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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Dec 2009 : 18:08:54
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Greetings, ye wise and learned!
I present this scroll to catalogue the greatest and most memorable of evil masterminds and horrific monstrosities.
DMs: What major campaign villains have you used (canonical or otherwise) in the Realms? How did it go? Which ones do you intend to use in the future or simply daydrea of tormenting your players with? etc, etc...
Players: Which BBEGs have you defeated? Which ones have you learned to fear? Who would you launch at the DM if you could? and so forth...
I'll start:
My current game's BBEG is a rather modified Gargauth. His exile from the Nine Hells has taken it's toll on his sanity and has lead him to partake in elaborate games played with mortals as pawns, moved through powerful and fickle artefacts of his own creation. This version of him is inspired in no small ammount by Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker; once the PCs are bound up in his loonatic game by one of his artefacts (The Jack in the Box) he's liable to pop up every so often with more obscure riddles and horrific dilemas as they try to disentangle themselves from his plots and stop him from burning Faerun to the ground.
A previous BBEG I used to great effect was Shub'Naraghul the Weeping Star. This one was a bit of a Lovecraftian inspired baddy; a mysterious comet of ill omen with it's own cult of mad prophets, body snatching brain-worms and super-mutants. The thing was started by a bunch of drug fueled parties thrown by cultists to swell their ranks and had the local nobility a bit worried, and ended with a continental zombiepocalypse when the Weeping Star itself crashed into the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Honourable mention goes to:
Livicus Vile, an ultra hard-line Banite who got himself thrown out of the church and hunted by his fellows for a bit of overzealous inquisition. Eventually, after a few punch ups, he became a back handed ally of the PCs as they saught to root out Gargauth's corruption in the Moonsea.
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Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2009 : 00:00:57
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I don't know why, but your mention of Shub'Naraghul reminds me of a stand-up comic I once used as an NPC during my party's R&R period in the City of Splendors. I called him "Funguy the Yugoloth" -- devoted servant of Snob-Niggurath the Baernaloth.  |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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wintermute27
Learned Scribe
USA
179 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2009 : 00:53:27
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This isn't particularly original, but a few years back, when I was first getting into the Forgotten Realms, I was reading through the 3.0 Campaign Setting book and decided to use the Shades as the BBEGs for my upcoming campaign. The treat for me was in the manner in which I played out the Shades as NPCs and antagonists. I had a player from that game tell me that he had decided to run a Forgotten Realms game for some friends, and when he was going through the book he had a hard time getting through the section on Anauroch because of the intense hatred he still felt towards those "Netherese jerks".
I think it's important to remember, no matter how cheesy an NPC may be (and compared to some of the other evil organizations available, the Shades are kinda cheesy), if played correctly they can make a wonderful BBEG. |
My Current Campaign: The Adventures of the Stonelanders |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
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Darkheyr
Learned Scribe
264 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2009 : 09:24:39
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I loved the ones from Tearing of the Weave, though I reworked some of them. Arthas, Ketsarra and Despayr were real pains for my party, and both Ketsarra and Despayr came very close to wiping out the party. That none of the PCs died was sheer luck.
After that, one of the group went to France for a year or so, and we started a completely different campaign. When that is doen I plan to pick up stuff, and use some existing NPCs as antagonists. Esvele Greycastle, Variance, Fzoul Chembryl...
And maybe some old PCs of us. We have some Vhaeraunites running about from an older campaign. I'm rather certain those old PCs would make excellent BBEGs :D |
silm.pw - A Neverwinter Nights Persistent World |
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Tyranthraxus
Senior Scribe
Netherlands
423 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2009 : 18:14:48
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I've used Tyranthraxus a few years ago while running Ruins of Adventure and Curse of the Azure bonds.
The players in my group still don't know what Tyranthraxus is, some of them think he's some kind of shapeshifter 
I'm also thinking about a comeback, but I'm still working on it. |
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Daviot
Senior Scribe
USA
372 Posts |
Posted - 02 Dec 2009 : 22:14:19
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The BBEG's in FR campaigns I've played in and run thus far have all been original. If the players can rise from obscurity, why can't a truly devious and clever antagonist do the same?  |
One usually has far more to fear from the soft-spoken wizard with a blade and well-worn boots than from the boisterous one in the ivory tower.
My Tabletop Writing CV. |
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Iliyan
Acolyte
Croatia
42 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2009 : 13:12:14
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I may be a bit late, but I believe this thread over at the wizards forums might interest you.
Someone posted those three NPC villains as optimized builds of "near epic" without any epic rules.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868722/Triad_of_Shadows?num=10&pg=1
VERY good stuff for the most part. Would require quite a bit of advanced knowledge of 3.5e crunch and stuff, but in the end makes for VERY memorable BBEGs..
(A "casual" party might find the encounter exceedingly tough if they are played to their full.. You've been warned) |
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BBEGs In Your Game
