Really cool villians/ideas/settings for campaigns

[Mandil]

post up some neat bad guys, ideas, or settings or whatnot. i have a bad guy here who i think is pretty neat.

Raven, a baddass sorcerer, has ursurped the king from his throne, and has forced the PCs to flee from the glorious city which they had been living in. They will need to go on many differnt adventures and slay many of this fiends evil menacing underlings, who all pose many serious threats to the PCs were ever they may choose to go. Dressed in black silk robes which when looked at seem to sprout with pitch black feathers in a way were you cant tell were the fabric begins and the feathers end. Carrying an ebony wand, tiped with a skull, he is very lawful, but the first law in his book is, his word is law. The PCs should start out living in some large city which would be currently as powerful as Rome was at its peak, the PCs are prosperous, and loyal to the king, but then somhow Raven the wicked Dark Noble overthrows the king, and places himself as the supreme dictator, causing the PCs to flee the city, as they do so, they constantly run into more and more of Ravens evil followers, and as they do, they defeat them and grow in power, eventually deciding to go back to the great city and slay the dark king and bring about an age of peace!


Name: Raven

Class: Sorcerer

Level: 20

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Age: 37

Race: Drow(before taking over, he pretends to just be an elf with dark skin), Human, Half Elf, or any tall and charismatic non-good race.

[moo_poo323]

whos in the campaign first?

[Mandil]

this is not a campaign which i want to do with anyone, i am just giving ideas for a campaign badguy and the beginings of a story which other young DMs like myself could use to start making a campaign.

[Valiente]

If I might, I'd like to offer some constructive criticism.

First, why would the PC's leave the city? Or rather, why were they forced to flee? Make sure that they have a viable reason for being thrust into the adventure. Just having them leave for no reason is kind of a weak plot line. Maybe one of them was a decendent of the true king and had to leave to escape death by the villian, and took his/her friends along with them.

Secondly, your idea for the villian is good, but take into consideration his level. Level 20 is REALLY high, especially if your PCs start at level 1. If they're supposed to beat him within any reasonable amount of time, you might want to tone him down to level 8 or so, especially considering he's a drow. drow are CRAZY powerful.

Third, since he is a drow, you might want to give him a more drowish name, just for story flavor. Also, he should be a lot older than 37.

Fourth, you should give the villian a magic item that allows him to change his appearance. Drow are hard to mistake and would never pass as just a tanned elf.


Those are just some suggestions...hope they help. =)

[Mandil]

you missunderstand the reason on this post, it is not to set out much other than ideas, not to write a whole story that is why i didnt give WHY the PCs would be forced, they could be forced because one of them is the true heir to the old king, or perhaps, the mages guild smuggles the king out, and one of the PCs who is charged with the responsibility of getting him to safety. The level thing i dont know, i guess you are right about that, i just thought the PCs would probobly face many many battles with Raven's minions, and by the time they got to him they themselves would have reached lev 1, also i had not intended it to be for level 1 chars, but more for chars around lev 7 or 8, people who had already gotten some experience in traveling. In addition, if you read, i typed in Drow, or human, or half elf, or any other charismatic and tall race, seeing as raven isnt short. i just didnt type them in any particular order. Raven would most likely be human.

[Valiente]

I apologize.

But I wasn't trying to pick apart your idea at all. I think the basic premise is very good--there's a lot you can do in between the time the PCs first start out and when they reach the final battle against Raven himself.

I was just trying to give you some additional things to consider while DMing. If you do start them at level 7 or so, which is fine--after all, it's usually around 5th or so that most classes start getting good--just make sure, like I said before, that everyone has a reason to be doing what they're doing. Anything will work, I think...it's just a personal pet peeve of mine when there is no clear point in the adventure, you know? If you go with the group needing to protect the future king or heir, that might be the easiest--you could give one of the PCs (or more, depending) some info on Raven so they know what's going on and who he is and why they're after him or running from him.

I actually think a drow would be very cool as the main villian, but anything would work. The reason I think a drow (or perhaps any elf) would work the best is because they are long lived. Overthrowing a kingdom and taking it over as your own is not an uncommon plot, but it becomes a lot more of a problem when the person taking over lives for 600+ years--then you not only have to worry about the villian, but then also his offspring. Perhaps he wants to start an empire or dynasty?

*Shrug*

Like I said, just suggestions.

[Mandil]

exactly, and sorry if i sounded like i jumped on you, i have been on alot of other boards were the people will just try to pick everything you say to pieces.

also i would like to remind everyone that this thread is for everyone to come up with ideas and post them, and its not so fun with just me posting lame ideas hehe :extra4:

[Eldarin]

hm, well Ive had a few Ok npc ideas floating around, and maybe somone will find a use for them, seeing as all the people I play dnd with are flakes or powergaming retards.

Kehin "Blackhand" Swordfist
Level: any level will work for this npc, but due to his nature, its best to keep him higher than 7. I prefer to bring him into a campaign when the players are around 8-9 and throw him in around 12-13, with a few lesser cronies.
Class: Fighter
Race: almost any race will do, but I prefer human, halforc tends to fit the character as well.
Weapons: I prefer harpoons, but thats just me, I would just stick to somthing that causes pain and suffering.
Background/motives: Kehin, The scourge of Valor, the man who kills more for fun than profit. Creul and demented, he has walked this earth for ages untold, a servant of the god(s) Hextor/Erynthul (either works perfectly) He works as a mercernary for the highest bidder, not asking for gold that can be brought to him, but by the amount of blood he can shed in battle, or when he is waiting for the next. He constantly demands that his desires be fullfilled, and if angered, becomes a very dangerous person, even to former allies. He has killed several of his prevoius masters, believing that they have not fullfilled his gods wishes to the full extent they deserve. He kills without mercy, and lets his opponent go through as much pain as possible before they exhale their last breath. He takes unnecessary risks to do this somtimes, leaving himself open and venurable, but he refuses to accept this fact, so he will never see the error of his ways. He never operates in the shadows, believing that his dieties needs are better
served when his deeds are well known of.

Basically your classic evil guy, could be a good minion, or a good leader, although due to his inability to use diplomacy, he may not last long against other NPC nations, without a large scale of power at least. As for skills and items, I prefer to stick to the basic evil stuff, intimadation is a good choice, as he should appear very large and menacing. Item wise, he probably has a large horde of evil treasures, somthing he considers a gift from his god(s). He would probably know what most of these items do, using captured wizards to get the knowledge for him. However, some of the information could be incorrect. Remember he dosent believe in stealth or subterfuge, perferring a straight out fight. He probably wouldnt have any projectile weapons, save maybe a few throwing items.

[Mandil]

an interesting idea for a goon NPC who the PCs meet in his wilderness/wasteland home,

Name:Seradryl
Race: Wild Elf
Multiclass: ranger-barbarian, barbarian usually being the higher level
Alignment:Chaotic Good
Favored enemies: *
Backround: Roams the wilderness in search of any of his favored enemies, deeply respects Drizzt and desires to aquire his two swords. Was kicked out of his tribe as a young man(learned the ways of the barbarian), but was taken in by a druid who taught him more things about nature(learned the ways of the ranger) than he had thought anyone in his tribe could ever know, and now has been recently upset by the appearence of (anything bad that just has come into his forrest and is hurting trees or animals or nature in any way).
Skills:(depending on intelegence bonuses or penalties, skills are aligned in improtance from left to right)) Ride, Handle Animal,Animal Empathy, Wilderness Lore, Heal, Hide, Knowledge nature, Search.

Special: Reared from birth a wild elven horse to be a warhorse, he named it Ulerias, and they have been togeather for as long as either of them can remember.(elven horses live to be about as old as an elf would)

Strength:13 (+1)
Dexterity:20 (+5) (+2 racial bonus)
Constitution:16 (+3)
Intelligence: 12 (+1) (-2 racial penalty)**
Charisma:13 (+1)
Wisdom: 15 (+2)

Deity: Kord god of strength and Ehlonna, goddess of the woodlands.
Feats: Any Mount related feats, when capable gets the improved two weapon fighting feat as well.

*dont advance beyond level 10 in the ranger class so he wont get more than three from that class,
also remember that he might choose other things if he gains the
feat Extra Favored Enemy from the Masters of the Wild handbook,
just remember he loves nature and therefore probobly wouldnt choose Animals, beasts, magical beasts, fey, plants, or dragons.
**Wild elves dont have constitution penalty instead they have an intelligence penalty.

((note, i follow a special rule for my campaigns: Skills: if a char is multi-classed, he or she can gain skills in any skill that is a class skill to at least one of her classes as a class skill no matter what class he or she advances in, an example would be a Fighter/Wizard, gains a level in fighter, but still wants to continue gaining skill in Knowledge Arcana, but that isnt a class skill available to the fighter, she can still gain it as a class skill because it is a class skill of the wizard. ))

[Mandil]

Drizzt and his swords are mentioned in the Dungeon masters guide.

[Valiente]

I think Bjarke meant mixing Greyhawk, which is the PHB, with the FR core book, which I agree with. It's generally a bad idea to do so.

[Mandil]

all i know is Drizzt is mentioned in the Dungeon Masters guide, and his swords are as well, but i dont have the books on the Forgotten Realms, only thing on that is BGII for the computer heh.

[Valiente]

He is? Where at? I'd like to check out what it says in the DMG about him(well, actually the swords), since I've only read the stuff in the FR books. If you can give me a page number, it'd be super appreciated. ^_^

And is this 2nd ed. or 3/3.5 that he is mentioned?

[Eldarin]

Im not sure about the 3.5 DMG and stuff, but the 3.0 one takes information from forgotten realms and greyhawk, it says in the Epic level handbook.

[Valiente]

It is true that the books do borrow from each other, but the two seperate worlds shouldn't be mixed--then you open up prestige classes and feats and stuff that are area specific, and that's just a small part of the problems you can encounter. Not to mention the geographic discrepencies.

And both the 3.5 and the 3.0 deal roughly with the Greyhawk setting--which is the pantheon featured in the PHB--but the FR setting is supposed to be an entirely seperate world altogether....

*Shrug* Just MHO though. Wouldn't want the headache.

[Nabrin]

i liked the idea the FR has a whole bunch of reaigons and races to work with and the fact that candle keep is in faerun made my friend excited since he is a big BG fan

[Valiente]

Yes, the FR is my favorite setting, tied though with Ghelspad.

Anyways, as far as villians go, I personally like the 'good-guy' adversary technique. Put your party up against a zealot paladin (assuming your party is non-evil, of course) and bam! instant conflict. After all, it's hard to go against a paladin that really does think he or she is doing the right thing.

I also enjoy putting the villian right under the players noses, and watching to see how long it takes them to piece things together and figure it out. Sometimes the most simple plots are the best, especially for beginners.

One of my 'right in front of you' villians was a 4/1 Fighter/rogue. Here's basically a summary of the plot and such I used for some brand new beginners:

PCs enter a small town seperately. PC one visits the temple there and observes a tournament in progress, seeing two men engaged in a fight. Man 1, a paly, wins combat over man 2 (the secret villian). While there, PC one also see's a very pretty female cleric. Also, depending on spot checks, PC1 notices a drow elf in the crowd, concealed by cowl and cloak, and apparanetly staring intently at the woman. Later, PC1 goes to visit a family member (uncle or cousin or something) that serves one of two ruling houses in the town, and meets the family, including the villian. PC1 later goes to the local inn where he has interaction with the female cleric.

The next day, PC2 approaches the town and see's a woman matching the cleric's description engaged in combat with a figure wearing the same color cloak as the drow from the day before. If PC2 interrupts the fight (mine did not), the one in the cloak runs off to the woods, otherwise, the fight progresses and the PC2 does not discover who 'won' the fight. PCs 1 & 2 spend the rest of the day wandering the town, possibly meeting the paly during the day and also observing the cleric on a horse headed out of town in the direction that the drow may have run off in. Both end up in the tavern/inn later that night.

Cue the Drow. He walks in, everyone looks at him funny, but generally goes about their business. Until another cleric (male or female) rushes in, shouting out if anyone has seen the woman. The drow begins to look nervous, and as people begin to murmur about the whereabouts of the missing woman, slips out of the bar. PCs 1&2 SHOULD follow--if they don't, you can still work everything out, but it works better for the SL if they do.

Anyways, PCs 1&2 follow the drow inthe night for a while, but end up losing track of him. They eventually wander up to a small house not far from the town, and discover paintings of the woman. Through some search and spot checks, they may or may not figure out this is the drows home.

PCs leave the small house, and as they venture back towards town, hear a scream in the night. Again, they should follow. If they do, they come to an abandoned old house (cliche yes, but excellent for newbs) and have an encounter with the skeletons. If they start getting beat (which happened to my guys) the drow shows up and helps dispatch of the last of the skeles. They all continue to the main house together. If they enter, they should explore a few rooms (I threw in some skeles and a zombie as the 'big' encounter, considering they were very new to the game). They should also find a secret doorway beneath the stairs--if they fail the spot/search checks, I'd have the drow find it. Inside, there should be a room, and in the room, ta-da! The cleric is found, kinda' beat up and bloodied.

Back to town they go. Cleric is brought immediately to the temple, where everyone is instructed to rest.

Next day. Cleric is not yet awake, but paly and secret villian are there, questioning the drow, who the PCs should find out has been accused of the kidnapping. The villian points out that her holy symbol was found smeared with blood inside the drows house. The council tries to decide what should be done with the drow. But, the church pleads for mercy for the drow, since he has lived for so long beside the town and has helped often. The council agrees to postpone a possibly execution. The council opts instead to send the PCs, the cleric, and the paly all to the larger city nearby to seek the advice of a sage there.

PCs travel to the city with the NPCs, arriving late the next day. The night they arrive, the cleric again ends up missing. I threw in a fight with a level one caster and a few goons--shouldn't be a problem at all for the PCs to handle. The paly points out that the drow is still in the custody back in the town, so he cannot possibly be the abductor...


Anyways, if I type out the whole thing, I'll be here half the night. The only important things later to be discovered are in fact that the drow is in love or infatuated with the woman, who shares the feelings for him, and that the secret villian went through this whole ordeal so he could play the hero at a later time for the woman, secure her as a wife, and then claim his fathers place on the ruling council. I had it set up so that the PCs were to find out that villian had hired a number of dopplegangers to impersonate the larger city's council members, killing them off, so that he could also take up a council position in the city. If he stuck around as a villian, I was going to have him eventually try to absorb both the town and city and try to establish a kingdom.

Anywho, yes, I know it's a very basic plot, and does seem to rely heavily on NPC's to do some of the work for the PCs. But as I said, I used this only for very new players. Each of the encounters and events were designed to teach them when and how to use various skills, how combat worked, etc. It proved to be very helpful to them, and this particular SL was supposed to carry the PC's from level 1 to level 4 or five, depending on which fights they choose to engage in.


I know that was long and drawn out, LoL. But there ya have it. The one time I DMed D&D for newbs, that was my basic plot.

[Nabrin]

uhhh mandill usurping is when a women first kill a mans wife then kill the husband to take all his thing so if a kind is usurped so unless you made a spelling mistake you make the king sound like a homosexual .....

[WarhookDM]

A good beginning adventure is always a war. Nothing like a good Orc or Goblin incursion to start the ball rolling. Have several tribes unite, give them a couple good dungeon delves, that sort of thing.

Background: The local lord's trusted advisor died a while back, his new "right hand man" is also a spy for the main enemy. The various tribes are being directed via advisors (mid-level NPC's) from the true enemy; Drow work well here, as would some Fists of Hextor, or Monks from The Scarlet Brotherhood (Greyhawk World), etc. Lord should be fairly high level (14th-16th ftr, ranger, or Paly); advisor likely around 10th level, and it should not be readily apparent that he's not on the side of goodness and light. Stock the local temple(s) with mid level clerics (11th level at the highest; ensures "Raise Dead" is available, but not Res or True-Res) initially. Also need a fairly competent Thieve's Guild and Mage's Guild (Again, max levels should initially be around 11th-13th; but as the party advances, they should too, if much more slowly). Add in a few good specialist NPC's: armorsmiths, experts, and even a couple aristocrats maybe, and you've got a setting that will keep groups entertained for a couple years worth of gaming.

First Delve: a tribe of Orcs/Goblins/whatever have occupied ruins astride the main supply route. Use a standard population from the monster manual (This will give you about 10 L:3 monsters (Sgts), 5 L:5 monsters (Lt.s), and 3 L:7 monsters (Capt.'s/Chiefs). Provide enough overland activity to ensure the party is avg 2nd or 3rd level when they get to the dungeon. That may sound excessive, but trust me, at 1st level, this simple scenario will result in TPK's left and right. Set up the dungeon so the party will be able to rest with minimal danger, and if they withdraw to town, increase the security at the complex, or (if losses have been high among the monsters) have them move to a new location STILL ASTRIDE THE MAIN SUPPLY ROUTE.

Later Delve: Chieftain's Lair. Here is where the PC's encounter the leaders of the united tribes, plus the advisors who are really behind it all. Most of the retinues guarding the Chiefs should be at least L2/L3 with PC classes. The Chiefs should all be L8 or higher. The advisors should range from L5 to 1 or two levels higher than the Chiefs. Several tribal groups should be openly camped at a small distance around the center camp/lair, where the chiefs are. More powerful magic items should be found here. Perhaps the chiefs have been granted some extra protection requiring special magic items to get around (giving you another interim delve to acquire the items or components for same); the possibilities are endless, but pay CLOSE attention to BALANCE, or you can easily create a "Killer" dungeon.

You can take it from there.