| Villains |
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| 1d20 | Type | Career | Goal | Henchmen | Quirks | Weaknesses |
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| 1 | Angel. Even angelic creatures go bad, usually with all the best intentions | Ambassador or diplomat. Wealthy, charismatic, influential, and foreign—those are the traits common to diplomats and ambassadors. They might manage a nest of spies and saboteurs, or they might seek to weaken their host territory from within. An ambassador need not come from the country next door or even down the coast, but might represent a kingdom from the Underdark, from beneath the sea, or from an altogether different plane of existence. | Alter time. This villain is unhappy with the present time and wants to either run the cosmic clock backward to an earlier age or fast-forward to a distant future that’s more to his or her liking. Perhaps this villain actually came from that other time, or glimpsed it through a ritual of time-scrying. In all likelihood, this villain is the only person who will benefit from the switch. | Champion. Whatever other sorts of servants this villain has, all of its important instructions are carried out by one highly capable creature. This champion might be more ferocious than the villain itself, but it serves the master for some reason. It might be well paid, owe a debt of honor, be magically compelled, or have no free will. Look for a Solo creature to fill this role, but also give it additional henchmen of its own. | Addict. The villain is physically or psychologically addicted to something: a drug, an alchemical or magical concoction, gladiator contests, gambling. This addiction is readily apparent in any interaction with the villain. | A gap in its armor. The villain is nearly invulnerable inside its armor, but one weakness exists. That might be a poorly forged joint that only the armor smith knows about, an exposed spot on its belly, or the edge of its foot that wasn’t properly dipped into the magical bath when it was an infant. |
| 2 | Animate. A nonliving thing that is brought to life is animated. Evil Pinocchio fits in this category. | Bandit, outlaw, or pirate. To be an outlaw in a savage time means literally that your actions have placed you beyond the law’s protection. Anyone can kill you without repercussion. If a reward has been posted, someone almost certainly is hunting you. In other words, you have nothing left to lose; your situation can’t get any more dire, so you have no reason not to cause as much harm as you can. | Cause catastrophe. Earthquakes, floods, blizzards, tsunamis, meteor storms—come up with a reason why that catastrophe would benefit someone and you have the beginning of a plot. An artificer might need all the star-metal she can get for her creations, so she seeks ways to trigger horrendous meteor showers. Earthquakes could uncover long-buried ruins of great interest to chaotic scholars. | Demons or devils. The most important factor when working with demons or devils is that they never do anything out of generosity, like-mindedness, or from the goodness of their hearts. If they are helping the villain, they are getting something in return. Classically, it’s something the villain has a complex scheme to avoid turning over when the time comes. Trust is always in low supply where these creatures are involved. | Bronze. Not necessarily bronze, and not necessarily literally, but why not? Villains who meddle with alchemy, magic, and magically enhanced science can suffer all sorts of compositional backlash. Or maybe the alteration was intentional. | Blessed weapons. Magic weapons are one thing, but weapons that carry the blessing of a god are something else. Such blessings aren’t easy to come by and don’t last forever. |
| 3 | Aquatic. This category covers a huge range, from intelligent whales, fish, and sharks down through arthropods (lobsters) and cephalopods (octopoi) all the way to super intelligent sponges and sea cucumbers. Throw in fantastic creatures like sahuagin, kuo-toa, aboleths, and chuuls, and you have the makings of a truly alien and bizarre villain. | Bounty hunter. Where there are outlaws, there will be bounty hunters chasing them. Their tactics and their ethics won’t be much better than the outlaws’. | Conceal something wonderful from humanity. There’s always been plenty of suffering to satisfy those who relish humanity’s pain. If some great event or discovery threatened to actually bring about world peace and end misery, plenty of creatures would take an interest in preventing it from happening. | Draconic creatures. Dragons, dragonborn, draconians, kobolds, drakes, wyverns: all make powerful servitors, once bent to the villain’s will or bought off with something they value. Dragons and their kin are proud, however, which makes them loathe to serve any creature less powerful than themselves. Their loyalty can be unshakable when serving their own kind, but it is always in question otherwise. | Burned, scarred, disfigured, or tattooed. Probably the result of an accident, but possibly intentional. The villain might take pains to hide the scarring or might draw attention to it. | Blind spot. The villain could be killed if someone could get close, but no one can get close—unless they approach through the creature’s blind spot. Does anyone know where it is? |
| 4 | Beast. Most beasts have animal Intelligence, but IQ can be boosted, Dr. Moreau-style, or the creature might be so cunning that it seems more intelligent than it is. | Civic leader. Mayors, governors, judges, and other local leaders have local power. After they get a taste, who’s to say they won’t want more? | Convert others to a cause or bring enlightenment. Dedicating yourself to a cause creates a sense of purpose and belonging. People like joining organizations and taking membership pledges, especially when membership promises benefits that aren’t available to nonmembers. It doesn’t matter if those benefits materialize for only a few members, as long as they do so prominently. And remember: the first rule of Strangler’s Club is, no talking about Strangler’s Club! | Elementals. Considering their power, elemental creatures are relatively easy to summon and control. Considering their chaotic nature, control is all-important. Only a villain who is supremely confident about maintaining control should attempt long-term plans involving elementals. | Cannibal. The villain’s cannibalism could be a secret that is revealed for shock effect at a key moment, or it might be a well-known characteristic that adds an element of horror to the adventure. “Cannibal” doesn’t need to mean “eats humans.” Anything that eats others of its own kind is a cannibal, whether human, illithid, or dragon. | Cats. It doesn’t need to be a cat. Different religions and cultures fear and revere different animals and objects. Finding the correct trigger is key, as is not overusing it lest the villain overcome fear through repeated exposure. |
| 5 | Construct. Unlike an animate, a construct is not a living being. It might appear to be alive, or it might appear completely mundane until it moves and speaks. Imbued with free will, such an entity could have unique animosity toward living creatures, with or without innate intelligence. | Courtier, courtesan, government minister. Royal courts are filled with ambitious, unscrupulous types. Gaining power and royal favor are obvious motivations for their villainy, but revenge, sabotage, blackmail, espionage, lust, greed—every vice is on display in the halls of power. | Desecrate or destroy. As soon as someone has something nice, someone else wants to wreck it. That’s such an immutable law of nature that everyone has seen this plot dozens of times. To keep it fresh, the target needs to be surprising. It might be so big that no one believes it can be destroyed (a mountain, a canyon) or so small that it seems beneath notice (a roadside shrine, a tapestry). It might be a blighted location that most people would like to see gone anyway (the ghoul-infested ruins overlooking the river), leading heroes to wonder why the villain wants it destroyed and forcing them to protect it until they figure out what’s going on. Or it might be something intangible that can hardly be destroyed in the first place (the wonder of children, the guidance of the stars) but would be dearly missed if it were gone. | Far Realm creatures. Monsters from the Far Realm are always risky to work with. Their motivations are inscrutable, and simply being in their presence can be dangerous. That same alienness is what makes them fearsome to enemies. Villains who were a bit unbalanced to begin with might be drawn to henchmen from the Far Realm. If they weren’t slightly insane before, they probably will be after dealing with aberrations for any length of time. | Child. Few villains are more chilling than one who combines deep evil with a child’s lack of wisdom and restraint. A child need not be literally young. It could also be someone who grew older in body but not in mind, or who somehow regressed from adulthood back to childhood. | Crystal. Diamonds, rubies, even common quartz might be the villain’s kryptonite. Figuring out how to turn small, fragile gems into weapons can be an important element in the adventure. |
| 6 | Demon. Chaotic evil, tireless, and devoted to spreading their special brand of misery. | Criminal. Most criminals have straightforward goals; they want to shift money from other people’s stacks to their own, using methods that the law doesn’t allow. This villain could be a criminal mastermind or a straightforward gangster. The common thread is that they lead an organization, whether that’s a traditional thieves’ guild, a gang of street urchin pickpockets, a flotilla of river pirates, or a cabal of blackmailers. | Die in glory. Most villains would be happy to gain eternal life. Not many seek their own deaths. When they do, they plan to make a show of it. Like barbaric kings of fallen ages, they also tend to take a host of unwilling subjects along with them. | Fey creatures. The Feywild is filled with denizens who will work for villains in the mortal world, both to feed simple greed and for the malevolent thrill of terrorizing mortals. Their magic and magiclike abilities make them tough opponents. | Collector. A dedicated collector must complete the collection despite the cost to himself or to others. Collecting might be a sideline from the creature’s main line of villainy, but the collection indicates an obsessive, detail-oriented personality. | Disease. Enemies who come from foreign lands, other times, and distant dimensions might have peculiar vulnerabilities to common diseases. Alternatively, a magical disease might be the “cure.” In any case, diseases seldom operate fast enough to drop a victim in the space of a single encounter. Characters need to figure out how to infect the villain and then keep him from acquiring a cure. The disease might even make the villain stronger and more ferocious before it lays him low. |
| 7 | Devil. Lawful evil. An oldie but goodie. | Demigod. Beings of great power seem compelled to meddle in mortal affairs. They grant boons to their favorites, hinder their adversaries, stir up passions, and inject their whims into destiny. Even good gods and demigods do harmful, uncaring acts—not because they’re evil, but because their concerns are bigger than the welfare of individual mortals. Notions that mortals define as good and evil might have little meaning to a being that can shape worlds and to whom death is an abstraction. | Distill people into a more useful form. Human beings contain many useful components, from bones and blood to pneuma and free will. Such things could be valuable to workers of dark magic, but people harvesters might also have more mundane, if equally grim, purposes. Perhaps human teeth are used as currency in their homeland, or they know the secret of converting a person’s dying breath into wish fulfillment. | Foreign mercenaries. The key word here is foreign. This villain’s henchmen come from beyond the frontier or from a distant land whose inhabitants have a reputation for savagery and cruelty. If they’ve suffered militarily at the hands of the villain’s home territory, they have all the more reason to enjoy their work. | Cowardly. Facing danger is what henchmen are for. Before launching any dastardly plan, a cowardly villain figures out how to save its own skin in the event that things fall apart—or better yet, to ensure that it never meets foes face to face. | Family member. Someone from the villain’s family could hold the key to her downfall. This is especially appropriate in cases of generational curses or massive personality shifts, where being confronted by a daughter or brother can trigger a flood of emotion or provide a distraction that allows someone to strike a killing blow. |
| 8 | Dragon. There’s no shortage of types to choose from, but consider trying something different. Don’t rule out metallics gone bad or a gang of delinquent juveniles. | Former adventurer. Some of the most dangerous opponents a group of adventurers can ever meet are others of their own kind. A career spent fighting and slaying deadly foes conditions a person to see opponents as obstacles rather than as people and to view killing as just another tool in the box of potential solutions. | Eat or consume. Man-eating monsters are nothing new and are not even especially fantastical, but they are always horrifying. The closer they are to human themselves, the more horrifying they become. People are only the beginning, however, where villainous food is concerned. Nonhuman creatures might require anything as sustenance, from the familiar (brains, fear) to the grotesque (skin, tongues) to the bizarre (hope, memories). | Giants. A villain with subtle plans probably should avoid using giants as henchmen, but they’re unexcelled at smashing architecture and destroying armies of Medium foes. Just a handful of giants can do the work of hundreds of lesser warriors. | Diseased. The disease might arise from villainy, or villainy might arise from the disease. Certain types of parasitic infestations could be included here, as well, for an extra dose of ickiness. | Item from the past. Something from the villain’s past, or from the distant past when similar villains were a routine problem, could be an obvious but difficult-to-obtain solution. This relic might even have defeated this villain before, in which case it probably was hidden somewhere, waiting for the day when the villain reappeared. |
| 9 | Elemental. Roll a d4 to randomly select a specific element, or choose a chaotic mix of all four. Elementals seldom rise above average intelligence, but what they lack in genius they make up for in commitment to entropy. | Merchant. They aren’t all greedy, underhanded, and dishonest, but enough of them are to give that stereotype some heft. A villainous merchant could be in league with criminals or spies. A shop or caravan makes an excellent cover for all sorts of underhanded activity, from receiving stolen goods and smuggling to coordinating rebellions to distributing magical trinkets that drain life energy from the masses. | Enslave others. Enslavement can be physical, psychological, or magical. Unlike converts to a cause, a slave is always unwilling, even when magically compelled to appear otherwise. | Homunculi. For a villain with specialized needs and the skill to create homunculi, these creatures might be the ideal answer. They can be custom-designed to the perfect size, shape, ability, and intellect for their jobs. Homunculi could even be crafted to produce more homunculi, turning out a production line of clonelike warriors. | Exiled. This villain was banished from its homeland or home dimension and came to the adventurers’ home seeking refuge or fresh victims. It may have complex feelings about the land of its origin, or it might simply hate its home with an all-consuming passion and want bloody revenge on those who drove it out. | Its own reflection. Any villain with this weakness will be aware of it and will take steps to avoid seeing its own reflection. The weakness might manifest as an actual attack against itself or as a wave of self-loathing that leaves the villain temporarily vulnerable. |
| 10 | Giant. Giants make frequent appearances as thugs and bullies, but they seldom get the starring role. Giants who want something more than to steal a few cattle or to roast a few shipwrecked sailors have great potential as villains. | Military commander. Generals, admirals, and other high-ranking officers have not only great authority but also great autonomy. Few people question their orders, and officers don’t waste time justifying their commands to subordinates. If a commander decides to turn rogue or to serve a new, secret master, it may be a long time before anyone traces the threat to its source. When the danger is revealed, heroes might face an entire army, because soldiers typically feel more loyalty toward their generals than to distant kings and emperors. | Erase a cosmic boundary. By cosmic boundary, we don’t mean anything so pedestrian as the boundary between the Feywild and the mortal world. This villain wants to meld Law into Chaos, or Good into Evil, in a way that makes the distinction pointless. Such a change would undermine a fundamental tenet of existence and have repercussions that are impossible to fathom. | Mechanical constructs or golems. Of all the possible types of henchmen, constructs and golems are among the most reliable. Their up-front cost is substantial compared to hiring mercenaries (who can be paid from pillage) or summoning elementals, but constructs are ideal for paranoid villains or for those who need jobs done that are suicidal or beyond the life span of mortal creatures. | Legendary. The villain was once a legendary adventurer like the heroes, or like the heroes hope to become. She enjoyed a sterling reputation, then something went very wrong. | Limited use of a magic item. Villains whose power comes from a magic item must be careful not to exhaust it prematurely. Most villains are smart enough to handle that calculation, but they might not have factored in adventurers who intentionally trigger the item’s use (probably against themselves, at great risk) to hasten its end. Once that crucial item is used up, the villain can be fought on an equal footing. |
| 11 | Homunculus. A homunculus is a particular type of animate creature. Most are just intelligent enough to carry out the tasks for which they were created, but that could be quite intelligent if the creature was designed to be the lab assistant to a wizard— who then perished in a mysterious lab accident. | Noble or aristocrat. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, “It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.” The first concern of most rulers is to secure their position and safety, because only then can they rule effectively. Since fear provides the surest path to security, only a foolish ruler relies solely on the velvet glove without the iron fist. In other words, a perfectly good monarch going about the business of ruling properly will be considered a villain by at least some citizens. Should player characters get on a ruler’s bad side, there’s no limit to the “evil” that can be inflicted on them. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that a beloved king, queen, or emperor hides dark secrets just waiting to be unmasked. | Find and destroy the Chosen One. In all likelihood, the existence of a Chosen One is a secret. Even the Chosen One might be unaware of his or her specialness. Destroying the Chosen One can take many forms, from simple murder to elaborate sacrifice, and it can mean anything from killing the Chosen One to consuming the unlucky person’s body or essence. | Members of a lost civilization. People who have been isolated from the world for centuries are easily manipulated by clever villains. They probably have a strong cultural memory of a time when things were better—when they were on top—and a few promises that they will rise again might be all it takes to swing them into the villain’s service. | Loves kittens. Or puppies, or something else that contradicts cold-blooded villainy. | Love. Anyone can say “I love you,” but to really mean it is something special. To really mean it when you’re addressing a mass murderer or a possessed monster is even more amazing, unless that monster was once a loving husband, wife, father, or mother, before evil stepped in and took over. |
| 12 | Humanoid. Anything with two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head is included here, if it’s not covered by another entry. | Rebel or peasant leader. Most D&D characters come from humble origins, so they have a natural tendency to side with the little guy where social injustice is involved. But not every folk hero is Joan of Arc or Robin Hood, even if that’s the picture they present to their followers. Villains understand that downtrodden commoners can be manipulated into all sorts of rash and risky schemes. | Fulfill a prophecy. Prophecies can be good or bad, but they are almost always vague and not subject to engineering. This villain is interfering with the natural course of events to ensure that a prophecy’s conditions are fulfilled at an unnatural time or in an unnatural way. | More of its own kind. Orc warriors serving an orc warlord or spawn of Kyuss serving a herald of Kyuss are not surprising or memorable. Beholders serving a beholder or liches serving another lich testify to immense power on the leader’s part, or some other force holding that contentious cabal together. | Master of disguise. This villain can pass among normal folk without drawing attention, and frequently does so. The heroes might have interacted with this character many times in the past without realizing it. In fact, there’s no telling whether the face they associate with the villain is his or her true face at all. | Magic item, if taken away. Similar to the magic item that can be used up, this one must be wrested away from the villain, who isn’t going to make that easy. If losing an item means the villain’s downfall, then ensuring it never falls into enemy hands will be the first task the villain devotes her genius to. It can be done, but it will be difficult and dangerous. |
| 13 | Magical beast. Some magical beasts have an outlandish appearance, but others could easily hide in plain sight, manipulating mundane beasts, others of their kind, or even people. No one would suspect the livestock until it was too late. | Religious figure. In a world where deities make their presence known in tangible ways, those who speak for the gods wield great power. Even spiritual leaders are subject to worldly corruption and worse, such as being tricked into serving supernatural entities that masquerade as deities but seek only humanity’s destruction or enslavement. | Gain power. This category covers an enormous range of villainous activity. Power can be political, military, economic, spiritual, magical, even temporal. It always comes at someone else’s expense. Villains who gain power can never resist using it—usually before they’ve learned to control it. | Psychic slaves or thralls. The loyalty question can be addressed by employing only creatures that are psychically enslaved or enthralled by the villain. Mind slaves also put player characters into the position of fighting and possibly killing innocent foes who can’t help themselves. | Multiple personalities. The villain seems to change from encounter to encounter, or even within a single encounter, because it is host to multiple personalities. Most of them will at least be villainous, but not necessarily all. Most will share the villain’s goals and have their own takes on how to pursue them, but some might be clueless about what’s going on. Different personalities might even have completely different power descriptions and stat blocks associated with them. Alternatively, the villain might be possessed, but sometimes the character’s own personality re-exerts control briefly. | Phobia. People who become villains are exposed to a lot of psychological trauma on the road to villainy. It stands to reason that they could develop phobias along the way. Sunlight, dust, clocks, insects, the color orange: literally anything can be the object of irrational fear. The more irrational it is, the better. |
| 14 | Ooze, pudding, slime. At first glance, the deck appears to be stacked against such creatures ever taking a lead role, but how do we know that their tiny Intelligence scores don’t conceal thought processes so alien we can’t comprehend them? Consider such a creature grown to enormous size and loose in a city’s sewers: able to seep through any opening, to attack through any grate or drain, to survive on whatever food washes down from above. Give it telepathy and the ability to mimic other creatures and you’d have a truly frightening and memorable villain. | Sage. This category covers any sort of learned specialist, including alchemists, artificers, astrologers, astronomers, arcane mathematicians, historians, physicians, engineers, and masons. Rare, specialized knowledge can be nearly as potent as magic in a primitive world. Those who possess it always want more, even when they lack the wisdom to use what they already know safely or sanely—assuming they fully comprehend the vast secrets contained in their minds. Mortals’ hunger for knowledge is a lever that can be used by dark entities to pry open the gates between worlds. | Hide from enemies. If a villain simply wants to drop from sight and not be found, that probably doesn’t pose much threat to the world or to the characters. On the other hand, if the villain is using the mortal world as a hiding place against powerful creatures from another plane, that’s a different situation. Players might decide that the enemy of their enemy is their friend, but the villain’s enemies could be every bit as bad or even worse than the villain is. | Soldiers. The difference between soldiers and foreign mercenaries is that soldiers are locals, or are at least related to the local culture. When soldiers are used as henchmen, it implies one of three things. They are unaware of the villain’s true aims, or the villain’s stated aims seem desirable to many people, or a reasonable person could conclude that working for the villain is better than being victimized by the villain. | Mutant. Either through accident or deliberate effort, the villain has mutated into something other than what it started life as. This is similar to being a hybrid but with an emphasis on more subtle alterations. Psychic powers are a favorite type of mutation, with extra limbs running a close second. | Ritual magic. A villain probably has normal vulnerability to normal magic, or might have special protection against it, but ritual magic could be another matter. Few rituals have any obvious offensive use, so finding clever ways to use them against a tough foe is an interesting challenge. |
| 15 | Plant. D&D already offers a few intelligent plants, but there are also mutant plants, plants from space, and plants that mimic or replicate people. We unscientifically include fungi in the category, so don’t forget about myconids and massive organisms with roots that stretch for miles, or across entire continents, absorbing nutrients from the soil—or from other sources. | Sheriff, warden, bailiff, or constable. Just as not every bandit is Robin Hood, not every sheriff is the infamous Sheriff of Nottingham. But some are, and some are worse. | Reshape continents. This villain wants to reshape the world into something more to his liking. The reasons why probably are fascinating but don’t matter here. The process will begin with limited tests, but the effect of shifting coastlines, submerging cities, pouring mountain ranges into the ocean, and leveling forests is guaranteed to be devastating even when it’s conducted on a small, test scale. This is also a useful villain to introduce when you’d like to correct a feature of your campaign map that bothers you. | Sorcerous cabal or witches. The villain need not be a practitioner of magic to employ a cabal of sorcerers as minions, but it doesn’t hurt. Rituals probably play a large role in such an organization, including a few tailored specifically for the villain’s plans. | Photophobic (afraid of light). Meetings with this villain will always occur in dim light. Photophobia is a wonderful metaphor for villains who fear their activities being exposed “to the light of day.” | Silver, wood, or other weapons. Such weapons will be less effective and more fragile than those the characters are accustomed to using, but if those are the only materials that will harm the foe, then heroes deal with the difficulty and press on. |
| 16 | Reptile. From lizardfolk and yuan-ti to hydras and kruthiks, reptiles of every shape crawl, clamber, and slither through many people’s nightmares. The notion of a race of serpent-people who ruled the world as supreme sorcerers and scientists before humans existed—who might even have played a role in shaping the evolution of humanity as slaves—is nearly as old as fantasy fiction. | Slaver. We recoil naturally from any character who traffics in slaves. No matter how noble or likable the character might be personally, he is tarnished utterly by his profession. Not even necromancy carries as heavy a stain. There’s no reason to hold back or mitigate this character’s evil. If ever you wanted a villain who could be portrayed as morally bankrupt and rotten to the core, this is it. | Return home, or bring home here. Like the villain from entry 14 who came to the mortal world from somewhere else, this villain is a visitor to the characters’ realm. This creature wants to make the mortal world more like its bizarre alien home or transport a portion of the world to its home plane. | Summoned beings. The advantage to summoning your henchmen is that there will be plenty more where those came from. As long as the villain can keep summoning, the henchmen won’t run out. They might or might not serve willingly once they’re called. | Reckless. Some villains defy the stereotype of being obsessed with planning. Some leap before they look, are driven by their tempers, or are adrenaline junkies. Such villains might be more easily lured into traps, but their unpredictability means that they’ll surprise the heroes more often than the other way round. | Sound. The villain’s weakness might be sound in general, or it could be a particular type of sound, such as music, song, the crying of a baby, or its own voice from before it devoted itself to darkness. |
| 17 | Shapechanger. No one can be trusted when shapechangers are on the loose. A shapechanger will always appear as someone else: a sage, the Keeper of Dragons, the king. It can go anywhere unchallenged, infiltrate any organization, replace loved ones or even player characters in pursuit of its goals. | Spy. The first difficulty when battling a spy is figuring out that you’re battling a spy. Secrecy is everything to this villain. Being found out means failure and probably death. Since a spy is already leading a double life, there’s no reason to keep just one secret. This villain’s life will be a complex engine of lies, deceits, masks, and concoctions. | Revenge. The reason why the villain wants revenge can be interesting and pivotal to the tale, but motivation alone is not enough to set the villain above the pack. To make this adventure memorable, the method or conditions of revenge must stand out. A worthwhile villain will only seek an elaborate, devastating revenge, such as trampling an entire city beneath the iron wheels of a monumental iron chariot drawn by a gargantuan primordial hydra or turning everyone who attends a feast into a salt golem. | Swarms of rodents, snakes, and other vermin. A villain who’s mastered the secret of controlling swarms of vermin has a high creepiness factor, as well as plenty of replacements for high battle casualties. | Resurrected. This villain lived, died, and now lives again. It might have been brought back by followers or cultists, through its own cunning devices, or through the intervention of someone or something that hoped to make use of it (but probably met a bad end in the process). Learning about the villain’s past might provide a key to cutting short its future. | Sunlight. A classic. The trick will be luring the villain into a position where sunlight can be used against it, because no one who can be killed or rendered vulnerable by sunlight will build a lair where sunlight can penetrate. |
| 18 | Spider. What better creature to spin a symbolic web of evil than one that also spins actual webs of silk? You can’t beat that metaphor. This motif lends itself to endless variation, from mindless swarms to drow-controlling monstrosities to tower-dwelling, eight-limbed masters of sorcery. | Thief or assassin. Unlike the criminal, who commands an organization, the thief or assassin largely works alone or in a small team of specialists, regardless of whether they’re working solely for themselves or carrying out someone else’s orders. Along with being masters of stealth and infiltration, they are also unsurpassed at evasion and escape, so cornering such a villain is an enormous challenge. If you want a villain who always escapes to bedevil the characters over and over, a thief or assassin is a prime candidate. | Spread blight, chaos, death, or evil. To a certain extent, this goal goes without saying. It becomes unusual when the villain adopts a surprising method: transforming all birds to stirges in an outward-spreading wave, or quietly infecting only children with lycanthropy. | Undead horde. Much like vermin, there’s no danger of running out of dead people. Social taboos against violating the dead make it clear that this villain has no respect for society’s norms. | Scopophobic (afraid of being seen). A scopophobic villain always wears a concealing mask and cloak at the very least. It might hide behind a screen or speak through someone else’s body, like a spirit channeling through a medium. | Unreasoning hatred. A villain who has an unreasoning hatred for a particular character or thing might momentarily neglect a more important task or drop its impenetrable guard if given the opportunity to attack its nemesis. This might not work out well for the nemesis, but it’s all about the greater good. |
| 19 | Swarm. All sorts of creatures swarm: spiders, snakes, rats, birds, insects, undead, and the immature forms of things with disturbing life cycles. As they grow in number, they can become both more dangerous and more intelligent. We tend to think of Tiny creatures swarming, but what if Medium, Large, or even Huge creatures formed your swarm? | Warlord. One man’s blood-drenched warlord is another’s tribal champion. Fight the temptation to dismiss every warlord or regional strongman as a thug and a bully. Whether barbarian or civilized, human or monster, only those with a special mix of insight, cunning, and brutality can rise to dominance in violent times. | Supplant its own leader. Power struggles within evil organizations are nothing new, but there’s some truth to the adage, “better the devil you know.” Nothing demands that the villain’s organization is overtly evil; the villain might be trying to seize control of a respected organization and subvert it to an evil purpose, possibly without even recognizing the great harm this scheme will lead to. | Uplifted beasts. Depending on the setting, uplifting beasts to be nearly the equals of humans (or even superior to them) might be considered a marvel of science or a blasphemy against god and nature—or both. A common theme running through many fantasy settings is that the good guys specialize in beneficial magic while the bad guys delve into evil, forbidden science. Beasts could be uplifted solely through magic, too, but they’re inherently less interesting that way. The model here is the scientist with a god complex experimenting with knowledge that humans can’t handle. This can also be reversed: the henchmen aren’t animals upgraded into humans but humans surgically debased to the level of animals. | Someone from the characters’ past. The characters trusted and possibly even worked for this person in a previous adventure. Did something change in the meantime, or were the characters used as unwitting pawns of evil? | Water. Both Dracula and the Wicked Witch of the West were adversely affected by water, but in very different ways. Dracula’s weakness is the more interesting of the two: he could cross running water only at high or low tide, or by being carried across. The vampire hunters counted on that weakness when laying their ambush for Dracula at the port of Varna, but the Count was too wily to fall into their clutches that way. |
| 20 | Undead. In fantasy, undeath can afflict almost anything that once lived. Some creatures choose undeath, and others have it forced on them. Some pass into undeath very soon after dying, and others might lie in their graves for centuries before rising again. An undead creature might loathe its current form or not even recognize its own passing. Someone who died during the height of an ancient empire and lay dead through centuries of downfall and social collapse—perhaps even triggered that collapse during their lifetime—would arise into a very puzzling world. | Wizard. Any villain who works primarily through magic falls into this category, whether the character is a wizard, sorcerer, warlock, necromancer, enchanter, witch, or other type of spellcaster. Aside from the usual sorts of human flaws, entities who delve into magic may be more susceptible than most to megalomania, paranoia, psychosis, and other forms of insanity—or, perhaps, to an excess of sanity and to experiencing aspects of reality too clearly for their own good. | Uncover secret knowledge. What secret is more alluring than one “man was not meant to know?” These villains are easy to hide in plain sight; everyone respects collectors of knowledge. They’re likely to hire adventurers to help in their search for lost records, so player characters can easily be drawn into their service. By the time characters have a full picture of what’s going on, it may be too late to stop the villain from triggering the final act— using material the heroes provided. | Worshipers or cultists. Fanatical followers imply a villain with towering charisma. They can be terrifying in their single-mindedness. Like thralls,they create a moral quandary for heroes who face the prospect of carving a path of blood through beings who might be perfectly harmless without this villain manipulating them. Because cultists are drawn from the general population, they can blend into it for covert missions such as keeping watch on enemies of the cult (like the characters) or launching terror attacks in the marketplace. | Time traveler. A visitor from the past might bring knowledge of magic and rituals long since forgotten in the present day; one from the future could come armed with technology that surpasses anything imagined, combined with historical knowledge of events to come. | Wolfsbane or another rare plant. Plants make wonderful weaknesses, because they can be out of season, restricted to distant climes, fragile and easily spoiled, or difficult and time-consuming to prepare. The way they’re used can be clumsy and inefficient, or their effectiveness can vary with the time of year, phase of the moon, hours or days since the plant was harvested, and the specific variety of plant used. |