The 10 BEST villains in D&D! . . . . according to me

[@Jorphdan]

Honorable Mention goes to... VENGER! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJWup5aLjdd_f7M 🙂

[@JamiesonHorton]

He was cool. How would you stat him in 5e D&D? Horned Devil, maybe?

[@ymeynot0405]

I'm a little disappointed that there is no one from Dragonlance. It had villains like Strad where they were personalities, with flaws. They weren't bigger than life. Even the gods like Takhisis were grounded and did more through people than pure power. Yes, Lord Soth, who could be played in DragonLance or Ravenloft. I can't think of another character in Ravenloft who actually starred in another campaign setting before becoming apart of Ravenloft. Kitiara, and the blue dragon armies. Raistlin Majere, the mage who you are never quite sure who's side he's on. All of them were well rounded personalities to play. You have flaws to exploit and it doesn't take a party of lvl 20 characters to win. I'm just sad now. Well I have to hope that we agree more on the top 10 NPC's to aid your party. ;P (Nice pull with the lord of blades though. I often solo healed through his raid on Dungeon & Dragons online when the lvl cap was 20.)

[@Darkwintre]

I would have gone with half dragon Sorceror and reveal Tiamat is his mother explaining her "mothering" him and why she doesn't kill those kids as she finds them a handy way to get through to her son. Who constantly runs away when she pops over for a chat...

[@stephenalley5177]

No Asmodeus on the list? Easily my favorite villain I've run in a game. The whole, I am a necessary evil, I'm the one that does the work the gods don't want to get their hands dirty on, idk maybe I just love rp-ing devils.

[@IansMentalOmega]

Acererak made the Tomb of Horrors because, as a great immortal once said "Eternity is beyond boring"

[@rmcdudmk212]

I've found that sometimes the most evil villians are the players themselves 🤣

[@WorgenGrrl]

Murderhobos

[@jamesmichael5]

Sometimes=Everytime🤣🤣

[@pitchforksdragon1252]

This is the most accurate and relatable comment ever.

[@maohpeach1425]

Yep, i try so hard to be good aligned... Maybe XD

[@hallking7441]

It's funny how a few levels does that. Power corrupts...

[@vinspad3]

I would like this vid for 'villains below CR 10' since most campaigns don't go above that level. Yes, some of these villains can work as the big bad behind the curtain, but I'd love to see what mustache twirler you think is best and slightly lower scale for the players?

[@thekkidd3d]

Great idea for a video @Jorphdan

[@JamiesonHorton]

I'm surprised Archduchess Zariel wasn't on your list! I enjoyed playing her in "Descent into Avernus." She's an infernal villain... but she believes that she didn't fall into temptation and damnation, but rather, she ROSE to more effectively challenge the unending legions of the Abyss. Great stuff!

[@Inevitibility23]

Amen. Zariel > all other dnd villains.

[@CurtisEarle-b7w]

She is only there because wotc wanted a empowered female devil other than a brat and a bypolar suductress. according to insiders anyways.

[@isaacmartin2481]

Asmodeus and Grazzt are also incredible villains. Asmodeus ascension to godhood is such a bizarre cool story, but he's so far up the totem pole and so inscrutable I don't know of any games where you can actually face off against him.

[@BockwinkleB]

I always pronounce Kyuss to rhyme with "eye" and "us", but that's just because that's how the band of the same name pronounced it.

[@markcampbell4080]

Same, I always pronounced it Kai-oos. But I like the flavor text. :)

[@enricorix]

Me too as the Band's Name, named because of The Worm that Walks.

[@josephbenson4413]

I always understood it to be one syllable. A 'K' sound at the beginning and then 'use' pronounced as in, "Of what use is walking worm.". (The 's' is an 's, not a 'z'.) Kewwws

[@GhulKing]

I was always a fan of Lord Soth and absolutely loved the match up between him and Strahd

[@Tovish1988]

Larloch is an exceptional FR book villain, and Jon Irenicus is an exceptional FR video game villain, neither of which get the tabletop love they deserve. At least we got Jon Irenicus stats in Minsc's book.

[@cmleibenguth]

Baldur's Gate 2 Shadows of Amn is the best of the series

[@yanaleigh]

When this popped up I was in the middle of reading about the Elder Evils, trying to decide who to add to my campaign. (I think I'm going to use Pandorym, I like the idea of the mind getting loose and trying to rejoin the body.) Anyway, I'm pretty excited because I normally DM but starting in late May I'm going to get to play through Strahd because a friend wants to run it.

[@Jorphdan]

ooo fun! That'll be fun to play in a Strahd game!

[@JamesMillsNeutralBase]

I love the idea of using Vecnas hand and eye against him, or at least trying to and probably failing. Especially if that failure was part of his plan all along and now you've brought to him exactly what he needed for ascension.

[@papierowyszczur9234]

My first homebrew campaign revolved around The Second Manshoon War. In essence, every Manshoon gained an inhuman skill in some school of magic and all Manshoons were starting to prepare something big. My players got involved after they broke plans of Manshoon in Waterdeep (a conjurer) and after getting revived (with a proper working clone jar), that clone sent them magical rant that could be summed up in words "Good job guys, now we're all screwed!". It turned out that on a faraway island, in a country built by former Nethereese lower class (the home nation of three of my players), there were two other Manshoons. One (a transmuter) became a shadow puppeteer of that country, while another was a mad hermit (a diviner) slowly becoming a god (a clone aware of being a clone, due to being "defective", decided to be something more than just a clone of a dead guy). They ended up allying with the diviner, as the strings of fate started pulling other Manshoons towards the island for the grand finale of their war.

[@justthecraft]

It's interesting that you mention the comparison between the hand and eye of vecna and the One Ring because the only reason Sauron lost was because he couldn't fathom that somebody would not use the ring. He assumed that the ring would be used against him and us when it was put on at Mount Doom and eventually destroyed he was shocked.

[@soultron4238]

Love that the Lord of Blades could be a Dread Pirate Roberts. Also, I'd love it to just be an AI. Skynet or Durandel in D&D

[@SeraphimKnight]

The thing with Tiamat that makes her a good villain that you forgot to point out is that she's really the main antagonist of the entire Dragonlance setting and I feel that it goes to show that she's pretty great. Okay, I know technically it's Takhesis and she's really just an aspect of Tiamat but let's be real here, her and Paladin are basically just Tiamat and Bahamut.

[@InquisitorThomas]

The greatest villain is Robert the Chef, who was tied up in the monk’s closet for several weeks after the party tried to sneak into a party at the local guard barracks and promptly forgot about him until several adventures later. However the monk was also hiding the Book of Vile Darkness in his closet, which resulted in Sul Katesh, Overlord of Dark Magic granting Robert Warlock Magic allowing him to escape, and now Robert leads an evil cult with the goal of getting revenge on his captors.

[@ProffessorYellow]

[@hermeticbear]

I find it interesting that at least half of your favorites have a strong affinity or background for necromancy. Kyuss, Orcus, Zuggtmoy, Acererak, Vecna,

[@kevinstroud5541]

Very sad that Lord Soth didn't make the list but was happy that he got an honorable mention.

[@Chonk_enthusiest]

Currently binge watching loads of your stuff and since the last time I watched this I've dm'ed 2 Eberron games where the lord of blades became an important figure, one as a mystery to solve for a warforged pc and the other as a main villain. The first ended with the players discovering that the lord of blades had been dead for years but the beacon calling them was still active, it was this super sad story beat where the fabled home for warforged doesn't exist and the beacon is leading to them dying in the mist. I gave the player a note after that session of some ideas for what they could do Stop this beacon, it's killing warforged Leave it running, the hope is worth so much to the warforged Or, leave the group, become the lord of blades, make this place as safe as you can. They wanted to stop the beacon. Still running this campaign and so far we've been doing some fun khyber related stuff and slowly this character wants to set up a facility to restore warforged, even dead ones. The lord of blades as a villain, I took this sort of body horror approach, a warforged went a bit crazy from being at the center of the event that caused the war to end. When the warforge reach the lord of blades they become melded into this growing metallic body with oozing fleshy joints, doesn't really have any motivation but became this obstacle that needed to be overcome, they crashed a building on it, it ripped itself in half and inside was this pulsating mass where a warforged was being turned into a human. Then we never came back to it. Sorry for the info dump, just wanted to talk about it tbh 😂

[@marks2807]

I would add The Mad Mage Halaster Blackcloak to the list. Undermountain has become such an iconic campaign setting. The villain of Undermountain needs to be somewhere on the list.

[@danonionmaster]

Casually steals the "Manshoon for president of Neverwinter" plot cause thats just pure awesomeness!

[@Jorphdan]

A vote for Manshoon is a vote for Manshoons everywhere!

[@kc2086]

Manshoonian Candidate, it was right there people...

[@jonathancampbell5231]

@@Jorphdan Since they hate each other wouldn't it be "Vote for Manshoon or Manshoon will win!"?

[@ericpeirce5598]

Larloch was always one of my favorites. I love the part of the lore where he was known to trade artifacts with Szass Tam. It would be cool to create a campaign around the two of them plotting something together and the party having to choose which one they were going after. Since they are on opposite sides of Faerun from each other, you could even run it as two parallel campaigns, with two different groups of adventurers, with one group going after Larloch and one going after Szass Tam. Have the players creating two characters, with one being a part of each group or if you happen to be a DM that ran multiple groups, you could have each group of players going in different directions and maybe even have events from one group that may affect what happens to the other group.

[@jonathancampbell5231]

The clone spell is supposed to summon your soul to the clone body so you are, in fact, literally the same person. What happened to Manshoon is a freak accident (might have been caused by the Spellplague, which hadn't happened yet but it's effects rippled through time) and it's quite possible that each Manshoon is RIGHT about being the "real" Manshoon and his soul has just been split into multiple pieces or something. If it only made a clone that "thought" it was the real person then it wouldn't be very attractive to powerful spellcasters (plus that would ruin a lot of games), surely?

[@retrojohnny1899]

Venger will always be #1 in my heart

[@Jorphdan]

🖤 😂

[@KnicKnac]

The Black Dice Society does a good job with Strahd and his backstory with Azalin Rex. Just a fun podcast for dread domain D&D.

[@ryanflake3481]

Glad to see the Lord of Blades on this one. Tons of versatility when building a campaign, and like the best of villains it isn't just about him.... It's about what he represents.

[@Primal-Mythos]

Hope you do a video on the best 10 Heroes in D&D, personally one of my favorites is still Eilistraee🙂

[@formerctgovernordannelmall1452]

Curse of Strahd rant incoming, spoilers obv: I find that Strahd’s backstory is much more relatable when you hear it in a narrative form from Strahd’s perspective (not in that he’s LITERALLY telling you, just that you’re seeing out of his eyes. If he tells you he’s gonna lie about a lot of it). It doesn’t negate the fact that Strahd is essentially a creepy entitled incel (as many people have pointed out), but I think the far better angle to play up with that whole situation is Strahd’s resentment of Sergei rather than his fixation on Tatyana. His love of Tatyana is so one-dimensional, coming from his obsession with his youth that he lost in conquest in his parents’ name. His bitterness toward Sergei, on the other hand, is very multi-faceted and doesn’t just break down to “grr me mad at handsome brother who stole pretty lady” even though YES Sergei being engaged to Tatyana was the straw that broke the camel’s back. In the end, Strahd is an undeniable villain, and no amount of knowing his backstory should change the players’ perception of that. However, without an even somewhat sympathetic narrative to understand how he got to this point, he loses all the mystique and presence he had in the players’ eyes. As a player in CoS, our entire party stopped taking Strahd seriously the MOMENT we found the Tome of Strahd. We assumed prior that Tatyana was actually Strahd’s lover (a-la the common trope used with many Dracula renditions), and that gave some semblance of understanding why he would spend so long attempting to pursue her. But after that it just completely polarized us and we all just saw him as a pathetic creep. We didn’t take his monologues seriously, we cut him off and took the piss out of him nearly every time we saw him until the very end. Don’t get me wrong, he was still an intimidating and imposing threat, but he had been reduced to a 2-bit villain

[@tylerdavis6389]

If you can get a hold of it the novel I, Strahd is pretty much all that. You see Strahds life wasted for conquests for the sake of his family and then that family just dote on Sergei because he is still young enough to be the face of the family. Then his descent into pure villainy.

[@formerctgovernordannelmall1452]

@@tylerdavis6389 I, Strahd is actually where I came to know and fully understand his backstory, I agree it’s a great read

[@grubbsthebugbear]

I want to see a video on Lord Soth. When I first got into D&D he was the villain my friends loved and my only exposure to him was the first Dragonlance trilogy. Back then in the mid90s there were no wikis so I was limited in what I learned. I found a video that I had to stop watching because the guy was talking about a past romance and I just really wished for a Jorphdan quality Lord Soth video.

[@tomkerruish2982]

Wonderful video as always, although I'm surprised you didn't say that Lolth had spun a web of intrigue, or something similar. Also, my headcanon for how Vecna entered Sigil is that the Lady of Pain wasn't paying attention to that portal from Ravenloft. I mean, no one escapes Ravenloft, and it doesn't have any deities anyway, so she just became inattentive over the many, many years.

[@matthewmcafee2957]

Great video, if anyone wants advice on how to do a Lolth adventure, look up Xanatos gambit on tvtropes. It is exactly what Jorphdan was describing, and has a list of media that used it.

[@InquisitorThomas]

Probably one of my Favorite Villains is Mordakhesh the Shadowsword from Eberron. Mordakhesh is one of the Lords of Dust, an Organization of Fiends working towards the release of their Ancient Fiendish Overlords. Mordakhesh is the Chief Representative of Rak Tulkhesh, the Overlord of Rage, War, and Bloodshed, and you’d think that Mordakhesh is some typical barbaric “Blood for the Blood God” type zealot that you see following most evil war gods in other settings, but Mordakhesh isn’t like that, he’s a propaganda master. He secretly owns 5 different Newspapers in Eberron collectively known as The Five Voices, and they are terrible nationalist tabloid rags that contain the most sensationalized articles and conspiracy theories meant to stir up as much hate and vitriol in the population as possible.

[@bluebird3281]

So not unlike Earth

[@myrojyn]

Lolth enters Throws twigs up in the air Declares victory Refuses to elaborate Leaves

[@writerguy911]

Great list but the star of the video was that good boy in the background taking a nap!

[@RPGDMCA]

Lord of Blades = Dread Pirate Roberts, excellent idea. Strike him down and he rises again. A secret Warforge factory that makes another Lord whenever the active one is destroyed.

[@bluebird3281]

Ultron?

[@tomsether7831]

War, duke. I know he’s not exactly on the level of these are the characters. But he’s great to throw in with low level characters. And someone that can pop up at any time in any adventure to throw a little spice into it

[@thundermage13]

I really enjoyed this! Great food for rounding out my homebrew..... although I DID hope Venger would have made the list.

[@civilwildman]

Same. Why have him in the thumbnail if he's not on the list? On a side note, I met his voice actor, Peter Cullen. Got him to sign an animation cell of Optimus Prime I got from a Transformers DVD set.

[@andyenglish4303]

For me, Asmodeus and Rajaat need to be on that list somewhere.

[@TrippyTheShroom]

Rajaat is often forgotten but easily up in the top 10.

[@Elkantar_Rostorgh231]

You have Venger in the Thumbnail yet you don't mention him, curious. Also a favorite villain of mine that was sadly short lived in his run was Yamun Khahan, aka the Forgotten Realms very own Genghis Khan. The man united all the tribes of the Plain of Horses, conquered many neighboring kingdoms, conquered Shou Lung, the setting's version of China, then almost ran a stampede through Faerun had it not been for a massive alliance forged by King Azoun IV. My man Yamun Khahan gets slept on.

[@aaronbormet3804]

Lord Soth

[@km1dash6]

*Light Spoilers for some of the newer Resident Evil games* Zuggutmoy would be a great antagonist for a Resident Evil themed adventure. With the fungus being the cause of a lot of zombification in later games, you can have a village ruled by Mother Miranda, an archdruid who worships Zuggutmoy, and her 4 thrawls.

[@Inevitibility23]

I gotta put Zariel as my number one. No contest. She's sympathetic, bitter, a hero in her own mind, an amazing leader, one of the best fighters in the universe, she's furious, intelligent, and brutal. Acererak is D&D's version of the Riddler, Vecna and Orcus are both kind of neat but I find them a bit redundant. Strahd is fine, but way overhyped. He's just a competent bad guy. But Zariel. Zariel is d&d's Darth Vader. Brilliant, ruthless, and surprisingly human underneath it all. Go Zariel. Special mention to Larloch. Love that guy.

[@Spooksmagoo]

I ran a 3 shot against Lolth. The party had an informant who got them access to a ritual where a Priestess was going through a portal to the Demonweb Pits and meet Lolth personally and receive her blessing. I made deception within deception: The informant was compromised, and the invitation actually was a trap by the Priestess. The Priestess' court was present to celebrate her return, but when the party killed the nobility it was actually the sacrifice to re-open the portal so the Priestess could return from the Demonweb Pits, with the Priestess setting them up to die. Lolth really wanted one of the PC's dead, so she told Priestess she could earn her blessing by luring the Party to the Demonweb Pits, but Lolth knew the Priestess was not loyal enough and set her up to be killed by the Party. When the Party fought Lolth, it was a 2 phase fight, where the first phase was the informant transformed into an avatar of Lolth, with the Party killing their own friend. And to top it all off, Lolth had a back-up plan to return, and used this time to fake her death and escape an invasion from another demon.

[@maykstuff]

The greatest villains are the friends we make along the way.

[@jerry247]

My party totally put the hand of vecna on and weilded the sword of Kas. The left Vecna in Sigil tho!

[@scottf4586]

If you ever take a pitstop in Birthright, I'd love to hear about the Gorgon ;)

[@discussionsanddragons9178]

boy, was i gonna be so bummed if vecna wasnt #1 lol. i’m running a custom spelljammer campaign setting rn and my party are basically the villains of the campaign (party’s leader/spelljammer is a lich sorlock whose patron is an ancient black dragon native to toril and their reason for cruising the stars is to find lost pages of iggwylv’s demonomicon that will help conduct a ritual to transform said patron into an absurdly powerful dracolich), but the overarching bbeg is obviously vecna, and im so excited for my players to learn more about him and realize that maybe there are people worse than them out there lol.

[@CelticCubby]

Lord Soth and Kitiara are fun villains, I ran a Dragonlance campaign a long time ago and had a blast with them.

[@LukasBradley]

Dungeons & DRAGONS. Number 1 is Tiamat. Always. It's right there, in the title.

[@Jorphdan]

😅😅😅

[@MzQTMcHotness]

I actually have the Lolth chaos machine game figured out, but my current party is a hack and slash murder hobo group, and they would NEVER come to the realization that the goddess wins no matter what, without some sort of deus ex machina explanation from NPC. I’m not saying that my players are not good, they are just playing this game for a very specific, cathartic reason.

[@keiths81ca]

My current 5e campaign has featured Tiamat, and Manshoon clones. It will feature Zuggtmoy.

[@AtotheWESOME]

My go-to villains are always the Red Wizards. From there i like to add i little bit of Queen of Chaos, a teespoon of the Twisted Rune and finally, a dash of zhentarim

[@failureiscoolrepeatyourmistake]

what are the red wizards?

[@brodeeo]

Daurgothoth was my fave, Highest CR, Chosen of mystra, Dracolich, and had a save or die spell he made himself that if you save you have a 1/3 of a chance of death. He also had a raise dead breath weapon

[@TheRusty]

"Somehow... Acererak got us in the Tomb of Horrors"

[@ejinfl]

I use Zuggtmoy, from the t1-4 toee modules. She still seeks revenge on the players from the abyss

[@WisdomThumbs]

Not only did I name one party member’s father “Japhdan Baker,” but he’s the last Captain of The Spelljammer, and he and his Cannith wife defeated the Lord of Blades in Eberron’s Final War. Now the Lord of Blades has been reincarnated as that player character’s split personality. The player swaps back and forth between personalities smoothly, but left the mystery behind them blank. And they went a bit mad reading about this in their father’s ancient datapad, hundreds and hundreds of years after Japhdan entrusted his daughter/Lord of Blades to the Astral Gith for safekeeping. As an Artificer who now knows the secrets of the warforged, the South Wind might split her personalities into two bodies. But the Lord of Blades is actually the Good personality right now, while the Cannith/Baker heir is Chaotic Evil due to backstory events. Fun dynamic! It ties in well with some of the other party member backstories, though they haven’t puzzled it all out yet. I’ve run the war against the Lord of Blades in a oneshot where players are summoned by Horns of Valhalla. Was a blast!

[@deforesttappan6478]

I like the title. Because everyone has their own apinan. One question have you ever tried to make your own villain?

[@gregoryfloriolli9031]

I’d probably put Szass Tam on the list over Acererak. Acererak is cool but Szass Tam is the leader of Thay. If I was going to run him as a villain I’d probably stick with the older 3rd edition lore where Thay is still run by the Red Wizards and Szass Tam is the most powerful Zulkir who is secretly a Lich running the whole show. The 5e lore where Thay is taken over entirely by undead and the Red Wizards are just traveling magical salesmen is a little lame.

[@kevinbaird6705]

With Szass Tam you can also lean into all those Dr. Doom / leader of a rogue state tropes, as well as exploring morally gray alliances of convenience. Thay is an industrial powerhouse of what Eberron calls "wide magic", and the parallels to petrodictators or the west allying with anti-communist apartheid South Africa during the Cold War in the cause of "freedom" can inspire similar "hold your nose and allow a Thayian embassy" decisions by other political leaders.

[@cmleibenguth]

My list: 1.) Acererak / Gary Gygax's in-game avatar 2.) Strahd 3.) Manshoon 4.) Szas Tam 5.) Vecna 6.) Lolth 7.) Irenicus 8.) Serevok 9.) Dark Queen of Krynn 10.) Beholders in general, but if you need a specific one --- the crazy crime Lord of Waterdeep

[@Deefry]

My favourites are Chardansearavitriol/Ebondeath, Dispater and the Raven Queen.

[@HeavyTopspin]

Late to the party here, but probably should have called it "best campaign final boss villains", as there's no way to work almost all of these into anything but the final L20 showdown. Iggwilv (before WotC decided to force the Tasha personality on her full-time) has always been fantastic as a super-powerful villainous being who the party may need to seek help from rather than actually face directly, like in the Savage Tide adventure path in 2006-2007 issues of Dungeon Magazine. Of course, most importantly Venger is statted out in the 3.5e "Animated Series Handbook" (Half-fiend Human Sorcerer 13/Archmage 5). They totally should do this for 5e; unfortunately all of us who remember that show are in our 50s now...

[@paulcoy9060]

That the adventure was not called "The Manshoonian Candidate" is a crime.

[@joefield8078]

Kyuss (Kuh eye - us) Hard "K", two syllables, syllable break between eye and us. Great villain and an even better band. Which took their name from the old D&D module.

[@BockwinkleB]

Actually they were "Sons of Kyuss" from FF, but had to change the name to avoid trademark. There actually was no Kyuss yet, so they were able to just shorten their name to Kyuss.

[@EnnuiElpis]

Asmodeus is easily the number one villain in the entire game. He rules an entire plane, has the Blood War completely in his hands, and plays the role of being exponentially weaker than he is perfectly. He's number one. When I finally get around to DMing a home campaign, I want to have him be the big bad.

[@lafortya]

Graz'zt. Supremely powerful. Punishingly brilliant. Utterly wicked. And more charming than any being has a right to be. Has his own sin city in the Abyss you can visit. And hangs out with Tasha, his on again off again lover/frenemy.

[@Redbang1738]

Where can I read about the manshoon wars?

[@drawbyyourselve]

Didnt orcus climb the ladder twice? I remember there were some shenanigans with tenebraug, where orcus lost his standing and was demoted to the latter.

[@VikingMale]

I remember the teeth of Vechna

[@PhantomBugler]

Great list. Honorable mention to Iuz the Old and Wicked (even if Vecna did make Iuz his bitch) and Strahd's longtime frenemy Azalin Rex.

[@elijahevans1191]

I like the Lord of Blades as a title. Very old school kinda style. Surprised Tharizdun didn't make the list.

[@BoredTAK5000]

Orcas is just the demonic version of the American dream. He started out as a lowly evil wizard and then rose up the ranks (by dying and killing) to then be the sigma male on top

[@cavinbellows9006]

My favorite character I currently run, is a Tiamat zealot….he is looking for the masks to raise her. I am definitely looking forward to my PC becoming a proper villain.

[@kilroy987]

What, Venger isn't actually in your list? I watched the DnD cartoon, and my favorite episodes were The Box, Quest of the Skeleton Warrior, Treasure of Tardos, Dragon's Graveyard (BEST), and Dungeon at the Heart of Dawn. All showcase Venger as a villain, but Treasure of Tardos and Dragon's Graveyard really made it personal, and showed that the kids developed a familiar relationship with him.

[@LutherAsmodi]

And on Place Zero of the List of the "10 Best villians is" Nr. 11 ... the Evil Gamemaster that sit behind his Screen and are the Puppetmaste of all the other "lower" Villains on Places 10 to 1 :>

[@pallasovidius3015]

I a campaign, I had an antagonist for a while who was a cultist of orcus and I played him as the ultimate nihilist: living is useless, as souls and the material plane are used as pawns by the cruel gods in their cosmic war. The gods don't care about you, they care about their army, about wining and destroying the balance. Undeath is the way out: if everything becomes undead, the gods won't have any pull on the souls, no one else to fight their cosmic war and the inhabitant of the material plane will finally be at peace forever.

[@ajdynon]

The Hand and Eye of Vecna have nothing on the Head of Vecna! Definitely think Lord Soth should be on there, and probably Kitiara as well. Also I've noticed a lot of people seem to love to hate Bargle from the old Red Box D&D Basic set (killing that nice, pretty cleric who healed you will do that, and you never got to give him his comeuppance!)

[@Rojaniel]

There are two villains I can think of. The first is Asmodeus. In the game I watched, he played a long chess game in order to subjugate all mortals of the Primary plane. He was enabled to do so by the second villain. Ravvas Arkanen. Original villain, made by an ambitious aussie. Traumatised in his youth, his birth parents murdered by Lolth, he sought to kill Lolth and ultimately usurp the gods. In this universe, Mystra didn't make casting spells over level 10 impossible. As such...Ravvas used a 12 year war...all in order to gather the power necessary to cast Karsus' Avatar. Asmodeus and he were racing to gather materials. Asmodeus, however...didn't consider a WAR would be used to power the spell. Ravvas cast the spell, and stole the power of Corellon. He ghot thew power of God, but it broke his mind. He devoured other gods in the process, before he accidentally killed some friends of his. Asmodeus appeared, offered to take the power away from him...and Ravvas agreed. Hence, Asmodeus being powered by MULTIPLE DEITIES. The party took him out by destroying his soul.

[@kirbygivens8223]

Very disappointed Lord Soth didn't make the list.

[@demcrusher7086]

I like your friend behind you! 😊

[@jonnyleeg4058]

Manchune (probably misspelled) is basically Rick Sanchez

[@matthewdaley4403]

There's also the matter to consider that Lolth kind of hates herself, the drow, and everything that stems from them. Lolth may be good at winning regardless of who loses, but that's because she's already lost no matter who wins.

[@Chace957]

I like the Dragonlance version of Tiamat, Takisis

[@cheshirecat6519]

Favorite vilain: Fistandantilus in Dragonlance and the anti-hero/vilain Raistlin Majere.

[@joshrossman3796]

You should do a part 2

[@pdubb9754]

Is Kyuss from Greyhawk? I thought we first encountered him in the original Fiend Folio, via the Sons of Kyuss, which I thought contained monsters from UK creators, White Dwarf Magazine. That makes me doubt it came from Greyhawk. The original intro to Lolth didn't live up to your narrative. Her revelation as the behind the scenes villain in the giant / drow modules was a letdown. The Eye of Vecna made an appearance via a random table in a game I played once. It totally corrupted one of the players. His character, too.

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Nice list I don’t use too many known villains in my games but I do know them.

[@omegadungeon4143]

Great choices!

[@daverichards9141]

My big 3: Vecna, Mindflayers and WARDUKE!

[@twil004]

I actually am trying to do the "use evil thing to destroy evil guy" move. SPOILERS FOR TOMB OF ANNIHILATION! My character was able to get the Ring of Winter and is actively trying to use it against Acererak. Dunno how thats gonna play out but I'm sure it will be epic either way.

[@maohpeach1425]

Looks like you got some ideas for a #DrowPatreon

[@bensaret]

Venger was just clickbait! D’oh!

[@TrampasWhiteman]

Tiamat should be #1, because in Dragonlance, she's known as Takhisis, head of the evil pantheon. She's nearly conquered the world several times and stole the world of Krynn once.

[@hallking7441]

I'd go 1. Strahd 2. Tiamat 3. Lord Soth. But yours is a very good list. Best villains anywhere are in D&D.

[@mikegould6590]

What about Asmodeus? There is no better manipulator, long term planner, or more intelligent foe. His reasoning as a fallen angel gives him a logical out in most arguments. He can win the sympathy of even righteous heroes, citing the Blood War, the constant demon threat, and "without me, you would all have been lost by now". Very Dr Doom.

[@iPivo]

I was hoping for an honorable mention for Venger...

[@Jorphdan]

perhaps a pinned comment can do~ :)

[@T4N7]

At least 4 of these were made into Magic: the Gathering cards. But u did forget the unquestionably greatest villain in all of D&D, players who insist on being "That Guy". I have been trying a few times to play evil PCs in morally grey campaigns but every time my party of chaotic good or chaotic neutral teammates run around like murder hobos asking just enough questions to get to the next murder n meanwhile my evil PC ends up being the voice of reason (mostly cuz all the negative attention this kinda crap can bring tends to bring trouble for my PCs n most were smart enough to realize that (except for Krystal, my barbarian, she wasn't too bright)

[@ChurchillGeoff]

Xanathar but its a shame that dnds most iconic original monster is more a crime lord than a true villain

[@lucasparham5068]

Kyuss and Lord of Blades, but no Asmodeus? No Archdevils at all actually? No Demogorgon? Outrageous.

[@mjolasgard2533]

Sorry, you're wrong. #1 is *drumroll* Bargle! Damn that wizard! ;)

[@mikegould6590]

The Lord of Blades/Magneto connection is cool, but have you noticed the Manshoon/Dr Doom/Doombots connection?

[@BattleDamageProps]

Completly unrelated to your video, why did your parents at the PH to Jordan? I want to pronounce it Jorffdan, it sounds like some George RR Martin naming scheme. Any ways, love the videos Jorffdan. Cheers.