Go to Hell, Part 3
So there he is in all his glory. The most evil, orphan slaying, puppy kicking villain in all of Handbook-World! And also there’s BBEG.
Of course, Assassin has been humbled somewhat since he joined The Anti-Party. Hanged by dirty peasants, beat half to re-death by his own teammates, and summarily left for double-dead on the vasty plains of Heck, you’ve got to ask yourself how he can possibly remain a threat? I mean, the target has been effectively neutralized. You might as well write him out of the campaign, right?
Well not so fast. The wheel of fortune spins both ways. Just as heroes at the height of glory may be brought low by a single shitty roll, villains at the nadir of their arc can be returned to glory (those insufferable pricks).
Often this will manifest like we’re seeing today. Yesterday’s villain is tomorrow’s evil lieutenant as the bigger, badder antagonist puts the failed boss monster to work: “You never had a chance against them, you poor naïve fool. But with my armies to do your bidding you will be unstoppable.”
If you don’t have a convenient BBEG around you can always level ’em up. Add a template. Put them in a party with other jerks from your rogue’s gallery, allowing their combined power to become formidable. Almost any power bump works! Trick ’em out with magic weapons, give them some weird new class levels, or throw ’em in an ambush rather than a standup fight.
In all cases, you’ve got to look past the monster’s stats and on towards the possibilities. I mean sure, a hill giant isn’t much of a challenge late in the game. But a hill giant in Hell Knight plate with an intelligent battle axe calling the shots…. that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.
So for today’s discussion, what do you say we expand upon my list? When a villain has outlived their usefulness, how do you keep ’em relevant as a threat to a high-level party? Tell us all your best techniques down in the comments!
ADD SOME NSFW TO YOUR FANTASY! If you’ve ever been curious about that Handbook of Erotic Fantasy banner down at the bottom of the page, then you should check out the “Quest Giver” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. Thrice a month you’ll get to see what the Handbook cast get up to when the lights go out. Adults only, 18+ years of age, etc. etc.
This development unfortunately makes perfect sense.
It would be unwise to forget BBEG is spinning his plots in the shadows…
#JusticeforWoolantulatheServile
It’s scary how BBEG seems to have absorbed some of DQ’s mannerisms and ‘maternal’ energy…
Villains who learn new tricks are serious trouble.
One top-tier (early level) villain had a winter wolf as a lieutenant. If PCs who encountered him were tougher than usual, I gave him the best of dire wolf and worg stats. (Heck, in Pathfinder, winter wolves are specifically a variant of worgs.) If the party is even tougher, then I advance him by size. But if the party has already trounced this guy a couple of times (or if I have to run his introduction at a *much* higher level than the mission was originally intended to be –winter wolves have an Intelligence of 9+, a Wisdom of 13-14, likely speak Common, Giant, and Goblin, and have everything they need to take 5-8 levels in Cleric and really ruin somebody’s day. Fit him with a “side-car saddle” (AEG 3.5e, p.79) and he’s now a war-wagon with added crossbow-wielding henchmen: a hobgoblin in the saddle with a goblin to either side. And if the PCs haven’t met him before or aren’t quick enough to realize that it’s the *mount* that is the actual boss and not the critters riding him…
Also, Ogre-barbarians are highly underrated, especially if you give their boss extra levels in ranger, mounted combat feats, and a Marble Elephant to summon and ride into battle.
Well, either Woolantula The Servile and Assassin The Servile are going to be eternal rivals in humble servitude (like Niles and CC Babcock are in ‘The Nanny’) to the BBEG(s), or Woolantula is going to ditch their terrible, ungrateful new boss and join the Anti-Party as their new…. Uh… Whatever class Woolantula The Servile is.
Maybe a couple of levels of ‘Chew Toy’ for Antiantipaladin’s new puppy.
No Antipaladin is on Team bounty hunter, not the Anti-party
Under one of the other legs, Woolantula the Servile now knows that it’s possible for cosmic entities to switch places with each other like this, and she certainly seems to miss her old queen… Maybe we’ll see BBDK (Big Bad Demon King) get backstabbed by the servile spider-demon he overlooked and DQ restored to her throne?
On the off-chance a villain actually survives a defeat at my players’ hands, have them go legit and give up their life of crime. Then have the party run into them later, working a menial job or business startup.
And then drive your players insane with paranoia, trying desperately figure out if they have gone legit or if this is just part of an even greater evil scheme. How deliciously evil.
Honestly, I’m just hoping to get the line “Hi there, can I take yo… OH GODS, NOT YOU LOT AGAIN!”
A lot of my favorite characters have been for competitions, and the way that works for a lot of them is that they need to be relevant across all 20 levels. Heck, even the relevantly named Villainous Comp requires an analysis at two different CRs. I’m restricting myself to the most topical three villains:
Severus adds the Ghost template and starts taking levels in Avenging Executioner, out for revenge on the heroes who killed him. Maybe. He can’t actually remember, but he’s not averse to killing them anyway while he’s here. Crucially, he also diversifies out of a fear build at about the level PCs will start getting immunity to fear. https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24240854&postcount=104
Pollyana, the Littlest Nightmare does this several times. She starts her career as an adorable ally the PCs can’t help but love. Then we add the Wendigo template, because what are the PCs here for if not to suffer? Hellfire Warlock is a stop-gap measure, keeping her damage high enough to be a relevant threat even while spending a lot of build resources on future investments. The last two aren’t actually separate points in her career, but two different versions of her for normal and high-power parties: Symbiotic Creature to make her into a boss monster for the climactic showdown (respec-ing her for damage and HP rather than speed), and a few more HD plus an Epic feat to give her the tools to challenge the best of the best. https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24809459&postcount=45
Last but not least, Azoth is one of my favorite builds because his power curve is so freaking smooth. He gets something cool or at least useful every single level from 1-20. The most significant power spikes are at level 3, when he gets both an invisibility power and Quick Draw to reliably use Iaijutsu Focus, levels 8-10 (giving him, in order, almost impenetrable stealth, increased damage, and permanent partial intangibility), and level 18 where he gets a nasty combat combo that works even if the PCs shut down his primary shtick.
http://bit.ly/2kfZ3rs
Did we find out how BBEG ended up as just a skull before switching places with the queen of hell?
I think that was due to the exertions of presiding over the Abyssal Blood Oath between Thief and Sorcerer… and getting his head elbowed off by Antipaladin as he ran out the door with Patches the Unkicked. (Part of this is probably just headcanon.)
Happened off-screen during the Blood Oath arc. Hints given in the rant on this one: https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/evil-abides
And the problem with Assassin having a hair cut that looks from Treasure Planet? Think well before responding Anti-party >(
On the one hand, that version of Jim Hawkins was pretty cool. On the other hand, telling a black-hearted adventurer that he looks like an innocent young cabin boy in desperate need of a father figure is a pretty strong insult.
Either that or Sorcerer considers the look unrefined and passé. He kind of strikes me as a bit of a Rarity.
Still hoping for DQ’s return in some form, she’s not getting to have any fun just hanging out as a prop
Certainly one of the fun points about fantasy settings, at least any without any explicit “no afterlife of any kind” setup is that a vanquished foe can come back as some kind of undead or just have become suffused with/twisted by the essence of one plane or another.
Though I think a good use for such a character is to in fact present them not actually as a re-occuring threat (especially after they’ve already been one), but to have them show up to harass the heroes once again only for something bigger badder and more inherently hostile show up and announce its presence as the new threat by eliminating this powered up old foe.
(Maybe they were something actually of the afterlife/whatever plane that used the old foe as a way to gain entry to the normal world or they’re something actually of some kind of opposing energy to that plane that detected this incursion as was offended and well, now that they’re here they might as well advance whatever inhuman agenda they have.)
Of course this only works if you’re ready to move you came onto a new higher threat level scenario, or at least set the stage for one, so it’s probably best reserved for nearing end game type situations.
I think it’s a nice “uh oh” moment and telegraphs the level of danger of this new threat. And it’s a good “things have changed” moment to replace a human (in intelligence) threat to something that either can’t be reasoned with or just wouldn’t see the heroes as things worth bothering to reason with. Also it’s a nice way of having the old foe get a kind of revenge on them (and thus have the heroes shake their fists at them once more), by causing them more problems even after death (and this doesn’t really invalidate the death done to them by the heroes, so you’re hopefully not taking that catharsis away).
Had a pair of half dragon fighters. When first encountered they were the boss-level-threat security detail of the “raid the magical menagerie to steal the fancy critter” mission. Their second encounter was at the local arena where they were rivals to the party in the events. Their third appearance they were suffering in the reputation department and were stuck doing lower-paying guard jobs to get by when they were encountered by the party (by now several levels above them) yet again. The party wizard took pity on them and offered them a better paying job running the security at the party’s mobile base.
The secret is to fight smarter, not harder. Use traps, tactics, hostages and social conventions. Hit the party where it hurts and annoy them, their inns, safehouses and NPCs (Not necessarily kill them, but manipulate a local lord into seizing the fighters parents farm, which can serves a big distraction). Put them in a position where the players can´t just kill them. Such as having them hold important positions or hold something over the players head. Potentially have them have minions who are more powerful than them in combat, so that they are the brains with a bunch of brawn.
Some of my longest lasting villains have been a fair bit weaker than the party, and have mainly survived by being willy, using proxies, being incredibly good at running away or by making sure they have something on the players that can make them hesitate. I find it also makes it a fair bit more exciting for my players when they finally manage to corner the bastards, as they can finally get catharsis for all the annoyance the villain has inspired in them.
That or the villain is weaker than them, but have something that allows them to keep coming back. I have done this with a pair of devils, who have sworn eternal vengeance against the party. No matter how many times the party kills them in the material plane, they just come back. Having allied with many different factions throughout the game in their quest for vengeance against the party. So while they aren´t a threat towards the party as a whole, they can complicate a battle, be a threat to a lone party member and at this point have so much information on the party that they can instantly fill in any new partner on the groups weaknesses.
Keep in mind, you don’t HAVE to make your BBEG stay relevant. Sometimes the best villain is the one who became a joke. What would Pokemon be without Team Rocket blasting off again?
My DM had a death knight. Horrible battle the first time we fought, but as soon as he reappeared during one of our later missions, as immortal death knights tend to do, he glared us all down and went “It’s YOUU!” and as soon as my bard went “yep, it’s me, who are you again?” his fate was sealed as the perfect comic relief. He came back in the abyss somewhere around level 19, and even gave us a decent run for our money, but I completely destroyed any chance he’d ever have at being taken seriously, for him possibly a fate worse than death.
I love this, because a returning villain feels a lot more personal for the players. You can move on to the next evil, sure. But someone you already killed, coming back ? That’s when the players get ready to bring out the soul traps, disintegrate and scatter the dust, or “trapped in the demi-plane of acid” solutions.
And if the villain escapes anyway ? They’re going to be expecting them behind every door. The innkeeper ? Might be an agent. The quest giver ? Maybe they’re trying to get us to do the villain’s bidding. We must keep watch even in the middle of the city because the villain is definitely going to try to slit our throats. Only to eventually miss the actual threat, anyway.
As for the events in Handbook world… BBEG taking Assassin as his right-hand man ? Miss Gestalt won’t like that. Good. I always liked the plots and ambiguous loyalties of evil lieutenants.