What Makes a Great D&D Villain? | Villains in RPGs

We’re kicking off a brand new series where we talk about villains in your roleplaying games and campaigns! Today, we’re gonna start with a definition: What makes a great TTRPG villain?
Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 40% off any annual membership!
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CW: I say a curse word
Chapters:
00:00 - Let’s Talk About Villains
01:31 - Clarity
04:44 - Agency
08:36 - Motivation
10:11 - A Word From Our Sponsor
11:21 - Distinctiveness
12:53 - Thematic Relevance
13:52 - Being a Badass
16:55 - Outro
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[@SupergeekMike]

What are some qualities of a great villain that I didn’t cover? Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 40% off any annual membership! www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike

[@gunnarmiller4173]

Hey I just wanted to say thank for all the great content.

[@SupergeekMike]

Thank you!

[@johnnysizemore5797]

First off, the content has been fantastic so far(personally a big fan of how you analyze Critical Role honestly). Second; I personally think the difference between a GOOD Villain and a GREAT Villain is in their Main Cohort. Lord Briarwood had his beloved Wife(and Vice versa surprisingly), Sauron had Sarumon who had Wormtail(at least untill Wormtail literally stabbed him in the back at the end of the books), Lord Voldemort had another Wormtail then briefly Lucius Malfoy. There's a reason the most memorable Bond Villains are the ones with the most fantastic Cohorts. It only takes one lose by the Main Villain for the Heroes to win, but you could have their Cohort lose multiple times(each time being "Improved" by his Master/Boss, representing the PC's facing tougher enemies) and still make for a Memorable Villain...

[@flandomaltrizian4603]

Come on, Brennan doesn't ALWAYS make the villain capitalism. Sometimes it's religion

[@jlhitz35]

Oh hey Flando, funny seeing you here.

[@omnilisk279]

Or exceptionlism

[@peterusmc20]

Well when the villain is religion it's the misuse of religion for personal gain or how it has been used to sow division between people who are more similar than different. So kinda still capitalism.

[@FuzzyBunnyofInle]

Ah, a fellow Drawfee fan I see.

[@TheWordN3rd]

I mean, capitalism IS a religion at this point 😅

[@MollymaukT]

Saruman: -Works from home -Communicates with his boss remotely through a device -Does a lot of reading and crafts in his spare-time Guy would thrive during covid.

[@jerekheadrick3379]

Speaking of Brennan, his portrayal of Asmodeus in critical role's calamity was amazing.

[@zippomage]

yessssssssss

[@MorningDusk7734]

Also, I think that one of the best ways to make a villain is to make a dark mirror of your player’s character. Ask yourself “what would X turn out like if they didn’t have their party or if they took a bad path? Matt actually does this a lot, but a great example is Kevdak, essentially being Grog if he chose getting stronger over his friends. By having a villain who is similar, you can highlight the differences in the player character, which is often their best traits.

[@Heritage367]

Very good example! Very much in line with that one comic book movie he was thinking of 😉

[@jesseehlman5101]

My favorite technique to make a villain dangerous is a High DC. Nothing truly strikes fear in a player like having a player get excited about rolling a 19 on a wisdom saving throw, and deadpan saying “Alright that’s a failure.” It instantly recontextualizes the fight, and makes the party recognize the villain as a threat Only issue with this technique is that if you use it too often it loses its luster

[@SenorVilla]

Also the good old "does a 32 hit?"

[@bludfyre]

The first Chroma Conclave fight was an awesome example of that. Travis rolled a 22, started to roll damage, and Matt saying "22 misses" made him jerk up like "what the heck? how do we hit these guys?" And the energy at the table completely changed.

[@jamesbarton3017]

@@bludfyre isn't it that he rolled a 19 on the first hit which missed then a 22 on the second which JUST hit? I haven't seen that episode in its entirety so I could be mistaken

[@Samaru163]

Sarumon and Sauron are both fantastic examples of active villains who the players never actually see. And it's very easy to pull that off in your games: have their names be brought up by their minions or allies of the heroes, see first hand what their minions are doing to further their plans, hear firsthand from survivors of the villain's raids and attacks what they said or did during said attack, or have them communicate to the heroes in ways that are outside of a physical meeting. It still keeps their actual powers a mystery, but they are an active force in the world that is shaping events while the heroes try to stop them.

[@Felsidian]

I never got to use her, but I had a Hag who could steal hit dice. When she did, you put the die into a cup. Her "ultimate" let her fire all the collected dice like magic missiles.

[@SupergeekMike]

DAMN that’s so dope

[@Felsidian]

@@SupergeekMike :D

[@Lurklen]

That's really good. Nobody uses hit dice, and the idea of her stealing your life to hurt you with it is excellent.

[@Felsidian]

@@Lurklen Yeah, exactly. Thank you.

[@starhound9354]

We've found it. The third of the trilogy of turning Lord of the Rings into DND.

[@SupergeekMike]

Haha I love it! I assume one installment is Matt Colville’s Sandbox/Railroad video, what’s the other?

[@starhound9354]

@@SupergeekMike xp to level 3. His one's are called like, Fellowship of the Ring, but it's dnd, the movie name for each movie. It's a fun series, in my opinon.

[@Heritage367]

One of the best villains I've ever seen is Emon from the first season of Legend of Korra. Has sympathetic aspects, draws on public unrest and has a power no one else has. Darn near perfect.

[@SupergeekMike]

Ooh plus that design is so killer. That’s a great example!

[@lt3746]

Yea except for the awful reveal at the end, he was pretty awesome

[@Spark_Chaser]

To explain where a villain's powers come from, I will paraphrase the Metal Gear quote " My Villains powers are I made them the fuck up."

[@lukasl3440]

I always missheard it as Fact up.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

One thing I think is essential to make a villain better is to have a variety of villains. Think Vader and the Emperor; both are quite evil, but one is a redeemable, twisted and conflicted man with a personal connection to the hero, while the other is the ultimate source of conflict in the campaign and the enemy that must be destroyed. Having both allows Luke to have his full arc of coming to terms with himself, his father and his understanding of the force, while also allowing the party to have their BBEG to destroy and their handy plot resolution.

[@domenceuspriest]

Your point about clarity is SO important, and I think that is where a lot of newer GMs struggle. They want to keep the BBEG mysterious, but often they withhold TOO much information so the players don't get invested at all. Good analysis of the Briarwoods in LoVM - it really helps show the value of making villains much more visible to the party earlier. Great video!

[@lefterismplanas4977]

This is going straight to my writing advice playlist

[@declanw6289]

im thinking about dming my own campaign, so this video will be very helpful! thank you!

[@SupergeekMike]

Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your campaign 😁

[@Ty-og5tg]

Book of Nine Swords from 3.5e is my go-to-source for WTF villain abilities. Everything feels so much like D&D from a mirror universe. I gave a fallen paladin the Crusader's delayed-damage-pool ability and narrated it as lingering divine energy temporarily holding their wounds closed. It was all very thematic.

[@AdellRedwinters]

I grew up with DBZ, and if there is one thing I learned about villains from dragonball is that great villains A) have a horrible concept of what 5 minutes is and B) can transform. I like giving my major villains transformations or metamorphosis because it allows situations where players can interact with a weaker version of the villain but when the heroes grow in power they're still in for a fight when they "catch up."

[@ScribeDragon680]

I think something important to remember about making Villains for TTRPGs is that they have to fit the setting and themes used in your game. For example you’re not going to use a brutal serial killer for a light hearted campaign.

[@lkriticos7619]

A point on the sword in the cane thing- So uh one of the souks I used to go to had a guy that did antiques. Especially pretty antique weapons. These were essentially display pieces and most of them were swords. Once he had a cane. It was inlaid with a gold plated metal pattern that went up the body of cane and formed a decorative flare around the handle. This looked awesome.... and it also functioned as a hand guard similar to that found on a rapier. Which would be a really neat way to hint to players that the cane contains a sword.

[@Heritage367]

I'm working on a new superhero campaign for Savage Worlds, and after a bit of thought, I decided to limit the primary villain factions to three, essentially flavored in terms of Lawful Evil, Chaotic Evil and Neutral Evil. The most influential faction is NE, representing the mostly human criminal element of the city that is merely looking to make a profit. The next somewhat smaller faction is LE, alien puppetmasters working to slowly take over the world, one city at a time. The last and (thankfully) smallest faction is CE, a cabal of feuding wizards and witches who spend almost as much time sabotaging each other's plans as working together. Each faction has a specific goal and focuses on a specific bandwidth of criminal activity and draws powers from a different source (technology, psionics, and magic). I look forward to seeing my players peel back the layers of this onion!

[@lkriticos7619]

I don't really have anything to add, I think this is a good summary of how to make a decent villain. It's another aspect of the game which I think can be very player-led. In the sense that when the players create a character and a backstory they're telling you something about what the character believes and what they went through. If they survived an army invading their home town.... maybe one of the Generals responsible can turn up, having made a mint looting the place. If They're an academic wizardly sort, perhaps some kind of evil warlock relying on stolen knowledge/power. I'm currently getting a lot of mileage from a character who was supposed to be a one off, git of a guard. But my players hated him so much that I decided he got a promotion. More power, more resources. And more ability to spoil their day. It's a blast.

[@MorningDusk7734]

I want to use World Anvil, but I’m having difficulty figuring out where to start. Do you think they would sponsor you making a tutorial on how to use World Anvil specifically for D&D?

[@andrewburgess9578]

Would be good, but they have own tutorial videos on platform.

[@JoULove]

What about making the player characters have a personal stake in defeating the villain, like Percy vs the Briarwoods?

[@Scaramanga7]

You certainly can, though in the case of Percy, his original motivation was revenge, so that was pretty much a layup. It’s harder if your pc backstories don’t match up with that.

[@skeletonghost610]

It can be effective in very small amounts, but if everything (no matter how disparate the backstories) all connects back to the villain then it feels very contrived. I think it's also more effective if the primary motivation to stop the villain comes from what the villain does during the campaign. Backstory should not be the most interesting part of the campaign, it should be the events of the story being told.

[@juniorthelichch.]

i think one of my favorite villains I've made was a Monklock named Keryn. Ex-monk turned worshipper of Orcus he gets introduced to the players where he's already taken control of a city they were travelling too and exhuming a dracolich from beneath the city and binding it to his will. He originally started as a 4e hybrid classed villain. The players absolutely love to hate him and whenever they intersect his plans it's always a good time. I remember when I finally got art of him to share with the players. It was all 'THIS BASTARD'. I was very happy.

[@iamworgan]

One thing i never see talked about in these sorts of videos is the concept of making the villain fit the tone of the campaign. It sounds simple enough but i've encountered games where the villain is completely discordant with the tone, and not in a good way. (sometimes its great thematically, a form of emotional whiplash, but a lot of the time i've seen it fall completely flat because it failed to engage the pcs.) for example, I have a villain in a campaign who is essentially Skeletor from 80s He-man, his name is Lichkrieg, who is evil for the sake of evil, because he aspires to be an evil overlord. Which is great for my campaign that is essentially a Saturday morning cartoon as a campaign. But a Briarwood style villain would not fit the tone at all. TLDR Tone is important and you should try to ensure your villain fits the tone of the campaign youre putting them in.

[@lkriticos7619]

The way you said, flat and emotionless 'Spoilers for Lord of the Rings' reminded me of the time Lets Talk Religion put up a spoiler warning for literally the oldest piece of literature in the world. Different theme. Same worldweary tone.

[@l.o.b.2433]

Additional suggestion for a villain fight: Let them have crazy lair actions. I stumbled across a battlemap of a giant skeleton with a sword ages ago and knew from that moment that my necromancer BBEG would have her fight there. She animates the giant who strikes with his sword on the lair action or something

[@TheDeadGunslinger]

The main villain of my homebrew campaign is a mad god, who was imprisoned by his sister, so he's had to telepathically manipulate a specific mortal bloodline, and his ultimate goal is to revive an ancient god-killing monster that can only be revived once enough sorrow has befallen the world, so he's manipulated events to cause a bunch of random semi-apocalyptic events keep popping up. It's how I narratively explain "side-quests" or "mini-bosses" or whatever. I can include as many sub-adventures for my players as I want/as I think they want, and then once they're 20th level, I can spring the surprise twist boss, this one off jailed god, that they only heard about when they communicated with his sister, and now they have to stop a monster that threatens to unmake the very fabric of creation, all because one mad god has a "watch the world burn" outlook, all the while, the party has had plenty of interesting villains, with sympathetic backstories, or cunning sneaky plans, but none of them realized they were working into this mad gods plan all along. Its a great way to narratively explain your party just "aimlessly doing stuff", or having to improvise villains for your party to run into when they don't ride the plot railroad, for over a year IRL.

[@IdiotinGlans]

I once had a made a small list of traits of good villain. Must be actively threatening to PCs or somethign they care for. Must have understandable motivations, even if they're still selfish. Their conflict with the hero must be personal on some level. They must challenge hero's worldview. The secret is, the villain does not need all four. Two will be enough, especially good ones will have three.

[@Heritage367]

Captain Barbossa in the first PotC fits a few of those. Such a great villain!

[@kelseyweber1791]

Great video, Mike! I think a great villain finds a way to learn about the party and use what they know against them. And there is nothing like the party getting absolutely beat down by the Villain once or twice to motivate them to power themselves up and seek vengeance. Matt Mercer likes his BBEG to do that if it makes sense. Although, you probably want to balance that encounter a bit so as not to discourage the party from trying to go after the BBEG.

[@jonathanschaefer9848]

The villain in the campaign im running followed pretty closely to a lot of this stuff! But it’s good to recognize the why. I definitely could improve on being clear about purpose and consequences, starting to get sidequesty for sure. Thanks for another video with great advice.

[@SupergeekMike]

Glad I can help

[@mja2317]

The BBEG in my homebrew got a huge reaction from the players, though admittedly he was a lot like Nicolas Cage in voice, mannerisms and personality lol

[@JeevesAnthrozaurUS]

Has he taken anyone's face...off?

[@SenorVilla]

Hope you have a swarmkeeper in your party

[@projab]

this usually goes without saying, but maybe the most important thing about a villain is that the players have to care about defeating them on a personal level. even with world-ending threats, there should be a connection to the villain, like previously in the campaign they hurt the players really bad (killed a relative or even a pc if the gm got lucky). i've played in a few campaigns where we defeated the bbeg "just because they had to be defeated", and the only emotional response i could muster was "ok, cool".

[@cazlovescakes]

Very interesting video, plus I spent a lot of it looking at your bookshelf with envy!

[@SupergeekMike]

Thank you!

[@jloost-gamer]

Thank you for including a Tintin villain in the video! Seeing that magnificent series outside of Europe (and more specifically: France, Belgium and The Netherlands) is rare, and you including it made my day! :)

[@davidgipe997]

I find that I can make things memorable, not just with villains, but combat encounters and environments by pushing slightly outside of my comfort zone or slightly over the top as I have faith that my players can and will work together to get part the "this is slightly more powerful than I'd like" situations. It has them observant or asking about the environment or villain.

[@MAGICalReality13]

Watching your videos like this always gives me new inspiration for my homebrew and makes me want to work on it

[@SupergeekMike]

I’m so glad to hear it!

[@diabetictales]

Really useful tips as ever Mike. Just beginning to write new adventures and need to work on a villain so this was perfect timing 😁

[@SupergeekMike]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Reixnon]

Did that for the BBEG of one of my games, give her a hydra stat block, but also did the five breath thing that is figured on some dragon monsters which lead to an amazing final fight that my players told me was a good closer to the game they had spent the past three years playing and all the build up to facing the BBEG over this time. Btw I'm borrowing that clown thing for arrows, that is super cool.

[@kernythelemonking3954]

I am a very new DM and I run my villain, ( a Hunters Guild that is after dragons ) that tgey interact with them. Yes, the players may know who the villain is, but the PCs dont. And I also enjoy creating a whole bunch of baddies

[@justinrandall9550]

One of my best villains was a dracolich named Kopesh who my players accidently freed and who had been experimenting with phylacteries and attempting to make multiples. He made a deal with a party member who agreed to let him prick him with a claw if the Dracolich let the party go. After a long campaign where the party had to fight and stop this dragon they killed him but after all the celebrations I had the player who got pricked and had a black spot pulsing on his chest roll a wisdom save. He rolled a Nat one! I described him feeling like he was wading through tar until he found a mirror and upon looking into it he saw himself staring back but with glowing yellow eyes. That Dracolich stole his body and was reborn in my players body. He then had to watch as the dragon went from room to room and killed all the other players who just saw their ally. It was epic and the players were so shocked. We all still talk about our first tpk.

[@marsmech]

One of my players is a divination wizard, I give them visions of what my Villain is sort of up, like the players know there is a plan but they dont know what the plan is but they know its getting pushed ahead.

[@TheOprative9]

Soooooo a lot of things: I have a villain who is essentially the mad wizard responsible for every single creature in the monster manual that's described as "possibly created by a wizard" Bullette, Carrion Crawler, etc. And HE is trying to raise a Black Dracolich that was trapped in the roots of the world tree. The Dracolich attempted to escape by taking its crystal phylactery (the phylactery that all dracoliches seem to have) and shattering it into four pieces, each attached to a different dragon slaying weapon. The wielders of these weapons were sealed away in a war that happened forever ago so now the wizard is trying to unseal them, get these pieces back, combine them, and corrupt a new dragon with the phylactery. And I've got a nasty lineup of wielders: A giant with a single mouth running the length of its body that sends anyone it eats to a pocket dimension reministent of the woods of the suicides from dante's inferno A drow circle of the spores druid that has corrupted a tree and taken over a colony of chitine allá cordyceps from real life and "The Last of Us" A member of the party that's a black dragon soul sorcerer, they wanted to play a dragon soul sorcerer but didn't want the standard "child or descendant" of a dragon. I told them that a black crystal imbedded in them would do it, but they needed to feed the crystal a soul once a new moon, they were a little too down for that lol. The final piece was recovered by an allip the party fought early on and was retrieved by the mad wizard off camera before the party came onto the scene The wizard's goal is to create true artificial life. and the black dracolich will help him if the wizard brings them back. The party so far has encountered a few monstrous constructs similar to what Ka'vern was doing, all branded on the inside of the crown of the skull with his symbol. The party also had to rescue a pegasus that was stolen and being sent to him. A representative of the wizard bartered with the party to let them have the pegasus and the party still rescued it. So now there is going to be a reprisal none of them are expecting. The wizard has created a monstrous construct or golem tailored to specifically counter or beat a party member. But because they are hastily constructed a /different/ party member is strong against it. Trying to foster some teamwork while appearing deadly. I'm very excited. But please I went on this tangent to hear what everyone eles' thoughts are that managed to make it all the way through! :D

[@TheOprative9]

@@cayranm Thank you! Most of my friends and my partner are players so it's really difficult for me to find people to share my ravings with who actually care! lol :D

[@Felsidian]

Very cool. Can the phylactery be reformed without killing the soul sorcerer?

[@TheOprative9]

@@Felsidian yes it absolutely can. The question is: will they reach a high enough level to represent the corruption of the dracolich so they can keep being a black dragon soul sorcerer. Or will they be locked at a certain level OR lose those levels. Really it's up to the player on what they'll wanna do.

[@Felsidian]

@@TheOprative9 Alright, cool. Thanks for getting back.

[@SupergeekMike]

I love it!

[@phatcavy98]

The greatest villain I ever managed was so sympathetic that the players turned on the kingdom and joined the evil army. He was a former general and war hero that started a rebellion against the king. The players where supposed to gain Intel and help lead a counter attack to stop him. I played the king as craven and inept, his queen as a manipulative harpy that acted as the true power. She was trading important royal assets and lands to nobles for favors. The generals whole thing was "she's weakening the kingdom and our enemies are seeking revenge since our last war 10 years ago. If I don't seize control the whole kingdom is doomed" The players completely bought into his monologue and switched sides. It was fantastic. I added a "20 years later" after the general became king and explained to the players that he became one of the most violent and iron fisted monarchs in the kingdom's history. They where so focused on his ideals and their hatred of the royalty that they overlooked his war hungry nature and the fact he wanted the king to control ALL of the kingdoms resources personally, stripping wealth and power from the people.

[@RyanZibell]

Players forget a lot of names. -Understatement meter is now broken.

[@AMRosa10]

I think what made Lady Briarwood such a good villain was the tragedy she endured that drove her to embrace absolute evil. I realize that the writers fleshed this aspect out more in the animated The Legend of Vox Machina more than was actually suggested during the Live Play streams, but there is definitely something that you can empathize with in her character. You likely wouldn't make the same choices she made, but you could definitely understand them.

[@danguillou713]

I've always felt that cardinal Richelieu from the Three Musketeers is one ot the all time best villains for an RPG campaign. Sadly, I've never seen a movie that did him justice. So here are a few of my favorite things. He's badass. He's super villain smart. Like the Patrician in the Discworld books, or Lex Luthor or Kingpin. He's also cool, always calm and in control. If the game system has mechanics for stuff like that he'll be immune to surprise, confusion and fear. He is a really good foil and contrast to the heroes. They are oldfashioned gentlemen (almost chivalric knights born in the wrong time), and he's the future. They wield swords and primitive guns, he wields armies, bureacracy and colleges, as well as using the King of France as his sockpuppet. They are ruled by passions and antiquated sense of honor, he is ruled by cold logic and utilitarianism. They are small picture, in the moment, personal relationships kinda guys, he is all about the big picture, the long perspective, the bird's eye view of the entire country. He is also recurring. They stumble into some plot of his, and oppose it because it will harm a single person they care about. Since they are brave, clever, lucky and good at the whole action hero thing, they foil his machination. This time. Then, when they realize whom they have actually thwarted, they get scared and wonder if they are now fugitives. But it turns out that his view of the whole thing is that while it was indeed inconvenient for him, he doesn't hold any grudge. He knows what french petty nobles are like and if he got pissed off and killed them off just for acting like damnfool nobles, he wouldn't have any officers left in France to work with. He recognizes that they're are good at what they do and notes them down in his infinite mental rolodex as people who might be useful, or inconvenient, at some point in the future. So the next time he might be the quest giver. Another time he might just be the driving force behind the whole war they are currently adventuring in. And the time after that ... when they are actually in the way of something, he knows about them and they know about him, so they can get properly terrified. That's a good villain.

[@brett76544]

I can remember using this one LE cleric, I think he was 10 or 11 level. He was my starting point for the OPFOR. Then I looked for the followers that he would have, but alter it a little. (this was AD&D) Then I built out how he was pulling the strings in the area that they were in. Another good one was the orc with the good-looking armor with the shinney sword that had a halforc cleric and mongrelman mage supporting him with a group of fighters again and again. By the end he was leading fighters from many tribes. I always like figuring out what to use and if there were magic items, they just might use them. That orc was legendary by the end, and they still never got him.

[@DiMono]

I think the best way to make a compelling villain is to give them a reason to believe the party are the villains. For example: Gerald grew up in a quiet town, never knowing war or famine. Then, one day a careless use of magic rained devastation upon them, wiping out almost everyone who lived there, including Gerald's family. As one of the few survivors, he decided he would do whatever it took to make sure nothing like this could ever happen to another quiet town. So Gerald got to work developing a way to eradicate magic from the world. Then a party of so-called "heroes" showed up at his doorstep, recklessly using magic as if it doesn't have consequences. In the face of such careless use of apocalyptic power, he (and the other survivors, who are working as his allies) did the only thing he could in order to preserve the peace: he tried to stop them. Now you have a villain who genuinely believes they are doing the right thing, and that the party of adventurers are the evil ones who are going to destroy the world if they're not stopped. Additionally, you've set them up to not only be the polar opposite of the heroes, in both methodology and motivation, but to have *extremely* compelling and defensible reasons to be so.

[@tafua_a]

I really wanna talk about my favorite villain so far (of the ones I made). His name is Booyahg Tuneer, he is a goblin lich who does the things that he does as a way to be immortalized through fear. He wanted power all his life, and now that he has it, he's gonna show it off in style. He is pretty much a serial killer, using the bodies of his victims as zombies and deliberately leaving witnesses and signs so that people know his name. He is very jovial when he's in control, but as soon as he loses control, he snaps. Think of DBZA's Perfect Cell. His most defining physical characteristic though is the putrid stench of death his body produces, that can be smelled from a mile away. He works quite well thematically in my campaign, because a good chunk of them are goblinoids that come from an ancient tribe which, after years of abusive leadership, scattered into splinter groups that are trying to cope with it, either by doubling down on the cruelty or reneging it completely. He chose neither. He just chose murder. And about being badass... What is more badass as an introduction as sitting on the dismembered corpse of a creature who was already established to be able to poison you just by touching you, and smoking its fingers?

[@hopez.4901]

A (totally nonjudgemental) note about giving your villain a distinctive trait: make sure it's not always an association to disability, like a scar or a cane. (or at least that there are disabled characters that are not villains.) Amanda Leduc has a whole book on this "Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space", but making sure your villains are not the only ones with visible disfigurement or disability is important to making your game inclusive.

[@SupergeekMike]

This is a great point, and something I plan to talk about in at least one future video as well

[@TheMichaellathrop]

The best method of wheels within wheels plans that I have found aside from ah well that was part of his plan all along... really, is to not have A plan so much as many plans that all contribute to an overall goal so that the catastrophic failure of one is not the end of the world... or the saving of it. This has a couple of main benefits first it give the PCs more stuff to engage with so that no matter which major side quest they start with it all leads to the main quest (or at least enough things do for them to find one). Secondly it gives you room to create and subsequently flesh out a range of villainous lieutenants, thirdly it lets you save the PC's from the direct interest of your big bad until act two and their outright personal animosity until act 3. Lastly but not least of all it let's your villain actually effect the world despite the PC's thwarting them because all of the subplots that they haven't interfered with yet are still moving the plan forward toward the overall goal.

[@andrewburgess9578]

Don't make the cane a sword ... make the huge crystal handle a flash bomb. Keeping an eye on it specifically gives saving throw disadvantage... and a fast start to a nervous villian.

[@knghtbrd]

Funny you should mention orcs "evil by default" as being monsters, not villains … I've encountered two settings now where a group of monsters-not villains, but monsters-were described as "they were human once, but happened which twisted them." They're portrayed as animalistic killers with the means to use tools, but not having the mind to make them in most cases and it's kind of a horror thing: To much exposure to the radiation without treatment will do the same to you if you're not careful. IMO there's a place for monsters in vaguely humanoid shape in fiction. More fun sometimes is the other direction, and you alluded to it, Mike: Take a stat block for someTHING and apply it to someONE. Now it's not a monster, it's a person with dangerous abilities. And its far more dangerous because they think, they plan, they strategies, and they don't just wait around to be killed. They act against those who act against them.

[@tysondennis1016]

Honestly, I want the villains of any campaign I make to stand out.

[@andrewburgess9578]

Good villian trait is to emerge as villian. Let characters determine their least favourite local fraction boss ... and give them a darker twist as story progresses.

[@lefterismplanas4977]

13:21. That's sounds awsome ! Beating capitalism in all its various forms across many campaigns. That's just awsome !

[@jlhitz35]

Brennan loves making campaigns societal commentary.

[@jokhard8137]

I stan Ethemerel, Lord Admiral of the Unseelie Court (Especially since one of the characters in my current campaign is playing a fey knight 🌚)

[@lancearmada]

I mean the dragons work as villains for season 2. As far as i know (and i haven’t completed everything) the red dragons only interest is subjugation and building a giant horde. The villain can be a monster and still be interesting.

[@mustardreams3334]

My problem is that my villains always get redeemed; or I can’t figure out why the person is a villain and not a hero after figuring out their reasons for doing the things they do. I have a hard time keeping my villains evil.

[@spensirmclife6549]

Just make there reasons unreasonable, don't be afraid to just have the villain be cruel and lack a sympathetic motive.

[@zombieboombox]

Or maybe just have the villain refuse to back down. If the bad guy is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, maybe they've tried before to do the right thing and they failed. Their failure has convinced them that their current path is the only one that will work, and this is the hill they're both literally and metaphorically willing to die on.

[@Heritage367]

There's nothing wrong than the occasional redeemable villain, but the should be rare. Also, sometimes a redeemed villain might backside!

[@AGrumpyPanda]

Look up Overly Sarcastic Productions' videos on villains, and make yourself a Force of Nature villain. Their motivation and goals are entirely self-contained and self-maintained, they don't have some higher purpose (even if they pretend they do), so there's nothing for the heroes to attack to try to redeem them. The Joker can't be redeemed or saved because chaos is all he wants, it's his means and his ends. An ancient, elemental wildfire is actively seeking out new things to burn because that's what it is, what it does, and what it will continue to do for all eternity, because it's *living fire*. These kinds of villains make the best end bosses imo, because even as the players may be redeeming their lieutenants and minions, they know that at the end of the day there's going to be a royal smackdown to end the campaign, they know exactly what to expect from that encounter, and they can prepare accordingly. Even groups that like to try to redeem as many people as they can, can get a bit of relief knowing that redemption is not an option here, just kick its arse, have fun, and you don't need to feel bad for not saving them.

[@NIKSEEN]

Mike: “Speaking of great things that start with M..” Me: “Morld Anvil!! ..wait, no.”

[@heykak]

in terms of badassness, to quote the eloquent Travis Willingham "A 19 DOESNT HIT"?

[@frog7226]

Mystery! Villians are always WAY cooler to me if you just hear about them and their actions but don't have a name or face till the very end.

[@jeffcooper5138]

Listen I don’t wanna give you shit as a Tolkien lover here, but Tom Bombadil’s eyelashes are used to make mithral, not gun powder. I’m JUST saying.

[@dwdillydally]

mithral... or whatever the fuck 😄

[@ani_anonymuncle]

WELL ACTUALLY the Silmarillion explains what sword Willy Wonka had in his cane

[@boxturtlebruce6110]

I had this boring villain problem in the lost mines of phandelver campaign I am running and I turned around in 2 sessions first had a dmpc the party had gotten attached to get charmed and abducted during the fight with the Red brands boss i was also making room for a new player to join Then in a campsite encounter had him visit the party and casted polymorph on the pet cat the party adopted forcing them to kill it. I went from a boring villain to now they want his head on a spike

[@spensirmclife6549]

Posted the day after my players killed the BBEG, funny timing but theres still the Rival to the BBEG to become the main villain

[@Calliborc]

Umm... Excuuuuuse me, but everyone knows that gunpowder was invented in Middle-Earth after King Dain had a really, really, really bad case of gas

[@TheBlackSerpentBeta]

*Just makes Big Jack Horner* *Gives him "Bounce-Back Ring" that teleports him back to a specific location when he drops to 0 hit points and fits his cane with "Staff of the End" which when activates starts a 5 turn countdown for a nuke built into it*

[@SupergeekMike]

That’s intense!

[@TheBlackSerpentBeta]

@@SupergeekMike He is the magic man

[@gcvrsa]

The most important thing you can do to create interesting, exciting antagonists for your adventurers is to answer the question, "What is 'evil'? What does it mean to be 'evil'?" In a lot of ways, LOTR and vampires aren't very good exemplars to use in trying to answer this question, because it's honestly not entirely clear within the context of critical analysis whether or not vampires or Sauron are actually "evil", or whether they are portrayed that way because of inherent authorial bias. I would not be the first person to note that although Tolkien explicitly disclaimed the idea that LOTR was allegorical, its quite clear that LOTR is allegorical, a grand conflict between pastoralism and industrialism, between monarchy and democracy, between the old ways and the new ways, between white people and non-white people, the former of which in each case is cast by Tolkien (and Jackson, et al) as "good" and the latter "evil". Decades of literary criticism exist of Tolkien's works, many of which have already pointed this out in detail. In the case of vampires, do we call humans evil because we eat animals? Some do, of course, but I think I'm safe in saying the vast majority of humanity does not consider eating animals to be "evil". So why do we insist that vampires are "evil"? Solely because they eat US. And that beings me to a very important point about conflict in fiction and real life: factions which are battling over scarce resources and/or territory almost always cast the other as "evil" and themselves as "good". Remember how Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as "the Evil Empire"? Every thinking person in the world cringed when we heard that. Always remember this point: Every villain is the protagonist of their own story. Let's not forget that there is also an inherently racist bias to describing an entire race/species/heritage as "monsters". The word "monster" is itself one of the most loaded words in human language, and its use has always fallen most heavily on the most marginalised people. The second thing is obviously for your antagonist to have a goal and motivation that aligns with what is plausibly attainable for their power level. Intelligent creatures always have a reason for what they do, and an awareness of their limitations. A good villain doesn't kill just to kill or destroy just to destroy, they do so because doing so furthers their ultimate goal, and the most common goals villains have are amassing and retaining power and wealth. Only a stupid antagonist has short-term goals and base motivations. And finally, look to the real world for the best examples of villains. The most intractable villains are those who are not aliens or outsiders, but those who are embedded and enmeshed in existing power structures, to the point where dislodging them is only possible at the cost of greatly upsetting the status quo. Elon Musk, for example, or Jeff Bezos, or Donald Trump, or Bill Gates-these men are not "good" men, they are clearly villains, yet look at how many serfs and peasants rush to their defense when they are attacked even verbally! Now admittedly, many people who play RPGs want the very act of playing RPGs to be about existential struggles between good and evil, black and white, civilization opposing the barbarians at the gate, "us" v. "them", "people" against "monsters". Often these players are older white males touting the "OSR" and they hate 5E with a fiery passion. They abhor the idea of moral or philosophical relativity and nuance. In their minds, they are "the good guys", and they are out to slaughter "the bad guys". Such people aren't welcome at my table, and frankly, they aren't going to have fun at my table, anyway.

[@manueltorresart2345]

But what about instead of using a sword from the cane, the villain fights with the cane??? That could confuse your players.

[@lukasl3440]

Like Jo Sawashiro from Yakuza:Like a dragon? Nice

[@Heritage367]

Inside the cane...is another cane!

[@mkang8782]

Good advice on building an effective villain. Pet peeve alert: "TTRPG/RPG game" are redundant. It's like saying "PIN number", "ATM machine", or "HIV virus", to name a few.

[@Kuribohcoast]

I like to tailor big setpeice fights to challenge my party's strengths and let them indulge their class fantasy *but also* have tricks up the sleeve to hammer their weakpoints. For Example Big Mc Badguy gets four attacks and they all hit like trucks - no problem for my Barbarian! She tanks unreasonable amounts of HP without breaking a sweat, especially with her Cleric buddy nearby. What they don't know is that Big Mc Badguy also has a ring of Dominate Person on him and miss Barbarian...well, her WIS saves are....poor.

[@gerbil2690]

Commenting for the algorithm.

[@keithwinget6521]

The cane will have a sausage.

[@tymemaster]

I mean in a movie they are following a script but if you look at the characters as players that's just the path the party takes

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

Playing Out of the Abyss right now, and Demogorgon is really weak as far as villains go, imo. Definitely more of a smart monster than a villain.

[@tymemaster]

I dunno a smart "monster" as you call it can be a great villain they might just want destruction for destructions sake and as long as the players can hate them they still count as a villain

[@Lngbrdninjamasta]

6:13 "...gunpowder being made of Tom Bombadil's eyelashes..." 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣💀 Bruh 💀 this made me do a spit take 💯

[@thedootlord]

Algorithm algorythrem

[@VerumAdPotentia]

How can an entire "ancestry" be evil? Well, in the case of the Drow, it's because they are dominated by Lloth in a foundational way, that is core to the mythology. Also, the fact that his race is evil, makes his departure from the norm, dramatic. The inability of most DM's to ref the Drow convincingly because they can't dream up motivation or methodology for an entire race to be evil, doesn't make my keeping to the core cannon of the game-worlds and races, a reason to accuse me of racism, as the Grand Wizards of the Coast, and parent company Hasbeen, appear to be doing.

[@SupergeekMike]

I already made a couple of videos about that topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKLPp2ttetqZqLc kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5KyoZKEnLWhm6M

[@urktheturtle2988]

the best way to make a good vilalin, is to make them... not strahd.

[@SupergeekMike]

Interesting, curious why you feel Strahd is not a good villain?