For those who are on the fence about Colville's Action Oriented Monsters, I would like to bring up Lair Actions as a good alternative. When you start thinking LA specifically as something that can only be done by a monster in it's "Lair" but something that can be done in specific situations, environments, etc. or even just the monster interacting with the encounter. It can really be freeing and add a lot to the encounter. For example you are fighting bandits a long a river bank during heavy rain near a mountain pass, on Initiative 20 the river bank rises 5 ft and you are slowly running out or room to fight. Anyone caught in 10 feet or deeper water is washed 50 ft down river (might add Con Save for half damage, on fail full damage and suffocating or some such). On the next round, maybe the river doesn't rise but 3 spots are hit in a 20 ft radius by lightning. There is a lot to work with there, and can really change how any encounter can play out. It doesn't even really have to be damaging or disruptive to the party. It could be as simple as certain parts of the room rise or lower, adding new cover positions or blocking off certain routes the players could have taken, or even add a puzzle element to the encounter. One of my favorite purchases for 5e has been Home-Field Advantage on DMsGuild. It's all about adding Lair Actions to almost every monster and npc from the 3 main core monster books (and really is almost all of them, there are few monsters I've tried to look up that don't have them), even really low CR ratings. It really goes for the idea "make this encounter fun and unique" rather then "just add Legendary Actions." Nothing feels over powered, and at most slightly increase the CR of some of enemies (it might increase the CR by 1 for that encounter, which isn't saying much...) A lot of them I kinda want to see done officially (specifically the NPCs which are amazing), and there is some I could totally see taking a Lair Action and turning it into a recharge or once/day Bonus Action provided you aren't using Lair Actions to begin with (which could work really well in certain fights). On top of that it has amazing advice on how to create your own. It really has opened my eyes on how to make encounters more dynamic and involved, rather then just beat down an enemy. Also it is really easy to use in play with no real rules changes and has some amazingly simple integration. It really should be a core book in every 5e DM's tools.
This video came at the perfect time! I have 4 villains lined up, 2 of which are BBEG's from the setting, 2 are minor villains from the settings two characters are from and have a close connection with. And incidentally, I find that the 2 BBEG's have very similar but twisted motivations to my other two player characters (I have a party of 4). The two BBEG's: A dwarven clan, of which the leader has lost his father in the founding of the country, and whose death was caused by a close friend and a leader of humans and elves. He wants revenge and for justice to be delivered, but the amount of time he has lived and the land has been found (300 years, he is very old) has made him bitter, and now he plans to wage war on the humans of the land. Incidentally, one of the party members, a Samurai Fighter, has sworn an oath to uphold justice at all times. The other BBEG is the brother of the reigning king, and has seen the threat that the other nations pose, and desperately wants to protect his country... and in the process of it has been corrupted by a fiend who has enhanced his power, as well as his worst impulses. So his means of protection has become agressive conquest. The 2nd party member, an abjuration wizard, is trying to find ways of warding his loved ones and the world from extraplanar threats. The minor/lesser villains are also fairly interesting, to me at least. One of them hails from another plane, same with our Astral Monk, and through deception, trickery and deceit he attemps to separate this plane from the Material Plane, while the overly honest and sincere Astral monk is trying to connect them... but through connecting them, this other plane becomes sensitive to fiendish corruption from the Material Plane. The last villain is a gnome Artificer, and he has brought the 4th party member to the current land with him, initially as a body guard. But he wants to steal the magical secrets from this land, and also aims to abduct the Samurai Fighter, because of suspicions. He views everyone and everything in this land as lesser, a tool to be used by him. The 4th party member, meanwhile, has made a bond of life with the Samurai Fighter, who saved the both of them. I would not have made these connections without this video!
Another idea to utilize is the concept, hurt people hurt people. If you are designing for tier play, perhaps your first villain is just a victim of the next villain, make this a broken person. Think the Hound from Game of Thrones.
It always sounds so easy to come up with these ideas when you present them to me/us. But my creative muscle isn't that trained yet I guess. The Casino Crimeboss example? NEVER in my life would I have thought about something like that. It's hard to not build something flat and 1 dimensional for me. Glad I backed your Kickstarter in hopes to get some creative juices flowing.
My big issue that i'm running into is that i want to keep van richtens guide to ravenloft villains a part of it, because theyre all quite cool and im running several of the different domains. But im struggling with actually coming up with any ideas to really make them interesting. Lovely video maybe im just stuck right now and when i actually start to run the campaign it'll come up naturally or i'll atleast get a better idea of what my party will be interested or more focused on therefore allowing me to make them more antagonistic
Smelly Annoying Invulnerable My low level party killed a homeless thief, now his ghost pursue then giving then a hard time, until they got the power to exorcise his ghost to the limbo
That sounds like an old EC Comics story, maybe "Vault Of Horror", or even "CrimeSuspense Stories". Is it played for comedy, or straight up supernatural "Poltergeist" vibes?
Some more specific advice would be great, my players haven't made any characters, but I would like my villain to not really have much to do with the party, except being a reccuring npc before he reveals himself. His name is Manao Verflow(Mana Overflow, yes I know very creative) and he is a Mana Shifter, a custom creature I invented, its a rare condition seen once in a 1,000 years and they are basically more powerful shapeshifters, able to alter their body in any way they like, as long as they have enough Mana that is quickly Regenerated, and has infinite spell slots. He took on the job as the leader of the Temple of Chaos at age 3, becoming a devoted servant to plincaro, god of Chaos. (This takes place in a universe of my creation) and when Manao is 18, plincaro turns his right eye into a golden eye, which allows him to see through medical issues, the dark, fog, clouds, smoke, unable to be blinded, etc etc, however it can't transform, so that's how you can tell its him in a changed form. He can control the most Chaotic objects in the world, he may be Chaotic, but he is true neutral. He can control things that shouldn't be controlled, the destroyers of worlds, the monkey-paw and the deck of many things can be completely controlled by Manao, he can completely nullify either of them on command, and other such things. He also has control of Cursed Puzzleboxes that kill you if you answer its riddle incorrectly, but helps you if you succeed. He also has access to a few spells, and one of which is one of his creation, that is so powerful it literally breaks reality, just to give a scale of his power, he is on the level of God's, if not higher, he is stronger than Vecna when he won. This spell takes advantage of a few things, you have to be wearing Chaos Armour, which gives a -5 to any attack roll against the wearers which stores that energy for later, if you have his weapon, are wearing Chaos Armour with 50 energy stored in it, and have access to the spells and items; Eldritch Blast, Major Illusion, Plane Shift, Deck of Many Things, Monkey-Paw, Cursed Puzzlebox, Chaotic Staff, 10 hits on you when wearing full Chaos Armour and a lot of mana. Combining all of these at once allows you to use the spell Astral Realignment. It is a truly terrifying spe that is not to be taken lightly. The user floats 15ft into the air and a magic barrier appears around them, making them immune to damage while the spell is being cast, an earthquake splits the earth beneath the caster, and after 2 turns, a 60ft sphere around the caster is made into a pocket dimension, which after 1 turn destabilises, and the next, is crushed by reality itself deleting everything inside from existence, the caster is teleported back to the closest safe place from where they left. The only way to escape the spell is use Plane Shift on yourself and cancel it midway to trap yourself in hell. I mean, he's cool, has powers and backstory, but I'm not sure what I want HIS PERSONALITY to be. All I've got is clever, Chaotic, and tries to irritate all his enemies. And acts careless even when being smart. He also owns a kingdom.
Have the villian want what the characters want. They just go about it differently. Ask your players what goals do they want to complete and have the villian have done it and be corrupt by it. Events can be villians as well something could have happen that makes good people turn sour
One of my bad guys is a deserter elite magic-user-assassin from a corrupt mage's guild. He realized that his enhancements were in fact killing him, and this guild was manipulating him. So he deserted, holed up in a swamp-town where studies and experiments necromancy on locals to prolong his life long enough to take his revenge and "rid the world" of this corrupt guild. "Ends justify the means". He is: Intelligent, Cold and Efficient which means there are no cliché monologues, no "sending messages" or proving points. He will be a man of action. And it just happened that our heros have something he needs... Also, I am thinking about straight up disintegrating one of them if they won't hand over this "plot-device" willingly. But I am still thinking about this one...
Angry, Ruthless, Corrupted. The villain of my campaign was once an adventurer who was left in the Feywild by his party a millennia ago for the material plane. It was done as a heroic sacrifice, but he didn't die. He is angry and resentful for being forgotten, his only request that he'd be remembered as a hero never came through. His plans are ruthless and destructive as he seeks to destroy the world his friends gave everything to save. Additionally, being stuck in a world that wasn't meant to sustain him, he became corrupted, and as he nursed his sorrow and regret and rage, he became something more: a being fueled by his dark feelings with lots of power, and has been working on his efforts for the past millennia, waiting for the time when the veils between the feywild and material plane were thin once more so he could destroy both.
My BBEG for the homebrew campaign I’m working on will depend on which route my players decide to go down. 1: Daeryn, The Forgotten Prince. A largely forgotten deity who once staged a rebellion and then a war against the other gods called Daeryn’s Rebellion and the War of Godsfall. He was banished to another plane of existence for his crimes. He is ruthless, calculating and vengeful against the people of my world and the other gods. 2: Vecna, The Whispered One. Vecna’s origins in my homebrew world are very different. In my world Vecna was a god who joined Daeryn in the rebellion that preceded the War of Godsfall but when Daeryn was defeated, Vecna betrayed him and was exiled after being trapped in a human body. His personality remains exactly the same but his goal is different. He doesn’t want to ascend to godhood, he wants to reclaim the title of deity by any means necessary. 3: Lorelei, The Veiled Vixen. Very much a femme fatale type villain, Lorelei was once the Fae queen of the Seelie Court who attracted the attention of the Fae trickster god, Arvol. He was smitten with her and was planning to marry her, much to the anger of the other gods. The gods decided to punish Lorelei for “seducing” Arvol and pulling him away from his duties and so they turned her into a Devil and banished her to Nessus, where they knew Arvol would never go searching for her. She is manipulative, charismatic and intelligent and will stop at nothing to be reunited with Arvol but only after her vengeance on the gods is had.
Would your version of the rule maximize bonus die like Paladin smites or Rogue sneak attacks? What about spell attacks? I’ve played for the past 2 years saying yes to max damage on all 3 of those, just so I feel less bad when my fire giant 64 damage with one greatsword attack. Would love to see this rule in OneD&D!
My BBEG based on this video's advice Keivael the Purifier A radiant being of blinding holy light. Keivael, also know as 'Keivael the six mercies' and 'Lady of Lament', is a supremely holy being in service to an unknowable god. For those who have committed atrocities - or wish to - she represents a way to avoid eternal damnation. At their death they will call upon them and mercifully purge their souls of sin so that they may be welcomed into Paradise. Unfortunately, 'mercy' and 'purity' are *highly* subjective terms. Keivael can only be summoned by those who hold the desire for purification of all things *above all else *. Sacrifices of property, wealth and even friends and family - sometimes literally - are required. Finally, stripped of all other desires and cares, the applicant bares their soul to Keivael to receive her merciful touch and cleansing light. And that when they know they've made a terrible mistake. All of their souls are offered in fear (save for the truly repentent) fear of damnation, fear of discovery, fear of facing the consequences. They're all so afraid and she is compelled to save them. The most merciful way thing to do here is purify their fear. And the most purifying thing known to man...is pain.
I often have trouble making the big bad feel real. right now i am running a campaign with shar and her deciples as the big bad but shar has tricked the party to work along side her. how do i make the reveal seem real because up until this point all of my badguys feel like obsticles and thats it. I try and add more roleplay but the party is all about stabby stabby most of the time so i dont have much time to present the big bad to them?
"A sci-fi villian with a bunch of space ships wouldn't fit in a dark fantasy"
Mindflayers: "Hold my beer..."
Touché
You mean hold my brains...lol
@@graywolfdracon We shall ferment the brains to make a drink. It will be known as "braeer..."
I love how he used Hitler's Backstory to use as an example, for how much varity you have with the villans motivation.
For those who are on the fence about Colville's Action Oriented Monsters, I would like to bring up Lair Actions as a good alternative. When you start thinking LA specifically as something that can only be done by a monster in it's "Lair" but something that can be done in specific situations, environments, etc. or even just the monster interacting with the encounter. It can really be freeing and add a lot to the encounter. For example you are fighting bandits a long a river bank during heavy rain near a mountain pass, on Initiative 20 the river bank rises 5 ft and you are slowly running out or room to fight. Anyone caught in 10 feet or deeper water is washed 50 ft down river (might add Con Save for half damage, on fail full damage and suffocating or some such). On the next round, maybe the river doesn't rise but 3 spots are hit in a 20 ft radius by lightning. There is a lot to work with there, and can really change how any encounter can play out. It doesn't even really have to be damaging or disruptive to the party. It could be as simple as certain parts of the room rise or lower, adding new cover positions or blocking off certain routes the players could have taken, or even add a puzzle element to the encounter.
One of my favorite purchases for 5e has been Home-Field Advantage on DMsGuild. It's all about adding Lair Actions to almost every monster and npc from the 3 main core monster books (and really is almost all of them, there are few monsters I've tried to look up that don't have them), even really low CR ratings. It really goes for the idea "make this encounter fun and unique" rather then "just add Legendary Actions." Nothing feels over powered, and at most slightly increase the CR of some of enemies (it might increase the CR by 1 for that encounter, which isn't saying much...) A lot of them I kinda want to see done officially (specifically the NPCs which are amazing), and there is some I could totally see taking a Lair Action and turning it into a recharge or once/day Bonus Action provided you aren't using Lair Actions to begin with (which could work really well in certain fights). On top of that it has amazing advice on how to create your own. It really has opened my eyes on how to make encounters more dynamic and involved, rather then just beat down an enemy. Also it is really easy to use in play with no real rules changes and has some amazingly simple integration. It really should be a core book in every 5e DM's tools.
You forgot the Colville link
Fixed! Thank you.
This video came at the perfect time!
I have 4 villains lined up, 2 of which are BBEG's from the setting, 2 are minor villains from the settings two characters are from and have a close connection with. And incidentally, I find that the 2 BBEG's have very similar but twisted motivations to my other two player characters (I have a party of 4).
The two BBEG's:
A dwarven clan, of which the leader has lost his father in the founding of the country, and whose death was caused by a close friend and a leader of humans and elves. He wants revenge and for justice to be delivered, but the amount of time he has lived and the land has been found (300 years, he is very old) has made him bitter, and now he plans to wage war on the humans of the land. Incidentally, one of the party members, a Samurai Fighter, has sworn an oath to uphold justice at all times.
The other BBEG is the brother of the reigning king, and has seen the threat that the other nations pose, and desperately wants to protect his country... and in the process of it has been corrupted by a fiend who has enhanced his power, as well as his worst impulses. So his means of protection has become agressive conquest. The 2nd party member, an abjuration wizard, is trying to find ways of warding his loved ones and the world from extraplanar threats.
The minor/lesser villains are also fairly interesting, to me at least.
One of them hails from another plane, same with our Astral Monk, and through deception, trickery and deceit he attemps to separate this plane from the Material Plane, while the overly honest and sincere Astral monk is trying to connect them... but through connecting them, this other plane becomes sensitive to fiendish corruption from the Material Plane.
The last villain is a gnome Artificer, and he has brought the 4th party member to the current land with him, initially as a body guard. But he wants to steal the magical secrets from this land, and also aims to abduct the Samurai Fighter, because of suspicions. He views everyone and everything in this land as lesser, a tool to be used by him. The 4th party member, meanwhile, has made a bond of life with the Samurai Fighter, who saved the both of them.
I would not have made these connections without this video!
The school of fine arts was such a fun reference! Loved the video!
Another idea to utilize is the concept, hurt people hurt people. If you are designing for tier play, perhaps your first villain is just a victim of the next villain, make this a broken person. Think the Hound from Game of Thrones.
It always sounds so easy to come up with these ideas when you present them to me/us. But my creative muscle isn't that trained yet I guess.
The Casino Crimeboss example? NEVER in my life would I have thought about something like that. It's hard to not build something flat and 1 dimensional for me.
Glad I backed your Kickstarter in hopes to get some creative juices flowing.
You indirectly described tRump. Nicely done 👊
I have been loving my Deck of Many Quests! Cannot wait for the Gothic horror expansion!
Narcissistic
Conniving- schemer
Desires "UNLIMITED POWER!!"
I said “make up a villain,” not “describe the channel’s host”
My big issue that i'm running into is that i want to keep van richtens guide to ravenloft villains a part of it, because theyre all quite cool and im running several of the different domains. But im struggling with actually coming up with any ideas to really make them interesting. Lovely video maybe im just stuck right now and when i actually start to run the campaign it'll come up naturally or i'll atleast get a better idea of what my party will be interested or more focused on therefore allowing me to make them more antagonistic
Smelly
Annoying
Invulnerable
My low level party killed a homeless thief, now his ghost pursue then giving then a hard time, until they got the power to exorcise his ghost to the limbo
That sounds like an old EC Comics story, maybe "Vault Of Horror", or even "CrimeSuspense Stories". Is it played for comedy, or straight up supernatural "Poltergeist" vibes?
Some more specific advice would be great, my players haven't made any characters, but I would like my villain to not really have much to do with the party, except being a reccuring npc before he reveals himself. His name is Manao Verflow(Mana Overflow, yes I know very creative) and he is a Mana Shifter, a custom creature I invented, its a rare condition seen once in a 1,000 years and they are basically more powerful shapeshifters, able to alter their body in any way they like, as long as they have enough Mana that is quickly Regenerated, and has infinite spell slots. He took on the job as the leader of the Temple of Chaos at age 3, becoming a devoted servant to plincaro, god of Chaos. (This takes place in a universe of my creation) and when Manao is 18, plincaro turns his right eye into a golden eye, which allows him to see through medical issues, the dark, fog, clouds, smoke, unable to be blinded, etc etc, however it can't transform, so that's how you can tell its him in a changed form. He can control the most Chaotic objects in the world, he may be Chaotic, but he is true neutral. He can control things that shouldn't be controlled, the destroyers of worlds, the monkey-paw and the deck of many things can be completely controlled by Manao, he can completely nullify either of them on command, and other such things. He also has control of Cursed Puzzleboxes that kill you if you answer its riddle incorrectly, but helps you if you succeed. He also has access to a few spells, and one of which is one of his creation, that is so powerful it literally breaks reality, just to give a scale of his power, he is on the level of God's, if not higher, he is stronger than Vecna when he won. This spell takes advantage of a few things, you have to be wearing Chaos Armour, which gives a -5 to any attack roll against the wearers which stores that energy for later, if you have his weapon, are wearing Chaos Armour with 50 energy stored in it, and have access to the spells and items; Eldritch Blast, Major Illusion, Plane Shift, Deck of Many Things, Monkey-Paw, Cursed Puzzlebox, Chaotic Staff, 10 hits on you when wearing full Chaos Armour and a lot of mana. Combining all of these at once allows you to use the spell Astral Realignment. It is a truly terrifying spe that is not to be taken lightly. The user floats 15ft into the air and a magic barrier appears around them, making them immune to damage while the spell is being cast, an earthquake splits the earth beneath the caster, and after 2 turns, a 60ft sphere around the caster is made into a pocket dimension, which after 1 turn destabilises, and the next, is crushed by reality itself deleting everything inside from existence, the caster is teleported back to the closest safe place from where they left. The only way to escape the spell is use Plane Shift on yourself and cancel it midway to trap yourself in hell. I mean, he's cool, has powers and backstory, but I'm not sure what I want HIS PERSONALITY to be. All I've got is clever, Chaotic, and tries to irritate all his enemies. And acts careless even when being smart. He also owns a kingdom.
Have the villian want what the characters want. They just go about it differently. Ask your players what goals do they want to complete and have the villian have done it and be corrupt by it. Events can be villians as well something could have happen that makes good people turn sour
One of my bad guys is a deserter elite magic-user-assassin from a corrupt mage's guild.
He realized that his enhancements were in fact killing him, and this guild was manipulating him. So he deserted, holed up in a swamp-town where studies and experiments necromancy on locals to prolong his life long enough to take his revenge and "rid the world" of this corrupt guild. "Ends justify the means".
He is: Intelligent, Cold and Efficient which means there are no cliché monologues, no "sending messages" or proving points. He will be a man of action.
And it just happened that our heros have something he needs...
Also, I am thinking about straight up disintegrating one of them if they won't hand over this "plot-device" willingly. But I am still thinking about this one...
Angry, Ruthless, Corrupted.
The villain of my campaign was once an adventurer who was left in the Feywild by his party a millennia ago for the material plane. It was done as a heroic sacrifice, but he didn't die. He is angry and resentful for being forgotten, his only request that he'd be remembered as a hero never came through. His plans are ruthless and destructive as he seeks to destroy the world his friends gave everything to save. Additionally, being stuck in a world that wasn't meant to sustain him, he became corrupted, and as he nursed his sorrow and regret and rage, he became something more: a being fueled by his dark feelings with lots of power, and has been working on his efforts for the past millennia, waiting for the time when the veils between the feywild and material plane were thin once more so he could destroy both.
Intriguing!
My BBEG for the homebrew campaign I’m working on will depend on which route my players decide to go down.
1: Daeryn, The Forgotten Prince. A largely forgotten deity who once staged a rebellion and then a war against the other gods called Daeryn’s Rebellion and the War of Godsfall. He was banished to another plane of existence for his crimes. He is ruthless, calculating and vengeful against the people of my world and the other gods.
2: Vecna, The Whispered One. Vecna’s origins in my homebrew world are very different. In my world Vecna was a god who joined Daeryn in the rebellion that preceded the War of Godsfall but when Daeryn was defeated, Vecna betrayed him and was exiled after being trapped in a human body. His personality remains exactly the same but his goal is different. He doesn’t want to ascend to godhood, he wants to reclaim the title of deity by any means necessary.
3: Lorelei, The Veiled Vixen. Very much a femme fatale type villain, Lorelei was once the Fae queen of the Seelie Court who attracted the attention of the Fae trickster god, Arvol. He was smitten with her and was planning to marry her, much to the anger of the other gods. The gods decided to punish Lorelei for “seducing” Arvol and pulling him away from his duties and so they turned her into a Devil and banished her to Nessus, where they knew Arvol would never go searching for her. She is manipulative, charismatic and intelligent and will stop at nothing to be reunited with Arvol but only after her vengeance on the gods is had.
As usual, great advice and content
Would your version of the rule maximize bonus die like Paladin smites or Rogue sneak attacks? What about spell attacks? I’ve played for the past 2 years saying yes to max damage on all 3 of those, just so I feel less bad when my fire giant 64 damage with one greatsword attack. Would love to see this rule in OneD&D!
My BBEG based on this video's advice
Keivael the Purifier
A radiant being of blinding holy light. Keivael, also know as 'Keivael the six mercies' and 'Lady of Lament', is a supremely holy being in service to an unknowable god.
For those who have committed atrocities - or wish to - she represents a way to avoid eternal damnation. At their death they will call upon them and mercifully purge their souls of sin so that they may be welcomed into Paradise.
Unfortunately, 'mercy' and 'purity' are *highly* subjective terms.
Keivael can only be summoned by those who hold the desire for purification of all things *above all else *. Sacrifices of property, wealth and even friends and family - sometimes literally - are required.
Finally, stripped of all other desires and cares, the applicant bares their soul to Keivael to receive her merciful touch and cleansing light.
And that when they know they've made a terrible mistake.
All of their souls are offered in fear (save for the truly repentent) fear of damnation, fear of discovery, fear of facing the consequences.
They're all so afraid and she is compelled to save them.
The most merciful way thing to do here is purify their fear.
And the most purifying thing known to man...is pain.
I often have trouble making the big bad feel real. right now i am running a campaign with shar and her deciples as the big bad but shar has tricked the party to work along side her. how do i make the reveal seem real because up until this point all of my badguys feel like obsticles and thats it. I try and add more roleplay but the party is all about stabby stabby most of the time so i dont have much time to present the big bad to them?
Did you just make Trump as a D&D villain?
First