The Laughing Hand: Why recurring villains are AMAZING for your campaign (Maybe)
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Recurring villains are AMAZING for your campaign... sometimes.
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Bad villain: is immortal
Good villain: is mortal
Great villain: SEEMS immortal
I love the squirrel.
Might want to embrace those excessively long spoiler warnings and make them part of your signature.
That would be ridiculous, theres no way I would keep committing to a bit like that and have already edited a video with another egregious spoiler warning
@@PlayYourRole Are you saying you're spoiling a future video? I received no warning. This is unacceptable. xD
Fabula Ultima has a really cool system for this. It takes a little bit-in from your players that “we’re playing into JRPG tropes here, so sometimes the villain will get away,” but there’s rules both for having a villain escape and for escalating from a minor to a major to a world threat. Recommendation is to use it sparingly, but it’s fascinating seeing it baked into the game.
Yesssss tell him about FU, it's such a good game
I kinda disagree with the immortality thing. An enemy you can never truly defeat can be terrifying, and the finale of Fallen Order proves how entertaining an escape sequence can be.
What's important is that the players can still work to foil and/or temporarily defeat the villain. If the villain wants someone dead, the party can keep that person alive. If the villain wants a McGuffin, the players need to get it first and keep it safe.
This set-up forces bo the DM to come up with interesting and unique problems you can't just punch in the face, and it forces the players to think outside the box.
So long as the players can still make active choices and pursue goals, I think an immortal enemy works just fine.
All great points, but counterpoint: You disagreed with me and by internet standards that makes us enemies
he DID say that you CAN use immortal characters, you just need to be smart about it, which I believe is what your thinking is in line with
A good example of a reoccurring villain is Baldur from God of War 4. His immortality forces Kratos to go on his quest, now that he knows he can’t just brute force his way past Baldur.
Additionally, despite being immortal, he can be beaten. Not just from mistletoe, but his neck can be broken.
I was so down bad for one of the reccuring villains (a demi-villain, more of a co-antaginist?) that my DM begrudgingly said I could draw *canonized* naughty art about them.
Score....??
Oh yeah, thats a win
I've found myself quite intrigued by this "canonized naughty art" you speak of. Out of curiosity, and for completely pure research purposes, is there perchance a place that one such as I could view what I can only envision to be a masterpiece?
“I am the most ideal D&D player” thing made me wheeze to hard when you said “it’s hard to keep it from not moving when you keep burning it behind you.”
I've always thought a Lich could be a good recurring villain. They will come back to life, yes, which would make the quest more about destroying the phylectrory and open the chance for the lich to attack the players at many turns
Honestly the description of laughing hand makes me think of nemesis from Resident Evil 3. A functionally immortal horror stalking you throughout your journey? Definitely something you can work with. They can fight it or avoid it but it's always at their heels. Honestly a concept I want to use now.
I really like recurring villains. I use them often. My go to with immortal villains is the party watches them become immortal. Knowing a talisman or artifact of some sort would make then mortal again.
For my homebrew setting (for when I can get back to working on it), my reoccurring villain comes in the shape of a power source, rather than a single individual. There is an entity of greed, gluttony, and power-lust that gives power to any creature that can ask for it, turning them into giant, putrid ooze creatures. In the first arc they've gone through, they came across three main manifestations:
1. A dying creature that wanted revenge (and was transformed by 3).
2. A historical event (where 3 learned about the power).
3. A scientist turned terrorist after being exiled from the city.
As well as a handful of additional examples of how the power corrupts things by being around it:
1. A treant that became hungry for dissection.
2. Civilians going into a mad rage at a party by simple holding necklaces with small amounts of the ooze.
3. Splicing the ooze with fungus to make a super cordyceps that could turn humans into zombies, as well as mutated some ants.
4. Transforming the scientist into an oozy monster upon death for a 2nd phase boss battle.
Not to mention that due to the story's structure, they witnessed the acts of this scientist villain's past, and spent most of the campaign witnessing his own vile acts and experimentations as they played. So after they witnessed the main reveal in the mid point, it added context to previous incidents, discovering they had dealt with his own aftermath before. And with how the power functions, I can still make a "standard" reoccurring villain that leverages this power source as well.
Yo was that Machine Head on the spoiler warning 😮
Royalty Free Machine Head TM
Another form of recurring villain I, personally like to include in my campaigns, including the one I'm currently running, is the crouching moron, hidden magnificent bastard. They appear like a complete idiot for most of the first half of the story, and the party doesn't even suspect they're a villain who's secretly pulling strings, until the villain's plan comes to fruition, and they have achieved their goal. (Normally I tend to make their goal something relating around power/control/status/etc since a villain who wants to destroy the world wouldn't fit the storyline here.) However, after realizing what the villain was really up to, the party, from what I've seen in my campaigns, normally feels both betrayed by the villain, as well as guilty for not preventing the villain from achieving their plan. Afterward, I normally allow a few sessions before the villain recurs again, by which time, the party tries to fight them, and realizes they let the villain level up past them in secret, creating a real motivation for the party going forward. Think sort of a combination of Kefka from FF6, and Ardyn from ffxv. Both seem relatively harmless early on, but eventually reveal their true colors, mocking the protagonists throughout the story for failing to stop them.
10:23 True. In a campaign where there was a one off villain, our DM made him really competent, and ended up surviving a lot longer than the module intended it to, and honestly, it felt like every time he appeared, it was tense, because we knew that when he got involved, we couldn't just be sloppy, we had to give our all. In all honesty, I think he did a lot more for the villain he was working for than the villain itself, and we remember him a lot more. And I can't forget how that madman literally broke Virian's (my character) leg while doing a pirouette (nat 20 moment) during a chase scene after ambushing us for taking too long to deal with him. Like, he almost downed my rogue in one shot (he was low level, so, it wasn't like it was so difficult and since we were chasing different people, he got away). So yeah, not only my character almost dies alone in the streets by death saves (we played it like he was bleeding due to the injure, but luckily, our bard arrived on time to heal him thanks to an NPC we had helped earlier), he couldn't walk for almost a month, since with that nat 20, my rogue's leg had been bent in ways no leg should ever bend (it was no big deal, since we were going to do a time skip, and it also led to a sweet scene where Virian's surrogate father first scolded him for being so reckless, and later, when he saw that Virian felt like he had failed, he reassured him that it didn't matter, because at least he still had his son, which, I'm not gonna lie, made me cry hard when I heard those words). After all that, the party was willing to do anything to take revenge for it, which I think it's a fantastic way to introduce a villain which would end up being the thorn on our side for the entire campaign
i have a recurring villain who is tied back into one of my player's backstories. he's the older brother of my party's rogue. he was sent after her to make her fail hard enough to come home to their family. so far he's taken several quests before them and he's also gonna end up being the main minion for the real villain
What could be cool is if your reoccurring villain is the opposite type to the main villain.
Having your main villain be a schemer while the reoccurring villain is a force of nature style antagonist could be some fun contrast.
you should always check with your DM to see if they're okay with you being down bad for their villains 😆
I know that sounds like a joke, but as someone who has been through the experience where the DM just wants the villain to go away rather than be redeemed, it can be super un-fun for all parties involved.
Not necessarily a villain, but a reoccuring duo. Two dwarven brothers. One a brewer, the other a mage. They unintentionally cause all sorts of mischief with their magical brews. Their magical ale often comes to life as Ale Elementals, drunken shennanigans tend to follow. lol.
I have an idea for a reccuring villain in my Vampire the Masquerade campaign- or rather, recurring VILLAINS.
They're basically 4 vampires that work in Sabbat who dress up like agents from Matrix and all look identical. They are stronger than a vampire with mastered potence (superstrenght), mastered fortitude making them extremely durable, and they are very coordinated in a fight almost like they were a single person.
If you know some VtM lore, you might already know what they are.
Anyway, the reason they're a reoccuring villain in this case is that whenever they encounter them, the players' goal is gonna be something else than killing them- indeed, some npc's will tell players to avoid them at all cost. And even if they kill one or 2 agents, there are 4 of them total. So their numbers combined with their powers of strenght and superhuman durability, the chances of players actually killing them all in the first encounter is gonna be very slim (Tho not impossible), and killing one will provoke the rest to seek revenge guaranteeing that they're gonna meet again.
For anyone finding this video, yes TFS had a liveplay on top of their VAs being part of the unexpectables, and both series are a treat to listen to.
My dm did a really great recurring villian using a guest player as the villian who we always ended up being reluctant allies with minus the time he tired to summon Tiamat and soon went from a recurring villian to main villian after he succeeded in summoning her and became an abashi but then went through a. Whole redemption and realized how back he fucked up in his path for revenge.
It’s really great what he and the guest player did.
A solution I thought of while watching this is to have a your villain be “functionally immortal”
With spells like clone, simulacrum, and processes like lichdom, or even a bare minimum of pact, the recurring bad guy can easily come back and the party still be able to let out some cathartic energy if they get lucky and catch the Uber baddie with their trousers down.
Respect the grind brother. Your stuff always gives me inspiration for my own campaigns.
Was so happy when i brought back a character who they beat, let go, and then discovered that the character had killed one of their friends moments before they met, beat and LET THEM GO. And one of my players said afterwards, i cannot explain the wave or rage when i saw that character again.
Hot take: The Laughing Hand is functionally a Boneclaw juiced up with Lich sauce. Undead, dangerous, immortal until you destroy it's hidden weak spot, serves a greater master that can be killed
I’ve had a villain that’s appeared for my players a few times now. Little do they know, although I’ve dropped hints, each time they have fought him he puts them in a collective dream rather than fighting them directly, where I make him as strong as I want and rather than make him fight them, I make them fight each other over the course of the battle. In reality he’s far weaker, but whenever they get to battle him for real rather than a dream they’re going to think he has every trick in the book still, when in reality he’s lost most of his power. It’s great
I actually had an immortal reoccurring villain in one of my games recently, i made him an infamous pirate that takes an amount of pride in the fact that his head is on a spike in every port town in the world. He can be physically killed and his body is inert, but he just seemed to always find his way back to his ship, or to another if his previous one was sank. He would basically charter himself to some crew or another to fulfill a goal they had in exchange for captaincy and the right to use the ship how he liked when not persuing that goal. My players actively made a habit of sinking his ship every time they encountered him and went out of their way to ruin his reputation. It was actually kinda fun playing that dynamic
I'm so happy to have seen this channel come such a long way! I love the content whether it's related to live plays or not.
The laughing hand was such a good villain from C2. Sure he was essentially just a lackey, but he was more evocative that Oban in my opinion. That whole escape scene had me sweating hard.
Here's a fun idea. A villain who isn't Immortal, but is the underling of the bbeg, and said bbeg just uses resurrection on the villain, but each resurrection slowly erodes their mind, making them deranged towards the party. I'd pair this with rules on resurrection that slowly erode your mind with each revival. Throw in the madness rules there. If your players pick up on the degrading mental state, they might want to try and actually save the villain from this fate of being thrown at whatever issue the bbeg has. It also makes the bbeg even more evil to keep reusing the same poor soul fill they are in tatters rather then get a new minion every encounter.
I had a villain once that spent about six months taunting the players with dreamwalk. All they knew was there was something powerful they had to kill as part of a deal for aid with Asmodeus, but they didn't know what. So for session after session this thing would intrude on their dreams just to mess with them and convince them that the fight wasn't worth it. It was a lunar dragon (pre-fizbans) based off of Dungeon Dad's video on them and solar dragons, I believe using the 2nd edition lore as his base. Their color goes from pure black to pale white depending on the phase of the moon and their alignment shifts from lawful evil during a new moon, to neutral evil during a half moon, to chaotic evil during the full moon and their abilities and spells change as well. So it goes from being a cold, calculating tactician to a magical berzerker with mind control powers. They weren't sure exactlybwhat they were dealing with until the session before they fought it, and it was glorious.
I have one my party and I encountered a couple of times. A Thayan that died once, came back and nearly blasted my monk to Kingdom Come in an effort to escape a second time.
Recurring villain in a campaign I run is a mage with a strong self-preservation instinct and a lot of spells for escapes. When things start going bad he starts popping things like Fly or Greater Invisibility. And now that the party's at a level where the wizard can Counterspell, he's having to vary his tricks more.
I had someone who DMed and he had a recurring villains, but to like some and tell us how weak we where and how he was so much better. We didn't fight, he would show up give a speech or ask us what we were doing and leave. I had to tell the rest of the party to stop telling him our ideas (because it was the DM asking the players didn't think he would us it against us because the DM meta gamed a lot). Well, after a while we got tired of it. He gave a speech on a flying ship where most of the party was. He jumped down to be dramatic. Me, being a magic user with dementia held out my hand and said "I cast hold person" below the ship so I would hold him till he hit the ground. The DM not expecting that had to admit it worked and the person fell really high up, but because 'he was so powerful' he was able to get up and walk it off, saying I was too distracted to follow. He kept showing up though over and over and each time it got annoying because again each time was a "I am so much more powerful than you", without doing anything to show it. No matter what we did he would escape right away. Like another player went to attack and somehow he had a follower pop up and cave in where they were so he could escape. Another was every time I casted a spell he would 'counter spell' it until I ran out of slots. It was annoying. He had us deal with four separate villains doing that in the same campaign without us defeating any of them yet so each session we knew we would run into at least one. In the end we never finished (that DM always wanted to DM, but he never finished a campaign). Recurring villains can be awesome if done right, but plan correctly.
Blood for the blood god and comments for the algorithm!
Seriously, great video! It's always interesting to hear your perspective, keep up the good work :)
12:54 now that’s some brand placement congratulations on the Angry Orchards sponsorship
Oh yeah, squirrel rave party!
We've got a reoccurring villain who recently turned into a tenuous ally.
One of my favorite recurring villains is XANAfied William from Code: LYOKO. From what I remember, you wouldn't always see him first: one of the Lyoko Warriors would run into a problem and alert the others AND THEN HIS THEME WOULD START.
As a former friend who could potentially be saved from XANAfication, the Lyoko Warriors could not go all out on him like they could with all of XANA's creations. Being XANAfied, William had no such reservations. He wasn't fast and there was only one of him, but he was smarter than other enemies and packed enough physical power to instantly devirtualize anyone. And one of my biggest problems I have with other recurring villains (e.g., Adam from RWBY and Striker from Helluva Boss) that William managed to dodge (from what I remember) is that his goal wasn't to kill the protagonists.
Killing protagonists is a problematic goal for recurring characters because, in most cases, it means they're going to fail at their objective. The more they fail at killing even one of--to say nothing of all--the protagonists, the harder it is to take them seriously. Adam was still scary to me because he felt realistic as far as toxic, spiteful stalker men-children go, but Striker is beginning to feel like a butt monkey. When William shows up, on the other hand, it often ends the mission the Lyoko Warriors had been attempting, nearly or successfully traps one of them in the Virtual Sea, and furthers XANA's agenda. With his track record, the very real threat he poses, and the problem of going all out against him, William's Theme cues the characters and audiences in that everything is about to go south fast if evasive actions aren't taken.
It would be interesting to see your take on the TFS at the table Natural Wonder's. It was interesting with some mid campaign changes the DM did a good job adapting to sudden changes.
I also recommend the Unexpectables generally.
thanks for the squirrel, it brightened my day
I've only seen TeamFourStar's liveplay of the Avatar TTRPG, and it was full of highlight moments.
My favorite moment was an attempt at an emotional confrontation, resulting in a crit fail. It was then played out as an emotional meltdown instead, and it was hilariously messy. The mic didn't pick up most of it!
Currently in the attempt to writing a villain in a game I'm going to hope to run (it's more like a prologue game than a true game), so this video is quite timely on what I should and shouldn't consider for the idea on a recurring villain.
I had a night hag taunt the party and I planned to have her be a recurring villain. The party hated her so much that they went after her in her lair. The plan was for her to either go ethereal or planeshift when she was starting to lose the fight. But then, our cleric rolled a nat 20 with inflict wound and killed her for exactly how many hp she had left. It was so epic, I am not disappointed at all. I'll just come up with another villain haha
Honestly, maybe you can do the immortality thing and use the Clone spell route. Like thos villain has safehouses around the world that have shelves lined with these jars that have clones, abd different cabinets with different magical gear so they can always have a fresh fight against the players.
It gives the players on their toes, because no single fight with this guy will be the same. But it also gives the players a chance to get on top of the problem by maybe trying to find one of the clone houses and just shatter the rest of the clones.
Here’s one way I make reoccurring villains; I make all special enemies have a 55% chance to come back to life. Shadow of Mordor style. Then they show up with the scars and are like “I have to thank you for whatever you did cause whatever magics are in your blade apparently made me immortal.” but of course eventually they don’t come back because every time it is a 45% chance they don’t come back.
Only applies to special characters.
The Laughing Hand reminds me of a Nemesis like being I made for my campaign called "Faulth"
In my old campaign the player's entire goal is to supplant the gods. In response since the gods can't intervene directly with the player's quest made a being that can be made over and over again. Faulth isn't immortal per-say but he's constantly being remade by the gods as a way to circumvent the God King's will.
There were several points where the players have attempted to reason with Faulth and he has talked with them saying that his will is lesser than his creators' will.
In the end game he became an ally to the party as he fought the same gods that put him in his hellish existence.
Idea: An immortal villain who wants to die, but can only be killed by one who doesn't want them dead!
In our campaign, there is a recurring villain who is tied to one of the pcs. We want to kill him, but he's placed a curse on the pc's sister, where any damage done to the villain will transfer to the sister. So we have to try to find a way to defeat him without harming him. Or find a way to break the curse. It's very fun so far.
if the reoccurring villain was immortal... i think would plant seeds of a secret weapon or cursed item that would allow the party if approached with caution, could drop them to zero hp and either kill it or destroy this current form, banishing its spirit to another realm.
is this the beginning of john squirrel's perilous journey?
I have a villain who is similar to Shang Tsung, he was almost beaten but pulled a modify memory group spell and managed to escape, however the players think he is dead. His name is Damashi, Weaver if Souls. They won't know unless one of them uses Greater restoration or Remove Curse.
Edit: This is a mortal man who uses souls to stay alive. So he can be killed.
so far have at least 3 potential reoccurring villain's planned
1. a sniveling prince character who's a bit like Geoffrey Lannister from GOT and doesn't really want to kill the party, rather he just wants to re-kidnap one singular girl who's important to the plot, but is to much of a prick, twink, and a dumbass to get the chance, and thinks pursuing the party that, at the point he becomes reoccurring, already beat him once, and thinks that he could "just try again"
2. a samurai-inspired character and a character I made as a parody for the stereotypical Cringy edgelord(white hair, darkish armor, little bit cold towards others, etc.). he's mainly just their to help serve his "God"(who's the actual main villian) but I did plan on him having an inferiority complex and wanting to one-up the PC's.
3. an undead guy in black iron armor, who's actually a dead guy being controlled like a puppet. he's effectively immortal (which I know I shouldn't do but hear me out) due to him being dead. however, the players can try to knock off pieces of the armor to free him from the cursed armor. different pieces can lead to different effects; knocking the helmet off lets him actually talk to the players, removing his arm-armor (don't know the exact term) would give him disadvantage, removing his leggings would make him unable to move, etc. as for motivation, he at first appears like some dark lord, but when they take off the helmet, its revealed that he has no control over his body and doesn't want to hurt the party, but the armor keeps making him fight them and the helmet specifically can change what he's saying, with no specific rhyme or reason.
DM: You are all aware that outright killing this person will land you in serious legal trouble.
Murder Hobos: *murders
_2 séssiöns latêr_
DM: The guard looks up at the party, then down at the sheet of paper. In a blink of an eye, you are all surrounded by five armed guards.
Murder Hobos: *murders
_2 séssiöns latêr_
DM: You meet a small party of mercenaries with orders to take the party, dead or alive, given your inflated bounty.
Murder Hobos: is this recurring villains? 🦋
Critical Role has more than its fair share of great recurring villains throughout the campaigns.
The Briarwoods and Dr. Ripley from Campaign 1 are amazing. As well as the Raksasha that led a crazy side quest to hell to deal with it.
Trent is a great character from Campaign 2 that crossed from Campaigns 2 to 3 (well kinda since he comes back in a special that happens to be loosely connected to Campaign 3) and although the fights were kinda meh, his impact one the Mighty Nein and Caleb in particular more than make up for that.
Finally, Ludinus and all the people he has under him from Campaign 3 are constantly coming in and out of the story.
All of these characters are great examples of how to run recurring characters. I think that part of what makes Matt so good at running/writing these characters is that not only does he give ligament reasons as to how they keep coming back but also as to why they keep coming back. He factors in these characters' histories and motivations as to why they would constantly come back to interfere with the party.
Forgive if a repeat comment but the issue with the Laughing Hand was that Yasha was walking next to him. Couldn’t be avoided and they knew it. They studied how to take him down.
I tried to have a hag that was going to be a recurring villain, but unfortunately, our Ranger decided to double-tap. She used Feign Death on herself once she got low enough, but unfortunately, spending several minutes on fire does not bode well for any creature not immune to fire.
I can't help but disagree with the immortality angle.
I run a revenant minion to my BBEG. The revenant is the fallen brother of a player and his vengeance is known as blaming his brother for his own death. The players know it is a revenant, they know it is immortal but it has a known method to defeat him permanently by the completion of the vengeance. They also do know there is a way to break the spell, they simply haven't had time to pursue it due to the more pressing threats of the BBEG's plot.
I say this, because eliminating the immortal angle has a heavy impact on undead villains at that point. (Liches, revenants, etc...). While the revenant is the only major undead so far in the campaign, it has given my own players a very real looming personal issue tangentially connected to the main dangers they are focused on.
I do agree that immortality is a delicate one, but it is extreme to say just don't do it.
I love these videos so much
i love making my players interact with my villians in places where neither side can make a move or only the villian is free to attack with no consequence. the City of Sigil under the watch of the queen of blades, in a dread realm where the dread lord is holding a masquerade ball both factions are at for reasons, or social engagements where both sides must keep up appearances.
it lets the players see the villian at rest and find out what they are like when not being a dastardly bastard, and gives the villain plenty of opportunities to corrupt, insult of reason with the adventurers. they may end up having a debate and coming away with insight into what my baddy is doing this baddie stuff about and use that to manipulate or predict him later. and i adore that stuff!
im not against the immortal reoccurring bad guy, but yeah making him vulnerable in certain circumstances (i like to set three things coming to alignment out of time, place, weapon, ritual and action happening at the same place as the attack) so if the players put the time into doing the research and gathering the stuff they can hunt him down, but thats a whole adventure in itself so i get my baddie to be awesome anyway.
and lastly, make the reoccurring baddie something the player characters have to level up to kill. if you make a level 5 dark paladin npc as your reoccurring baddie and the party are level 4 themselves... well they could duel him and have a shot one on one. not a good shot, but a very real one.
no, go big or go home. 5 levels over the party for a short run reoccurrung bad guy, 10+ for more. you want your baddy to be awesome, so give them some badass skillz to go with it. if they are not, on their own a deadly threat when you PLAN for the party to realistically have a go at taking them out, what are they even doing there as your Big Bad Guy?
In one of my campaigns the first time the party met the dragon villain, they only defeat her by chasing her away with the help of the spirit of another dragon she killed single handedly.
The next time they encounter her she basically killed all the civilians around them, destroyed everything, almost killed the entire party and then left saying "You need to be alive to see my plans"
My players are, to this day, so scared of her, that they still talk about it and rather do ANYTHING else than something where they could be facing here.
And when they finally will face her again, propably in the finale, I am sure it will be awesome just because of all of the story that happened before and they finally have the strength to beat her.
Even if a villain does die they can be reoccurring without coming back. Their effects and messages can stay in the game and be discovered later. It could get to a point that the players may need to resurrect a villain themselves to deal with a lingering problem. Or they may need to understand the dead villain outside of their brief encounter.
The most interesting thing I find about reoccurring villains is progression. Does the villain stay static. In which case the party eventually outgrows their threat. Do they develop in tandem keeping a relative strength so that they are always a threat but never an instant tpk for the party unless they hold back? Or do they develop horizontally, having to find different approaches to be a threat?
Magus from chrono trigger is a great example of a reoccurring villain
the immortality is why i have been hesitant to add a rakasha to my games as thats in their statblock. did the one from vox machina return over and over?
When it comes to recurring villains, Zenos yae Galvus comes to mind. That fucker just would not die, and he kept causing chaos and destruction for the longest time just to get the WoL to fight him again.
You are the only CZcamsr I will listen to when you tell me to like and comment.
Obann was my favorite Arc
It was SO good
I’m currently DMing a campaign and I have one main planned BBEG and two side reoccurring villains who while not working for the big bad are often wrapped up in their schemes
I won’t get into much on my BBEG as my players may come across this and they still know very little about my BBEG who’s moniker they have learned is “the spider” (may not be massively original but it’s important) but the other two are rather hated and feared by my players as they are some of the strongest individuals in my setting and my players have legit stakes and personal hatred towards my characters The first is a mysterious woman named Godhunter who seeks out and kills characters who in terms of power are level 20 and beyond and while not only being a looming threat for my players as they grow more in power has killed people on this level but is threatening npcs they care about like the archmage my triton bladesinger is romancing or the father of my dwarven shaman who is just barely in the level of being at risk and they have seen her having killed a mentor and supporter of the warforged alchemist and while he survived due to his status as an arch lich it was barely as he almost had his soul completely obliterated
The other is a clown. Well technically he’s a harlequin and a jester but that’s a detail my players don’t care to pay attention to as they hate him with a vehemence I did not fully expect. He was first introduced by our campaigns meme channel named after him that I explained that a powerful eldritch jester had canonical access to. The first time they met him was shortly after they met a caravan who had a young boy who used to tinker and create suddenly be apathetic and no longer tinker and play with making things then down the road while making camp their camp is infiltrated by a masked harlequin with purple and green clothes with a porcelain mask depicting a wide grin. He annoys them somewhat and messes with them poofing around when they try and hit them and generally being a nuisance until one player brings up the little boy and the clown lets it slip that he turned the boy until a snack causing this once tensionless environment to suddenly get deathly as they ask him to explain and Sactolar reveals he can take away and consume someone’s potential and they go after him and hey leaves in a laughing puff stating that they’re fun. Later some hyjinx one random travel encounters where they get lightly trolled by Sactolar and they see him as a lighthearted annoyance at worst and not a real threat almost a joke rival and then he goes after a PCs niece where they have to try to fight him off and they manage to keep him away from the niece until he shows them that he was just playing with them by revealing several invisible doubles of himself and then leaves saying that he’s had his fun and now he’s leaving. And the last time they interacted with him was after they suffered a loss at one of the BBEGs plans being unable to stop a part of the seal of a powerful demon from being released and as they go to a nearby village they find it burnt down and Sactolar standing infront of a unspeakable mural of blood and guts drawn onto a castle wall and he then taunts the PCs and then leaves after they fail to hit him and then in the castle they find horrible scenes like portraits made from veins and rooms decorated with furniture made from body parts and one man with his eyelids removed strapped to look upon it reduced to a gibberish mess.
Sactolar was the first of these 3 to be met so he obviously had more to write about and Godhunter while being mentioned only recently was met and fully introduced and the BBEG is still a mysterious figure bringing ruin from the shadows but this video has made me rethink a bit on how I’m going to handle them going forward and has been really helpful and I also just wanted to share my Villains and let it be known that I learned some ways to improve them from this video
My problem is how to have the villian come back. My players either destroy my villian ir if i find a way for them to escape, they get mad at me for "railroading"
Question: If your reoccurring villain is immortal, why not just make them appear in the next campaign? Like, their plan for this decade or century was just ended. They have all the time in the world for the next one.
I have tried to make recurring villains but each time, my players have killed them before I could enact my plan (curse you stunning strike!!!)
The Curse of Straad had a good recurring villain apparently (I haven't played tbh) and he was a super immortal vampire guy.
Strahd is great, specifically because he doesn't want to kill the PCs (until they do something to really piss him off). He's bored as hell, the PCs are his newest toys, and he doesn't want to break them. At first.
@@wheelie9719
It's a smart way to do an immortal villain which doesn't mess it up.
If an immortal enemy tries to actively kill the party, it just shows their incompetence when they fail, putting all those years of knowledge they had to waste. Straad, however, doesn't want that...
Can I get some advice. After watching this I tought of maby adding a villen who comes back but in control of his minions. For exempel my Barry fight a shadow assassin who great a book. I want him to reappear but now with a faintly face shape of it’s master. The master can make more so he can reappear without fighting him. Is that a good idee?
As someone who has played in a campaign where the game master used the immortal recurring villain to a degree that was abusive, I want to caution GMs who want to try this to be very very careful about bringing back a villain that the group really hates.
Make sure that having the villain recur doesn't make your players feel defeated rather than challenged.
Or, give them a bunch of clones to where they keep coming back you so got to kill the clones. Or they have a clone army and you have to take them down first. My players hate this drow warlock they fought who took their blood and made clones of them for an army, took one of the player's brother, they killed her once and then I brought her back cause why would she not make clones of herself? and Oh look she has a sister who's a priest of loth now you get to fight both of them. I did have the BBEG of that arc kill the rest of her clones because he knew that she would eventually turn against him. But the fact that they have her more than him and convinced him to stop his war really speaks volumes to how I accidentally made them annoying and it paid off.
5.50 that last few parts u basicly described cerberus in mass effect 3 they not the main bad they a nuisance and a sort of threat but ofcause nothing 8n video games have that threat investment due to you are set to win , but cerberus keep becoming an issue till only at the end they become so anoying u hunt them down
A cool recurring villain I've seen was rustage's one piece DND arson
Bro, she said Dobby 😂
If want them ti be imortal make them a litch or a boneclaw that way you have ways to remove them like destroying the i cant spell it thing or for boneclaws destroying the master of it
For me, the Laughing Hand was a good recurring villain partially because he had a tragic backstory.
Wasn't there a rakshaka that critical roll kill and then it impersonated a npc that one of the pc had broking up with. And they had this really sad talk that ended in the pc getting stab, by whom they thought was their lover, but just as the knife went in the rakshaka turned back to its original form. Did this happen or am I just hallucinating that into existence?
Yeah you’re right
Fourth place doesn't get a metal, but I hope I get hearted
You're being ridiculous I dont just hand out hearts for free
@@PlayYourRole I can now died fulfilled:)
Recurring villians are much more fun when you don't plan for them.
Try to plan, the players will find a way to mess it up.
He looks like the drummer from 21 Pilots.
Why do I use reoccurring villains? I'm just not that creative, I don't want to come up with a new character and voice for every miniboss they come up against. I use Anchor towns for the same reason. If they keep going to the same shop they won't notice as quickly that my shop keeper voice is the same in every town.
Immortal side bosses only work if they're used with objective based scenarios, imo; or at least that's the best case scenario. If there is an objective other than killing the immortal you get the satisfaction of beating it without having to kill it. Undead and Fey beings are my favorite reoccurring baddies. An undead minion with a phylactery under the main bad guys control that is leading different groups against the party; or a Fey creature that is guarding different locations and using illusions and avatars to avoid death.
There is also the potential for comedy. If your players want to be slapstick and make jokes all the time don't be afraid to add in a team rocket that gets blasted off every episode too.
So you’d say that seducing the villain is a… recurring… problem? 👀
THIRD AGAIN. DAMN IT I WILL RISE THE RANKS ONE DAY.
You did better than me my friend
Seymour from FFX is a great recurring villain
What do you mean sorry guys
JAY WHICH ONE OF THE VILLAINS IS IMMORTAL
IS IT THE AUTHOR JAY
JAY ANSWER ME
First of all: the concept of death is meaningless to the author.
SECOND OF ALL: you bitches already killed him, his name was Ezekiel
Isn’t Doctor Anna Ridley a better example of this
Damn there was like no spoiler warning what so ever
Best Villian(s) and How to Make Them:
Make them PURE EVIL
Not saying villians that aren't just PURE EVIL are bad (they're good).
But, villians that are just PURE EVIL make for very good villians.
Your players will... Remember them in game and for years to come, want to deal with them, hate them (hopefully), and well if you make them hot, and/or the player and/or character is into some kinky stuff... Yeah, won't go well likely.
Also kill a PC with them... Brutally. IF YOU'RE GIVEN THE CHANCE/IT JUST HAPPENS (because ur still playing a game) LIKE PC DEATHS SHOULD. YOU SHOULDN'T BE THROWING ENEMIES AT THEM THAT THEY ARE ENTIRELY INCAPABLE OF DEFEATING.
The GM's/DM's job is to challenge the players, not kill them by throwing a Marut at them. If you know what a Marut is, then you know what I mean. If you don't, then look it up. It's perfect for dealing with, well, anything. It solos every creature and/or character (AT ANY LEVEL) in 5e. It's stupidly broken and unfair to go up against, and is the spawn of destruction itself.
Which is why I don't use it and just look at it's statblock and dream about killing Murder Hobos with it.
Sadly, but also gladly, I don't have any of those, because my players are great 😃👍... Most of the time...
The laughing hand was barely a villian, it was an obstacle more than a character imo
Please never drink with that mic so close to your neck ever again!
Spoiler squirrel needs to be a recurring thing.
not enough spoiler warnings honestly jk lol
hi
god dayum commented the moment the video went live impressive
@@PlayYourRole
I got lucky hah
comment!!!
Comment
Come on man, why do you keep spoiling the live plays? There was literally no spoiler warning.
Dude. I swear you say people accuse you of not including a spoiler warning every single video. You HAVE to realize they're trolling you at this point. That or they are fucking idiots. Either way, for the love of God, ignore them
Welcome to the bit my friend, may you look up so you can see the joke go over your head
@@PlayYourRole OHHHHHH
@@PlayYourRole I see