Five Spells for Villains - DM Tips for Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- čas přidán 13. 12. 2017
- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... Any group of heroes setting out to adventure needs a really good villain to challenge them. In this episode, we discuss how to make your antagonist truly memorable, powerful, and worthy of being a boss fight for the ages. There's no better way to do that than to give them spells, usable by the Players, but show them some deadly new ways to use them.
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We'd love to do another episode focusing on roleplaying tips or strategies for creating memorable villains in roleplaying games! What questions to ideas would you like to see us cover?
Matching villains with a proper Low, Mid and Grand Tier plan
This is an awesome episode and definitely highlighted some spells I'd overlooked, but the spells are all higher level. This is great for an overarcing campaign villain, but do you have any recommendations for the lower tiers of play? Maybe for the big bad guy's lieutenant that the party first encounters, before meeting the boss.
How do I write an enthralling evil monologue?
Writing good/realistic motivations for evil guys. So many villains are just Saturday morning cartoons.
Nice pinky & the brain reference at the top of the video.
"Karen cancel my 2o'clock I have too much scrying to do" funniest thing I've heard today, the idea of a villain who feels like the whole process is one big hassle is amazing.
Soon we are going to have to make up the stats for Karen, the Evil Personal Assistant, I think!
Lol, "Karen, cancel my 2 o'clock, I've got too much scrying to do" is the best thing ever!
Let me introduce my new Lich-CEO villain, lawful evil, lobbyist of the worst kind, who works his poor undead workers to the literal bone in his evil factories. His objective his to crash the forgotten realms ecconmy via using cheap (i.e. free) undead labour to prduce consumer goods and flood the supply side market. He's not adverse to hostile corporate takeovers either.
His ultimate goal is to establish a corporate monopoly, thus dominating all the poor peasants and workers.
Your objective as a player is to S E I Z E T H E M E A N S O F P R O D U C T I O N and start a workers rebellion by distributing "Das Kapital" amongst his undead workers.
Karen, of course, is his evil lieutenant, which has to be overcome by a series of "social boss battles" in which the players have to fight corporate negligence as well as government beurocracy and incompetence. There is of course a bunch of undead to fight as well: imagine a quest to go down into the downstairs archive in the basement, on the hunt for a complaint form (found in a locked fileing cabinet, guarded by the undead) that has to be filled in before you can even make an appointment with Karen. Might even have the cabinet be in a room with a sign that says "warning for the leopard" just for the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference.
I once had the idea for a Beholder who has a personal assistant, who naturally is a magically modified human of the beholder's own creation. She's been conditioned since "birth" to be fully loyal to the beholder, and knows all his secrets. She's also got a bunch of vials of magical mutagens into her back pocket, to be used in the event that her boss needs her to personally engage in a fight (which is not often). She's also the only one allowed to wear Slippers of Spiderclimb in the evil lair, so she can keep up with the boss. On account of all the obscene architectural verticality, as typical in beholder lairs.
hamstsorkxxor Actually, there’s some great seeds to a mid-level villain here, who is controlled by the BBEG above.
Villain would be like Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, who’s vision of the future is actually or approx commonplace in our real world. So yeah. legions of undead producing mass-marketed junk food & junk items. To some NPCs, cheap easy food & stuff would be paradise, so living lieutenants & cultists to carry out many of the tasks in world shouldn’t be too hard to find. And so it’s been growing overseas, not really hurting anyone (usually), but now it’s trying to get a foothold in your PCs country. Or PCs hired to investigate, and then hired again to stop them.
I like it!
Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped.
K: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Monty?"
M: "I think so, Kelly, but where would we get a rubber duck and a garden hose at this hour?"
If a spell lasts 24 hours, have him cast it before going to sleep each night.
Sure he casts the spell every day but unless they attack him in his sleep he has all his spell slots.
Nice tip, a smart villain would certainly pull a trick like this one!
Nathan P I get this mental image of a villain saying their spells like a little Christian child praying before bed 😂
Strahd explicitly does that!
Do not forget the chill touch cantrip
No healing while on low hp is frightening
Yes. Chill Touch is a terrifying spell, especially when many legendary spellcasters (such as Liches and Vampire Mages) can cast cantrips using a single legendary action. It's a great method to put damage pressure on the party, and also get ahead of power of the healer.
10:05
"Monty's Guide to Total Party Kills"
...I'd buy that
The best thing I did in a game to freak out my players was set a timer on my phone, so exactly 1 hour into the game session my alarm goes off and I turn to a player and go "Hey, make a wisdom save". The reaction of `holy crap, you had a timer for a saving throw!?` was amazing.
I'm stealing this idea! I love it!
That's a great idea I'm going to steal it!
You’re a genius, I’m gonna borrow this idea
Zili holy shit BRILLIANT
Was it meaningful? I *love* the idea of random, meaningless saves like this in a campaign where mysterious stuff is going down. Especially if the players know the villain can scry on them or the like.
Spells:
- Scrying - 1:57
- Contingency - 4:21
- Forcecage - 7:12
- Mind Blank - 11:01
- Invulnerability - 13:06
Thanks
Note that if you polymorph yourself into a fly, you have the intellect of a fly...
😅
Minion: hey boss what you doing?
Villain: just got my new rune of sending 7, so I'm sending to all my lieutenants
Lieutenant sends message to villian
Villian: new rune who dis
My villain is currently using the warlock's empowered familiar (as an imp) to follow the party around while invisible. They don't know.
Really fantastic sneaky trick. I like it.
@@DungeonDudes I can't wait for them to get ahold of see invisibility or true seeing XD
Thats freaking AMAZING XD
Classic. I did that back in 2nd ed AD&D. And the imp wasn't even always invisible. I kept dropping clues as sometimes the imp was shape shifted into a crow or a frog or a goat that I would mention as just part of the flavor text.
That's smart
Random WIS saves against scrying are one of the most amusing things I've used against a party.
DM: _throws a combat with lots of saving throws at the players_
Party: _kills the enemies and celebrates their victory_
DM: Make a WIS save.
19:12 - And that, my friends, is why Unseen Servant exists. They'll darn your socks, keep your ledgers, and make sure you are always on top of your lifestyle!
Hahaha! Maybe there could even be a "Greater Unseen Servant" spell who can take your Sending spells, play your favourite Bard songs, and help you remember all the NPCs contact information?
I think Simulacrum would be a great villain spell. In the "final boss fight" you have them start against the simulacrum (that can also cast invulnerability to offset it having low hp) burning all their best abilities, then your real villain shows up a few rounds later.
I'd love to see the look on the players face when they slay the villain only to have the body melt into a puddle of snow!
I have done this -- can confirm their shocked and disappointed tears are *delicious*. Even better is using it to replicate the McGuffin NPC they needed to rescue from the BBEG's lair. BBEG escapes, but they think they've rescued the princess.... only to get home and have her melt from her joyful father's tear-filled embrace. }:-D
You can see this actually being used (but without the invulnerability) in the dnd stream High Rollers, the storm/cloud giant bbeg used this not only to fight the party but also to be her face in social situations, as she had a few... problems going on with her body which the simulacrum didn’t have
"Sorry, heroes. Your villain is in another castle." 😁
Ah, the classic “actually a Doombot” bit
One of my favourite villain spells is the simple cantrip chill touch
A necromancer laying that down on the party member that is being heavily smacked around and now the healer can’t help them is always a solid evil choice.
I adore the idea of the villain using mass suggestion on the players when they first enter their lair, telling them
"Your journey is over. It's time to part ways and go home."
1) Scry is yet more useful when you remember that there are enchanted crystal balls that have Scry _built in_ . Your villain doesn't even need to BE a caster to employ one. Moreover, there are rarer variants of those same magic items that can Scry _AND_ do something more. Like Scry + Detect Thoughts. Or Scry + _Suggestion_ . Even Scry + Telepathy can be useful, for giving orders to the villain's lieutenants from afar.
2) Other good options for Contingency: Gaseous Form. Dimension Door. Far Step (from Xanathar's). Etherealness. Feign Death. Fly. Expeditious Retreat. Haste.
All of these spells can be handy for the specific purpose of effecting escape. Which can be quite useful, when a fight isn't going the villain's way, and he needs to get out while the getting's good.
If there is one spell I think many high level villains should have, it's Clone. Nothing says villain surviveability like having an extra life in his back pocket. Or, rather, in a secure, hidden fortress safehouse. It's the same reason why Lichs lean so hard on their Phylacteries. Best of all, Clone can be used to make the person come back as a _younger_ version of himself, which is a pretty neat side benefit to having an extra life. The PCs might think they've bested their old nemesis, and not even realize the young guy hanging around is that same nemesis.
For phylacteries and clones and stuff, might I recommend utilizing the Demiplane spell? It's your own personal pocket dimension that nobody else can enter ^-^ plus you can access a previous one or make a new one each time you cast it, so now your lich can truly be unstoppable
Matthew Colville made an excellent point on what to give your villains. Of course you have to follow the rules, but you are the DM, you make the rules, so you could create rules that allow them to be incredibly scary. Matthew Mercer, for instance, ruled that his final boss Vecna, by virtue of having ascended to godhood, had more than one 9th level spell slot. He himself suggested ruling that there exists some sort of 9th level ritual spell that can erase another spell from existance, which was in response to Vox Machina using Heroes' Feast a lot. Of course, you have to be fair, meaning that if you, as a magic user, ascend to godhood, you get access to more 9th level spell slot or a similar buff, and your players can learn this eraser-ritual too.
He also suggested that, rather than making your villains scary per se, you can make them incredibly gimmicky. One ability he suggested, which I am definitely going to use someday, was the ability to switch the character's bodies, which means the players will have to exchange character sheets and play as the other's character. Not really all that dangerous, not all that scary, but very surprising and potentially loads of silly fun, which, really, is what D&D is about...
Absolutely. The Dungeon Master does not *need* to be bound by the rules when making NPCs and villains, and Colville is wise to make this point. Especially with "godlike" villains -- homebrew away. However, by using the same abilities and spells as the players gives the world a layer of consistency and credibility. It can also create interesting dynamic where their actions are clearly telegraphed. Finally, there are so many interesting powers in the PHB to use for inspiration! More than anything else, I think both Matts do a great job of using the rules as a basis for creativity, extending the spells and powers to create something truly unique :)
I completely agree, but I also love the creativity part of D&D. I personally think it could be a lot of fun to have a bonus list of spells (for instance) that you yourself made up that your players can use. You're not stepping outside of the rules to make your villain dangerous or scary, you're expanding the rules and adding ways for them to be scary that your players can use too if they so choose.
I love the idea of homebrewing custom spells used by the villain they the players can learn after they defeat them.
I love the idea of making the power of your opponent yours after defeating them. Unfortunately, I screwed up when I tried to do this once. I made a custom item which was essentially a flashbomb, which was used by my first ever big bad to escape (It was a glass bottle filled with several liquids. Smashing the bottle by throwing it on the floor anywhere within 30 ft. created a flash of light with a radius of 15 ft., forcing all creatures within range to make a DC15 dex. save or become blinded. I also gave the guy who used it a DC5 strength roll to beat when he used it, and it would not go off if he failed), except I forgot that I had put two more of them in a chest which the players could have used and/or taken to an alchemist to make more.
Also I mean many of the these mages are several hundred years old. I would almost find it weird if they hadn't at least attempted to make a few new spells as well throughout their years.
Some more successful than others.
Adding a few, not nessesarily powerful spells, could throw anyone for a loop!
Why go with a simple chill touch? How about creating a level 1 or 2 spell that have an area of effect that apply the chilltouch spell on anyone inside that area thereby making it impossible for everyone to heal?
I could see it as a combination between mirror image, find familiar and the trickster cleric's ability to create a clone that he managed to combine to some exstend. Creating a big area where several of him appear for a second and try to apply chill touch to everyone in the area before dissapearing again right after.
Combining different spells together making them more powerful but also slightly more dangerous and experimental seems like fun if you ask me and seems like a fairly easy and understandable research for an arcane master to want to do.
I probably wouldn't do two concentration spells in one because that just seems a bit too powerful in many cases but having a few fun spells and add a small twist to it by slightly combining something else into it seems like a lot of fun!
I really like the idea of the villain having a secretary to manage their scrying time.
The "Showing up at an early part of the campaign" bit with the invulnerable monologue would be a great time to snatch a few hairs for a later bit of scrying as well... see also, someone if they get out and attacks you, when the attack bounces off, you reach out and take the player character by the hair and push them back, pulling a few hairs out as you do
Important to note that the full effect of the free Mind Blank is that you cast it with an unused spell slot *before* you prepare or meditate or whatever refreshes your spell slots. They weren't super clear on that. Good for any daily spell, like Goodberry.
Great tip!
“Clone” would also be another great choice. You thought you had defeated the bad guy? Wrong! He had a backup copy ready to go.
Anything that removes plot armor makes a much better villain
Agreed! Villains should survive because they are smart, well-prepared, ruthless, and full of surprises -- but not because they are protected by DM fiat. Players love it when they can learn and counteract apart the villain's abilities, it makes victory against them all the better!
@@DungeonDudes I actually thought of a neat little multyclass villain. A shadow sorcerer rogue. Give them a glif of warding that gives them greater invisibility and let them cast darkness with their sorcery points. Not only will the darkness impair vision, the villain can still see and get sneak attacks in on the party. If the darkness gets disspelled or broken, the glif still gives them invisibility.
John Unterzuber or in the case of Invulnerability, mimic it 🤫
One of the few games I played.
Lich cast Dominate Person on the party's paladin, along with an
Improve Charm Person. Guest who the paladin is now working for ?
"...so often in D&D campaigns, we don't get the opportunity as DM's to really roleplay our villains in convincing and intelligent ways. Sometimes the only opportunity you have as a villain is the combat encounter where you get killed." SO TRUE. I had TWO major villains in early/mid-tier play of my homebrew campaign, one got chucked into a pit to the Shadowfel before they got to say anything at all, and the other was constantly being either berated/insulted by the party, or destroyed. These are some great tips using rules-as-written to provide DM's some breathing room to create some drama and conflict that I'll 100% use for mid-high tier play, and even early tier with big bads.
One thing I do now - do the evil monologues during combat at the top of the round (like a "lair action") as well as on the villains turn. I also allow villains to talk as "free actions" even on players' turns. This ensures even if the party resorts to violence before any dialogue takes place, you can still get your plot and intrigue and character points in!
Dominate person the melee classes with low wisdom. Attack the healer with him.
Thanks, Satan.
Sincerely, a healer.
That's kinda expected. Experienced players will buff their damage dealers resistance before combats with enemy wizards.
Lukiel666 well the “healer” is wearing heavy armor and has a shield so good luck with that
So, I actually have this as a plot point in my game. Five Lvl 20 Bard Pirates essentially start singing sea shanties outside the gate of the port city they're docked at. Once they have drawn a crowd, they then all cast dominate person at max level to force 5 people to sing along with them. Then, they make them get on their ship and set sail for a new port. Their crew is essentially slaves/thralls under the dominante person spell that they Shanghai in each new port. Then, they sell/ransom them to their families, or bribe them, shame them, or otherwise coerce their crew into staying on the ship forever. One day, our intrepid adventurers are the target of their spells. For the ones who fail the save DC of 20, they become enthralled. For those who do save, their mission is to try and board the ship, deactivate the 8 hour long spell effect on their friends, and escape the shit without being caught AND before the ship sets sail. Otherwise, someone is going on a pirate theme side quest
This is why; if my villain is not a deity or supernatural being of some kind; I always give them a wide array of support characters.
Mortals need to sleep, rest and eat; and there's only so much they can do in a day.
One of the most obvious things a good Evil Overlord would need is a good secretary! How else can you expect to run your Dark Empire?!
true, true... a good villain needs to delegate less important tasks so he/she can focus on the TRULY important tasks...
secretarys to sort through the menial tasks of coordinating your dark empire... assassins to remove unwanted people... goons to do the heavy lifting... you know, the usual ^ ^
Secretary: Wizard (Div/Ill), Cleric (Know) or Bard (Lore)
Body guards: Fighter, Monk, and (Anti-)Paladin
Spymaster: Rogue (Mastermind/Assassin) or Bard (Whispers)
High Chaplain: Cleric
Master of Animals: Druid, Ranger (Beast Master), or Fighter (Cavalier)
Marshal: Fighter (Battlemaster)
Head Magician: Sorcerer or Wizard
This should give a pretty good lineup of the guys you might have around your BBEG's lair at any given time, but who might also be sent out to accomplish tasks and be killed off by the party to make the final battle easier.
I really wanted more than just combat-revolving spells. Even Scrying tends to be used as a way to adapt to the party's tactics, even though Scrying truly is a great spell.
I really wanted to see Guards and Wards in here. Your villain doesn't even need to know it anymore. Once you made it permanent, you can pemanently forget it, because any dispell magic situation only dispells a part of the spell temporarilly. And your villain can also cast it on LT's bases to make its empire even more of a pain.
On the same vein, Hallow is an absurdly great spell to set up a base, and it only needs to be cast once.
Contingency can also be great with Mislead to make a great escape without the party even realizing...
Great additions to the list! Guards and Wards is such an impressive spell -- you can almost build an entire dungeon adventure or stronghold using it as the centrepiece of the villain's defence!
Feeblemind. That is all.
I was most inspired by the Evil Personal Assistant. Basically like Shego from Kim Possible, or Mirage from The Incredibles. But perky.
Fantastic examples! We might have to do an entire episode on the Evil Personal Assistant, it's a great trope with tons of roleplaying opportunities.
Snarky bespectacled secretary that's secretly the REAL bbeg running the show? YES PLEASE!
Felicity Smoak? Or the secretary from the original Ghostbusters movie?
Is BBEG Big Bad Evil Guy?
@@pokenerd3340 lol yes
Glyph of Warding is another very interesting spell to protect your BBEG lair , when using the option to store other spells with it . I like the Blink + Blur combo , but it can get very frustrating for the players .
Even as a trap it's very useful, but the ability to add a spell effect to it makes it a great defence for a well-prepared villain.
Ward a suggestion spell to leave the party and go home.
One of my favorite combos of spells is Armour of Agathys, Flame Shield, and Investiture of Flame.
The combo of them all deals a massive amount of damage to the melee fighters.
That's a pretty nasty combination, with some nice defensive perks as well!
Contagion, appart from being a nasty debuff, has the chance of leaving the players reeling long after the encounter. It may even work as a nasty parting gift against whoever defeated the villain.
Should make a video of 5 magic items for villains
Yes! Great idea!
well, we got one from this video, Crystal Ball of Telepathy
Purple Magi I used a ring of “globe of invulnerability”
Ring of Protection Against Scrying and Detection.
Great idea would love to see it dungeon dudes
I have a horrible habit of accidentally making my villains underpowered. Definitely an episode not to overlook!
Hundred Years Boar with these spells you may end up with the opposite problem. Hope your players forgive you.
Dont forget chill touch!
Me too, and my group gets together so infrequently that I had forgotten how powerful the "Sharpshooter" feat is. My 3 player party (lvl 5) wiped out a max HP Chimera no sweat. But at least now I have a bench mark for what they can handle.
As a DM I often design my bosses as being mechanically complex to challenge those who just want to melt away HP. For example, I had a boss that every 33% health she lost, she'd resurrect the zombies in the room. If the players didn't damage them she'd blow them up for 2d10 of fire damage in a 10ft radius. This made the players consider positioning, tossing the zombies away from her range etc.
And because this boss was a vampire she was very dangerous in her own right. Eventually they just used Sacred Flame every turn to stop her regeneration while they destroyed the remaining corpses. This is what I like to term "difficulty setting" in boss fights. The players can learn the mechanics quickly to make the fight easy or they can try to brute-force it and end up with a highly overtuned fight.
@@obradinn7491 sounds like you just created a WoW boss encounter? Doesn't seem very DnD to me.
...Could You kindly make a "Think outside the Force Cage" -shirt? I'd buy that🤤
The funny thing is that invulnerability can be easily overcome by a level 1 spell cast as a level 1 spell. There are a great number of ways to foil this spell. But the funniest one one is by casting the level 1 spell Tasha's hideous laughter. The spell does no damage but forces the target to succeed at a wisdom saving throw. If they fail thru will find everything extremely funny and will quite literally ROFLMAO. this incapacitates them ending any concentration they are holding such as invulnerability.
Another means to go around this is a poison attack such as carrion crawler mucus or oil of taggit. Simply Coat your weapon, make an attack. Land the blow. Since these are contact poisons the damage immunity is irrelevant. If they fail their Dave they will be incapacitated and they will lose concentration
Many a mighty villain has been laid low by laughing!
Or just attack the villain by everyone just to hold him by grapple, gag and then bound him to make sure no spell is cast, take all of his items, drop him in mud/cement/lava, and cook/cool until he is completely Han Solo-ed.
Personally, I hate evil villians. Of course my villians are evil, but I don't like it when they know that they are evil. But a villians who is doing good, and doesn't realize that he is being hunted, or doesn't realize that what they are doing is wrong. An alchemist trying to turn death into a myth, but is creating monstrosities and abominations. A wizard taking children away from terrible homes and giving them to new ones by turning them into toys. A druid animal rights activist.
You make an EXCELLENT point here. Sometimes the villain is just an antagonist with goals that conflict with the party. Two completely well-adjusted nations lay claim to a city, both with legitimate reasons. Two organizations disagree about whether or not a controversial secret should be made public. Two groups of adventurers seek the same prize.
In any case, that doesn't mean they can't make use of all the spells and tactics in this video!
I love that as well. The villain for my current adventure finds death unfair and wants to open the realm of death for every past soul to get a second chance.
He doesn't know that the god of the dead plans to overtake the material plane this way, but that's a different story. :P
Force cage box version = free short rest
Mind blank: Do on start of long rest, not end, saves a spell slot for the next day
Have you thought about abusing Glyph of Warding by the way? It is basically a location bound, 200 gp, lvl 3 or higher Contengincy. Lasts forever though. This means that over time, someone can stuff their lair with hundreds of these to defend against intruders.
Glyphs of Warding are tons of fun when used intelligently. I love the idea of a villain installing these in their lair almost like magical "panic buttons" to cause myriad effects which aid their escape or protect their valuable assets.
I'm actually thinking about using them in a dungeon. The main issue is that, even though individually not seeming very strong, an evil wizard could layer thousands of these in his tower, moreso if he is smart and either has access to the plane of Earth or lives on a diamond mine, and not even a lvl 20 party should be able to break through that due to sheer attrition.
The idea I have right now is that the party wishes to visit the shrine of a deity of forethought, planning and house defense (just gotta find a reason, probably an escort for someone who wishes to pray over an important decision). This place is of course embedded in a temple which resembles the goals of the god, and is hard to break into. And that will basically be the dungeon: Get into the temple. Of course the clerics will make sure that there are almost no actual deaths inside, wouldn't wanna get a bad reputation now right, which is why it is possible at all.
Trapping enough creatures inside a forcecage box for long enough would suffocate them. The spell says it "prevents any matter from passing through it". I would not recommend it as a substitute for Leomund's Tiny Hut.
@@mennoltvanalten7260 Evil Wizard: "what do you think we make dungeons out of? Gears and pulleys? What are we, gnomes?"
But seriously, Glyphs of Warding and Guards and Wards are great dungeon design shortcuts. Now to get my party to a high enough level to use the spells against them...
Freaking love pinky and the brain
Hypothetically, the monk's quivering hand ability could still work through invulnerability, since it doesn't actually apply damage. Right?
Yes, assuming the creature fails it's saving throw, it would still work.
Immediately reminds me of Critical role, how differently things would have gone had Vecna just had the invulnerability spell.
Great info guys. As a new DM(returning DM) this series is very helpful. Suggestion : Maybe you can talk a bit about how to put things in front of your character that allow them to be creative with their capabilities and how to manage the players magic in combat. To elaborate, I'm struggling with what spells can counter other spells (with the exception of counter spell). I want to create challenges that they can overcome using their tools creatively, but have trouble remembering what spells the characters have prepared , etc.. I don't want you be an adversarial DM, but want to run combat more tactically. Thanks in advance !
Thanks for the great comment, and welcome back behind the screen. If you haven't already, you should check out our videos on Running Combat, Spells and Spellcasting Guide, and the Actions in Combat Guide. In all three videos we have great tips for DMs and players on how to think more creatively in combat and magic, while also using the rules as an effective tool to SUPPORT creativity and improvisation.
I LOVE you idea for a "clash of spells" episode where we talk about how certain combinations of spells might interact... we'll have to think about that one. Thank you so much for the awesome suggestion! -- Monty
We escaped a forcecage created by a trap once in our group. I casted plant growth on a goodberry, then with transport via plant we escape using the goodberry as portal. Problem we had no choice but going back in a tree outside the castle so even if we haven't been captured it was a defeat
Clone is pretty good if your villain has lots of time and money to use. it ensures that your BBEG will always come back.
Great video! I'm going to try to work some of these tips into some D&D adventures I'm writing. Can't wait to see more of your videos.
One cruel combo with [Force Cage] is have the area under the [Forbiddance] spell beforehand. Forbiddance’s main effect is it wards the area to prevent all teleportation. So you have a lockdown spell where the only counter is teleportation magic, and use it in a teleportation-free zone. The ONLY way to stop it at that point is [Disintegrate]
Don't forget if your party is getting overconfident, start actually hitting their characters while they're down. Using necromancy spells to bring the dead characters back as allies. Also you can have Glyph trap spells much like in Skyrim.
My whole party minus the barbarian dumped strength. Maximillian’s Earthen grasp isn’t that strong, but for a stone golem to be able to control the annoying flies helps quite a bit.
Time stop to force cage to cloud kill. Brutal, efficient and just makes us players cry ;-; why though
It's a very tough combination, but I'm always shocked at how creative players get trying to find a way out! It's survivable for a creative, quick-thinking group of players with high level characters!
Dungeon Dudes it is always a challenge and that's what I liked about that combo. Truly makes us the players think about certain power combos. Gave me a lot to think about! Rock on dudes!
6 years later and I'm still referring back to this video when I get near the end of my campaigns 😁 thank you for all your amazing work Dudes!
For a one-shot idea I had, that turned into a 2-parter.. I think I'm going to steal that Invulnerability idea, but tweak it a bit.
Seeing as the guy they might fight at the end (Up to the party to decide if they want to) is an Avatar of their god..
I'm thinking that if the players want to go for a surprise round, I'll let it happen. Then, when the dust settles, they can see there isn't a scratch on him.
In fact, he's just finished getting into his battle gear, and prepping to have at them.
Sure, it might sound like it's cheap. But so is trying to suckerpunch the BBEG when he hasn't done anything yet.
I'm going to use these for the next session I am planning. Thanks so much.
i really enjoy giving my players weird powers, so in this campaign i allowed them to pick (after my approval) a +2 template. 3 out of 4 asked me (knowing i would say no) the Nigh-Invulnerable template (+20 Ac, immunitiy to basically every spell, fast healing equal to your total HP and a fatal flaw that can one-shot you if discovered). Guess what template the Villain gained?
😀😀😀😀!! What did he pick??? Thats amAZING
Forcecage and sickening radiance, it's basically TPK on tap.
I LOVE the idea of a villain grumbling and mumbling about his lack of sleep, hungry tummy, or I'm-getting-too-old-for-this mentality right before settling down and scrying on the PCs.
Oh and can you imagine. If you have the party try to look at the Villain and the result is them seeing him right behind themselves with a rather angry look on his face just glaring at the players back. You wish to scry on me? Fine, as a price I will take your eyes. Just as they turn around theres fingers Itatchi style grabbing for your eye. .
Yup, a villain that has Truesight will be able to see scrying sensors around them. A smart villain might want to use this against the characters to intentionally spread misinformation or deceive them instead of using Mind Blank to merely hide all the time.
You can then terrify the characters using spells like Dream and Project Image to send the taunting messages to them!
The way you guys talk to each other reminds me of Wayne's World and I kind of love it.
Party Time! Excellent!
Party on Garth.
All these spells we used a lot in the D&D 2E when I was in the Army in the 90's. The DM loved intrigue and some of his villains use these spells to great effect.
In 3.5 I contingencied a teleport spell if I fell below 25% hit points.
This was a great move. Unfortunately in 5e teleport is now a 7th level spell, and thus ineligible for Contingency :(
@@DungeonDudes But there are alternative spells that offer similar effects.
- There's Gaseous Form as one option, although the players can still potentially damage the villain until it moves beyond their range. 10 ft. movement speed is kind of meh.
- Fly, although I guess the players might also have access to flight by this point
Alternatively, the villain could use Polymorph and turn himself into something so tiny, the players might mistakenly believe he's gone. Like a gnat. Invisibility or G. Invisibility might also work if the players aren't expecting it.
Huh... now that I look more closely, they really did limit your options for Contingency quite a lot, didn't they?
Feign Death, dimension door
@@Draeckon gaseous form takes a minute to cast if i remember correctly. It wouldn't work if it requires the time to only be an action.
Great video guys! This really is helpful to keep bbegs alive.
Scrying YES!! My world's big baddie already has this, it'll be great when my party begins to tamper with their plans.
This was very helpful thank you
There's a lot of potential for the dream spell 5th level. Your villain can taunt the PC's in their sleep, potentially cause psychic damage and prevent them from being well-rested. The villain can hold an npc or PC's sleep hostage to get them to work for the villain. With a short rest and a few minions a level 9 Warlock can target the whole party.
"Choose a spell of or lower that you can cast, that has a casting time of 1 action, and that CAN target you." Fireball, or similar, when I die
The D&D equivalent of martyrdom.
Interesting thing about Invulnerability, it only block damage, also concentration on spells instantly ends if the caster is incapacitated. So, theoretically you could end someone's invulnerability by simply targeting them with something like Hold Person, which inflicts paralysis and, by extension incapacitates the target. (so long as they fail their wisdom save against the spell)
And now I'm imagining the grand villain of a campaign revealing himself in a dramatic manner while being invulnerable early in the campaign, but didn't realize the party had a Divination Wizard who'd rolled a terrible roll as one of their portents that day, and so lost their invulnerability and got destroyed by the party due to the paralysis making every melee attack a crit.
In some cases my villains were at their worse once they were dead. Years and years of laying magical traps upon their strong hold, many of which only function if he isn't present or dead. Cursed items, their curses hidden by illusions that fail when the mage died.
But spell-wise, by far the worse was a ring. Ring of the Nine Hells. Sounds impressive, but was really pretty simple. (Immunity to fire, Darkness, speak with devils, and once per day the wearer could summon in three Imps. Also should the wearer die, the ring returns to the Nine Hells along with anything in a 30' radius that didn't make a save. Usable by only Lawful Evil.)
A party that is blind, half-poisoned from being attached by imps, and having fireballs rain down on them from multiple scrolls he carried. was devastating.
But then when they fought their way through, surrounded the mage and killed him to suddenly have a gate open up and get sucked in was devastating plus ten.
Then again there was the Necromancer's book of spells. Shudder.
Ohhh. That would be... nice. The party has the night before made the plan that they will try to play a prank on the main dude. Then as they get the saving trow and make themselves ready to do their play, maybe even just letting the thing take effect instead of trying to defend against it. And instead of the scrying the players get slammed into a tree or hit by a fireball. The villain sitting in the middle of their camp eating a meal.
I really like this new, more casual atmosphere in the video. it's really engaging 😄
Kind of makes me want to set up an entire campaign around a Mage's Guild or magical college of sorts, where all players are encouraged to be wizards, and divination and defense against scrying makes or break the adventure.
I wanna see Mercer use this in crit role
Hose Clamp Vecna already used Force Cage and was scrying on the party constantly.
He also used sending and whatnot.
I’ve watched this episode 3-4x now, because so many ideas keep bouncing around in my head!!
But, it also makes me wonder & wish for a whole series on BBEG strategies!! Just as many creatures have standard strategies if X or Y happens, and just as you laid out in this video, it would be awesome to have a combinations of spells (buff, debuff, def, off) that various types (read classes, races) might use would be awesome!
I just like that villains can use scry to find out who messed with their plans. All it takes is some trace evidence, a bloody sword left behind with the heroes blood on it, for example, and they are going to find out everything. Unless your players are super paranoid and expect or guard against practically anything, there is always a way to figure this stuff out.
Great tips here. Totally gonna use some of these
"I talk with a constant upward inflection. It always sounds like I'm asking a question." :P
This is helpfull for someone who's gonna start being a DM for a group after Christmas. Cheers,
The big thing to remember is that spellcaster villains should be combat controllers, not damage dealers. That's why they should always have mooks, henchmen, AND bodyguards. Intelligent villains understand 'action economy' and leverage it in their favor.
Stinking cloud is a GREAT spell at all levels. The effect 'heavily obscures' vision essentially causing blindness while standing inside it, thus preventing ranged attacks and spells requiring sight. Further, failed saving throws prevent a character from taking any action at all and can disable both arcane and divine casters due to the CON save. Follow up with the Grease spell for that 'Sick 'n Slick' action.
Nasty, nasty!
Then use a fire cantrip targeting the Grease for extra crispy PC
Running my party thru a dungeon delve in a mummy lords pyramid. Totally using force cage and cloudkill in the final battle
Force cage and insect plague would be more mummy'esk ;D
I enjoyed the references at the beginning .
*Please do a sequel for this video .*
I love Forcecage. We were finishing up a game with an epilogue, and my Warlock had become a prominent crime boss. The Monk was kind of a vigilante a this point, and was forced to try to stop me. We decided that we wanted an epic battle between the two of us. He was winning, so I cast Demiplane to a demiplane I had made before (a shrine to my Patron) and ran inside. The Monk followed me in, but I was hiding, and when he found me I cast forcecage on him. I was close to the door at this point, and he was near the back, so I didn’t get stuck. I left the Demiplane, and as both have a 1 hour duration, the demiplane expired before the forcecage did. A week later, I came back, and the Monk was unconscious. I used Create Thrall to make the Monk my enforcer/slave until my character was eventually killed in the next campaign by my new PC.
Really good ideas, I needed these!
Thank you! let us know if you use them in your game, and how it went!
Simulacrum - why just have the one villain, second a copy in first to wear them down - and then reveal the real villain and watch the players' cry. And of course there's Clone. Finally defeating your villain - and the bastage shows up again. And again. And again. OMFG how do we kill this guy?! - squirm little players, squirm.
Played a game where we met one of the major villains really early on. We tried to fight him immediately but he was able to Counterspell us easily. Really helped him come off as intimidating and forced us to agree to his demands instead of just fighting him.
Globe of Invulnerability shouldn't be overlooked, particularly if your PC have discovered Counterspell.
You bet. This is a very potent "problem" spell to throw at a party of spellcasters, as long as the villain can keep up concentration!
Contingency - Stoneskin is a personal fav
I do agree with your opening statements. Playing by the rules players have access to really helps me enjoy it more. It's no fun it I hand wave everything
Just recently found you guys, I love it so much all of these spells will fit perfectly with my villain. Your videos are amazing
Thank you!
That was really well done. Sly Flourish tweeted out this link. I'm glad I followed it. Combat is my weakest point,
this was great video :) helped me work out a lot of things with how to make my villains work without having to use too much "DM magic"
Great video! Thx for sharing
Great video concept and execution
So very useful. Bless you dudes!
Another Fav Spell combo - Wall of force/Cloudkill/Reverse Gravity/Prismatic Wall
I'm glad I stumbled onto this channel today. These videos are fantastic!
Welcome! Thank you :)
Great stuff guys! Informative and funny keep up the good work.
one neat application of being able to scry and telepathically comunicate with the pllayers is that the vilain can use this to seriously screw them over.
like star off by scrying on them and warning them of danger, making them think that thee voice they are hearing is a benevolent force, once they start buying it you slowly drop cryptic messeges that they will fail to make any sense off because there is no sense to be made here, hell once they do star ttaking the warnings of the voice seriously, you could even sukker them into fighting other npc's that the vilain wishes to get rid off, like "beware the guy who wears X"
Synaptic Static is another fantastic villain spell!
Villain scrying mixed with sending.
Just after the planning session, you get a message in your head. "Hehehe. You think THAT will work? Well... you can certainly TRY. Oh, this will be fun! I look forward to our next rendezvous."
It will FREAK THEM OUT, as well as make them question all their plans, how much of the plan did he actually get, will the part he missed change things enough, should they change the plan, knowing that he knows, or should they keep things the same, figuring that he's just messing with them, or maybe that they can use his expectations against him.
Also, for Strahd, you can have one of the Vistani offer mani/pedis, for a few gold. It could even be worth the money, because your improved appearance gives a bonus to Charisma rolls for a few days, while you nails are nicely buffed and shiny, and you feel added confidence in your excellent hygiene and good looks. But little do your characters know, the manicurist is a spy for Strahd, and gavev him your nails.
I cannot WAIT until my players meet Strahd. Oooooh, it will be FUN messing with their minds.
I have given my mystic villain some similar abilities, nomadic mind gives him a kind of scrying, nomadic chameleon and step cover invisibility and teleportation, mastery of light and shadows for an army of shadows that create more shadows, access to the wizard spell animate dead, mastery of fire and weather for straight damage and area denial.
Brought here from your "spells as plot hooks" episode and I just gotta say, you've come a long way with your production value. I would like to see a follow up including spells from the later released sources.
One thing you can do with your villain is give them spells and abilities that are completely homebrew. Jonny from oxventure does a really good job with that for his villain liliana. She has a knife storm spell. Portals, the ability to summon a cloud face that she can see, talk and cast spells with