Tabletop RPGs, Villains, and the missing article

The Game Room
1

Hey all,

My latest bout of insomnia (I post at almost 4 AM) is due to a missing article on the nature of RPG villains. Specifically, I recall having an article in one of my (many) rulebooks on designing villains that can survive being ganged up on by other than simply making him ‘rules’ tougher (ie- better stats, better skills, whatever.)
The article had tips on plan-and-scenario-based ideas on keeping villains dangerous without making them overpowered stat-monsters. The only bit on it I can recall is that part of it mentioned never, ever having the villain be alone against the heroes.
As this is something I often fail at (my players have often learned that just teaming up and pounding the villain wins the day), I’ve been desperately looking for this chapter… But I can’t remember for the life of me what book it resides in. I suspect it’s in a swashbuckling or pulp-based game (as that’s what I’ve been referencing recently), but… I just can’t find the darn thing.

This ring any bells for gamers out there?

2

It seems to me if you asked this question differently you’d have a real lively thread.

3

Video game RPGs handle this by sometimes making boss battles sort of a puzzle. For example, you can make the boss powerful by giving him a direct spiritual connection to the god of destruction, and the battle consists of finding, isolating, and destroying that connection. You can do this really easily with futuristic tech games like Rifts and Shadowrun by making the puzzle related to understanding and negating a bit of technology the boss is using.

I’ve never read the article in question, though. Sorry but I can’t help you there.

4

I’m pretty sure I’ve never read it either, because I don’t read many RPG rulebooks, but there are a number of good blogs and the like out there with information on this kind of thing. You could start by nosing around at:

Errant Dreams
Gnome Stew
Roleplaying Tips

Odds are, you’ll find something that’s useful to you there, even if you don’t find an answer to your original question.

My own personal advice, which you didn’t ask for, but are going to get anyway, is the following:

Your villain is not stupid (Well, unless he is, but in that case, feel free to make him a powerhouse of destruction. :P) and he’s probably not uninformed. Got a party with a mage whose favorite spell is Lightning Bolt? Well, I know which energy type the villain is going to be buffing his resistance against.

Your villain is not stupid. Why should he fight the party one on one, or AT ALL unless he thinks he can beat them? Running away is easy. Anything that makes you move faster, hides you from view, or teleports you (or makes you fly, or…) is a good get out of jail free the first time. And if you mix it up (Fly away the first time, turn invisible the next, etc) the PCs won’t necessarily have the appropriate ‘counter’ ready.

Your villain is not stupid. (Catching the theme here?) He’ll have allies and minions in the fight. In fact, allies and minions should BE the fight unless he’s sure that committing himself is what’s needed to win the day.

Your villain is not stupid. Most villains are willing to play dirty. Split the party. Hit 'em where it hurts - not just in combat, either. PCs have any NPCs they rely on? Heck, do they have any SERVICES they rely on? Are they used to being able to visit the temple and buy healing potions? Do they always hit the magic shoppe when they’re in town? Some badmouthing, rumor spreading, or straight up theft or bribes can mean that all of a sudden, the PCs aren’t getting their potions and magic items.

You are not stupid either. While it’s considered unsporting to build villains who directly counter PC strengths and have no reason to do so (Yeaaaah… he’s got a… ring of protection from gnomish hooked hammers! It’s uh… traditional where he comes from!) it’s fair game to build enemies that are strong against PC tactics and strengths that they might just reasonably be strong against. PCs favorite tactic is a melee dogpile? It’s not unreasonable that the villain might have several strong point blank AoE attacks for that sort of situation. PCs all about ranged sniping? Not unreasonable that the villain is good at closing ground or avoiding missile attacks. Now you can’t overuse this - if everyone the PCs fight just -happens- to be tailored to beat them, you’ll have crabby players on your hands in no time. But once in a while? Go for it. Just try to spread the love around - don’t make all your villains immune to flanking, or you’ll just tick off the rogue. Try one who’s immune to flanking, one with high magic resist, etc.

Pretty much every villain should have a “Get away from me!” move, where he explodes, swings his weapon around, or whatever and hits everyone who is clumped up around him to knock them back. He shouldn’t do this every round, but being able to do in a couple of times during the fight can buy him a lot of breathing room, and it’s a very movie-villain sort of thing to do anyway.

Of course, most of this is built around villains who are smart in some fashion. If you’re just building big bruisers, well, make them big and bruising and have them hit real hard, but don’t expect them to last very long when ganged up on unless you give them a significant mechanical (Read: Levels or Equivalent) advantage.

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I remember an old Dragon magazine article about, I think “Tucker’s Kobolds.” For those unfamiliar with them, kobolds are about the weakest creatures you will encounter in early-editions of AD&D. A housecat could take a couple of them, easily.

Anyhow, a small band of these kobolds effectively took out a higher-level party simply by doing things like choosing the battleground and being prepared with some traps and whatnot. Nothing ridiculous, like high-powered magic, etc, but thing that stupid creatures with a single effective leader could accomplish.

Also, your villain should not be stupid. Don’t overuse the same tricks, because then your good guys (as long as they’re not stupid) will figure out ways to deal with it. “Gee, the villains always seem to have some sort of repulsion attack, so let’s all take missile/extended range weapons and get him from afar.”

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While Airk’s advice is good, I prefer more towards Crazy Joe’s. I also would reccomend the villain not show themselves too easily. Just because he’s the biggest power int he dungeon doesn’t mean this is his only base or that he’s going to run up and stake everything on a fistfight (or whatever).

Exactly how this works depends a bit on the setting. Ultimately, remember that just because the PC’s might want to fight enemy room-by-room where they always have the advantage, you don’t have to oblige. If they alert people, messengers will carry the alarm all over the place. The villain can then gather his forces, or simply take his people and evacuate if the PC’s are to much of a threat.

Another way depends greatly on your players. If they like to killl everything and ignore player character deaths (it’s jsut a one-level penalty), it won’t work. However, throw in some villains who can be bribed, reasoned with, and so forth - and who will in fact keep their word if the PC’s do likewise. You can then reuse them later, as they come up with a new scheme or whatnot. Just makes sure they have a good enough position that the PC’s don’t automaticaly attack, and/or give them evil alignment tendencies games that have that for outright killing people who don’t want a fight. You can, of course, also vary this by having the “vilain” not be an actual evil scheming bastard.

But escape routes are the easiest. It’s not difficult to teleport away in many games, and a cheap-once-every-so-often item is a good investment.

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I read the Tucker’s Kobold’s article, back in the day, and I always thought it was kindof stupid. It was an example of what sissy little creatures in a dungeon could do by being smart against opponents who were stupid. There was nothing in there that couldn’t have been countered by a party who knew what they were doing. We’re talking about critters with d4 hitpoints here. You hit them with anything and they die. I don’t care if they -are- behind a pushbroom trying to attack you with a pile of flaming debris. You can kill vast numbers of them with stinking cloud. This was first edition too, so if you had the HPs to survive your own fireball (or were, I dunno, smart enough to buff with resist fire), you could clear huge chunks of the dungeon with it. (Since 1st ed fireballs expanded until they had fill volume equal to a 20’ radius sphere, or something absurd like that.)

Anyway, the trick to villainy is to stay one step ahead of the PCs. This is easier than it sounds in most cases, because you know exactly what powers they have, and so on. The hard part is in fact staying one step ahead of them BELIEVABLY.

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Dragon Magazine #127, November 1987, IIRC. Yes, that’s pretty specific, but for one, I had that issue. For #2, I just ran a retro-style 1st Edition D&D game this past weekend, so I’ve been doing a lot of research into that specific problem.

Airk’s advice is sound, but be ready for your players to be trounced the first couple of times. Leave an out for them, too. Ideally, they should pick up on the fact that the villain is keying in to their standard tactics and shift their own tactics, preferably after doing a little research of their own into said villain.

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There was a great Dungeon magazine module that had the Kamikaze Kobold Korps defending the dungeon. A tribe of Kobolds had found a few necklaces of missiles, and used them in suicide set pieces against the party. Picture a kobold penduluming toward the party on a rope, exploding in their midst…

1st and 2nd ed dragons were fairly weak in a straight up fight. One of my most effective villains against a high-level party was a green dragon that used a dank, treacherous, wet, slimy, geysery cave system to its full advantage. Everything slick and slimy, no human-friendly paths anywhere, indigineous cave creatures…and a green dragon with a fair amount of nasty magic items and spells at its anciently-intelligent disposal. The party ho-hummed their way in as yet another routine dragon slaying…

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Also, if you’re using magic items, give your villain an overpowered magic item beyond his station. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use an intelligent item, that doesn’t always do what the villain expects (since intelligent items have their own goals), but uses the villain for its own purposes, and the villain who will no doubt get frustrated by the intelligent item not always doing what he wants, still holding onto it because it gives him power he really should not have by any rights.

There’s all sorts of fun you can have with an evil wizard with a temperamental magical staff. For some reason it just won’t launch that level 10 lighting bolt spell at the low level PC’s, despite the villainous mage’s best wishes, but the PC’s will be rather put out and wonder what kind of power they just crossed when the old, wizened, almost dead tree next to them shatters into dozens of flaming sticks that the PC’s will suddenly have to duck or become singed by a lot of now ignited kindling.

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That’s a good point too. Don’t kill them. That’s not good form. Humiliate them. Leave them battered and bleeding and (mostly) unconscious. Steal a favorite item (Want to make it personal? Take the fighter’s magic sword once you’ve knocked him down.). Mock them in a villainous monologue and drop a healing potion at the feet of the one character who’s still conscious. The abscond with the princess or do whatever your evil plan is. You’ll have the PCs burning for revenge in no time. And…after that, well, you can give it to them. Not necessarily right away, but it’s -critical- to allow them some meaningful wins after a drubbing.

Remember - this is about dramatics and tension, not about an “oldschool” thirteen year old “DM vs players” mentality. You’re not here to kill them. You’re here to make it satisfying when/if they win.

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For an extra nasty surprise, if your world/magic system supports it, have lightning HEAL certain critters…and have the villain surround him/herself with those critters. Or have a magical item that absorbs lightning and heals the user for the amount of damage that the bolt normally causes. :smiley:

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Melee Heroes?
Caltrops, pit traps filled with water, and invisible spider webs. Verses an invisible fireballing wizard with protection from normal missiles up. And programmed illusions.

Wizard Heroes?
Anti magic field against a fighter type opponent.

Or combo. Evil melee villain with a healer who only heals (either villain of itself).

Another classic combo is a red dragon who breathes fire and heals his iron golem.

Concentrate your fire power. Pick someone. Tell him he/she is going to die. Attack that character until dead or unconscious. If truly evil, dead.

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That’s not saying much : housecats are overpowered. They have much better stats than human peasants, and are a credible threat to low level adventurers.
3 attacks per round with high attack bonus (only 1 dmg each - which doesn’t really matter when heroes wander around with a grand total of ~4-8 hit points), hard to hit (small size+high dex), extreme stealth bonus (for a level 1 anyway)… Seriously, on paper the elder’s old tomcat could easily wipe out the whole village. So don’t skimp on the Kibble’n Bits. You have been warned.

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Reminds me of something I pulled off in DnD 3.5. I got a trained housecat (I was a Druid). With elite array stats, (named Patches I think). For one gold piece.

We cast Mage Armor (+4 AC), then Shield of Faith (+2), and then Magic Fang (+1 to hit and damage) on my housecat. Patches tore though the orc camp (we stayed hidden) needless to say the Orcs eventually failed a morale check. Savage Orcs fleeing from a frenzied housecat was hilarious. When a hobgoblin killed patches, I skinned him and threw him in the soup pot.

Patches can haz Orcs I guess.

Here you go. A first level boss. 1st Sorc, 1st Druid, and 1st Cleric. Each has a housecat.

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Perhaps this does not need mentioning in general, but this is only useful advice if you have the player’s buy-in. Battered, bleeding and unconscious is fine. Taking the fighter’s magic sword can be the sign of a major league asshole of a DM.

This is certainly true. I play with a heavily optimized group and I enjoy the same. It can be difficult to not kill off all of my players because, quite frankly, I can throw anything at them I want. It is a fine, fine balancing act to create challenges where the outcome is doubtful but at the same time, they always win. Sometimes they unravel my carefully-considered ambush effortlessly; sometimes an encounter I thought would be throwaway kills most of the party.

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Huh. This never really occured to me. I guess in extremely mechanically driven systems (D&D 4E for example) this could be pretty damn rude simply because it’s functionally crippling to the character because the game ‘expects’ him to be equipped appropriately. If you’re going to take away someone’s item, make sure that it won’t leave the player feeling helpless. It sucks to be doing the “I guess I miss again.” thing.

In general though, the concept of players being sufficiently immature to think that you are taking their stuff to be an asshole is the sort of thing that doesn’t occur to me because I don’t play with people like that.

Yeah. Predicting this stuff is hard. Which is why a lot of GMs fudge things from time to time.

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I don’t bother. If it’s a total party kill, I just add their stuffs to the loot. Roll 1D6 1-4 it’s there (sometimes 1-5 if they really get wiped), otherwise it’s sold or given away. More money and magic adds more options to the PC’s. Plus it means that I wasn’t giving enough or the right kind of treasure.

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One thing I try to remember is that anything that denies a player a chance to contribute is something to use sparingly. Paralyzations, grapples, charms, etc. are fun if used in very small quantities–but if they function to keep a player from affecting the game for 20 or more minutes of real time, that’s not much fun for the player. Similarly, things that negate a character’s abilities are to be used very sparingly, for the same reason. It’s much better to kick the hell out of the character than it is to paralyze the character.

In a long campaign I ran, the archvillains were often cowards, and they had no trouble using teleportation or plane shifting or other techniques to flee a lost battle. My players gleefully kept a shit-list full of escaped villains who might or might not show up later on; when they managed to hunt down and kill someone who’d made their shit list, they were full of triumph.

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It’s nice to have a mix of runners and battlers. Variety is the spice of life.