How Pro DnD DMs Create Villains

How the DM's of #criticalrole and #dimension20 make good dnd villains.
Check out Opus on dScryb: dscryb.com/bonusaction
Use code BONUSACTION on checkout for a free 30 days!
Free things on Patreon!: / bonusaction157
00:00 - Intro How To Create Villains in D&D
00:30 - How Matthew Mercer Creates A DnD BBEG
01:10 - Matt Mercer Recommends D&D Archetypes
03:17 - dScryb
03:49 - Matthew Mercers biggest tip
04:16 - Figuring out what your villain looks like
05:57 - Aabria Iyengar's Whammie Sheets
07:28 - Creating A DnD Monster Stat Block
09:13 - Brennan Lee Mulligan Ties His Villains To A Bigger Theme

[@jrpipik]

Even Sauron, the big bad of LOTR who is the personification of evil, saw himself as good. The chaos of a world where everyone was running around doing their own thing was the world's problem. The solution was to have someone smart enough and strong enough to put it into order -- and that was, of course, him. Not unlike many tyrants and dictators.

[@mattk6719]

Maybe in the Amazon version...

[@jrpipik]

@@mattk6719 Or maybe according to Tolkien.

[@xornxenophon3652]

Sauron did nothing wrong! He was just slandered by all those elves and those weed-smoking hippies! Ever thought about why Gandalf and his crownies wanted to bring him down for centuries? Follow the money! It is all a big conspiracy, I am telling you...

[@SirPogsalotCreates]

lord business type deal

[@aro_ger_]

​@@mattk6719Bro, shush your Mouth

[@CaseyWilkesmusic]

“The Boys” was a huge inspiration in an early campaign I ran. I wanted to capture that morally ambiguous zone where the good guys had to do bad and the bad guys were seen as good.

[@davidcantrell2568]

I’m planning on making a big bad that is a meta gaming munchkin. He knows the rules of the game because he was driven to Lovecraftian insanity by a wayward copy of the dungeon master’s guide that fell through an astral portal.

[@TheOneNotTheOnly]

Oh dang. That’s an interesting concept.

[@TheOneNotTheOnly]

What class was the BB and did you have them change or multi class after wards?

[@tysondennis1016]

That’s perfect

[@davidcantrell2568]

@@TheOneNotTheOnly Evocation wizard to start but then drop two levels in tempest cleric. Two levels in fighter for action surge and defensive fighting style, two levels in moon Druid for combat wild shape and some more healing. I’ll keep this idea in my back pocket because it can be a great way to scale them. Lower level party? Don’t add the cleric levels to keep them squishy. Higher level? Add more levels in wizard, change it to scribe wizard and have them switch fire ball to lightning ball. Plus’s most of the classes are full casters so you’re not losing much spell progression.

[@TheOneNotTheOnly]

@@davidcantrell2568 wow. Yeah that’s a wonderful build

[@tylerallison9735]

A piece of advice I’d give to DMs, myself included, is to write your big bad villain, and then create an entire thread of smaller, “lily pad” villains that all work for, with, or along side, your big bad one. And make your final boss smart, intelligent, and creative. Makes the writing of the rest of your world and game so much easier and makes playing with them so much more enjoyable

[@RoninXDarknight]

Yup, Lucien was originally one of the player's character who died and was later resurrected as a villain. So his physical appearance was originally designed by one of the players. That description was further embellished by the other players after Molly's (PC Lucien's) death to the point where they became something of this mythical entity...which was definitely emphasized by the final designs Matt came up with. Man I can't wait to see that campaign animated. That whole final arc from the original death to Beau's obsessive murder board style piecing the puzzle together to the discovery to traveling with and fighting against Lucien was absolutely phenomenal. Matt & Talisen combined put together some of the best villains.

[@SuperGoose42]

I accidentally made my BBEG Lucian. I'm in a sandbox campaign ran collectively by several DMs and players, so DMs can also play PCs. I'm playing a Tiefling bladesinger who, upon death, will be snatched up by some outer god, driven to insanity, and return resurrected as a lieutenant for the evil god. Sound familiar? There are enough differences to not make him a copy though, so I think I'm in the clear 😅

[@lazy2335]

I was once struggling to make a bbeg for a campaign I was running so not knowing what else to do, I based the villain of myself... When I tell you my players have never been more scared of or hateful towards a bbeg. I didn't know whether to cry out of pride or because I felt insulted.

[@Apollo_XII_]

You know what they say: Good villains think they're right. Great villains ARE right.

[@CaptnJack]

MAgnet was almost always a villian, but he was very rarely wrong...

[@ColtonRMagby]

The best villains are kept hidden from characters until a point in time where the characters are either weak or terrified, and then revealing who it is. The backstory can be fleshed out when the characters start researching the villain's backstory in a library, but only some of it. No single library will have the whole story of how or why the villain became a villain in the first place.

[@rickybrooks2971]

2:24 - In my just finished adventure I flipped this around, and I think it worked really well. The players were actually working with the villain, because he had engineered circumstances such that their short term goals were exactly in line, and he could help them better than their patron.

[@jordanhunter3375]

It would be such a shame if that party had any Paladins, Clerics, or Warlocks, because you would think their patron deities would be able to see through your BBEG's disguise and warn their beneficiaries.

[@rickybrooks2971]

@@jordanhunter3375 was 1-4 level adventure. Enemy was a half-orc cultist leader, and I don’t use alignment. And there was nothing to see through. The leader was (mostly) honest in their aid and motives behind it, which were not directly evil.

[@erianle123547]

I ran a campaign around a Cult of Joy, basic idea was an angel of joy got trapped by evil forces long ago and who turned it undead, and unable to return to the Upper Plains for many centuries, they went insane. The angel isn't evil, it's barely aware of what is happening around it. So where does the villain come in? Well, since the angel gives off an aura of joy that gets stronger or weaker the closer or farther you are from the angel, various mortals, intelligent monsters, and other creatures have been ensured by the aura and become addicted to the sense of joy if gives. The cult seeks out those who are suffering, depressed, or abandoned, as well as evil mortals or beings, to give them "joy", in other words, force them to be "good" by making them dependent on the angel's aura. The campaign started with the players helping a new religious order (the cult) clear out some undead from an abandoned orphanage. While the "priests" offered the party healing should they need it, as well as gold for their efforts, they didn't seem all that off besides some odd quirks. Eventually, the characters put two and two together and realized the "religious order" was actually a cult after a few people went missing across a few towns and villages. Still, the people that went missing always reappeared, and always seemed much happier afterwards, usually sporting all yellow clothing, which marked them as members of the cult. It was a fun campaign, and it let me through a lot of interesting enemies at my players. From making most of the cultists celestial warlocks, or having a lich who was a life cleric, and singing ghosts who enchanted the villagers into dancing until they died of hysteria. All of them infused with healing abilities immune to radiant damage. Made for some interesting combat encounters where the players had to find some way to destroy the angel before the cult brainwashed everyone and everything, kinda like the Mormons.

[@idontuploadanym0re]

Matt Mercer in particular is REALLY good at making compelling villains. the Briarwoods from c1, Lucien from c2, Ludinus from c3.

[@dogf421]

one fun thing to do with villains is set a running theme of villains with understandable/sympathetic motives so when you introduce one who really is just evil for the sake of evil, it feels fresh and serious

[@Jummugest]

Yeah agreed. After years of running sympathetic or at least understandable villains I just threw an absolute evil piece of shit at my player. Best fun I’ve had in years.

[@neverforged]

Another old source for villains is "The Complete Book of Villains" (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide Supplement). Has a lovely worksheet/workbook for villain creation that helps, and lists of Alignments and how they can be villains (hint: only Neutral Good didn't have a compelling villain concept, and they mentioned why). may be available digitally somewhere, not sure (I have my copy from the 90s still)

[@vaporeonlvl1009]

Its availlable in the internet archive

[@neverforged]

@@vaporeonlvl1009 I thought so, but wasn't sure.

[@_Animikii_]

as a ameture writer in general who is still working on my first story, i would say from all the shows ive watched, games ive played, and dnd capaigns i have seen played or played myself, the core things i think NEED to be done to firstly make a good antagonist (villain is too constricting a word) is that beyond all else, you need to do for them what you should do every other character and so i will quickly list that. to make a good character requires an in depth world thought out to the point that when someone points to a random city name on your map, you can tell them the culture, its origins, the resources in that city, the trade between other nearby citites, that cities place on the world stage at large, their conflicts, and so on and so on to the point that even if you never even begin to show ANYTHING of that city in your story, it doesnt matter and YOU AS THE WRITER know EVERY detail you can about everywhere in your world. From there, you have the foundation needed to even begin to know how to make a 'good character' as a 'good character' if you ask me is nothing more than a realistic person that could theoretically exist in the stories world meaning you need to know those things so you can know their place and every aspect about how they would act in the world as the story would be nothing more than almost in a way, just simulating the lives of these players as if you created the most complex and realistic computer simulation that generated an entire real world and just let it run isntead of some play thats SUPPOSED to happen a specific set way which is why i HATE hardset prohpecy in fiction and perfer a fluid future that characters can simply see all the possibilities of even if they dont know which will become the reality necessarily. This last step is most important in specifically making a good character you intend to be the antagonist is that you need to find a good reason for them to start doing what they choose to do and understand every aspect as well as your characters possibly could as to why they conflict. Once all these steps are done, you can have a good villain but to act as if a good villain is something you can just start off making demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what makes for good writing in general if you ask me

[@Takashidomo]

1:24 A lot of the old D&D books can be found archived online, and once I find if it is what I need, DMs guild has PDF copies for relatively inexpensive.

[@Darkstar321]

One theme I approach in my storytelling is that "The ends justify the means." more often than not means tat you're doing some horrible monstrous shit because you can't or aren't willing to invest in doing things right. One thing said by my sister who stories with me was basically, "The ends are the manifestation of the means." And in that story the bad guy was a total tyrant who believed he was doing good in the long term by plying all this wickedness in the world. But at the end of the day, he'd created a hierarchy of fear and loathing. Where the good people who wouldn't take the "Ends justify the means." where all but gone from the kingdom, leaving only self serving politicians. Thoughtless killers and looters to try to enforce his idea of a good world. It was a fascinating and fun storyline. Where for example, killing the sacrifice to prevent a demon from being summoned, resulted in the demon being more powerful later, with one thing less in the world capable of binding its fury. Another fun thing was that one of the most damned villains in the entire storyline, an accursed monster of a reptilian king who'd sold himself to demons with the blood of his own sons, ultimately got redeemed in a long strange twist. Mercy, Justice, Repentance a willingness to face one's own Darkness. The Villain ended up becoming one of the main characters in the story going forward and would eventually reform to become one of the wisest and most compassionate people in the land.

[@joshuariker9917]

My man is making Ozymandius from Watchmen.

[@ericrelph3817]

Or Arthas Menethil's origin story :P

[@uccidi]

Is he really a villain?

[@GnarledStaff]

One thing to add; if you have multiple antagonists/villains try giving them intervillain conflicts. You can give them each a different theme and let those clash. Maybe the first villain wants to stop the BBEG but his methods are kinda evil. Or the first villain wants to overthrow the second but is not powerful enough to pull it off. Or each of the three villains have slightly different goals and the players actions can cause them to work together or start fighting each other. This gives you and your players options later in the campaign. For example, if the players need temporary allies because one villain got too powerful you can have a powerful antagonist whose goals temporarily align against a common enemy. Or if the GM wants to shake up the types of enemies or encounters they can have a 3 faction fight, with each faction having different goals in the encounter. (Or just having an antagonist on hand that encourages noncombat encounters, especially while building up the villains in lower levels)

[@antoniogutierrez7491]

I just started making a flow chart for some of my Pathfinder 2e monsters, which has helped a lot. It's especially useful because there are so many things that need to happen in a specific order to gain the best benefits. Also, with the three action economy, the options are wide open and I almost need to have a flow chart to be effective against the PCs who definitely know how to play tactically and apply teamwork effectively

[@GBS4893]

The god could be using the priest, knowing that they will fail but in trying to destroy the city will set events in motion For example, it could be the beginning of a series of event that make for a strong societal change in that short sighted place, with the pc's at the center of it once that cleric is gone. Big drama, is what the god does acceptable? Realizing that you nearly were wiped out is a big incentive to rethink your ways

[@crankysmurf]

I have the Book of Vile Darkness and it's basically relies on the gimmick of "Oooh, this is a Rated-M book with stuff on drugs, sex, and torture!" For some reason the Book of Exalted Deeds is Rated-M as well...

[@mxspokes]

Some of the stuff is good for inspiration but the book itself leans too far into its own conceits and turns into "Here's how to make moustache twirling puppy punters with no redeeming qualities!" At times.

[@Elipus22]

My favorite villain I've had the pleasure of running was a homebrew villain. His goal was simple. To be remembered. Not just fi e years later, not fifty or a hundred. To be remembered forever. To be a world shaping character, villain or hero. Lochdom ends, either by adventurers or by running out of souls to feast upon. It ends. But being someone who changes the world so dramatically that it is studied a dozen millennia from the here and now? That takes a truly great person. Caesar crossing the Rubicon levels of importance. The kicker was this: his clone he made to be a failure version of himself was one of the PCs. He was designed to not be as smart or as charismatic, but he never planned for the clone to become strong, and to use his training in swordplay to become the raging barbarian he was, nor did he expect for the clone to overcome alcoholism.

[@irrevenant3]

One thing that's missing here is: How does the villain relate to the PCs? How will they even encounter him? (I suspect answering this question does a lot to address the 'heroes see villain, heroes murderhobo villain, the end' issue too).

[@roguebarbarian9133]

I have a similar villain who used to be a member of the Golden Scale, an organization that serves the lawful good Sun Dragon, Boitata the Brilliant, but became convinced that the organization was being misled and formed a splinter group known as the Ray of Hope, which despite the name is basically a radical terrorist organization. Yet, she is actually being doped by the lawful evil deity, Ifrit, Demon Genie of Temptation, who masquerades as the Sun Dragon in order to enact an evil master plan.

[@theseven-armedgod7381]

One the best villains I've run personally was a Big Bad Final Boss Lich known as the Lord of Skulls. In my world he was the First Lich, an extremely talented mage in life whose world was turned upside down when a battle between the Goddess of Death and the King of Demons incidentally caught the kingdom he was a part of in the crossfire. The effects of even indirect exposure to the magics of the King of Demons and those of the Goddess were devastating, as she was trying to deal death to another God, thus the power of death was more than enough to overwhelm the lesser mortals present, and although the Lord of Skulls survived, he wasn't powerful enough to also protect the rest of the people of the kingdom. At first, he sought answers from the Goddess of Death, because surely she had a reason to do this, one he simply didn't grasp. Instead, she admitted it had been a mistake, that she hadn't realized how devastating her powers would be to bystanders to that battle. She offered to make him a disciple of her's so he could help her keep the same thing from happening again. The archmage saw this as incompetence, and felt it made her not just unworthy of her position, but a threat to all life, and so he resolved to use his skills and knowledge to find a way to oppose her. That path eventually lead him to invent lichdom, and begin prepping his soul so that he could absorb enough life essence, siphon off the deaths of enough people to steal some of the Goddess' power long enough for him to ascend to become the God of Undeath. While he waged wars for the purpose of achieving that, his goals were never to rule with an iron fist (even if in some ways he ended up doing that regardless), he wanted to break the iron grip that the Goddess of Death had over the lives of mortals by presenting undeath as a choice, the ability to live past one's "predestined" end and complete your works. To put an end to needless suffering and pointless grief, and instead allow people to choose if they wanted to pass on or not. There were certainly flaws in that idea that could've been exploited, and his methods were absolutely abhorrent even if he believed they would be justified in the end. But my players loved arguing with him, fighting his minions, discovering his plans and insights, and even said that if he were a doctor rather than an undead overlord, he probably wouldn't be seen as a villain. The last aspect of him that was really fun to play with was just how big of a player he was on the cosmic scale. The Lord of Skulls was tens of thousands of years old, and he was a truly gifted scholar and mage by any stretch. He'd collected knowledge from across the cosmos, invented amazing contraptions of arcane machinery, even if they were bent towards dark purposes. His influence on the setting was truly astonishing. Even normally disparate forces were united to oppose him, and still all recognized his brilliance. Truly he was one of the most epic villains I've gotten to play, in some ways only amplified by the fact that he rose to power rather than being all but born to it like a God or an Archfae. At CR 28 and a 23rd Level Wizard (He even had access to some custom 10th level spells), the Lord of Skulls was truly a villain to be remembered.

[@nordwolf773]

My best villian was a guy named Adalle, he was the leader of the Merchants guild who owed a lot of money to the Bankers Guild. His partner Malachai did everything he could to help Adalle. But Adalle fell into madness. I spent the month leading my players down paths making them think Adalle or Malachai was the villian. The blind side was when Adalle killed Malachais daughter. My players were devastated

[@Shikaschima]

I think one archtype that gets just forgotten a lot of times is that of a villain who is a villain because h *wants* to be a villaon. No bigger morale background. He may have had a terrible past, he may have had everything taken from him, but while the party thinks "Oh, he has a reason for it", he just straight out goes "No. I just relish in destruction, terror, anger, hatred. I want to see the world burn because the fires will illuminate the skies in a delicious shade of red. I want to hear screams because they are a melody. I want to destroy cities because rubble is endearing to my eyes." "You are mad?!" "Quite the opposite frankly. I could have easily overcome all my shortcomings and trauma, actually, I quite easily did. I just don't care." Let villains be villains simply because they love it. Make people hate them, even if there is endearing qualities about them. Make them LOVE what they do.

[@michaeltalley2283]

if you can find it, 3.0 and 3.5 Ravenloft has several villainous Archetypes as well

[@shadowviper9517]

Love how the villain archetypes fit the alignment chart. Bully=NE , Tyrant=LE, and monster=CE

[@TheSwamper]

In my big villain notes, I'll have 3 sections: doing well, doing poorly, and reactions. I put a short description for each ability (a few words), and the numbers & stats below all that.

[@michaelhassan6684]

Love you content! I have been wondering what the countdowns at the top of your videos is for. Is it a countdown for the remainder of the section of the video?

[@BonusAction]

Yes, its a countdown left of each "point".

[@Mr.Despair.]

I recommend looking at Dilemmas to get inspired for villains, social dilemmas, ethical dilemmas, etc. (i.e. Sophies choice) This villain is basically just someone trying to solve the trolley problem.

[@douglasmcneil8413]

This Video made me think of the death of Edith Keeler in the Star Trek TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

[@_evillevi]

The Book of Vile Darkness is my fav 3.5 book, I'm currently using as inspiration for an Inferno: Dante's Guide to Hell campaign. Great resource!

[@vusatednd]

Am I the only one recognizing the backstory of Arthas from Warcraft in your example? 👀

[@carmillachoate]

Speaking of villain archetypes, I draw heavily from the archetypes from Apocalypse World. I don't use much else from AW but the tools for creating adversaries and threat clocks are gold

[@angrytheclown801]

You certainly can say that the villain is objectively good looking. Even though everyone has their own ideas on beauty, we've all agreed as a society are certain traits as baseline good looking. And while it's good to have a villain think they're right, there's nothing wrong with villains that see themselves as the villains of their own stories. Someone who might have been morally good, they may even do good, but they're so far gone in their own oblivion they can't see anything else. Dracula from Castlevania for instance. You can't tell me once he took on the decision to destroy all sentient life with the world's longest su*c*de note that he sees himself as the good guy. No, he knows he's the villain of the tale and it hurts. He's destroying everything important and associating with people he frankly hates. Our boy is utterly miserable and sees the error of his actions, but he is so blinded by anger, pain, sorrow, and just wanting to give up that he can't see another option. And if he has to take out humanity...well...that's what's to be done. Jack Horner openly calls himself the villain of his story, and if Dracula is a villain through pain, Jack is a villain by joy. He's far too far gone to change but it's so fun he doesn't care to. Like the Joker, he's a show stopper. Everything is there to serve his petty wants and needs but damn if that doesn't make him all the more enjoyable for it. People act like every villain needs to think they're the good guys of the story. No. Their internal logic just needs to make sense. Their personality needs to fit their motive.

[@ultimatekayozz]

I've made a Lich who was a caring father who just wanted to have more time to find a cure for his daughter, so she doesn't die. Because all others he loved already died. After he became a Lich and was immortal, he wanted to bring death as true life to everyone, so no one has to suffer from illnesses and loss ever again.

[@TheMysticMage]

This reminds me of one of my players' favorite villains I put into a game of Pathfinder I ran, and probably my favorite villain I ever created. She definitely thinks she's a hero, despite the fact that she fits the Tyrant and Monster archetypes. Though she would do what she wanted even if she didn't think it was a good thing, it adds to her illusion of grandeur and a very healthy dose of messiah complex. She's a vampire (With a twist the players haven't found yet!) that's completely mad, and a psychopath that thoroughly enjoys causing suffering. She thinks humans are selfish, self-serving disgusting creatures that don't deserve anything and wants to establish eternal night in Ustalav to turn it into a haven for her kin and make humans into livestock. She justifies here ever act of savage cruelty with the idea that who ever she is doing to deserve it; not that it really matters to her.

[@Arkin0316]

What are you using to edit your stat blocks like that?

[@camdenthompson4307]

Watching this made me realize I did what Brennan does a lot with his villains with mine as well: some of the overarching themes in my campaign involve 1. no matter how bad the world is, there will always be good, and 2. the importance of humility and the recognition of individualism (which is mainly realizing that no two people are alike, and that what one person does does not apply to a whole group, or at least that's the best I can describe it). Because of what I wanted, as well as a few biases I have due to some overexposure in recent times, My Main BBEG is actually mostly pure evil, as I wanted him to be a sort of representation of just suffering, with a bit of a lean towards mental illness specifically. he's an eldritch god who, after living for hundreds of eons, developed a sort-of "Corrupted" view on life, where he believes, due to his immense power, that he is the apex being, and that he should rule all of reality, as it would be reasonable for someone who was basically born a god to be the one in control, and had since tried conquering planets. HOWEVER, once he got to the planet the game takes place, he ended up starting a war ending up with a king sealing him in a meteorite. Due to this, he had tried anything he could to absolutely destroy everything this king loved, from making his wife fall to her death, reviving his grandfather and making him wear cursed armor around his corpse, to even kidnapping his daughter and giving her to one of his followers to make them king of a country, as well as giving her so many issues it makes Azula from ATLA look like a functional human being (Don't worry, she's not as evil as Azula, she's actually a decent person). another aspect that kinda gets this idea is the two primary factions that are in the campaign. The Watchers (the one the BBEG formed), to heavily simplify them, believes that all things are either 1. superior, or 2. inferior, and something that is inferior will always be inherently worse than something that is superior in every way. (example being comparing a pebble to a mountain, or a mortal to a god. the former will never become as equal to the latter). Most of their members, which consists of either High ranking officials in society who seek to keep their status or peasants who feel they deserve to be on top, seek to free the BBEG from the meteorite, who will then promise them a world where they are on top, and everyone will submit to their rule. Meanwhile, the other group, known as the White Rose, to simplify their beliefs, believe that just because something is better than something, it doesn't mean that the worse thing will ALWAYS be worse. (One character explains it best by asking the question "Can one gold coin beat an entire army?" in which he says the Watchers will say the army will ALWAYS win in EVERY context, while the While Rose will ask for the context behind the situation, like "How Many coins are their?" "How Skilled am I with using the Coin as a weapon?" "How many people are in the Army?" etc.). Their members mainly consist of mainly Paladins. however, they will accept basically ANYONE as long as you agree and/or at least support their beliefs, and won't really force people to join, (think like how the Assassins work in Assassin's Creed, you don't have to be an "Assassin" to be part of the "Assassin's"). They primarily try to help people out whenever they can, and try to prevent the Watchers from obtaining power, as well as potentially fighting rulers who happen to abuse their power over people. The best comparison between the two is that, while the Watchers will try to manipulate things to their advantage, without really changing it, The White Rose will try to explicitly help people when they can, even if it means completely changing how something works in the process.

[@Greenknight3]

I once made a villain special for my players (a bunch of theater kids). They always wanted to understand why someone was evil, but Lord Byrund didn't have a reason. He was apathetic, hyper pragmatic, and genuinely saw no perpous to life. It is best summed up with this excerpt from our game. Players: (listing everything he did that was horrible and vile) Lord Byrund: "okay... and?" (Him saying this from his dest where he is still actively signing the writs of people's deaths)

[@bubbado8333]

My last starfinder campaign the big bad was an intergalactic Television station that ran and broadcasted the adventures guild Millions of lives were being saved daily because they could quickly organize and dispatch adventures to fight the threat What none but the highest rank of adventures knew though is that the Station would also create or direct threats too, maybe is a slow week so science creates a zombie virus and unleashes it in a populated center, their mages drag the meteor towards the planet, the warlord conquering the sector is a person who has been groomed and trained since birth to accomplish the task The tv station though is never really looked at with scrutiny, they are essentially all the entertainment in the galaxy, and their work is seen as heroic The game started with the players looking to join the heroes guild and rise through the ranks, and as they had more power and influence they began to see just how corrupt the whole thing was, they couldnt stop fighting because people were at risk but they had to use all of their free time to look at dismantling the thing in secret

[@ahmedakmal9244]

6:30 I URGE people to do this to your characters and to introduce this to new players too!! It's extreeeemely helpful, setting a cheat sheet for your actions, bonus actions and reactions means you're very fast in combat, which make it more fun! you're are able to use your character to the fullest without too much work or having played them before and finally and more importantly to me is building a more efficient character! it enables you to build more useful and fun characters where you CAN use all your stuff together, before this I was lost when combat started or when choosing feats/spells/items and so on why? Because of action economy, if I have like too many spells that use action's and none that use bonus action, I could pick up one or two just to make more use of my capable character, make me feel like a pro while I know I'm not lmao.

[@rail7646]

how did you change the stat blocks in this video, what program is that? Looks very useful to have that format

[@BonusAction]

Oh I just recreated the stat blocks in the photo editing software Canva. So everything I was editing was made in there.

[@rail7646]

@@BonusAction oh wow I see thank you for your super quick response! So how exactly are you doing this? Looks like you use some picture to text option, or is it more complex than that? If you mind sharing the steps Edit:/ nvm I found it, theres a picture to text option but it's only for premium, not a fun of subscription models I might look into this for other programs, thanks for the inspiration anyway!

[@jevette7576]

Where did Bonus Action guy get the 5e Brown background where he modifies monsters or such?

[@BonusAction]

I used the photo editing software Canva, I just recreated the statblock from scratch first so I could edit it!

[@EcthelionOTF]

Hey there! How did you edit the Drow Priestess monster sheet? I’ve been wanting to do things like that but haven’t looked into it. Did you just use adobe or have something else?

[@BonusAction]

Oh I actually just recreated the whole character sheet in Canva, a photo editing application. So I could delete and edit elements on there.

[@weathelmgaming]

Few years ago I have made new world for my players. And in the first campaign in it i present them vilain that believes that he acctually can halp to make better live for everyone on the continent, but accidentally allmost destroy whole world... Fun thing is, that one of the player takes his vision as his own, and i upcomming second campaing latter, he starts to work on that in following the vision of the villain.

[@neosildrake]

The moment you started, I immediately thought of Homelander. 😅 How far are you willing to go "for the greater good"?

[@Dlnqntt]

I am so glad that I never threw away any of my books from 2e forward. I have myself a copy of the BoVD, and its such a quality book. Back in the early 3.5 days WoTC was putting out great products, but that quality so swiftly fell off as they end of 3.5 approached.

[@pottersdog]

In my last campaign the party directly created the big bad, their reason for doing what they do and such without realising it until the moment that it happened. Allot of heads in hands and a silent table for a moment when they came to terms with that.

[@zretralboletarias2808]

Currently I’m running a campaign where the players are told of a property that ended the world and our rogue was the reason for it when they ascended to godhood. What makes it better is that this isn’t the first time in our narrative it has happened, so the party THINKS they’ll stop it, but our rogue is fully embracing it.

[@TheShepherdFilms]

The word you are looking for...is hubris....

[@MagicalMaster]

A good thing to do, is to have the Villain be part of something bigger. Going back to destroying the city you used. What if they interpreted things the way they did, because of local politics? They follow the Divine Right of Kings deal and are supporting the 'True Heir' of the throne but ruling that city is a contender. Someone that the Villain thinks would bring ruin because this contender was say born a bastard and earned a noble title through their trading skills.

[@diogosalgado]

"This entire city must be purged". Oh yeah, that's one hell of a villain

[@Scarletraven87]

2:27 Ok you Arthas Menethil

[@hadesblackplays]

i think i've been doing this things subconsciously😅

[@azunthewise4914]

My best BBEG was a pacifist who was willing to end worlds to achieve his goal of noone ever having to die again. He destroyed worlds and absorbed souls seeking the power to stop "Ending" which was one of 4 multiversal dieties in my games. My players ended up trapping him and then spending an entire NEW campaign trying to redeem him and free him from the trap.

[@theseven-armedgod7381]

I had a villain similar to that, a powerful Lich that wanted to ascend to divinity in order to allow people to choose whether they wanted to die or instead become undead and continue to live on. Although he didn't get to be redeemed, instead in his final fight he declared that if he were to accept that there was an error in his ways, he would've spent tens of thousands of years making things worse, that he would be a being unworthy of redemption in that case, no matter what the pc's might say. He believed he was making the correct choice, that he'd properly weighed the odds, but even if he'd erred, he'd rather be destroyed and stopped, as that would be the only appropriate fate based on what he'd done in pursuit of his ultimate goals.

[@felixnotacat7687]

0:19 J'ai cru c'étais Eric Zemmour XD

[@tysondennis1016]

With making a BBEG, I want to make it personal. In the current campaign I’m playing in, the villain has taken the party’s stuff and forced them to fight in gladiatorial games for his own amusement. Right off the bat, I knew my goal was to kill that man. If I get to DM, I will give each character a personal stake from session one, as if the villain razes an village of complete strangers, the party know they’re too dangerous to be allowed to go unopposed, but it’s not as motivating as if the villain kills that one NPC that the party loves. Once the villain does something that makes the players angry, they are hooked. And I can even use backstories. Perhaps the party’s Paladin is the BBEG’s twin sister, and she’s pursuing her sister to bring her back to the light. Perhaps the party’s Rogue went on a mission with the BBEG, but was betrayed and left for dead, and he wants to kill her. That can cause conflict, with the party split upon the Paladin’s side or the Rogue’s side. Perhaps they reach a compromise, where the BBEG isn’t killed, but she still faces trial and is imprisoned for her crimes, until she can be redeemed or she dies in prison. Or perhaps the Rogue decides to let bygones be bygones. Or perhaps the Paladin realizes that she must kill her sister. Also, I make sure that the villain is a dark reflection of the hero. Perhaps both the party’s Druid and the BBEG Druid agree on protecting nature, the difference is how far they’re willing to go and if they think civilization is even compatible with nature. Perhaps the Bard is a famous hero, but hates being called a hero, as she feels like it’s for self-mythologizing, narcissistic autocrats, and the BBEG is invading other countries and committing atrocities to be lionized by his kingdom. Perhaps the BBEG Barbarian is what the party’s Barbarian would’ve become if she was consumed by the trauma of losing the love of her life.

[@worldbigfootcentral3933]

I always think of Matt Mercer as a villain. Lol

[@DoomBringerDANTE]

I don’t think villains HAVE to believe they are right or even be viewed as being mistaken or anything. Nor do they have to view themselves as good. WoD has a lot of good villain factions that are just evil. There’s no justifying a Nephandi. The light is gone. All there is - Is Entropy. They make great horror villains. As do Slashers from the Hunter: The Vigil line. Black Spiral Dancers are scary villains like the Nephandi as well. Only 1 group of Baali believe they are good and they are Infernalists that hunt other Infernalists. They also exist in the Tal’Mahe’Re so they are more misguided Anti-Heroes than Villains. Main Baali meanwhile are KOS because they are Infernalists causing chaos, suffering and empowering demons.

[@jordanhunter3375]

Though not exactly BBEG material, a Brutish Thug who thinks himself a hero just because he does the bare minimum of a task would make for a great minor antagonist/rival for your PCs.

[@MrDavidKord]

I have a Book of Vile Darkness! 🖤🖤

[@jasonnewell7036]

Or, hear me out, your villain does not need a stat block.

[@LunaMoonwing]

People have preferences.

[@zenonx1]

If they don’t have a stat block they’re just poor illusions of adversaries

[@jasonnewell7036]

You only need a stat block when the pc's have a chance of beating them. Before that they can just do whatever they need to do.

[@Droid6689]

They need some way to interface with the general conflict resolution rules. Typically they need at least ability scores/saves. Probably need HP and AC. You could improvise their attack, damage, movement, and other abilities. People do get hung up on statblocks. You don't need to use anything from the books to make an enemy. They can have unique spells and abilities that aren't anywhere else

[@SamSam-ke9zy]

Yes they do. Either it's in your head or written down your PCs are going to roll against something.

[@AvianEdits]

perfect villain that think he is a Hero as an example is the older brother from Fable 3. The entire game you think he is the end all bad guy but he has reason for his horrific acts

[@KingLittleT]

What makes you a pro dm and who decides that?

[@BonusAction]

In my mind it is if it is your profession but the lines do get blurry 😀

[@rahjeel]

The homebrew campaign I am running right now as a DM have no real Villains. They're all ambivalent in their own right, what I have are factions and their group convictions. My friends are playing a group of heretical prisoners tasked by the world's equivalent of The Vatican Church to do clandestine work to keep the "peace" in the region by making sure the Tyrannical King stays in power and stays a part of the empire. Meanwhile there's other groups with vyed interests in making sure the King fails or wins and none of them are simple as "good" or "evil". A lawful evil king isn't just there using laws to make himself happy. I wrote him as if he was obligated to these laws and traditions that he got it all fucked up to the point that he is now asking The Church to secretly kill his own son who wants to establish a Republic State on behalf of the common people.

[@kayleelockheart8208]

Get a .pdf of the book of VD

[@Boikusan]

lol congrats you made Arthas from Warcraft good info for villians though

[@demonic_myst4503]

I liked book of vioe darkness i can get why some may noy itliteraly is filled with turture devices

[@clever-ruse]

I have the entirety of 3.0 and 3.5 if you ever need anything for reference shoot me a DM

[@ChknKng]

I haven’t watched the video, I just wanna say that I don’t give a shit about the rules, I’m making what I think is fun.

[@CaptnJack]

Just one big bad? Why limit your worlds? I prefer 12

[@Danman350]

How did not finding a physical BoVD get in your way? You can find a PDF of any 3.5e book in like 2 minutes and they haven't been in production for decades, nobody cares if you pirate it.

[@reubencanningfinkel5922]

READ LITERATURE LOOK AT GREAT VISUAL ART WATCH FANTASTIC MOVIES between a sponge for all things art--and think structurally. thats the best, best, best way. plus, also, eating rules

[@neepers]

all good villains believe they're doing the right thing! Villains are just misguided heroes.

[@jediburrito]

Tbh the villain that thinks they're the hero has really gotten oversaturated. Azula never had any notion that she was good at all. She was still compelling.

[@ArthurRex131]

She was compelling because there was hope for her redemption which eventually took place in the comics.

[@jediburrito]

@@ArthurRex131 Honestly at first I didn't know what you were talking about but apparently there is one from 2023... Honestly I don't know what the obsession is with redeeming people who are shit. Most types of antisocial personality disorder there is no medical way of treating. Its pretty unrealistic to tell people that everyone is reedeemable. Sometimes people are just harmful to society and there isn't anything we can do to help that.

[@TheBahamaat]

The Book of Vile Darkness was tryhard edgelord turned up to 11. A fragment of good idea, wrapped in a lot of unnecessarily superficial shock elements and some really ... suburban notions of morality (hint: pretty much everything a conservative suburban parent would hate - drugs, sex, piercings, etc - is "evil" and "vile"). A far better take was from another 3.x era book, Exemplars of Evil (kind of the counterpart to Elder Evils, also highly recommend for cosmic horror).

[@jonothanthrace1530]

"Homelander" and you lost me.

[@GravyTraining]

FFS, it's D&D not DnD. The hint is in the name... Dungeons & Dragons, not Dungeons 'n' Dragons.

[@ArthurRex131]

Nobody cares.

[@GravyTraining]

@@ArthurRex131 No, you don't care, which is I guess nobody. If the guy loves D&D so much and claims to be expert enough to write video essays, he should be able to spell the name of the game.

[@mattk6719]

This guy clearly has a bias against religion.

[@ahorseofcourse7283]

Hey, so, could you stop using Matt Mercer and the rest for views? Surely you have your own takes, ny dude.

[@thejadedjester4935]

But you wouldn't have clicked would you. I don't think there's anything wrong discussing dm strategies with some examples that most people can check out or have watched before. If you want to explore an idea, why not refer to examples, seems weird to strictly avoid bringing them up.

[@BonusAction]

May I ask what your issue is with me using well know DMs as examples? For the viewers it means I can get my points across faster and make them more simple to understand. For me the creator it’s good marketing. I would love to know the downsides!

[@thanesgames9685]

The whole thing is his takes on what these very good, very well known, DM's do to make compelling games. He's probably the best at these sort of videos, and way more pleasant than the enormous number of "scream at the camera to convey energy!" DM discussion channels.

[@jessemartinez9158]

How dare someone use easy to understand and well known examples!

[@CooperAATE]

Trash take. The video is literally what he thinks they're doing right, meaning it is based on his ideas.

[@yogapantsyogurtpants3365]

dnd combat is by far my least favorite part of the game. i've moved on and i'm happier for it. branch out folks, trust me.