How to Make Compelling Villains for Dark Fantasy D&D | DnD 5e | BBEG | TTRPG | Ben Byrne

I always love a villain who makes a good point and sees genuine ills or wrongs in the world and is attempting to remedy them in some way. Of course, their methods might be a bit questionable. Maybe they're likely to do more harm than good if they aren't stopped. But it's nice to have a villain who can be understood and is relatable. It makes for more satisfying encounters, and it allows for personal conflicts. I also like making players struggle with their moral decisions. Making the right choice isn't always obvious. There should be moments when they doubt themselves. Triumph is sweeter when it feels hard won and honestly earned.

I'll be DMing a Villain campaign tomorrow. The players will play the villain. I've linked this video to give them an idea of how to run their characters. 2 of the players are playing transformations: 1 is a fiend and the other is playing a lich.

Thanks for the video, I binged a lot of the videos on this channel, I love how succinctly but clearly you explain everything. This clarified a lot in terms of what steps I need to take and where I'm headed, thank you.

I feel like the whole "moral ambiguity" and/or "sympathetic villain" concept is overplayed and overblown. On its face the idea IS interesting and can be fun but I think what's lost with this push for this type of villain is the reality of people.

The common consensus for people nowadays both for reality and narratives is that the world is compromised of shades of gray. But for there to be gray there has to be black and white and there are ABSOLUTELY morally reprehensible people in the world. So the idea that the only way to make a compelling villain is to make them sympathetic or relatable is limiting creatively and incorrect realistically. Plus you also to consider how your PLAYERS, not their characters, view the villain. Fact is players themselves don't view villains as these morally ambiguous because, less face it, not every situation is that complicated nor are people's motives. It's OKAY to be simple

Just found your channel this week. Great stuff. I don’t GM 5E, but your advice is so good it doesn’t matter what system I’m running.

Thanks for these videos! RotFM is my first campaign I’m running ever as dm and the books isn’t very helpful in Auril’s motivations. I also found plenty of room for a Great Old One cult and plan on Ithiqua being summoned if they keep choosing to ignore the one seemingly lesser cult and going directly for the loud Frost Druid cultists if Auril. This leaves a whole faction and major villain for me to write xD

My main villain was a young mage from the far north, searching to become a lich. He presented himself as less powerfull. The reason he was after the party was because one of the players stole one of the ingredients he needs for his riual, which happened literally in like, session 2. He needs very specific souls, of specific creatures. He uses the players to kill those creatures, allowing him to reap their souls. The players know that something is present, but, careless as they are, won't be too suspicious. In their eyes, the villain is a good guy who helps them kill foes. Some characters dissapear or get killed once the mage gets closer to his goal and it is only then, when they know that something is up. The mage tries to help them find him, and even gives them clues, so that they won't stop looking, but it is only when his older brother enters the city they are at and after hearing that everyone thinks he's normal, explain that he is a complete psychopath that they specifically tried to keep in the north, away from everyone. By that time though, the mage will have dissapeared, and have all the pieces in place for his ritual. In which he sends hoards of demons over the city the party is in, to reap souls for him. As a villain, he does not have much that makes him relatable or redeemable. He was born a psychopath and isn't going to change. His major flaw, is that he doesn't really have a plan for what do do when he gains all that power. He is entirely focussed on becoming more powerfull. It's a mad hunger, that, if not stopped, will never end. I think he's a pretty cool villain. Especially considering he explains a lot of the stuff that has been happening to them.

I have been building a network of villains. I still have not decided exactly who the absolute villain might be. But of course regional villains who answer to someone who answers to yet another. It grows as the party grows in power and stature. As they delve further into the machinations of a group of individuals running a syndicate that turns the wheels that control nearly everything! Mawaha!

So silly thing I'd like to ask, but personally regarding making the villain proactive and having them interact wiht the party (something I frequently hear), I often run in a common problem....

What if the players try to take them down here and now?

That's something that happens frequently: I'll try have a villain show up, meet the player, and then retreat so he can come back later -only for the players to try and catch up with him to kill/capture him. Either shooting him while he leaves or running after him. I am reluctant to make them automatically escape through teleport or something similar since I feel it's cheap, and whenever I do leave a chance for players to catch up, they often succeed due to good roles. Moreover, they are... frustratingly headstrong about it. I once had the villain set the whole building on fire to keep the players from following, and they STILL insisted for going after him even as everything was burning around them.

This just knocked a problem I had with my BBEG perfectly, cheers mate!

I ended up sending my pc down the villain path because my dm love the thought (sense he needed a new villian) and my goals ended up evolving into the opposite of the party's. I worked with my dm to make Evard Black, The consumer of the elder gods. He has four arms 28 fingers including 8 thumbs. Eyes were his temples are. And the ability to transmutate or mutate anything. All the others have already beat greater gods 1v1. I still get to do his voice if he appears and sing a villain song for him.

Found your videos a few days back. Some great stuff, especially for a jaded old Grognard like me. I don't know if you are familiar with Regime Diabolique by Triple Ace Games, but it contains my favourite NPC Villain. It's set in seventeenth century Paris and is equal parts 'The Three Musketeers' and 'Ravenloft'. The main villain of the piece is not hard to work out if you are familiar with D'Artagnan etc. but there's a lovely little twist. Check it out.

This is really good. More like this please

Interesting video

Tutto il meglio e il continuo successo
In bocca al lupo,
Ottimo video, buona fortuna e continuo successo

I'd be really, really careful not to involve the BBEG witht he party too much early on. I had a conversation with a friend who wanted to introduce their lich at the end of ession two really badly.

The campaign startet at level 5 and was supposed to go to 20 and at that point, the party barely interacted with minions of the lich, who just burnt down a village and were not coming after them basic burn and sweep protocol. So far they were barely more than a tad more aggressive town guards. Imo no real reason for the would be world conquerer to rock up themselves to kill them.

So my friend made:
- the lich appear out of nowhere
- begin to deliver a James Bont villain style speech
- had to suddenly cast an array of spells to keep the group from running away or attacking the creature (which would have for sure ended in a TPK)
- and teleport back out after

It's that kind of videogame cut scene stuff that can make a BBEG look cheesy as heck in one encounter.

Thanks to Web DM doing a vid on basilisk earlier this week reminded me of a pathfinder 2e urban campaign that I ran a year and a half ago where I had two possible villains who were twin sisters on different sides of the law one was a vice captain of the royal investigator guard and her sister was 2nd command of a deadly crime ring. Both sisters had an eye replaced. (One a basilisk eye one with a medusa eye.) So lots of innocent people get turned into stone in an attempt to paint the other side as the worst thing in the city. Fun game.

5 minutes in to the video and I am already laughing like an idiot in front of my PC. The line that parties are a threat to everyone around them LOL.

I have an idea for a villain who is a nobody the party runs into early on.
When they talk to them, they act like they are in charge of the players and everybody even though they are obviously not.
Saying things like Great Job team. OK check back in with me when you are done. I want to see you all putting your best.
Later you realise people now think they are the boss of seemingly everything, including you and the party.
His minions turn up and give you orders, ask what is taking so long, that the pretend boss will be mad and heads will roll.
The party may play along but ultimately at some point it goes too far and they are now the BBEG and the delusion has spread too far.

Daredevil Wilson Fisk is a master class in the way you describe villain design!! His elegant, measured, respectful mannerisms are carefully cultivated to hide a roiling, gutteral rage. He has active roles in his plans, contingency plans, and he sacrifices for his goals.

I'm starting to run a homebrew of Strahd this weekend so this video was perfectly timed.

Nice edit on the intro.

Wow... I'm 100% stealing that intro the first time my party meets the Arcanist Inquisition! <3