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Villains

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 90
A good villain has to be more than just an evil, high-level NPC or monster at the end of a dungeon bash. While the basics of NPC creation covered earlier in this chapter offer advice in developing NPC personalities, no NPC deserves more careful and detailed development than a major villain. To be memorable, a villain has to have a personality, a powerful and believable hold over her minions, and an evil plan that threatens an area significant to the PCs—a settlement, country, continent, or even the world. Villains are arguably the most important type of NPCs— as, after the PCs, they likely receive the most time “on screen”—and the GM should detail them as thoroughly as possible, with complete statistics and full descriptions and understanding of their appearances, personalities, motivations, and every other feature that makes them unique, as all of these elements will likely come up in one way or another as a plot unfolds.

Not every local thug or monster chieftain needs to be a fully realized villain, though. While the PCs will likely face and defeat numerous opponents over the course of a campaign, only the most significant ones or those the GM plans to return to time and time again need to be fleshed out into extensively detailed characters. A villain’s character often proves important to the type of campaign being run and the threats therein—brutal villains typically have brutal means, while more cunning opponents tend toward more subtle plots. In many ways, an adventure is embodied by its main villain or villains, and GMs should take the time to prepare accordingly. GMs hoping to run effective and memorable villains in their campaigns should consider some of the following advice.

Villainous Archetypes

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 90
A strong concept is the first step in designing a memorable villain. Several of the most basic villainous archetypes are presented here, and with a bit of imagination a GM might create countless permutations of such characters.

Advanced Villainy

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 92
Some GMs might seek challenges and variety beyond what mere archetypes can offer. While sometimes this merely means using villains in different ways, it could also mean drawing upon the hundreds of different races and rules elements that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game affords creative GMs. Noted here are a few suggestions to keep a campaign’s villains both despicable and unpredictable.

Recurring Villains: Only the very greatest villains should be able to come back from defeat, and this should happen very rarely. Otherwise the players might develop a feeling of futility, along with suspicions about the GM’s impartiality—which can severely disrupt a campaign. The notes on the “pet NPC” from earlier in this chapter apply with particular force to major villains.

In order for a comeback to be possible, the villain must have escaped in such a way that the players do not feel cheated. There are some exceptions to this, but they are few: the villain might come back in undead form, for example, or in a resurrected but still somehow damaged body. In most cases, however, if the PCs killed the villain fair and square, she should remain dead—end of story.

A villain should never come back from death more than once. If the players start to feel that nothing their characters do can put an end to the villain, frustration and suspicions of cheating grow. The reappearance of a defeated challenge should be greeted with shock and surprise, not with knowing groans.

Stacking Villains: An alternative to villains coming back to life is to stack them, one behind the other. For example, a psychotic killer might be a religious fanatic under the partial influence of an anti-paladin, who in turn is the protégé of an evil priest intent on starting a holy war. The killer is removing members of a noble house to bring it down and create a power vacuum that could lead to civil war. The anti-paladin plans to take advantage of the chaos to attack one barony after another rather than facing a united realm. This is a limited example, but enough to demonstrate the principle that defeating one evil only sets the PCs on the path of a greater threat. This is much more intriguing to most players than a villain who is resurrected again and again.

Monstrous Villains: Villains are not necessarily humanoid, and everything in this chapter applies equally to villains of all races and species. Some races lend themselves better to providing particular types of villains—an orc makes a good evil overlord, for example, although some imagination is needed to make such a creature into a scheming noble—but playing against type can be very rewarding. The main thing to keep in mind is intelligence. A villain, almost by definition, is an evil creature with a plan, and if a creature does not have the intelligence to formulate an evil plan, it cannot be a convincing villain.

Nonliving Villains: What if an intelligent sword dominated a dim (but very strong) owner and became the brains of the operation? What if a cursed helm or some other item changed a character’s alignment and turned him into a villain? A villain that is not a living creature can provide some surprises and plot twists that will keep the PCs very busy—especially if one of them slays the supposed villain, loots the intelligent sword, and instantly falls under the weapon’s thrall.

The Villain's Escape Kit

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
The time and effort that goes into the creation of a major villain is wasted if the villain does not get enough time with the player characters. Every GM knows the frustration of spending hours crafting a great villain, only to have him cut down in a few rounds with scarcely a word exchanged. Every villain deserves a moment to defy or mock the PC, and there are a number of ways to arrange this without fudging dice rolls or railroading the players.

Playing Villains

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
As every villain knows, minions cannot be trusted. Some are disloyal, many are incompetent, and the rest are too lazy to do a good job. This gives the PCs a chance to see the villain before the final showdown and become familiar with his personality. The villain can be present while the PCs are chewing through lower-level minions—shouting orders and threats, casting spells and other long-range attacks, taunting the PCs, and escaping before they can get within reach. Depending on the layout of a particular area, the villain can be standing at the back of the troops (and cutting down any who try to flee), looking down on the action from a balcony with a bodyguard or two, and so on. No matter the circumstances, the villain will always have an escape route planned, and a fine sense of timing about when to use it.