My name is Antonio Demico, you killed my father, prepare to die 🔪 Thank you to Lazy Squire for the sponsorship! Go ahead and give their kickstarter a look if you like what you see! www.kickstarter.com/projects/563681582/legend-of-keepers-5e-reverse-dungeon-and-stl-miniatures?ref=3h46k1
Do you have a full write-up for your villain, or just the starter in the video? Neither is a problem, but this is definitely an interesting situation- plus, I feel like you enjoy throwing variations on Christianity (if not the Orthodox Church specifically) through the wringer.)
"Stop saying that!" Also, please make that video about playing mysteries in D&D. I need help convincing my group you can run a good mystery story. They wont listen to me, but as soon as I give them a RUclips video, they suddenly think it was a good idea the whole time. Ooh, and Homebrew more Subclasses, I absolutely love your idea!
I have an idea for a video for your lich serious that you could make. In your video about lichs you talk about how the liches stats were bad for a villain then you gave us the bard lich but why don’t you make a video about fixing the liches stat block and talking about how to make a good lich (good as in design not alignment) Another idea I have is you could make a good version of a lich like the archlich from past additions of d&d but for 5e or you could just make an archlich with a twist. Love your videos and especially love your videos on liches hope you make lots more of them I also love the skit you did with the demon from your past that you had to take a cross out to banish I thought that was hilarious
Mans really said "let me whip up a quick generic example of what a good villain might look like that anyone could use" and then dropped the best campaign setting and hook I've ever seen
One great villian I've heard of was the inn keeper, who was a true neutral character. Setting up adventures for the party, at the same time setting up villians and monsters, not to gain profit, not for power but because he wanted to make people happy, and simply wanted to be of use
@@piotrwisniewski70what about when people die because of him setting up these games? What the innkeeper is doing is little more moral than the gladiator fights of ancient Rom, the only difference is that they are not watched by people and none of the heroes are intended to die, but they still might and if his goal is to create heroes then the end result is still in a sense entertainment for other people.
@@Feanor6450 I suppose his goal is to let people adventure, feel something more in their life's, and create stories that would later be shared in his tavern What about those who died in the process? Well, I suppose that's why he's the villain
I always love the way Pointy Hat puts it... "Oooh.. such a shame that you dont have everything you need to reproduce this type of things in your campaign... Oh wait no, you have !" And he hands over everything needed. This is generosity.
When we played curse of Strahd, I made everyone of the PCs have a personal beef with Strahd. The undead warlock was his daughter from one of the brides. The ranger was dating Ireena. The rogue (it was revealed) was the descendant of Tatyana and Sergei’s child from before the marriage. The Paladin had been killed by Strahd in three of her previous lifetimes. And she remembered all of them. Strahd had made graves for them in the crypt when they went in to rescue some people (not Ireena).
The paladin was actually a concept I used! I was playing an Oath of Devotion Paladin that was born and raised in Barovia, his family once being proud soldiers of the Zarovich family. It was a tradition that every male heir would travel to the castle, and attempt to end Strahd. Every one died in the attempt. My character was, in fact, the reincarnation of one of the soldiers than turned on Strahd after witnessing him kill Sergei. Also I DEFINITELY wanna use that last idea!
These feel like they’re coming out quick especially with the quality of the videos you’re producing. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. You’ve created an amazing community Mr. Hat, and we’ll support you if you need a break
Absolutely adore that villain concept at the end! And yes, a mystery video would be delightful. Finished up a campaign recently, and while it wasn't a twist villain (we already found out who was bad news long ago) there was a lot revealed through storytelling. DM was very happy to see the look on my face as info I've gathered over three campaigns clicked in one scene.
I think my favorite villain in a campaign was a NPC that legitimately started out as an ally and even fought with the party! Then they were later corrupted and omg the feels when you can tell someone is crying for help from inside their head
An idea on how to handle a player guessing a twist villain early: “Guys! I got it! The pickle merchant was behind everything” *Explains* “Roll Perception” *Dice Rolling* “You notice a small movement out of the corner of your eye. You glance over towards the window. It seems nothing is there. Then, you start to hear the soft patter of footsteps as a small figure dashes away. As you rush out the door, the figure turns, his face hardened with grim determination. You recognize the boy, who had been training under the pickle merchant. He had heard everything. You race to follow him but he slips away, disappearing into the night.” You can substitute in any NPC working for the twist villain, or some form of magical surveillance, but this approach validates the player’s cleverness while maintaining the reveal as a cool moment and driving the plot forward by changing the dynamic with the villain. It also preserves the villain being active.
The fact that these villains guidelines go hand in hand with the sorceror lich idea is so good you're practically feeding me a unique dnd plot here to feed my players and I'm so thankful for that.
My personal three rules for making villains: • They rival, personally threaten, or mirror the protagonist ideals or roles in some way • They want something and believe they can make it happen • Mildly uncomfortable without breaching safety tools. Things like, “he’s like, weirdly hot right” or “god what a little freak” or “wait what the fuck they can do that??” Something players might find attractive, or creepy, or endearingly cringe or sweet. Relationship, goal, and freak factor.
The last one is underrated tbh. They need to have a unexpected thing which keeps the players on guard and makes them unsettling, bonus points for hinting and slowly revealing it.
I'd add proof of power to that, something either directly observed or via second hand that proves the villains power, say they cut down a powerful being e.g a dragon that the party are aware of or a local king is clearly assassinated by the villains minion once they party are aware of them
The BBEG of my campaign is the warlocks patron who’s goal is to eliminate all suffering and conflict in the world via taking away free will, he believes he is powerful enough to accomplish this and he despite how I’ve built him up as an inhuman Eldritch horror he is weirdly charismatic
Non "compelling" pure evil villains like Sauron can exist in the background and be a good way to shed light on the reactions many characters will have to it. The idea is that people resist, despair, go mad, help others, sell others out, or etc -- the whole spectrum of human response to their fears
agreed, a character like palpatine is pretty close to pure evil, but he’s never the main villain for most of the story. it’s always the person who follows them of their own volition, even when they’re not pure evil.
A way the movies make Sauron work is pretty much this. Aside from the flashback to the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron's pretty much just an ominous visual effect and a recurring motif in the soundtrack. ...except the Ringwraiths are there, described as literal extensions of his will, and they're DEFINITELY active participants in the story. The "black riders" in Fellowship drive nearly the first half of the film, and they're TERRIFYING. We see them from the point of view of our hobbit protagonists: giant menacing figures, cloaked in black with iron hands, unrelenting & inhuman, and clearly intelligent. They take a back seat for The Two Towers, but the Witch-King of Angmar is back for Return of the King and he's a gloriously smug asshole, revelling in the power he has over his enemies. Then we've got the traditional "dragons" as well. Saruman. Lurtz, the big uruk-hai with the bow that shoots Boromir. Shagrat & Gorbag in Cirith Ungol. The orc general Gothmog at the Pelennor Fields. We know what Sauron is like, because we know what sort of people he chooses to represent him. (Many of these moments are also present in the books, of course. There's also a few moments of "proactive asshole Sauron" that weren't translated to film, too.)
Also, there is the Ring wich is actively making people fall to their darkest fears and desires. It makes friends and allies attack each other, it sows discord, and we know that the Ring and Sauron are one. So, Sauron is an asshole who wants to sow discord and warp people into douchebags.
Unsolicited idea, make your villain start as a fellow adventurer, maybe you see them in the pub/at the guild, you hear of their exploits and accomplishments, maybe you even work together. It would 1 give you a connection to the character, 2 gives you opportunities to see what they’re doing/ catch on to them acquiring power, 3 it builds the world, who else is taking on quests that your characters didn’t choose, also clearing lower level quests as your characters level up. 4 they grow along your party. The first thing that came to my mind was an adventurer that can communicate with monsters and sympathize with them, from the outside they seem like a super bad ass adventurer, solo clearing dungeons, eliminating swarms of monsters terrorizing cities and town. Behind the scenes they’re consolidating power and organizing these conflicting factions towards the common goal of toppling the humans in their area, because from the monsters perspective, humans are in their territory, unjustly hunting them and terrorizing them. Sure the villain is probably also leveling up and getting physically stronger, but their real strength is the friends they mad along the way 🤗 I also like the idea of villains that also kinda have a point or genuine motivation beyond “I do evil, me destroy world” it also provides the possibilities of negotiation, either giving a non combat solution if that’s the campaign players are running, or having the PC’s side with the villain in a way that isn’t just them turning into murder hobos for no good reason. That was just one idea, but I think having the villain start as NPC adventurer is an interesting idea, hell even make them an annoying DMPC that everyone kinda just instinctively hates (but be careful this is easy to mess up)
My group took this a step farther I am the DM for my friend group and we started a campaign that took place in a world I had already made and we had played in already but 5000 years afterwards. What the players thought was the main villain was a leader of a criminal organization who simply went under the alias "Boss" who was kidnapping people in order to get the free labour needed to make his machine to re-make the world into a utopia. One of the PLAYERS was working for this criminal organization and has secretly been sabotaging the parties efforts to find and capture boss the entire campaign without the party ever realizing. It was only until the party FINALLY made it to boss did boss himself reveal that they were betrayed from the start. What I did was simply ask the player before hand if they wanted to work for the villain and be an ULTIMATE twist villain or not and he said yes. Currently in the campaign this player has actually surpassed boss in power and is now the most dangerous person in the world can't wait to see how my campaign ends!
I have an idea of a villan who is two minds and two bodies, but the mind is squished together. The villain sent out their one and only minion to go find a magic artifact that can split any mind into two. The minion is slain and the adventurers have found the mindsplitter item. The thought would that the duo boss could be spared when using the mindsplitter as they have gotten what the duo boss has wanted. The campain hasnt happened yet but the ideas brewing is alot
I feel like twist villains can just kind of happen. You have this plot and everyone at the table absolutely hates this one nobleman and you go like "Oh yeah HE was behind it all along yeah it was him definitely"
The best twist villains IMHO are the twist villains who don't actually change at all before or after becoming a villain. Like you already knew everything about how this character acted and what their beliefs were when you were both on the same side, the difference is all those same things are now motivating them to do things the party considers villainous. This can both work extremely well for having noble, sympathetic villains who are honourable and fighting for a good cause, and it also works to have the heroes realise that the people that they've been friends with this whole time have lowkey always been shitty people, they just didn't notice that they themselves were on the bad side with bad people until a line was crossed.
Or have the more seemingly friendly noble act nice to the party, but the goal is as a spy; however, the noble with a stick up their @#$, is actually doing what they think is right, even if it comes across as harsh.
Or better yet make the players themselves the twist villains. Maybe it’s their fault the big bad rose to power because while they were out adventuring and defeating all sorts of villains they left a power vacuum and eliminated the competition.
I have a pretty good second hand villain and it killed a PC on the "first session", but hear me out: We were just finishing a small one shot that my friend was DMing, I was going to DM the next campaign and was an active PC in his story, I then speak to him in private and we agreed on killing my character on an 1v1 against a Doppleganger without the rest of the party finding out. In the last session the party kills the BBEG and my character grabs the magic scepter held by the bad guy, turns himself into the Doppleganger real form and conjures a spell that transforms him into a amalgamation of the previous BBEG, his real form and my old character... Then I started my new campaign with him being one of the main villains! DND is so much fun 🔥
An absolute GODSEND. I'm at the beginning of a campaign, and I currently have a vague shadow in the shape of the villain. Thank you so much. You're not the hero we deserve, but the one we need.
If you want a free idea for something to just stick in a corner of your world: A goblin/kobald city with a unique culture, it was founded when a clan of goblins and a clan of kobolds both fleeing as refugees from adventures ran into eachother and were too weak to fight so they tried diplomacy. And now a city of goblins & kobolds just exists somewhere in the underdark slowly expanding its influence through a combination of traps and guerilla tactics. (This litterally doesn't need to have any narative significance, its just a pocket of the underdark filled with clever kobolds & goblins, their traps, and nothing else since they drove off the other monsters after establishing a proper civilization.)
Said lamp is an ancient artifact created by a sorcerer and said lamp is gaslighting the nations of the world into brutally murdering each other -Came back to this comment to fix the grammar. Shit was godawful and I couldn't stand looking at it-
I think a fun but cruel way to make a villain feel powerful and imposing, especially with a new group, is to invite an experienced player who agrees (before the game and without the knowledge of the other players) to let their character die, then having the villain fight them and kill the player who agreed to it, making it seem to the other players that the villain could kill their characters at any moment without actually punishing them. The experienced player can start with a throwaway character and then start again with their actual character being introduced shortly afterwards
4:33 is my favorite part, its vindicating, because one of my favorite things to run is my Homebrew Setting of Dark/Grimdark fantasy where the setting's villain is so incomprehensively powerful there's no point in opposing him; so the real hazard of *Surviving* the setting takes the place of the villain. And it works! I have enjoyed each party I've run through trying their hardest to survive the wierd and bleak world before them, the only "Quest" they have is to go and find whatever they need to continue surviving.
Your content is probably the only content I actually leave comments for to help with the algorithm, actually that good. Definitely was heading into the Evil Lamp Shade territory with the villain I had planned for my campaign so this has been a valuable resource.
As somebody currently struggling with my dnd campaign and villians in particular, I cannot say how grateful I am for this video! This vid and the ensuing document are very helpful and watching it was very enjoyable. I plan on rewatching it in future as I develop my game.
Seriously, these are some of the most entertaining, and helppful videos I've found detailing storytelling elements and general tips for GM/DMs. Dude! Well done.
I’m writing and DM’ing my first campaign ever and this was beautifully timed. Desperately needed help on writing a BBEG. Thank you Pointy Hat 😭 wish me luck yall
Either become a Hollywood and make them "Sympathetic and complex relatable villian" Chaotic Entity beyond comprehension Or just a jerk for the sake of being jerk but somehow is a badass at it
@@chazjohannsen Huh, you are right Goldie, Death, and Jack horner respectively lmao Although another example i could have given was Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear(Is DEFFINITLY Evil, but his Goal make total sense, its just his method is dumb) Profound Darkness from Phantasy Star Online 2(Esentially want to kill itself by deleting the Universe because its existence as the concept of Negative energy is pain) Oldking from Armored Core For Answer(While everyone else murder innocents for specific Goal, man just murder innocents in general because everyone else in the war suck)
Dude. Seriously. I have no idea how you came to youtube. But you came and made good quality content. Damn. Thanks man. You actually helped me with my dm writing here. I will have to tinker with my evil father and mother chars now.
Awesome video! Really appreciate a practical example showing your principals in action- something a lot of DM advice videos somehow lack. Really helps to get the creative juices flowing. Also good video pacing as well! Earned my sub.
The most success that I've had with a villain so far was to base it on someone that I personally hate a lot. So I started by making this guy very charismatic and charming for the sake of deceiving others then I made it so underneath that he was a cold calculated murderer. Also, my players would chat before sessions about stressful things happening in their lives. Some of those things made their way into this characters persona as well. If a player complained about their boss being pushy and a bad manager, this character ended up taking on those traits. If a player complained about class politics, then he gained traits about exploiting/targeting lower class people. I think taking out this guy ended up being very relieving and maybe therapeutic for everyone at the table.
Very on point (of the hat). I really like the concept of the villain as a force of natura or a a major antagonist and being able to implement these ideas alongside the rivals and not overlaping one each other
I started watching your videos mid last year. I'm a fairly new DM and understanding the mechanics and story creation hasn't really been an issue. The one thing that I do struggle with is creating new ideas outside of the regular 5e box. You've seriously been my most watched channel on all of these different topics you talk about. Always engaged in what you have to say on different classes, races and other super fun ideas that you've kindly shared with the community. I'm actually currently playing your idea for the Wild Magic Barbarian in a on-going campaign right now and it's been one of my favorite characters to play to date! Thank you so much for all the amazing things you've shared, as it's helped me both in my player and DM careers!
Please do the video on mystery! I love dimension 20 and this is something Brennan does extremely well but there are so many ways it can go wrong like you mentioned. Even in novels, movies, or plays it can fall flat and the writer has full control of every character! Love your stuff, keep up the good work.
i wrote my own notes during the video, pausing and rewinding to make sure I understood key points, only to get hit with "here's a guide to everything we talked about" i've never been so upset at such generosity.
Thank you very much for these tips! This helps a bunch with my campaign and writing in general. This video has helped expand the idea of my villain(s) and how they will operate in my games. Crossing my fingers that I apply them correctly and that it alllll pays off
Big fan of all your content, have been implementing all your ideas like the hierarch and making other creature more interesting. Keep up the amazing work
it’s nice to see how smooth and comfortable you got with these videos :) well done on everything and especially the small things you normally wouldn’t notice.
I am currently writing my first mistery campaign for D&D and feeling likes its not at all compelling so a video of yours on the topic would be an absolute blessing. Keep up the good content Mr.Hat!
I have an idea for a villain who wants to defeat the players (note: not the player characters, the players themselves). She sees them as entities that are above gods, and similar to the whole chess analogy at the start of the video, that's how my villain sees them. She basically wants to sever the players connection to the world they reside in to free everything from their control, ironically she doesn't realise she's also being controlled by me~
@@Hypercat0 Mostly because that’s how D&D works, but in lore I guess you could say that’s the only way how the players interact with the world. Through avatars of their own creation that were artificially molded into the world and its history.
From what I've found the best villains are the accidental ones. For me personally I just throw weird things at my friend's till something sticks, and then bring it back every few sessions.
I am so incredibly thankful to have found your channel. You are a real treasure. Even though I don't play D&D and can't copy paste a lot of your stuff directly (I play a different TTRPG) I am getting so much interessting input on monster/charakter design, worldbuilding and co. You are incredibly creative and I admire your out of the box (or rather the trope) thinking. Add your excellent way of describing and explaining, season with fantastic edditing (Loooove how much emotion you portray using just a stupid hat with an eye) and a fresh breeze of humor and voila. Sincerely, I love your content and watching a video from you always makes my day.
I so needed this. I had an idea for the BBEP, but the whole REASON wasn't clear. This helped me work out how they got started, and the rest followed from there. thank you!
I just wanna say pointy hat is super underrated and he deserves way more subscribers. The quality and entertainment of his videos are outstanding. Keep up the good work!
I am running a feywild sidebar campaign right now and have been resenting my old campaign world and this is helping me figure out why I did not like my villain. She was definitely an evil lamp that my players did not engage with unless forced. Super helpful and fun video!
I love that i have all these D&D resources at my disposal now. Paired with other youtubers on similar topics, I have a wide breath of knowledge to work from and craft my own characters and stories. I love it!
Holy Shit this is perfect ive planned my first main villian for a group thatll be starting in literally a few days and I love the villian but its been missing those few final touches and this comes out at such a perfect time (found ur channel over the last week or two so this cant have been more perfect timing for me) love the channel, keep it up.
Antonio, you're a great guy and should never be ashamed of what you own in terms of dressing yourself for carnival. Thanks for all the great content! If you make a video about mysteries, we will all love you more than we already do! Mysteries please!🙏
Every one of your videos is amazing, and I love your artstyle so much, it manages to be incredibly simple and effective while being very evocative. You're a big inspiration, continue the good work!
I freaking love these videos! They’re always so hilarious & well thought out, plus the original art that accompanies each one is just scrumptious 🥰 These have to be a MASSIVE amount of work to create, so I hope the Pointy Hat gang takes a good sized break- not only for their health, but because I selfishly want more of these & don’t want them to get burnt out! 😅💕
Peter the Great mixed with a certain FFXIV character, for sure. Evangelion spoilers SEELE would be a very odd kind of "evil lamp" group villain. The Human Instrumentality Project and the Dead Sea Scrolls prophecies are basically unknown to the pilots, which would be the presumed roles for a ttrpg group in an Evangelion game. Eva is a pretty good example of a story that would need heavy adjustment for a tabletop game plot, especially for the antagonists.
I was going to say the opposite. It started out pure Evangelion, and then when the villain went off with the whole magical ritual bit, I thought, _"This is exactly what happened with Peter the Great."_
I want to say how much this actually helped me. In a few months I’m going to be running a campaign for my friends and had a villain who’s goal was to keep the streets clean and kill anyone who was bad for the city but now my villain turned into: Clayton Seife, the head of sanitation in the city, growing up his father ran a plumbing business that had a smear campaign against it eventually putting it out of business and their family into poverty, growing vengeful Clayton stalked, ambushed, grabbed, and drowned the man who he thought did that to his family, after making deals for power with powerful people, anyone who he thinks runs an unfair or harmful business in the city becomes his next target. There’s a lot more to him like how he’s a mud monster that got his powers from a priestess of Talos but overall very excited to play with him!!
YES! Please, do a video on mysteries. I rarely comment on your videos, opting to watch and appreciate them silently but the moment you mentioned it, I KNEW you would do a great job with it. Of course no pressure, but I'm genuinely sure that whatever insight you have for mystery campaigns will be very interesting. Lovely video as always
i feel like if you're preparing a twist villain and your players guess it early, you might be able to push the reveal earlier in the story and play out the rest with them as an obvious villain
Love how hard this dude works on his videos, I know he works hard cause the quality is amazing. Also absolute mad man always giving us free content. Big ups
I think it’s also important to make a villain threatening. If the players feel like the villain going to be hard to defeat, then it feels more rewarding when they actually defeat them.
I absolutely adore these videos. I always use these advices and even some of these monsters for my campaigns. It’s always well received… and now I have a layout for the BBEG I was planning on making
God I love your art so much, and your worldbuilding. At this point the gameplay stuff almost feels extra. Btw, you've labeled the link in the description as the last thing you posted, though the link itself is right!
I just had a session yesterday where I was trying to foreshadow some villains for my campaign, and boom! You just lost this video! Thanks a lot! This will sure help me immensely on my preparation for next session!
The prince villain really feels like Vauthry from FFXIV! I trust, given the iconography and such, that you have indeed played Shadowbringers and that's so cool imo!
FFXIV spoilers This was my thought as well. So many images of Emet, and then the prince is so similar to Vauthry, haha. Their backstories, motivations, and end goals differ considerably, though. I would have loved to do more with the political intrigue in Shadowbringers, but most of Eulmore's politics came up after he left. It would be very interesting to see how things differ if you played through the First's story as a ttrpg party. Maybe you'd end up like Ardbert's group?
I have probably watched this channel since the third one and I have never commented before, but you're channel inspires me a whole lot, I recommend all of your videos to my ttrpg party and we all became fans, tnks for all the effort putting in all this videos ❤
“A story about some dogs and their struggle of being born British” earned the sub from me. Love it. Great write up on characters motivations/dynamics. I was also going to make a villains video, but this echoed a lot of the feelings that I have (although mine isn’t D&D focused).
I feel like "have the villain show up and kill a PC" could be altered to "have the villain show up and kill an NPC the players care about" that way you dont get the frustration from players who have put time and effort of making a character just for them to get instantly killed but you do get the emotional response of "now its personal"
Thank you Pointy Hat! It's crazy to think that almost a year ago, you mystically gained sentience from the local haberdashery to bless us all 🥲. You and your works are a masterpiece. In all seriousness Antonio, can't wait for your future videos. This one is especially helpful. Since we're so used to short form story villains, it can be hard to break out of the common tropes that serve those types of media. Thank you so much for helping coach us on how to make villains not just "work" but be extra potent within the context of a game.
A mystery d&d campaign is SO hard to write effectively. I attempted one as part of my debut campaign with some friends and while it....mostly worked, there are a LOT of things I wish I'd done differently. Writing an effective villain is somehow even harder, although some of that is the way my mystery campaign worked out 😂it's hard to create a villain that feels threatening when your players already faced off against "chaos incarnate" LOL! I'll definitely take this advice to heart though. I want to make a proper villain for next time.
As for how to tie the villain to the party without offing a PC, you can make a very friendly kind NPC (preferably connected to one of the PCs) that is likely to become loved by your party, then off that NPC by the villain in a very cruel way Edit: Or use the "kicking the dog" principle, by having your villain hurt/unalive an innocent while on a quest for something they need
Deeply appreciate how the “why to add a villain” section wasn’t just video-extending fluff but rather a worthwhile analysis of when adding a villain actually serves the narrative.
I feel like a great example of a "twist" villain was JoCat's Belkinus Necro Hunt: It was intended from the start that the players figure out that the main employer of the party was behind the conflict that the party is trying to stop and it lead to the party confroning the twist villain. I feel like if you wirte a twist villain with the intent of the players figuring it out is great
This is honestly such a good video not just for crafting villains for dnd but for writing stories just in general (which makes sense since thats basically what creating a dnd campaign is but you know what I mean!!) A++++ will be coming back to this video every time I need to figure out a villain for literally any purpose thank you so much for creating this!!!
I've been thinking about writing a fantasy story for a few years now. There are a number of villains throughout the story. But the main villain is something that starts as an evil lamp but is supposed to become more active as the story moves forward. I'm currently calling him Zurvan, the fallen god of destruction. There are three gods in the story two goddesses of creation, Sophia goddess of light, and Sephirot goddess of darkness. Zurvan became jealous of his sisters ability to create, wanting to create things of his own. So he attacked Sophia and took some of her power for himself. This triggered what would be known as the age of blood. For thousands of years, the world was plagued by zurvan's twisted creations. Malformed creatures that could turn others into the same twisted beings. Their was also constant conflict and war between the uninfected for what few resources remained. Eventually, the goddesses were able to combine their powers. Giving four people the powers of light and darkness. The four horsemen or fiends pushed back against the forces of Zurvan and eventually confronted him directly. He was ultimately shattered into hundreds of fragments. But in the battle, the world was also broken into hundreds of floating islands. This became the age of clouds and is the time period that the story takes place in. The fragments of Zurvan became known as blood steel and can give the user incredible destructive powers. But their use is considered taboo because of what it does to a person's mind and body. Though most people don't know the crystal's true nature. Throughout the story, there are mentions of a lich that is running around. Eventually, the main group ends up coming face to skull with the entity. They see that it is feeding on blood steel, and after a few more encounters, find out that it is infact Zurvan trying to put himself back together again.
Great video as always, but I specially want to congratulate you on the character design of the prince and how his cape mirrors the angels wings!! That's really clever!
I feel like this should be said here, but I really enjoy your videos, specifically in the sense that we think somewhat similarly? I love putting twists on my characters and trying to shake up the status quo of what dnd has to offer because for me, that's super interesting. And I really enjoy your videos Pointy Hat. Watching these are helping me with inspiration for my own characters/ villains. Also 6:28 had me in a laughing fit
Best villan reveal I can recall. Your party barely escapes the powerful giant serpent, only to come across it later, its lacerated dead body on display. Sepiroth did this. THIS is what you’re up against.
I do absolutely love your videos. I will say a twist villain is hard, but in one of my campaigns I did a mix of a twist villain and the “villain” reporting to a higher power. They loved it. I gave some hints that their beloved bard was the actual villain that the evil queen was reporting too.
Just to preface I love the way you did the example, the villain made in the end of the vid is hella final fantasy vibes cuz there's a whole thing of angels killin peeps and turning them into more angel-mix mach things.
Yes I would definitely be interested in a video on how to write mysteries in DnD, pleaaaaaaase! And thank you for your hard work, this one was super useful for me! I think I have my villain more or less down but this video helped me define some of their aspects a little better and also make the decision to add some in-between villains (not quite seconds in command, but minor villains that are connected to them)
God, this is all wonderful advice on how to make an active villain in a story. I think one of the best things you could do is have multiple villains in your campaign that play against one another, allowing the players to be the spanner in the works. Depending upon what you want to do, you can even scare your players with the possibility that they may team up against them if the players all outgrow them, or they may allow the players to turn them against one another, essentially picking the winner amongst the multiple villains present on the metaphorical and literal table.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
My name is Antonio Demico, you killed my father, prepare to die 🔪
Thank you to Lazy Squire for the sponsorship! Go ahead and give their kickstarter a look if you like what you see! www.kickstarter.com/projects/563681582/legend-of-keepers-5e-reverse-dungeon-and-stl-miniatures?ref=3h46k1
Curses im 23 Minutes late!!!
Do you have a full write-up for your villain, or just the starter in the video? Neither is a problem, but this is definitely an interesting situation- plus, I feel like you enjoy throwing variations on Christianity (if not the Orthodox Church specifically) through the wringer.)
"Stop saying that!"
Also, please make that video about playing mysteries in D&D. I need help convincing my group you can run a good mystery story. They wont listen to me, but as soon as I give them a RUclips video, they suddenly think it was a good idea the whole time. Ooh, and Homebrew more Subclasses, I absolutely love your idea!
Thanks for the video! May want to double check the description, it says it goes to the Hierarch, not how to make a villain (link is correct though)
I have an idea for a video for your lich serious that you could make. In your video about lichs you talk about how the liches stats were bad for a villain then you gave us the bard lich but why don’t you make a video about fixing the liches stat block and talking about how to make a good lich (good as in design not alignment)
Another idea I have is you could make a good version of a lich like the archlich from past additions of d&d but for 5e or you could just make an archlich with a twist.
Love your videos and especially love your videos on liches hope you make lots more of them
I also love the skit you did with the demon from your past that you had to take a cross out to banish I thought that was hilarious
Mans really said "let me whip up a quick generic example of what a good villain might look like that anyone could use" and then dropped the best campaign setting and hook I've ever seen
fax
Yeah... F. Him... The hat.
Yeah, that’s and entire 2 season arc in an anime. Or more
Mans played FFXIV: Shadowbringers, lol.
i need to watch this campaign
One great villian I've heard of was the inn keeper, who was a true neutral character. Setting up adventures for the party, at the same time setting up villians and monsters, not to gain profit, not for power but because he wanted to make people happy, and simply wanted to be of use
Sooo...
Villainy here is that he just wanted for heroes to be made real and let people create amazing stories from their adventures?
@@piotrwisniewski70what about when people die because of him setting up these games? What the innkeeper is doing is little more moral than the gladiator fights of ancient Rom, the only difference is that they are not watched by people and none of the heroes are intended to die, but they still might and if his goal is to create heroes then the end result is still in a sense entertainment for other people.
@@Feanor6450 I suppose his goal is to let people adventure, feel something more in their life's, and create stories that would later be shared in his tavern
What about those who died in the process? Well, I suppose that's why he's the villain
@@piotrwisniewski70 ok fair point.
That is silly ngl.
I always love the way Pointy Hat puts it...
"Oooh.. such a shame that you dont have everything you need to reproduce this type of things in your campaign... Oh wait no, you have !" And he hands over everything needed.
This is generosity.
I agree there is no paywall or subscription to reach his content because it is just put there. So glad I rediscovered this channel
When we played curse of Strahd, I made everyone of the PCs have a personal beef with Strahd. The undead warlock was his daughter from one of the brides. The ranger was dating Ireena. The rogue (it was revealed) was the descendant of Tatyana and Sergei’s child from before the marriage. The Paladin had been killed by Strahd in three of her previous lifetimes. And she remembered all of them. Strahd had made graves for them in the crypt when they went in to rescue some people (not Ireena).
The paladin was actually a concept I used! I was playing an Oath of Devotion Paladin that was born and raised in Barovia, his family once being proud soldiers of the Zarovich family. It was a tradition that every male heir would travel to the castle, and attempt to end Strahd. Every one died in the attempt.
My character was, in fact, the reincarnation of one of the soldiers than turned on Strahd after witnessing him kill Sergei.
Also I DEFINITELY wanna use that last idea!
@@rustyshackle8000 You sure you weren't't playing infinity Blade?
These feel like they’re coming out quick especially with the quality of the videos you’re producing. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. You’ve created an amazing community Mr. Hat, and we’ll support you if you need a break
Absolutely. Rest is important.
Wow, wholesome RUclips comment. Never thought I’d see it kudos Marcus
yeah I was thinking the same thing
Indeed. Creativity is taxing
For sure take care of yourself Mr Hat
Absolutely adore that villain concept at the end!
And yes, a mystery video would be delightful. Finished up a campaign recently, and while it wasn't a twist villain (we already found out who was bad news long ago) there was a lot revealed through storytelling. DM was very happy to see the look on my face as info I've gathered over three campaigns clicked in one scene.
Sounds like a good campaign and story writer!
This literally was posted at the right moment. I’m trying to start a campaign and have MAJOR DM block
Same making a harry potter campaign right now
I think my favorite villain in a campaign was a NPC that legitimately started out as an ally and even fought with the party!
Then they were later corrupted and omg the feels when you can tell someone is crying for help from inside their head
I just started the campaign let the players choose the villain by making terrible people
Have the opposite problem made too many villains and I'm using this to figure out which of my babies to slaughter
saaaame
An idea on how to handle a player guessing a twist villain early:
“Guys! I got it! The pickle merchant was behind everything”
*Explains*
“Roll Perception”
*Dice Rolling*
“You notice a small movement out of the corner of your eye. You glance over towards the window. It seems nothing is there. Then, you start to hear the soft patter of footsteps as a small figure dashes away. As you rush out the door, the figure turns, his face hardened with grim determination. You recognize the boy, who had been training under the pickle merchant. He had heard everything. You race to follow him but he slips away, disappearing into the night.”
You can substitute in any NPC working for the twist villain, or some form of magical surveillance, but this approach validates the player’s cleverness while maintaining the reveal as a cool moment and driving the plot forward by changing the dynamic with the villain. It also preserves the villain being active.
The visual of the DashCon ballpit during the villain definition montage took years of my life.
10/10
that immediately followed up by the onceler gave me exponential war flashbacks
The fact that these villains guidelines go hand in hand with the sorceror lich idea is so good you're practically feeding me a unique dnd plot here to feed my players and I'm so thankful for that.
My personal three rules for making villains:
• They rival, personally threaten, or mirror the protagonist ideals or roles in some way
• They want something and believe they can make it happen
• Mildly uncomfortable without breaching safety tools. Things like, “he’s like, weirdly hot right” or “god what a little freak” or “wait what the fuck they can do that??” Something players might find attractive, or creepy, or endearingly cringe or sweet.
Relationship, goal, and freak factor.
The last one is underrated tbh. They need to have a unexpected thing which keeps the players on guard and makes them unsettling, bonus points for hinting and slowly revealing it.
I'd add proof of power to that, something either directly observed or via second hand that proves the villains power, say they cut down a powerful being e.g a dragon that the party are aware of or a local king is clearly assassinated by the villains minion once they party are aware of them
Or; Relationship, Goal, and Relationship Goal.
What is a safety tool?
The BBEG of my campaign is the warlocks patron who’s goal is to eliminate all suffering and conflict in the world via taking away free will, he believes he is powerful enough to accomplish this and he despite how I’ve built him up as an inhuman Eldritch horror he is weirdly charismatic
The ad coming up right after you saying "let's make a villain" is a perfectly timed joke. Love your videos man, keep up that amazing work!
Non "compelling" pure evil villains like Sauron can exist in the background and be a good way to shed light on the reactions many characters will have to it. The idea is that people resist, despair, go mad, help others, sell others out, or etc -- the whole spectrum of human response to their fears
but you should probably have a more active villain as a stand in, such as Saruman
agreed, a character like palpatine is pretty close to pure evil, but he’s never the main villain for most of the story. it’s always the person who follows them of their own volition, even when they’re not pure evil.
Yeah, the whole "impersonal big bad - personal dragon" thing is pretty typical
A way the movies make Sauron work is pretty much this. Aside from the flashback to the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron's pretty much just an ominous visual effect and a recurring motif in the soundtrack.
...except the Ringwraiths are there, described as literal extensions of his will, and they're DEFINITELY active participants in the story.
The "black riders" in Fellowship drive nearly the first half of the film, and they're TERRIFYING. We see them from the point of view of our hobbit protagonists: giant menacing figures, cloaked in black with iron hands, unrelenting & inhuman, and clearly intelligent.
They take a back seat for The Two Towers, but the Witch-King of Angmar is back for Return of the King and he's a gloriously smug asshole, revelling in the power he has over his enemies.
Then we've got the traditional "dragons" as well. Saruman. Lurtz, the big uruk-hai with the bow that shoots Boromir. Shagrat & Gorbag in Cirith Ungol. The orc general Gothmog at the Pelennor Fields.
We know what Sauron is like, because we know what sort of people he chooses to represent him.
(Many of these moments are also present in the books, of course. There's also a few moments of "proactive asshole Sauron" that weren't translated to film, too.)
Also, there is the Ring wich is actively making people fall to their darkest fears and desires. It makes friends and allies attack each other, it sows discord, and we know that the Ring and Sauron are one. So, Sauron is an asshole who wants to sow discord and warp people into douchebags.
ngl, that little villain edit in the introduction was REAL GOOD. Nicely done.
Seeing Pointy Hat leave the Ball Pit in dashcon explains so much about him- No wonder he knows so much, he absorbed the wisdom of the pit.
I hope he didn't.
Unsolicited idea, make your villain start as a fellow adventurer, maybe you see them in the pub/at the guild, you hear of their exploits and accomplishments, maybe you even work together. It would 1 give you a connection to the character, 2 gives you opportunities to see what they’re doing/ catch on to them acquiring power, 3 it builds the world, who else is taking on quests that your characters didn’t choose, also clearing lower level quests as your characters level up. 4 they grow along your party.
The first thing that came to my mind was an adventurer that can communicate with monsters and sympathize with them, from the outside they seem like a super bad ass adventurer, solo clearing dungeons, eliminating swarms of monsters terrorizing cities and town. Behind the scenes they’re consolidating power and organizing these conflicting factions towards the common goal of toppling the humans in their area, because from the monsters perspective, humans are in their territory, unjustly hunting them and terrorizing them. Sure the villain is probably also leveling up and getting physically stronger, but their real strength is the friends they mad along the way 🤗
I also like the idea of villains that also kinda have a point or genuine motivation beyond “I do evil, me destroy world” it also provides the possibilities of negotiation, either giving a non combat solution if that’s the campaign players are running, or having the PC’s side with the villain in a way that isn’t just them turning into murder hobos for no good reason.
That was just one idea, but I think having the villain start as NPC adventurer is an interesting idea, hell even make them an annoying DMPC that everyone kinda just instinctively hates (but be careful this is easy to mess up)
My group took this a step farther I am the DM for my friend group and we started a campaign that took place in a world I had already made and we had played in already but 5000 years afterwards. What the players thought was the main villain was a leader of a criminal organization who simply went under the alias "Boss" who was kidnapping people in order to get the free labour needed to make his machine to re-make the world into a utopia. One of the PLAYERS was working for this criminal organization and has secretly been sabotaging the parties efforts to find and capture boss the entire campaign without the party ever realizing. It was only until the party FINALLY made it to boss did boss himself reveal that they were betrayed from the start. What I did was simply ask the player before hand if they wanted to work for the villain and be an ULTIMATE twist villain or not and he said yes. Currently in the campaign this player has actually surpassed boss in power and is now the most dangerous person in the world can't wait to see how my campaign ends!
I have an idea of a villan who is two minds and two bodies, but the mind is squished together. The villain sent out their one and only minion to go find a magic artifact that can split any mind into two. The minion is slain and the adventurers have found the mindsplitter item. The thought would that the duo boss could be spared when using the mindsplitter as they have gotten what the duo boss has wanted. The campain hasnt happened yet but the ideas brewing is alot
Wait did the bad guy just use the power of friendship for evil?
What happens if the party now wants to work for the villain
I feel like twist villains can just kind of happen. You have this plot and everyone at the table absolutely hates this one nobleman and you go like "Oh yeah HE was behind it all along yeah it was him definitely"
The best twist villains IMHO are the twist villains who don't actually change at all before or after becoming a villain. Like you already knew everything about how this character acted and what their beliefs were when you were both on the same side, the difference is all those same things are now motivating them to do things the party considers villainous. This can both work extremely well for having noble, sympathetic villains who are honourable and fighting for a good cause, and it also works to have the heroes realise that the people that they've been friends with this whole time have lowkey always been shitty people, they just didn't notice that they themselves were on the bad side with bad people until a line was crossed.
@@Wynneception I 100% agree
I feel vecna/Henry creel/1 was one of the best villains because he was good he was innocent
Or have the more seemingly friendly noble act nice to the party, but the goal is as a spy; however, the noble with a stick up their @#$, is actually doing what they think is right, even if it comes across as harsh.
Or better yet make the players themselves the twist villains. Maybe it’s their fault the big bad rose to power because while they were out adventuring and defeating all sorts of villains they left a power vacuum and eliminated the competition.
I have a pretty good second hand villain and it killed a PC on the "first session", but hear me out:
We were just finishing a small one shot that my friend was DMing, I was going to DM the next campaign and was an active PC in his story, I then speak to him in private and we agreed on killing my character on an 1v1 against a Doppleganger without the rest of the party finding out.
In the last session the party kills the BBEG and my character grabs the magic scepter held by the bad guy, turns himself into the Doppleganger real form and conjures a spell that transforms him into a amalgamation of the previous BBEG, his real form and my old character...
Then I started my new campaign with him being one of the main villains! DND is so much fun 🔥
An absolute GODSEND. I'm at the beginning of a campaign, and I currently have a vague shadow in the shape of the villain. Thank you so much. You're not the hero we deserve, but the one we need.
If you want a free idea for something to just stick in a corner of your world:
A goblin/kobald city with a unique culture, it was founded when a clan of goblins and a clan of kobolds both fleeing as refugees from adventures ran into eachother and were too weak to fight so they tried diplomacy. And now a city of goblins & kobolds just exists somewhere in the underdark slowly expanding its influence through a combination of traps and guerilla tactics. (This litterally doesn't need to have any narative significance, its just a pocket of the underdark filled with clever kobolds & goblins, their traps, and nothing else since they drove off the other monsters after establishing a proper civilization.)
@@jasonreed7522 I like the idea, but I like the kobolds and the goblins fighting each other constantly
Love love love this one. "Not every antagonist is a villian" and "make the scale/power of the vilian fit the story" are such great pieces of advice.
I really want to have an actual evil lamp in a campaign now with hints of the lamp at various scenes committing horrible Acts
Chairface Chippendale approves.
Said lamp is an ancient artifact created by a sorcerer and said lamp is gaslighting the nations of the world into brutally murdering each other
-Came back to this comment to fix the grammar. Shit was godawful and I couldn't stand looking at it-
Like summoning swarms if giant moths the party has to fight
@@sayvionwashington1939 With certain lamps the "gaslighting" can be quite literal!
With every video and every reference i dream about pointy hat x drawfee collab more and more often. It would be such a great episode 🥺
This👌
This is the way
I think a fun but cruel way to make a villain feel powerful and imposing, especially with a new group, is to invite an experienced player who agrees (before the game and without the knowledge of the other players) to let their character die, then having the villain fight them and kill the player who agreed to it, making it seem to the other players that the villain could kill their characters at any moment without actually punishing them. The experienced player can start with a throwaway character and then start again with their actual character being introduced shortly afterwards
This is genius. I love it.
4:33 is my favorite part, its vindicating, because one of my favorite things to run is my Homebrew Setting of Dark/Grimdark fantasy where the setting's villain is so incomprehensively powerful there's no point in opposing him; so the real hazard of *Surviving* the setting takes the place of the villain. And it works! I have enjoyed each party I've run through trying their hardest to survive the wierd and bleak world before them, the only "Quest" they have is to go and find whatever they need to continue surviving.
Your content is probably the only content I actually leave comments for to help with the algorithm, actually that good. Definitely was heading into the Evil Lamp Shade territory with the villain I had planned for my campaign so this has been a valuable resource.
As somebody currently struggling with my dnd campaign and villians in particular, I cannot say how grateful I am for this video! This vid and the ensuing document are very helpful and watching it was very enjoyable. I plan on rewatching it in future as I develop my game.
Seriously, these are some of the most entertaining, and helppful videos I've found detailing storytelling elements and general tips for GM/DMs. Dude! Well done.
I just realized that if you combine the villain he made (The Prince) with the hierarch, it would be all the more interesting.
Thatd be the best campaign to ever exist
What's the heirarch?
@@cavemanpretzel9520
It’s a sorcerer based lich that he made in a previous video, you should watch it to learn more about it.
@@itzkozmic8041 which video?
@@cavemanpretzel9520
The video before this one, look up his channel and you’ll see it
Edit: It is called “Making a sorcerer lich in dnd”
I’m writing and DM’ing my first campaign ever and this was beautifully timed. Desperately needed help on writing a BBEG. Thank you Pointy Hat 😭 wish me luck yall
Either become a Hollywood and make them "Sympathetic and complex relatable villian"
Chaotic Entity beyond comprehension
Or just a jerk for the sake of being jerk but somehow is a badass at it
You just described Puss in Boots 2
From what I learn from puss in boots you can do all 3
@@chazjohannsen Huh, you are right
Goldie, Death, and Jack horner respectively lmao
Although another example i could have given was
Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear(Is DEFFINITLY Evil, but his Goal make total sense, its just his method is dumb)
Profound Darkness from Phantasy Star Online 2(Esentially want to kill itself by deleting the Universe because its existence as the concept of Negative energy is pain)
Oldking from Armored Core For Answer(While everyone else murder innocents for specific Goal, man just murder innocents in general because everyone else in the war suck)
Your love for vilain really show in this one. It's 30-ish min of delight, and i really thank you for this. PS: +1 for the Tip of the Hat on ~Mystery~
this video officially solidified this channel as my favorite dnd/fantasy themed channel on youtube. so good
Dude. Seriously. I have no idea how you came to youtube. But you came and made good quality content. Damn. Thanks man. You actually helped me with my dm writing here. I will have to tinker with my evil father and mother chars now.
There's already a term for the Evil Lamp. It's called "Orcus Sitting on his Throne."
Awesome video! Really appreciate a practical example showing your principals in action- something a lot of DM advice videos somehow lack. Really helps to get the creative juices flowing. Also good video pacing as well! Earned my sub.
The most success that I've had with a villain so far was to base it on someone that I personally hate a lot. So I started by making this guy very charismatic and charming for the sake of deceiving others then I made it so underneath that he was a cold calculated murderer. Also, my players would chat before sessions about stressful things happening in their lives. Some of those things made their way into this characters persona as well. If a player complained about their boss being pushy and a bad manager, this character ended up taking on those traits. If a player complained about class politics, then he gained traits about exploiting/targeting lower class people. I think taking out this guy ended up being very relieving and maybe therapeutic for everyone at the table.
Just remember, that we also play DnD to momentarily escape from the real world.
But if it suits your group, go for it!
Very on point (of the hat). I really like the concept of the villain as a force of natura or a a major antagonist and being able to implement these ideas alongside the rivals and not overlaping one each other
I started watching your videos mid last year. I'm a fairly new DM and understanding the mechanics and story creation hasn't really been an issue. The one thing that I do struggle with is creating new ideas outside of the regular 5e box. You've seriously been my most watched channel on all of these different topics you talk about. Always engaged in what you have to say on different classes, races and other super fun ideas that you've kindly shared with the community. I'm actually currently playing your idea for the Wild Magic Barbarian in a on-going campaign right now and it's been one of my favorite characters to play to date! Thank you so much for all the amazing things you've shared, as it's helped me both in my player and DM careers!
A entire year... and I am one of the blessed ones that can see this channel growing, this is just amazing
I would love a Mystery video! I've always wanted to run a murder mystery campaign, but didn't know how, Great video as always!
Please do the video on mystery! I love dimension 20 and this is something Brennan does extremely well but there are so many ways it can go wrong like you mentioned. Even in novels, movies, or plays it can fall flat and the writer has full control of every character! Love your stuff, keep up the good work.
i wrote my own notes during the video, pausing and rewinding to make sure I understood key points, only to get hit with "here's a guide to everything we talked about"
i've never been so upset at such generosity.
Your content is some of, if not, the best on RUclips. Everytime I see a new video of yours pop up I get filled with butterflies from excitement.
Thank you very much for these tips! This helps a bunch with my campaign and writing in general. This video has helped expand the idea of my villain(s) and how they will operate in my games. Crossing my fingers that I apply them correctly and that it alllll pays off
Big fan of all your content, have been implementing all your ideas like the hierarch and making other creature more interesting. Keep up the amazing work
it’s nice to see how smooth and comfortable you got with these videos :) well done on everything and especially the small things you normally wouldn’t notice.
I am currently writing my first mistery campaign for D&D and feeling likes its not at all compelling so a video of yours on the topic would be an absolute blessing. Keep up the good content Mr.Hat!
The best ads on RUclips. And your videos are my absolute favorite! I always look forward to setting aside time to give your videos my full attention.
I have an idea for a villain who wants to defeat the players (note: not the player characters, the players themselves).
She sees them as entities that are above gods, and similar to the whole chess analogy at the start of the video, that's how my villain sees them.
She basically wants to sever the players connection to the world they reside in to free everything from their control, ironically she doesn't realise she's also being controlled by me~
This gives me Lessie vibes from Brandon Sanderson's mistborn trilogy o.o
@@PandamoniumRealized Ahh, my sweet flesh slime girlfriend acting goofy again 🤭🤭
@@JuanAntonioGarciaHeredia what in the actual *[REDACTED]* did I just read
Ok but why should someone make a character for the Campaign if the focus lies on the players?
@@Hypercat0 Mostly because that’s how D&D works, but in lore I guess you could say that’s the only way how the players interact with the world. Through avatars of their own creation that were artificially molded into the world and its history.
From what I've found the best villains are the accidental ones. For me personally I just throw weird things at my friend's till something sticks, and then bring it back every few sessions.
I am so incredibly thankful to have found your channel. You are a real treasure. Even though I don't play D&D and can't copy paste a lot of your stuff directly (I play a different TTRPG) I am getting so much interessting input on monster/charakter design, worldbuilding and co.
You are incredibly creative and I admire your out of the box (or rather the trope) thinking. Add your excellent way of describing and explaining, season with fantastic edditing (Loooove how much emotion you portray using just a stupid hat with an eye) and a fresh breeze of humor and voila.
Sincerely, I love your content and watching a video from you always makes my day.
I so needed this. I had an idea for the BBEP, but the whole REASON wasn't clear. This helped me work out how they got started, and the rest followed from there. thank you!
Hey mr hat I appreciate your videos they are helping me start my dm journey to becoming the forever dm
I know I am going to get stuck doing it because no one else wants to but that’s fine
I just wanna say pointy hat is super underrated and he deserves way more subscribers. The quality and entertainment of his videos are outstanding. Keep up the good work!
I am running a feywild sidebar campaign right now and have been resenting my old campaign world and this is helping me figure out why I did not like my villain. She was definitely an evil lamp that my players did not engage with unless forced. Super helpful and fun video!
I love that i have all these D&D resources at my disposal now. Paired with other youtubers on similar topics, I have a wide breath of knowledge to work from and craft my own characters and stories. I love it!
Holy Shit this is perfect ive planned my first main villian for a group thatll be starting in literally a few days and I love the villian but its been missing those few final touches and this comes out at such a perfect time (found ur channel over the last week or two so this cant have been more perfect timing for me) love the channel, keep it up.
Antonio, you're a great guy and should never be ashamed of what you own in terms of dressing yourself for carnival. Thanks for all the great content! If you make a video about mysteries, we will all love you more than we already do! Mysteries please!🙏
Every one of your videos is amazing, and I love your artstyle so much, it manages to be incredibly simple and effective while being very evocative. You're a big inspiration, continue the good work!
I freaking love these videos! They’re always so hilarious & well thought out, plus the original art that accompanies each one is just scrumptious 🥰
These have to be a MASSIVE amount of work to create, so I hope the Pointy Hat gang takes a good sized break- not only for their health, but because I selfishly want more of these & don’t want them to get burnt out! 😅💕
The prince villain sounds a lot like Peter the Great of Russia... up until the magical ritual part
After that, it turned into Evangelion
Peter the Great mixed with a certain FFXIV character, for sure.
Evangelion spoilers
SEELE would be a very odd kind of "evil lamp" group villain. The Human Instrumentality Project and the Dead Sea Scrolls prophecies are basically unknown to the pilots, which would be the presumed roles for a ttrpg group in an Evangelion game. Eva is a pretty good example of a story that would need heavy adjustment for a tabletop game plot, especially for the antagonists.
I was going to say the opposite. It started out pure Evangelion, and then when the villain went off with the whole magical ritual bit, I thought, _"This is exactly what happened with Peter the Great."_
I want to say how much this actually helped me. In a few months I’m going to be running a campaign for my friends and had a villain who’s goal was to keep the streets clean and kill anyone who was bad for the city but now my villain turned into:
Clayton Seife, the head of sanitation in the city, growing up his father ran a plumbing business that had a smear campaign against it eventually putting it out of business and their family into poverty, growing vengeful Clayton stalked, ambushed, grabbed, and drowned the man who he thought did that to his family, after making deals for power with powerful people, anyone who he thinks runs an unfair or harmful business in the city becomes his next target.
There’s a lot more to him like how he’s a mud monster that got his powers from a priestess of Talos but overall very excited to play with him!!
I'm starting a new campaign and this is very helpful! Also I would LOVE a video about writing mysteries!
YES! Please, do a video on mysteries. I rarely comment on your videos, opting to watch and appreciate them silently but the moment you mentioned it, I KNEW you would do a great job with it. Of course no pressure, but I'm genuinely sure that whatever insight you have for mystery campaigns will be very interesting. Lovely video as always
I got chills when I recognized Vauthry in the story. Also lots of Emmet in this video, guess someone is been playing FF14 a bunch lately lol
I know right, i got shadowbringers vibes in his villain he created.
Me too.
Thank you for making guides like these. I listen to them all the time while i try to create my first campaign.
i feel like if you're preparing a twist villain and your players guess it early, you might be able to push the reveal earlier in the story and play out the rest with them as an obvious villain
Love how hard this dude works on his videos, I know he works hard cause the quality is amazing. Also absolute mad man always giving us free content. Big ups
I think it’s also important to make a villain threatening. If the players feel like the villain going to be hard to defeat, then it feels more rewarding when they actually defeat them.
I absolutely adore these videos. I always use these advices and even some of these monsters for my campaigns. It’s always well received… and now I have a layout for the BBEG I was planning on making
God I love your art so much, and your worldbuilding. At this point the gameplay stuff almost feels extra. Btw, you've labeled the link in the description as the last thing you posted, though the link itself is right!
I just had a session yesterday where I was trying to foreshadow some villains for my campaign, and boom! You just lost this video! Thanks a lot! This will sure help me immensely on my preparation for next session!
The prince villain really feels like Vauthry from FFXIV! I trust, given the iconography and such, that you have indeed played Shadowbringers and that's so cool imo!
FFXIV spoilers
This was my thought as well. So many images of Emet, and then the prince is so similar to Vauthry, haha. Their backstories, motivations, and end goals differ considerably, though. I would have loved to do more with the political intrigue in Shadowbringers, but most of Eulmore's politics came up after he left. It would be very interesting to see how things differ if you played through the First's story as a ttrpg party. Maybe you'd end up like Ardbert's group?
I have probably watched this channel since the third one and I have never commented before, but you're channel inspires me a whole lot, I recommend all of your videos to my ttrpg party and we all became fans, tnks for all the effort putting in all this videos ❤
“A story about some dogs and their struggle of being born British” earned the sub from me. Love it.
Great write up on characters motivations/dynamics. I was also going to make a villains video, but this echoed a lot of the feelings that I have (although mine isn’t D&D focused).
0:29 god i love you for putting Serena Waterford and Cercei into this, awesome villains fr.
I feel like "have the villain show up and kill a PC" could be altered to "have the villain show up and kill an NPC the players care about" that way you dont get the frustration from players who have put time and effort of making a character just for them to get instantly killed but you do get the emotional response of "now its personal"
This! I did this after finding which NPC the players matched onto
holy crap, a year of this premium content, Well also having a day job, don't burn out man you're doing incredibly
Thank you Pointy Hat! It's crazy to think that almost a year ago, you mystically gained sentience from the local haberdashery to bless us all 🥲. You and your works are a masterpiece.
In all seriousness Antonio, can't wait for your future videos. This one is especially helpful. Since we're so used to short form story villains, it can be hard to break out of the common tropes that serve those types of media. Thank you so much for helping coach us on how to make villains not just "work" but be extra potent within the context of a game.
A mystery d&d campaign is SO hard to write effectively. I attempted one as part of my debut campaign with some friends and while it....mostly worked, there are a LOT of things I wish I'd done differently. Writing an effective villain is somehow even harder, although some of that is the way my mystery campaign worked out 😂it's hard to create a villain that feels threatening when your players already faced off against "chaos incarnate" LOL! I'll definitely take this advice to heart though. I want to make a proper villain for next time.
Excellent video! It's given me quite a lot to think about as I work on the villain(s) for my campaign.
As for how to tie the villain to the party without offing a PC, you can make a very friendly kind NPC (preferably connected to one of the PCs) that is likely to become loved by your party, then off that NPC by the villain in a very cruel way
Edit: Or use the "kicking the dog" principle, by having your villain hurt/unalive an innocent while on a quest for something they need
Deeply appreciate how the “why to add a villain” section wasn’t just video-extending fluff but rather a worthwhile analysis of when adding a villain actually serves the narrative.
I feel like a great example of a "twist" villain was JoCat's Belkinus Necro Hunt: It was intended from the start that the players figure out that the main employer of the party was behind the conflict that the party is trying to stop and it lead to the party confroning the twist villain. I feel like if you wirte a twist villain with the intent of the players figuring it out is great
I really love these videos, they're so packed with good info and they're so stylish. The sketches and artwork? Chef's kiss
It’s fun to put 4 strong lamps and have a stature with 4 shadows rather than just a fully illuminated one -
This is honestly such a good video not just for crafting villains for dnd but for writing stories just in general (which makes sense since thats basically what creating a dnd campaign is but you know what I mean!!) A++++ will be coming back to this video every time I need to figure out a villain for literally any purpose thank you so much for creating this!!!
I've been thinking about writing a fantasy story for a few years now. There are a number of villains throughout the story. But the main villain is something that starts as an evil lamp but is supposed to become more active as the story moves forward. I'm currently calling him Zurvan, the fallen god of destruction. There are three gods in the story two goddesses of creation, Sophia goddess of light, and Sephirot goddess of darkness.
Zurvan became jealous of his sisters ability to create, wanting to create things of his own. So he attacked Sophia and took some of her power for himself. This triggered what would be known as the age of blood.
For thousands of years, the world was plagued by zurvan's twisted creations. Malformed creatures that could turn others into the same twisted beings. Their was also constant conflict and war between the uninfected for what few resources remained.
Eventually, the goddesses were able to combine their powers. Giving four people the powers of light and darkness. The four horsemen or fiends pushed back against the forces of Zurvan and eventually confronted him directly.
He was ultimately shattered into hundreds of fragments. But in the battle, the world was also broken into hundreds of floating islands. This became the age of clouds and is the time period that the story takes place in. The fragments of Zurvan became known as blood steel and can give the user incredible destructive powers. But their use is considered taboo because of what it does to a person's mind and body. Though most people don't know the crystal's true nature.
Throughout the story, there are mentions of a lich that is running around. Eventually, the main group ends up coming face to skull with the entity. They see that it is feeding on blood steel, and after a few more encounters, find out that it is infact Zurvan trying to put himself back together again.
I absolutely love these videos. The humour, the pace, the advices. I simply LOVE it. Continue like that.
Great video as always, but I specially want to congratulate you on the character design of the prince and how his cape mirrors the angels wings!! That's really clever!
I feel like this should be said here, but I really enjoy your videos, specifically in the sense that we think somewhat similarly? I love putting twists on my characters and trying to shake up the status quo of what dnd has to offer because for me, that's super interesting. And I really enjoy your videos Pointy Hat. Watching these are helping me with inspiration for my own characters/ villains.
Also 6:28 had me in a laughing fit
+1 for the mystery video.
Your stuff is one of the best sources to learn how to DM, after one read te DMG.
Sad day. I’ve binged all of Pointy Hat’s videos and now I need to wait for uploads! I love all these vids!
6:41, Pointy Hat is wise for using the Cross to repel evil.
Best villan reveal I can recall. Your party barely escapes the powerful giant serpent, only to come across it later, its lacerated dead body on display. Sepiroth did this. THIS is what you’re up against.
I do absolutely love your videos. I will say a twist villain is hard, but in one of my campaigns I did a mix of a twist villain and the “villain” reporting to a higher power. They loved it. I gave some hints that their beloved bard was the actual villain that the evil queen was reporting too.
Just to preface I love the way you did the example, the villain made in the end of the vid is hella final fantasy vibes cuz there's a whole thing of angels killin peeps and turning them into more angel-mix mach things.
Yes I would definitely be interested in a video on how to write mysteries in DnD, pleaaaaaaase! And thank you for your hard work, this one was super useful for me! I think I have my villain more or less down but this video helped me define some of their aspects a little better and also make the decision to add some in-between villains (not quite seconds in command, but minor villains that are connected to them)
God, this is all wonderful advice on how to make an active villain in a story. I think one of the best things you could do is have multiple villains in your campaign that play against one another, allowing the players to be the spanner in the works. Depending upon what you want to do, you can even scare your players with the possibility that they may team up against them if the players all outgrow them, or they may allow the players to turn them against one another, essentially picking the winner amongst the multiple villains present on the metaphorical and literal table.