to do a search.

With 3.5 edition, you can come up with some very interesting baddies with all the templates and class choices available. This is a playground for DMs like me that like to through interesting things at the players that make them think of how to defeat them.

So what are your favorite villians that you have created as a DM or fought against as a player?

Here is one of my favorites:

Favorite #1
Skrimuck the Ageless
Undead savant template, 5th level goblin cleric, Neutral Evil
Owning only the core MM, I wanted an undead creature that was somewhere between a zombie and a lich, and nothing really worked, so I created my own template. This wizened goblin has some interesting history, being the lackey of a Lich that was destroyed 7 centuries before. He is immortal, and as a Savant he retained his intelligence and knowledge and class levels he had in his life much like a lich. He was brought into unlife by his master, Dagen Rah, who sought to gather knowledge through trade at first but later through force, willing to do evil things to advance his knowledge. For this he was killed in life, came back as a lich, and was destroyed again.

Skrimuck survives him however, serving as the librarian and guardian of Dagen Rah's Mausoleum where his most valuable books and artifacts were kept. He is a librarian, and shared his interest in knowledge, so he can be found constantly reading a book with his spectacles. He's content to stay in his master's library, but adventureres are known to raid it for knowledge of some evil they face from time to time.

His cleric spheres are Magic and Knowledge, and having the Magic sphere allows him to use some of Dagen Rah's Arcane scrolls, and even a wand of ghoul touch. One of his additional Undead Savent abilities was to raise dead as the spell a few times per day, so in the inner sanctum of the Mausoleum when the players faced him, he would raise skeletons out of a large pile of bones continuously. These undead were bolstered by the permanent Desecrate spell placed upon the sanctum, so this was a formidable battle that the PCs ended up halting, and bargaining with the goblin.

[Xaels Greyshadow]

For me, my favorite villians are the ones that fall into that percentage as defined in the DMG as "Someone in the party is going to die." PC's need to know when they are outclassed and under equipped when that encounter with the villian comes. As a DM, if a PC decides to "Go for it", even though they have been given all the signs and portents that they should not push an issue with a villian at the time and better come back for the encounter later when they are better equipped and matched to the catagory as defined in the DMG that the villian is an equal match, I have no problem as a DM just killing the PC and telling the player "I tried to tell you." As a player, I don't let myself be influenced by the rest of the party in the arene of "Come on, we can do it." I want my character to live, advance in level and gain treasure. I find no amusement at all in playing in games with DM's that by all outward appearances talk about killing off the party slowly and how much fun they will have doing it. To me, thats NOT D&D. Characters are Heroes, slightly better than everyone else, and the purpose of a campaign and adventures is for the PC to be challanged, damaged, POSSIBLY killed if they act stupidly. Mostly for the Player to escape reality for a while, have fun, meet new people and look forward to the next adventure.

[RealmsDM]

I've had a lot of favorites over the years in all my campaigns. The most enjoyable for me are the ones that actually incite my players to real life anger! The ones where my players stop joking around & get serious when they enter the scene. Usually, its a NPC baddie who happens to unexpectedly beat around or stymie the PCs one way or another. So the villian makes a sequel appearence, and that's when things get interesting.

These are my accidental anti-heroes, who evolve as the campaign progresses. What started out as a 5th level rogue that was rolled up as a minor encounter, might just end up as the epic level assassin who comes after the PCs when they least expect it!

[Moritz]

Baron Alton

He was an NPC of my own creation in the last campaign I ran. Initially he was a True Neutral Necromancer who had been exiled from the western lands of Ferron and settled near the home town of the PC's. He was slowly building up his home using an army of skeletons/bone golems that he created.

He then used his skeleton army as protection along a major trade route of which he benefited through offering his home/fortress as a trade hub. Many were turned off by the skeletal guards, but ultimately, the Baron made a lot of money.

Eventually, he got into league with more nefarious persons and started manipulating local political structures to make the world more receptive to the dragon control (one major threat in this world was a red dragon (that the party awoken from a thousand year sleep) had control over other dragons through an amulet, thus trying to take over the lands).

So, he ended up being a villain, though the party never knew or realized it.

[Maelstrom]

Keep em coming! I'm enjoying the new campaign ideas these descriptions envoke.

Heres another one:
This one I'm going to through at the players during their next mission. A troll sorceress named Gretch. I wanted something that could cause some trouble in the middle of a Sylvan wood and hold her own against the magical inhabitants there, and this perfectly fit the bill.

She lives in a large underground cavern, and she has fitted the high ceilings and walls with rungs. This allows her full mobility throughout her cavern, as she has invested heavily in the Climb skill. Add to that her high Jump skill, her Jump sorceror spell, and her signiture spell, Expeditious retreat, which speed improves her jump ability, she can jump up and reach the rungs with ease anywhere in the cavern, especially considering her long reach, trolls are all arms after all.

Now, add to this her 2nd level spell, invisibility, and you've got a formidable fight on your hands. A troll who charges in, mixes it up, then goes invisible to heal and ambush the characters from another angle is going to be a tough customer. She's also got Spring Attack, so with her reach and Expeditious Retreat spell she'll be able to easily charge in, smack a player with her spear, then keep her distance. Oh, and even if the players manage to get close enough to take a whack at her, she has an active Shield spell for an AC boost. Finally she has a potion of fire resistance handy if the players get the funny idea of the cliche fire vs troll attack.

She's got a Dire Weasel familiar, which may be her only weakness. Having half her HP (troll hp), it'll be pretty tough, and she can share invis/expeditious retreat/shield if she casts adjacent.

[DrAwkward]

I try not to pick favorites amongst my villains -- In fact, I try very hard to come up with a reason to dislike each of them. That way I don't feel like they are "my character" that the party is trying to kill. They deserve to die and have thier plans ruined. I think this helps the game, because the players also tend to really dislike the villains -- in some cases pity them, like a rabid dog that needs to be put down.

What I dig is the villainous extras. These are the guys that are evil or chaotic, but are somebody else's problem. They aren't involved in whatever adventure the party is on, and they aren't there to foil the party. They might even help the party, and in doing so it leave the players with a bad taste in thier mouth, or wondering why. What horrible scheme off camera do we advance by letting him help us? I love the lesser evils, mostly because they last longer, and they can have some really fun personalities.

One such was a cook whom was captured by an evil cult to feed their growing army. He convinced them that he'd be of more use tending the pot than in it. He had to learn to cook whatever they brought him; horses, halflings, villagers, etc. He eventually became mildly evil due to simply not caring anymore, and I gave him modified Artificer levels - He could infuse food with magical effects. He was intended to be a camp follower for the party. "Yes, the stew grants bull's strength. No, don't ask what happened to the Minotaur you killed yesterday."

[Olothfaern]

A villain alone is a jackpot of XP and GP. Make that same ne'er do well a prominent member of a large society and he gets to rub it in the character's faces every feast day. If they assault him then they are on the wrong side of the law. Their only recourse is to gather enough evidence and form enough alliances to make sure that evidence will be heard. Which of course gives the villain time to corrupt one or more party members with the "finer things in life".

[Maelstrom]

I try not to pick favorites amongst my villains -- In fact, I try very hard to come up with a reason to dislike each of them. That way I don't feel like they are "my character" that the party is trying to kill. They deserve to die and have thier plans ruined. I think this helps the game, because the players also tend to really dislike the villains -- in some cases pity them, like a rabid dog that needs to be put down.

Touche, and a very good point. Perhaps "favorite villian" is the wrong word for it. I have had to learn this principle through experience... I tend to put a lot of effort in crafting the uniqueness of major characters the party faces, friend or foe, and because of that reason I was probably a little guilty of focusing too much energy on keeping them around. When a smart villian was overwhelmed and overmatched by the players, they would try to get away. It got so bad that some of the players chose spells to make sure the bad guy couldn't get away the next time around.

About that time I realized my mistake... I was aggravating the players for my own personal pride, and that was making it less fun for them. True, its nice to have a recurring villian that the players learn to hate on occasion. This makes it all the more satisfying to see them finally defeated, and this was my intention. I took it too far though. To make up for it, I gave one of the leaders of the evil factions to them on a silver platter. To their credit, they brought him down, despite the fact he was a lot higher level then the players. They were pretty ingenious about it.

This all said, I still think this thread has merit. I still like to spend time to craft time on my Villians, I just do it with the attitude you mention... they are going to die. And I'd like to see what others are doing to combine classes/templates/creatures for ideas of future baddies that will make the adventure interesting to the players. Maybe its just me, but the things I remember with the most nastalgia from when I was a player years and years ago was the time we defeated a major villian or had a victory against an interesting foe. I'd like to provide those same memories to my players.

[DrAwkward]

Touche, and a very good point. Perhaps "favorite villian" is the wrong word for it.

Absolutely this thread has merit. I'm totally down with hearing everyone else's favorite villains, on account I can use them and I won't be attached to them at all.

The underlying problem here is that it takes so much work in the 3.5 system to flesh out a villain, it becomes very frustrating for a DM to do all that work for them to last only one fight. While you may plan for a villain to re-occur, its kinda hard to keep them alive when the party get determined.

Just remember, though - the villains have access to raise dead too.

[Moritz]

Aside from the Baron, most of my D&D villains aren't really standardized humanoids. Most can be found in the Monster Manual and given higher than normal stats. IE: In my last game, there was a supermega powerful Lich which was doing business with the Red Dragon and the Baron.

And like I've noted in another thread, my next major villain will be my favorite character (Voyce) who has become a lich/villain.

In D&D, I often do not see nor depect the elves/dwarves/humans/gnomes, etc as the villains. I mean surely, there are those out there who do evil like in our regular society. But to me, D&D is about fantasy, killing monsters, getting treasure, saving the damsel in distress, getting more treasure, and killing dragons and even more monsters.

I do not create a (D&D) game where the players are faced with human evil overlords. To me that's boring and not all that much fantasy, even though the evil overlord may wear full plate.

But I'll give a name to the Monster, make them stand out as a major threat, and give my players something cool to smack down while getting super cool treasure.

[rabkala]

I usually have more luck unintentionally creating hated recurring characters out of nowhere.
Have another group of good adventures show up at all the inopportune moments to harass the party or steal the glory. Players will despise it more than the villain.
Did you ever have those players who were still in 1e mindset ('All the NPCs are there to screw you and be killed')? In one game, the players were working for a king. A simple messenger/go-between was used to give them information and orders. They just didn't like the way the guy acted. They were sure he was corrupted and went to great extremes to try to find dirt on the guy. Finally after months of their witch hunt, I figured they drove him evil and made him into a villain.

[Zephurith]

The little kobold everyone underestimates.... Had many a party die on that kobold just because they decided he wasn't worth it... until they saw the dead PC in their party and went confused... Quite fun to pull and funnier to laugh at.

[Maelstrom]

I don't know about laughing at the death of a PC, but yeah, I've used my share of gimmicked Kobolds. One evil necromancer had a group of black kobolds that were highly proficient with their tower shields, and had incredible ACs. These guys couldn't do a lot of damage, but they gave breathing room for the wizard to possess a player with the Magic Jar spell.

Another Kobold I used was a wizard's doorman. He had been the subject of countless experiments, and as such had a large number of permanent spells on him. Played him as a sarcastic little bugger who wasn't aggressive, but was impossible to kill.

[Zephurith]

eh.. the laugh in the end was the fact that the other players were laughing at the guy who had gotten killed... was a kinda stupid thing he did, and I later "had" his character brought back to life by some way I can't remember offhand... was kinda funny, and I felt some sympathy later.. the guy was good natured about it as well...

[wizard_in_motley]

My current group decided to get help from the locals to attack a corrupt temple. Unfortunately for them the locals happened to be Hobgoblins. So a Hobgoblin cleric helped them for his cut of the treasure/experience. Just like they went up a level, so did he. He also knows where the money they think they're keeping is... this should be interesting. He's going to grab a small strike force first and see if he can take them down. If they survive the first round I could have a long-term bad guy on my hands.

Before that a lot of my good villains have been PCs from earlier groups that I had. I've got a VERY large notebook with all the character sheets, it's pretty easy to remember the quirks of the character, some aren't that far from being bad guys anyway.