How to make a GOOD D&D Villain

D&D villains are... hard to make! Let's see how to do it
Kickstarter here - www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
The Legend of Keepers 5E Reverse Dungeon campaign book is a 350+ page tome containing 4 unique dungeons, STL models of 24 playable heroes, 50+ playable monsters, 12 notorious monster bosses and rules for three ways to play 5E (traditional, evil and PvP). This campaign is also offering over 200 STLs from Stonecraft Dungeon, Lazy Squire Games’ new line of 3D-printable terrain.
Check out the Guide to Making Villains HERE!
docs.google.com/document/d/12...
Video Editing by the amazing Bia: / bnazf
Writing, Illustration, and Narration by me: / antodemico
Additional sketches by the amazing Fey: / feymilde

[@pointyhatstudios]

My name is Antonio Demico, you killed my father, prepare to die 🔪 Thank you to Lazy Squire for the sponsorship! Go ahead and give their kickstarter a look if you like what you see! www.kickstarter.com/projects/563681582/legend-of-keepers-5e-reverse-dungeon-and-stl-miniatures?ref=3h46k1

[@xenoexe4954]

Curses im 23 Minutes late!!!

[@jstump8768]

Do you have a full write-up for your villain, or just the starter in the video? Neither is a problem, but this is definitely an interesting situation- plus, I feel like you enjoy throwing variations on Christianity (if not the Orthodox Church specifically) through the wringer.)

[@charlesvos6544]

"Stop saying that!" Also, please make that video about playing mysteries in D&D. I need help convincing my group you can run a good mystery story. They wont listen to me, but as soon as I give them a KZbin video, they suddenly think it was a good idea the whole time. Ooh, and Homebrew more Subclasses, I absolutely love your idea!

[@LadyGameshine]

Thanks for the video! May want to double check the description, it says it goes to the Hierarch, not how to make a villain (link is correct though)

[@necrosisthenecromancer1058]

I have an idea for a video for your lich serious that you could make. In your video about lichs you talk about how the liches stats were bad for a villain then you gave us the bard lich but why don’t you make a video about fixing the liches stat block and talking about how to make a good lich (good as in design not alignment) Another idea I have is you could make a good version of a lich like the archlich from past additions of d&d but for 5e or you could just make an archlich with a twist. Love your videos and especially love your videos on liches hope you make lots more of them I also love the skit you did with the demon from your past that you had to take a cross out to banish I thought that was hilarious

[@Koopaperson]

These feel like they’re coming out quick especially with the quality of the videos you’re producing. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. You’ve created an amazing community Mr. Hat, and we’ll support you if you need a break

[@tacosauce6234]

Absolutely. Rest is important.

[@TDuBs97]

Wow, wholesome KZbin comment. Never thought I’d see it kudos Marcus

[@zephyreon4]

yeah I was thinking the same thing

[@tutes0133]

Indeed. Creativity is taxing

[@morssel]

For sure take care of yourself Mr Hat

[@cole7274]

Mans really said "let me whip up a quick generic example of what a good villain might look like that anyone could use" and then dropped the best campaign setting and hook I've ever seen

[@bad_juju911]

fax

[@mrcoconut7568]

Yeah... F. Him... The hat.

[@coolgreenbug7551]

I feel like twist villains can just kind of happen. You have this plot and everyone at the table absolutely hates this one nobleman and you go like "Oh yeah HE was behind it all along yeah it was him definitely"

[@Wynneception]

The best twist villains IMHO are the twist villains who don't actually change at all before or after becoming a villain. Like you already knew everything about how this character acted and what their beliefs were when you were both on the same side, the difference is all those same things are now motivating them to do things the party considers villainous. This can both work extremely well for having noble, sympathetic villains who are honourable and fighting for a good cause, and it also works to have the heroes realise that the people that they've been friends with this whole time have lowkey always been shitty people, they just didn't notice that they themselves were on the bad side with bad people until a line was crossed.

[@AAAA-sh1yz]

@@Wynneception I 100% agree

[@lukewalsh5927]

I feel vecna/Henry creel/1 was one of the best villains because he was good he was innocent

[@kalinora3901]

Or have the more seemingly friendly noble act nice to the party, but the goal is as a spy; however, the noble with a stick up their @#$, is actually doing what they think is right, even if it comes across as harsh.

[@TheGraviox]

When we played curse of Strahd, I made everyone of the PCs have a personal beef with Strahd. The undead warlock was his daughter from one of the brides. The ranger was dating Ireena. The rogue (it was revealed) was the descendant of Tatyana and Sergei’s child from before the marriage. The Paladin had been killed by Strahd in three of her previous lifetimes. And she remembered all of them. Strahd had made graves for them in the crypt when they went in to rescue some people (not Ireena).

[@rustyshackle8000]

The paladin was actually a concept I used! I was playing an Oath of Devotion Paladin that was born and raised in Barovia, his family once being proud soldiers of the Zarovich family. It was a tradition that every male heir would travel to the castle, and attempt to end Strahd. Every one died in the attempt. My character was, in fact, the reincarnation of one of the soldiers than turned on Strahd after witnessing him kill Sergei. Also I DEFINITELY wanna use that last idea!

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

My personal three rules for making villains: • They rival, personally threaten, or mirror the protagonist ideals or roles in some way • They want something and believe they can make it happen • Mildly uncomfortable without breaching safety tools. Things like, “he’s like, weirdly hot right” or “god what a little freak” or “wait what the fuck they can do that??” Something players might find attractive, or creepy, or endearingly cringe or sweet. Relationship, goal, and freak factor.

[@PaladinHD]

The last one is underrated tbh. They need to have a unexpected thing which keeps the players on guard and makes them unsettling, bonus points for hinting and slowly revealing it.

[@randomlygeneratedname]

I'd add proof of power to that, something either directly observed or via second hand that proves the villains power, say they cut down a powerful being e.g a dragon that the party are aware of or a local king is clearly assassinated by the villains minion once they party are aware of them

[@clay4647931]

Or; Relationship, Goal, and Relationship Goal.

[@isaacsanford6340]

What is a safety tool?

[@WhiteRose2002]

The BBEG of my campaign is the warlocks patron who’s goal is to eliminate all suffering and conflict in the world via taking away free will, he believes he is powerful enough to accomplish this and he despite how I’ve built him up as an inhuman Eldritch horror he is weirdly charismatic

[@romainselle8876]

I always love the way Pointy Hat puts it... "Oooh.. such a shame that you dont have everything you need to reproduce this type of things in your campaign... Oh wait no, you have !" And he hands over everything needed. This is generosity.

[@JacksonHostutler-ln8ji]

I agree there is no paywall or subscription to reach his content because it is just put there. So glad I rediscovered this channel

[@NixityNullt]

I think a fun but cruel way to make a villain feel powerful and imposing, especially with a new group, is to invite an experienced player who agrees (before the game and without the knowledge of the other players) to let their character die, then having the villain fight them and kill the player who agreed to it, making it seem to the other players that the villain could kill their characters at any moment without actually punishing them. The experienced player can start with a throwaway character and then start again with their actual character being introduced shortly afterwards

[@GlitchWitchNyx]

Absolutely adore that villain concept at the end! And yes, a mystery video would be delightful. Finished up a campaign recently, and while it wasn't a twist villain (we already found out who was bad news long ago) there was a lot revealed through storytelling. DM was very happy to see the look on my face as info I've gathered over three campaigns clicked in one scene.

[@The_WatchList]

Sounds like a good campaign and story writer!

[@Archivist_of_Stupendous_Wave]

This literally was posted at the right moment. I’m trying to start a campaign and have MAJOR DM block

[@gobbo9113]

Same making a harry potter campaign right now

[@RocKaFella57]

I think my favorite villain in a campaign was a NPC that legitimately started out as an ally and even fought with the party! Then they were later corrupted and omg the feels when you can tell someone is crying for help from inside their head

[@nomaanhaque1704]

I just started the campaign let the players choose the villain by making terrible people

[@boneybaron2508]

Have the opposite problem made too many villains and I'm using this to figure out which of my babies to slaughter

[@Mammamia174]

saaaame

[@hipsterwizard6331]

The visual of the DashCon ballpit during the villain definition montage took years of my life. 10/10

[@mothlee]

that immediately followed up by the onceler gave me exponential war flashbacks

[@Star_born_Feline5507]

One great villian I've heard of was the inn keeper, who was a true neutral character. Setting up adventures for the party, at the same time setting up villians and monsters, not to gain profit, not for power but because he wanted to make people happy, and simply wanted to be of use

[@piotrwisniewski70]

Sooo... Villainy here is that he just wanted for heroes to be made real and let people create amazing stories from their adventures?

[@Feanor6450]

​​@@piotrwisniewski70what about when people die because of him setting up these games? What the innkeeper is doing is little more moral than the gladiator fights of ancient Rom, the only difference is that they are not watched by people and none of the heroes are intended to die, but they still might and if his goal is to create heroes then the end result is still in a sense entertainment for other people.

[@piotrwisniewski70]

@@Feanor6450 I suppose his goal is to let people adventure, feel something more in their life's, and create stories that would later be shared in his tavern What about those who died in the process? Well, I suppose that's why he's the villain

[@Feanor6450]

@@piotrwisniewski70 ok fair point.

[@NuclearCharm]

I have an idea for a villain who wants to defeat the players (note: not the player characters, the players themselves). She sees them as entities that are above gods, and similar to the whole chess analogy at the start of the video, that's how my villain sees them. She basically wants to sever the players connection to the world they reside in to free everything from their control, ironically she doesn't realise she's also being controlled by me~

[@PandamoniumRealized]

This gives me Lessie vibes from Brandon Sanderson's mistborn trilogy o.o

[@JuanAntonioGarciaHeredia]

​@@PandamoniumRealized Ahh, my sweet flesh slime girlfriend acting goofy again 🤭🤭

[@stormy_does_stuff]

​@@JuanAntonioGarciaHeredia what in the actual *[REDACTED]* did I just read

[@Hypercat0]

Ok but why should someone make a character for the Campaign if the focus lies on the players?

[@theaveragecomment1014]

@@Hypercat0 Mostly because that’s how D&D works, but in lore I guess you could say that’s the only way how the players interact with the world. Through avatars of their own creation that were artificially molded into the world and its history.

[@jjhh320]

Non "compelling" pure evil villains like Sauron can exist in the background and be a good way to shed light on the reactions many characters will have to it. The idea is that people resist, despair, go mad, help others, sell others out, or etc -- the whole spectrum of human response to their fears

[@coolgreenbug7551]

but you should probably have a more active villain as a stand in, such as Saruman

[@nox9444]

agreed, a character like palpatine is pretty close to pure evil, but he’s never the main villain for most of the story. it’s always the person who follows them of their own volition, even when they’re not pure evil.

[@sinisternorimaki]

Yeah, the whole "impersonal big bad - personal dragon" thing is pretty typical

[@Ninjat126]

A way the movies make Sauron work is pretty much this. Aside from the flashback to the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron's pretty much just an ominous visual effect and a recurring motif in the soundtrack. ...except the Ringwraiths are there, described as literal extensions of his will, and they're DEFINITELY active participants in the story. The "black riders" in Fellowship drive nearly the first half of the film, and they're TERRIFYING. We see them from the point of view of our hobbit protagonists: giant menacing figures, cloaked in black with iron hands, unrelenting & inhuman, and clearly intelligent. They take a back seat for The Two Towers, but the Witch-King of Angmar is back for Return of the King and he's a gloriously smug asshole, revelling in the power he has over his enemies. Then we've got the traditional "dragons" as well. Saruman. Lurtz, the big uruk-hai with the bow that shoots Boromir. Shagrat & Gorbag in Cirith Ungol. The orc general Gothmog at the Pelennor Fields. We know what Sauron is like, because we know what sort of people he chooses to represent him. (Many of these moments are also present in the books, of course. There's also a few moments of "proactive asshole Sauron" that weren't translated to film, too.)

[@saddlerrye6725]

Also, there is the Ring wich is actively making people fall to their darkest fears and desires. It makes friends and allies attack each other, it sows discord, and we know that the Ring and Sauron are one. So, Sauron is an asshole who wants to sow discord and warp people into douchebags.

[@asveses5730]

Seeing Pointy Hat leave the Ball Pit in dashcon explains so much about him- No wonder he knows so much, he absorbed the wisdom of the pit.

[@daehdalas730]

I hope he didn't.

[@Marine_Abithel]

The fact that these villains guidelines go hand in hand with the sorceror lich idea is so good you're practically feeding me a unique dnd plot here to feed my players and I'm so thankful for that.

[@NotSoMax]

Unsolicited idea, make your villain start as a fellow adventurer, maybe you see them in the pub/at the guild, you hear of their exploits and accomplishments, maybe you even work together. It would 1 give you a connection to the character, 2 gives you opportunities to see what they’re doing/ catch on to them acquiring power, 3 it builds the world, who else is taking on quests that your characters didn’t choose, also clearing lower level quests as your characters level up. 4 they grow along your party. The first thing that came to my mind was an adventurer that can communicate with monsters and sympathize with them, from the outside they seem like a super bad ass adventurer, solo clearing dungeons, eliminating swarms of monsters terrorizing cities and town. Behind the scenes they’re consolidating power and organizing these conflicting factions towards the common goal of toppling the humans in their area, because from the monsters perspective, humans are in their territory, unjustly hunting them and terrorizing them. Sure the villain is probably also leveling up and getting physically stronger, but their real strength is the friends they mad along the way 🤗 I also like the idea of villains that also kinda have a point or genuine motivation beyond “I do evil, me destroy world” it also provides the possibilities of negotiation, either giving a non combat solution if that’s the campaign players are running, or having the PC’s side with the villain in a way that isn’t just them turning into murder hobos for no good reason. That was just one idea, but I think having the villain start as NPC adventurer is an interesting idea, hell even make them an annoying DMPC that everyone kinda just instinctively hates (but be careful this is easy to mess up)

[@Coolyoshi-do1pc]

My group took this a step farther I am the DM for my friend group and we started a campaign that took place in a world I had already made and we had played in already but 5000 years afterwards. What the players thought was the main villain was a leader of a criminal organization who simply went under the alias "Boss" who was kidnapping people in order to get the free labour needed to make his machine to re-make the world into a utopia. One of the PLAYERS was working for this criminal organization and has secretly been sabotaging the parties efforts to find and capture boss the entire campaign without the party ever realizing. It was only until the party FINALLY made it to boss did boss himself reveal that they were betrayed from the start. What I did was simply ask the player before hand if they wanted to work for the villain and be an ULTIMATE twist villain or not and he said yes. Currently in the campaign this player has actually surpassed boss in power and is now the most dangerous person in the world can't wait to see how my campaign ends!

[@Calipra]

I have an idea of a villan who is two minds and two bodies, but the mind is squished together. The villain sent out their one and only minion to go find a magic artifact that can split any mind into two. The minion is slain and the adventurers have found the mindsplitter item. The thought would that the duo boss could be spared when using the mindsplitter as they have gotten what the duo boss has wanted. The campain hasnt happened yet but the ideas brewing is alot

[@shanegibbens]

I really want to have an actual evil lamp in a campaign now with hints of the lamp at various scenes committing horrible Acts

[@thatHARVguy]

Chairface Chippendale approves.

[@sayvionwashington1939]

Said lamp is an ancient artifact created by a sorcerer and said lamp is gaslighting the nations of the world into brutally murdering each other -Came back to this comment to fix the grammar. Shit was godawful and I couldn't stand looking at it-

[@tysondennis1016]

Like summoning swarms if giant moths the party has to fight

[@itzkozmic8041]

I just realized that if you combine the villain he made (The Prince) with the hierarch, it would be all the more interesting.

[@TheDndGenasi]

Thatd be the best campaign to ever exist

[@cavemanpretzel9520]

What's the heirarch?

[@itzkozmic8041]

@@cavemanpretzel9520 It’s a sorcerer based lich that he made in a previous video, you should watch it to learn more about it.

[@cavemanpretzel9520]

@@itzkozmic8041 which video?

[@itzkozmic8041]

@@cavemanpretzel9520 The video before this one, look up his channel and you’ll see it Edit: It is called “Making a sorcerer lich in dnd”

[@arximportuna3051]

With every video and every reference i dream about pointy hat x drawfee collab more and more often. It would be such a great episode 🥺

[@LeBeerCat]

This👌

[@andrewbeleckis8643]

This is the way

[@rarebeeph1783]

i feel like if you're preparing a twist villain and your players guess it early, you might be able to push the reveal earlier in the story and play out the rest with them as an obvious villain

[@RenoKyrie]

Either become a Hollywood and make them "Sympathetic and complex relatable villian" Chaotic Entity beyond comprehension Or just a jerk for the sake of being jerk but somehow is a badass at it

[@chazjohannsen]

You just described Puss in Boots 2

[@noctisastrum7495]

From what I learn from puss in boots you can do all 3

[@RenoKyrie]

@@chazjohannsen Huh, you are right Goldie, Death, and Jack horner respectively lmao Although another example i could have given was Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear(Is DEFFINITLY Evil, but his Goal make total sense, its just his method is dumb) Profound Darkness from Phantasy Star Online 2(Esentially want to kill itself by deleting the Universe because its existence as the concept of Negative energy is pain) Oldking from Armored Core For Answer(While everyone else murder innocents for specific Goal, man just murder innocents in general because everyone else in the war suck)

[@anoriginalzero3107]

Your content is probably the only content I actually leave comments for to help with the algorithm, actually that good. Definitely was heading into the Evil Lamp Shade territory with the villain I had planned for my campaign so this has been a valuable resource.

[@soriowd]

ngl, that little villain edit in the introduction was REAL GOOD. Nicely done.

[@zeomora3512]

Please do the video on mystery! I love dimension 20 and this is something Brennan does extremely well but there are so many ways it can go wrong like you mentioned. Even in novels, movies, or plays it can fall flat and the writer has full control of every character! Love your stuff, keep up the good work.

[@NoSystemFound]

An absolute GODSEND. I'm at the beginning of a campaign, and I currently have a vague shadow in the shape of the villain. Thank you so much. You're not the hero we deserve, but the one we need.

[@jasonreed7522]

If you want a free idea for something to just stick in a corner of your world: A goblin/kobald city with a unique culture, it was founded when a clan of goblins and a clan of kobolds both fleeing as refugees from adventures ran into eachother and were too weak to fight so they tried diplomacy. And now a city of goblins & kobolds just exists somewhere in the underdark slowly expanding its influence through a combination of traps and guerilla tactics. (This litterally doesn't need to have any narative significance, its just a pocket of the underdark filled with clever kobolds & goblins, their traps, and nothing else since they drove off the other monsters after establishing a proper civilization.)

[@thatguy5391]

​@@jasonreed7522 I like the idea, but I like the kobolds and the goblins fighting each other constantly

[@HateSonneillon]

The most success that I've had with a villain so far was to base it on someone that I personally hate a lot. So I started by making this guy very charismatic and charming for the sake of deceiving others then I made it so underneath that he was a cold calculated murderer. Also, my players would chat before sessions about stressful things happening in their lives. Some of those things made their way into this characters persona as well. If a player complained about their boss being pushy and a bad manager, this character ended up taking on those traits. If a player complained about class politics, then he gained traits about exploiting/targeting lower class people. I think taking out this guy ended up being very relieving and maybe therapeutic for everyone at the table.

[@lukaslicek7837]

Just remember, that we also play DnD to momentarily escape from the real world. But if it suits your group, go for it!

[@phkskj]

I have a pretty good second hand villain and it killed a PC on the "first session", but hear me out: We were just finishing a small one shot that my friend was DMing, I was going to DM the next campaign and was an active PC in his story, I then speak to him in private and we agreed on killing my character on an 1v1 against a Doppleganger without the rest of the party finding out. In the last session the party kills the BBEG and my character grabs the magic scepter held by the bad guy, turns himself into the Doppleganger real form and conjures a spell that transforms him into a amalgamation of the previous BBEG, his real form and my old character... Then I started my new campaign with him being one of the main villains! DND is so much fun 🔥

[@jacobwiens659]

An idea on how to handle a player guessing a twist villain early: “Guys! I got it! The pickle merchant was behind everything” *Explains* “Roll Perception” *Dice Rolling* “You notice a small movement out of the corner of your eye. You glance over towards the window. It seems nothing is there. Then, you start to hear the soft patter of footsteps as a small figure dashes away. As you rush out the door, the figure turns, his face hardened with grim determination. You recognize the boy, who had been training under the pickle merchant. He had heard everything. You race to follow him but he slips away, disappearing into the night.” You can substitute in any NPC working for the twist villain, or some form of magical surveillance, but this approach validates the player’s cleverness while maintaining the reveal as a cool moment and driving the plot forward by changing the dynamic with the villain. It also preserves the villain being active.

[@RomLoneWolf23]

There's already a term for the Evil Lamp. It's called "Orcus Sitting on his Throne."

[@carafurry7862]

From what I've found the best villains are the accidental ones. For me personally I just throw weird things at my friend's till something sticks, and then bring it back every few sessions.

[@vibewayrecording5798]

4:33 is my favorite part, its vindicating, because one of my favorite things to run is my Homebrew Setting of Dark/Grimdark fantasy where the setting's villain is so incomprehensively powerful there's no point in opposing him; so the real hazard of *Surviving* the setting takes the place of the villain. And it works! I have enjoyed each party I've run through trying their hardest to survive the wierd and bleak world before them, the only "Quest" they have is to go and find whatever they need to continue surviving.

[@starhalv2427]

The prince villain sounds a lot like Peter the Great of Russia... up until the magical ritual part After that, it turned into Evangelion

[@SeiaiAnkoku]

Peter the Great mixed with a certain FFXIV character, for sure. Evangelion spoilers SEELE would be a very odd kind of "evil lamp" group villain. The Human Instrumentality Project and the Dead Sea Scrolls prophecies are basically unknown to the pilots, which would be the presumed roles for a ttrpg group in an Evangelion game. Eva is a pretty good example of a story that would need heavy adjustment for a tabletop game plot, especially for the antagonists.

[@drumlessons833]

I was going to say the opposite. It started out pure Evangelion, and then when the villain went off with the whole magical ritual bit, I thought, _"This is exactly what happened with Peter the Great."_

[@pedrokys218]

A entire year... and I am one of the blessed ones that can see this channel growing, this is just amazing

[@debesgod1403]

The ad coming up right after you saying "let's make a villain" is a perfectly timed joke. Love your videos man, keep up that amazing work!

[@g4manhere553]

My most successful villain ever was somewhere between villain and rival. Druvalia was trying to perform a coup in an evil empire, and was doing various shenanigans in the chain of islands the party lived in in order to amass power and resources for that ultimate goal. She tried to hire the party after the first time they foiled her plans, and she meant it. She flirted constantly (though she’d never actually follow through. She has standards) and had the ability to create weakened clones of herself that the party could kill without seriously harming her. She was single-handedly responsible for half of the plots, and her amassing power paralleled the party’s rags to riches pirate story.

[@efrenalonso8531]

I got chills when I recognized Vauthry in the story. Also lots of Emmet in this video, guess someone is been playing FF14 a bunch lately lol

[@hunterpalmer3183]

I know right, i got shadowbringers vibes in his villain he created.

[@icefireobsidian7490]

Me too.

[@senkiken2628]

Very on point (of the hat). I really like the concept of the villain as a force of natura or a a major antagonist and being able to implement these ideas alongside the rivals and not overlaping one each other

[@InsomniacDoggo]

I feel like "have the villain show up and kill a PC" could be altered to "have the villain show up and kill an NPC the players care about" that way you dont get the frustration from players who have put time and effort of making a character just for them to get instantly killed but you do get the emotional response of "now its personal"

[@cardinal8200]

I want to say how much this actually helped me. In a few months I’m going to be running a campaign for my friends and had a villain who’s goal was to keep the streets clean and kill anyone who was bad for the city but now my villain turned into: Clayton Seife, the head of sanitation in the city, growing up his father ran a plumbing business that had a smear campaign against it eventually putting it out of business and their family into poverty, growing vengeful Clayton stalked, ambushed, grabbed, and drowned the man who he thought did that to his family, after making deals for power with powerful people, anyone who he thinks runs an unfair or harmful business in the city becomes his next target. There’s a lot more to him like how he’s a mud monster that got his powers from a priestess of Talos but overall very excited to play with him!!

[@lunarwombat99]

this video officially solidified this channel as my favorite dnd/fantasy themed channel on youtube. so good

[@danthepaninimanbreadboy9253]

Big fan of all your content, have been implementing all your ideas like the hierarch and making other creature more interesting. Keep up the amazing work

[@tubebobwil]

Love love love this one. "Not every antagonist is a villian" and "make the scale/power of the vilian fit the story" are such great pieces of advice.

[@Bruno-ku9il]

I am currently writing my first mistery campaign for D&D and feeling likes its not at all compelling so a video of yours on the topic would be an absolute blessing. Keep up the good content Mr.Hat!

[@bigbean1627]

I think it’s also important to make a villain threatening. If the players feel like the villain going to be hard to defeat, then it feels more rewarding when they actually defeat them.

[@Swarthyimp2366]

Hey mr hat I appreciate your videos they are helping me start my dm journey to becoming the forever dm

[@Swarthyimp2366]

I know I am going to get stuck doing it because no one else wants to but that’s fine

[@SparksHardcoreMusic]

19:38 Hat: "You are not writing a book!" Me: "I mean...but what if I am?"

[@insertname7466]

I'm about to start a campaign where I have it lined up for the party to have an encounter of some sort at the end of every milestone culminating in the "main quest giver" npc being the big bad, harvesting the parts of their kills along the way all just to get back into the castle that has been overrun by shadow folk and monsters that are looking to recover an artifact that the "quest giver NPC" stole from the shadowfell in the one shot pre-campaign. He is planning on harvesting the power from it to do something, I haven't gotten to that part yet, it's a long campaign, I have time. TLDR; the big bad was their friend all along trying to defeat the creatures that were just trying to get back what was theirs before something bad happened and all the while the party was building their boss encounter by helping him.

[@Frostmute19]

I am running a feywild sidebar campaign right now and have been resenting my old campaign world and this is helping me figure out why I did not like my villain. She was definitely an evil lamp that my players did not engage with unless forced. Super helpful and fun video!

[@stormyweather7528]

Your content is some of, if not, the best on KZbin. Everytime I see a new video of yours pop up I get filled with butterflies from excitement.

[@geekandcraft]

Your love for vilain really show in this one. It's 30-ish min of delight, and i really thank you for this. PS: +1 for the Tip of the Hat on ~Mystery~

[@keysam1155]

During my campaign one of the players magic items were actually one of the strongest items in the universe. So one of the villains (doesn't like the other) decided to try to destroy it. But the other, wanted the item to destroy the other villain.

[@grennoin3108]

This is just what I need for the campaign I am currently planning, basically Majoras Mask with political intrique and after three days the capital of the island gets dragged into the abyss by a demon. The basic story behind everything exists, but the people responsible are really lackluster at the moment, so having a checklist like this is really helpful, thank you. :)

[@socialcommentary]

Antonio, you're a great guy and should never be ashamed of what you own in terms of dressing yourself for carnival. Thanks for all the great content! If you make a video about mysteries, we will all love you more than we already do! Mysteries please!🙏

[@alicekingston8521]

I have 2 things I like to do with introducing villains. One is the "Spiritual Pressure" intro. I bring the villain into an open conflict and they release their "aura", players make saves, I set the DC pretty high, they fail, and they fall to the ground because of how "heavy" the villains presence is. The villain can monologue a little, but then the stronger city captain or whatever shows up, and the villain is like, "This fight isn't worth my time" and they bounce. I do this kinda early as a way to show the gap in strength between our heroes and the villain. The other one is the classic dream sequence. Nothing super clever about that, but it gives the player some good questions. "How can they do that?" "Why me?" "Does this happen to other?" "What other powers do they have?" It gives a neutral space where neither can attack the other, but still have a dialogue.

[@lugiboli]

Hearing Antonio Demico screaming "VADE RETRO SATANA" was something i didn't know i needed to hear, but i'm glad i did this has the same energy as Jocat screaming "SMITE!"

[@Simon-kv7ob]

The prince villain really feels like Vauthry from FFXIV! I trust, given the iconography and such, that you have indeed played Shadowbringers and that's so cool imo!

[@SeiaiAnkoku]

FFXIV spoilers This was my thought as well. So many images of Emet, and then the prince is so similar to Vauthry, haha. Their backstories, motivations, and end goals differ considerably, though. I would have loved to do more with the political intrigue in Shadowbringers, but most of Eulmore's politics came up after he left. It would be very interesting to see how things differ if you played through the First's story as a ttrpg party. Maybe you'd end up like Ardbert's group?

[@jojocorgibun1139]

I’m writing and DM’ing my first campaign ever and this was beautifully timed. Desperately needed help on writing a BBEG. Thank you Pointy Hat 😭 wish me luck yall

[@super_sloth_man6443]

I know I sincerely doubt that you’ll see this, but I am running a campaign right now where I have three players we were running the beginning of lost mine in Philadelphia, and two of them wanted to switch. Their characters were pretty experienced and the players with them playing for a couple of years, so I said you know what I’m gonna tie it back into the story so our cute little mushroom bard watched as the cleric, and the paladin tore each other apart because of things that the villain did this allowed the two players to make much darker themes in their new characters and installed a darker one and the other party member. Now they’re doing some pretty side stuff after we did a small jump in time forward.

[@olafthemoose9413]

I am so incredibly thankful to have found your channel. You are a real treasure. Even though I don't play D&D and can't copy paste a lot of your stuff directly (I play a different TTRPG) I am getting so much interessting input on monster/charakter design, worldbuilding and co. You are incredibly creative and I admire your out of the box (or rather the trope) thinking. Add your excellent way of describing and explaining, season with fantastic edditing (Loooove how much emotion you portray using just a stupid hat with an eye) and a fresh breeze of humor and voila. Sincerely, I love your content and watching a video from you always makes my day.

[@jackgeigerscalamitoustail6838]

Seriously, these are some of the most entertaining, and helppful videos I've found detailing storytelling elements and general tips for GM/DMs. Dude! Well done.

[@user-vo5rb4sm1y]

One of my favorite ways to "make it personal" is to give the character's a best friend and then reveal how the BBEG has hurt said best friend. Works every time.

[@cardinal8200]

One thing about "dms showing up to kill a player" while its a good idea not to 95% of the time, I was the player my DM "killed" in one of our campaigns but, the thing was I was in on it. before the campaign he came to me with the idea of having a fake character go with the party for the first session and then have them be offed some time soon after. I made the barest of bare backstories for them and threw them in there, had them offed, then next session revealed my actual character to the party who was an "NPC" who did a few minor things that the DM controlled with my permission. Honestly one of my favorite things I worked on with my DM, but do it with consent! that's what made it so fun for both of us

[@ectoplasm4413]

I feel like a great example of a "twist" villain was JoCat's Belkinus Necro Hunt: It was intended from the start that the players figure out that the main employer of the party was behind the conflict that the party is trying to stop and it lead to the party confroning the twist villain. I feel like if you wirte a twist villain with the intent of the players figuring it out is great

[@reeseg.6766]

I would LOVE to see a video on mysteries! I've been trying to weave a good one into my one-shots and it almost NEVER works the way I want it to. Keep making great vids!

[@Placidusax-101]

"how ba-a-aa-d can I be!" Slowly getting more intense 😂

[@kyrionbookshield2205]

Dude. Seriously. I have no idea how you came to youtube. But you came and made good quality content. Damn. Thanks man. You actually helped me with my dm writing here. I will have to tinker with my evil father and mother chars now.

[@AventheTraveller]

As for how to tie the villain to the party without offing a PC, you can make a very friendly kind NPC (preferably connected to one of the PCs) that is likely to become loved by your party, then off that NPC by the villain in a very cruel way Edit: Or use the "kicking the dog" principle, by having your villain hurt/unalive an innocent while on a quest for something they need

[@spiridiums]

A mystery d&d campaign is SO hard to write effectively. I attempted one as part of my debut campaign with some friends and while it....mostly worked, there are a LOT of things I wish I'd done differently. Writing an effective villain is somehow even harder, although some of that is the way my mystery campaign worked out 😂it's hard to create a villain that feels threatening when your players already faced off against "chaos incarnate" LOL! I'll definitely take this advice to heart though. I want to make a proper villain for next time.

[@ElijahForLong]

I have a villain very similar to this. I basically have this guy who is a reoccurring villain in all most of my campaigns. Basically, he is an avatar of a god who's power and influence has been separated from the multiverse. His main goal is to return the multiverse back to the void, and the campaigns all focus on different times he has emerged. One such time, he possesses a, wait for it, PRINCE! Who then goes back, kills his father, and travels to the main land to seak out enough power to complete his goal. The character is fun to roleplay, as he is this powerful force of nature who is basically the vastness of the void given consciousness and then cut off from itself. Giving him this duality of remembering being absent and removed with no sense of existence or morality, but given a mortal form that feels pain, love, and hatred.

[@jonahelliot4241]

I did manage a twist villain. It succeeded beautifully the first time I ran the campaign. The second time I ran it, the players caught on right before the S hit the fan. It still had an impact. It was an elf-centered campaign where the elven village had a series of magical trees, some of which could even speak or use illusions. The villain was the oldest of the trees. His motivation was simple. He wanted to kill off the other magical trees so his roots could extend into their soil. By using his illusions he manipulated to local Orcs to attack the village and target his main rival tree. The first party caught on by the weird illusions that helped the Orcs, in spite of the Orcs not seeming to cause these illusions. The revelation was one of my favorite moments in DMing. Including when the players worked it out backwards and realized I was dropping hints since the very first session. Heck, one of the players even wanted that magical tree to be his Druidic mentor.

[@loadingwave]

I'm starting a new campaign and this is very helpful! Also I would LOVE a video about writing mysteries!

[@pushover9949]

Every one of your videos is amazing, and I love your artstyle so much, it manages to be incredibly simple and effective while being very evocative. You're a big inspiration, continue the good work!

[@TSSmith]

Man I love how he's like "you should watch that" and I'm just sitting here knowing that I have watched all the videos

[@BiggieBows1752]

i wrote my own notes during the video, pausing and rewinding to make sure I understood key points, only to get hit with "here's a guide to everything we talked about" i've never been so upset at such generosity.

[@High-LordHarza]

God I love your art so much, and your worldbuilding. At this point the gameplay stuff almost feels extra. Btw, you've labeled the link in the description as the last thing you posted, though the link itself is right!

[@SwitchFeathers]

As somebody currently struggling with my dnd campaign and villians in particular, I cannot say how grateful I am for this video! This vid and the ensuing document are very helpful and watching it was very enjoyable. I plan on rewatching it in future as I develop my game.

[@natashawilson7230]

Me having a bad day: oh I'll watch a D&D video, why not? Pointy Hat, out of nowhere: *starts performing an exorcism*

[@PanelFlow]

“A story about some dogs and their struggle of being born British” earned the sub from me. Love it. Great write up on characters motivations/dynamics. I was also going to make a villains video, but this echoed a lot of the feelings that I have (although mine isn’t D&D focused).

[@johnsalkeld1088]

It’s fun to put 4 strong lamps and have a stature with 4 shadows rather than just a fully illuminated one -

[@Zamun]

First, nice sponsor hook, well done. Next, thanks for the content, this was a lot of fun and I would enjoy seeing your take on writing a mystery!

[@morrislimbach2756]

it’s nice to see how smooth and comfortable you got with these videos :) well done on everything and especially the small things you normally wouldn’t notice.

[@jakeellis4054]

BEST D&D CHANNEL ❤❤❤

[@zero69kage]

I've been thinking about writing a fantasy story for a few years now. There are a number of villains throughout the story. But the main villain is something that starts as an evil lamp but is supposed to become more active as the story moves forward. I'm currently calling him Zurvan, the fallen god of destruction. There are three gods in the story two goddesses of creation, Sophia goddess of light, and Sephirot goddess of darkness. Zurvan became jealous of his sisters ability to create, wanting to create things of his own. So he attacked Sophia and took some of her power for himself. This triggered what would be known as the age of blood. For thousands of years, the world was plagued by zurvan's twisted creations. Malformed creatures that could turn others into the same twisted beings. Their was also constant conflict and war between the uninfected for what few resources remained. Eventually, the goddesses were able to combine their powers. Giving four people the powers of light and darkness. The four horsemen or fiends pushed back against the forces of Zurvan and eventually confronted him directly. He was ultimately shattered into hundreds of fragments. But in the battle, the world was also broken into hundreds of floating islands. This became the age of clouds and is the time period that the story takes place in. The fragments of Zurvan became known as blood steel and can give the user incredible destructive powers. But their use is considered taboo because of what it does to a person's mind and body. Though most people don't know the crystal's true nature. Throughout the story, there are mentions of a lich that is running around. Eventually, the main group ends up coming face to skull with the entity. They see that it is feeding on blood steel, and after a few more encounters, find out that it is infact Zurvan trying to put himself back together again.

[@Plumpus3545]

Pointy Hat pulling the cross out on The Once-ler stays rent-free in my head.

[@brennanalleyne8895]

I really love these videos, they're so packed with good info and they're so stylish. The sketches and artwork? Chef's kiss

[@teddylyon1189]

The sexy lamp concept should apply to all characters. Make sure each one has a purpose, and then your story will me infinitely better

[@gamegraves]

Imagine the people who never got to the end, and are just like "Dang! Where do I even start to make this??? Thanks Antonio!

[@hellpenguin3031]

My take on the twist villain is have the mystery earlier on in the campaign. The players can go through the detective work, and discover who the villain is. But just as they realize who the real villain is, someone the players care about gets framed for the villain's crimes. Now the rest of the campaign is fighting to drag the truth into the light. The villain is adept at destroying or planting evidence, has friends in high places, and might even use enchantments or illusions to bend people to their will. The players know exactly who the villain is at this point, and can now grow to hate them, but might not be able to kill them because their focus is on proving the innocence of their friend. The players are trying to reveal the truth against a slippery eel that is working to cover up their crimes, and possibly even a greater conspiracy.

[@Stray_GM]

I like to think I'm okay at crafting villains, but the best ones have come up randomly. For example... An awakened giant octopus. Was a random encounter I rolled during prep, so I made him a servant and guardian of the BBEG's underwater dungeon he was protecting. He was a true gentleman, and got challenged to a duel by the party swashbuckler. He accepted and the swashbuckler used the duel as a trick to allow the rest of the party to slip past and sneak into the dungeon, then the rogue actually outswam the octopus. He swore vengeance after that. We've seen him one time since then. He came back after learning how to wield katanas and use some magic, including the Fly spell. I think he's a player favorite.

[@therealpigeon_]

I love how the Navarian Prince is the litetal embodiment of Machiavellianism 😂😂

[@Ammoroth9]

Another great video! Thank you so much for all the work you put into these. I'm planing out my own campaign as a new DM so this is great stuff for me to take in consideration. This channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Just make sure you don't push yourself to hard with the 100k special. Take your time you great, majestic and wise well of knowledge ;)

[@luoxis]

I absolutely love these videos. The humour, the pace, the advices. I simply LOVE it. Continue like that.

[@monkofthefuture1484]

Your delivery on the "Or else....... the WoRld ExplOdEs!" floored me. And then the catholic chanting!?! Sheesh!

[@alexanderleggett7679]

I've been running my first campaign for a year and a half now, and I'm proud to say that the twist villain I set up worked perfectly! She was a fake damsel in distress for the second session, cleverly disguised as a healer NPC. She was, in fact, a pit fiend.

[@rodrigofernandezrivera1028]

Hey, tu canal es de lejos uno de los mejores de dnd. Mereces muchisimas mas visitas. Gracias por tantiiiisima calidad de produccion en cada video tuyo!!!

[@FineappleRyan]

The lead-in to that sponsor spot was buttery smooth, didn't even notice it at first.

[@VisonsofFalseTruths]

One big tip; make your players HATE the villain, even if you want the villain to have redeeming features. When I ran Princes of the Apocalypse, my players were getting more friendly with the water cult than I was comfortable with. This is partially my fault; during the session zero/prologue before the heroes went to Red Larch I had them fight the water cult in Baldur’s Gate. During this adventure they encountered a communication device and spoke with the cult leader, who took interest in them and offered to recruit them. I expected them to rebuke this but boy was I wrong. Later they encountered a pair of owlbears, slew them and “adopted” the cubs. I had what I needed. Since I needed them to hate the cult leader and want to destroy the cult rather than join it, I made him take what they loved. He magically bound them and made them watch as he put the cubs in a sack and drowned them to “teach them true loss,” which was the big theme of the cult. Badda bing bang boom, now they were hellbent on eradicating the water cult. Had the campaign not fallen apart I would have had the other cults also kill NPCs they loved. The fire cult would have killed the mentor character, the earth cult would have sacrificed the village child they adored and the air cult would have imprisoned the dragon they were sweet on. But those were icing; the water cult was the one they were considering joining and the one I need to make them SUPER DUPER HATE.

[@cinderefell1399]

Scar worked because he had a lot of personality. Way too much to be sitting around, but the writing and actor made it work. Also, just found you and love the vids. Binging them like crazy.

[@Rayne_Storms]

I used a twist villain in my last campaign because it was a dual party campaign. One group had figured out an evil plot, but was trying to find the person behind it. And the other figured out the wizard they were working for was evil, but didn't know what he was up to. Then we had an awesome crossover episode where they got to exchange clues and help each other. It was so damn satisfying. But also could have gone very wrong lol