Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Aug 19, 2003 19:18:57	While brainstorming my DL campaign I came to the villain and came up with the usual suspects but none that were truly 'unique'. I have found that one of the great cornerstones in my time as a GM is a great villain. A nemesis that the players just love to hate. So with that in mind I thought I would throw it open to the board and see what interesting villains they have used or have thought would make a great nemesis. Personally I recall a villain our GM once inflicted upon us in a DL campaign. He was actually a minor character but I hated that guy with a passion. You see his name was Balfidor, a gangly decrepit and sneaky little goblin (yes a lowly goblin of all things!). This little bugger was the toady for a Death Knight called Draede and where there was Balfidor, Draede could not be far off. You see I was AFRAID of Draede he was everything you'd expect a Death Knight to be but I LOATHED that little Goblin. I was playing a Knight of the crown, extremely virtuous and naive (you know the type) and Balfidor carried a heavy crossbow that took him rounds to struggle to reload but the little bugger liked to use poison. What's more he liked to taunt me. An example of his treachery was that (being a knight) I had no missile weapons and he would stand out of reach so I could suddenly spot him, then smile at me and shoot one of my companions or friends but never me. Every time you got close to this obnoxious minion he would drop the crossbow and flee for his life or you would be just about to pummel the blighter and then out of the undergrowth would burst Draede and then it was all running and screaming for the party. We killed Draede but we never got Balfidor and I know he is out there somewhere just lurking and waiting. Anyway with that example I pose the question what makes a truly memorable villain in your mind? Arandur
#2 rosisha Aug 19, 2003 19:57:49	Well I know one time our party, in an old DL campaign (from the Tales of the Lance) we had a pair of dwarven fighters, and I was a Red Robe mage. We were campaigning before the war of the lance (like less then a year before it). What happened with the campaign was that a cleric of Chemosh had been killing goblins, evil humans, draconians etc and attempting to raise an undead army. He kept failing with the draconians, but he kept killing them thinking that he could do it. We ended up partnering with this, and I'm quoting from memory, "soft spoken mage who wears thick black robes, and covers his face in shadows." This guy of course was an Aurak draconian. We knew he was evil, and I falsely assumed that he had passed his Test, but barely (you know, the Black Robe and thinking of how the test can kill or severely maim). And we ended up working closely together. The DM played him as this ammazingly diverse character, an Aurak who had interests besides evil and conquering. He was intelligent, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes helpfull, and in the end he left us with a promise that we would have three days and nights to leave the area before "all the fury of the abyss was opened up." He became a recurring bad guy, but the problem was, was that rather then a bad guy we loathed, he was a bad guy we actually liked! We must have faced him a number of times. I remember that well the war was going badly as the Golden General marched her armies across the continent, my Red Robe (now much higher in level and with his own powerful magical staff he found, I think it was like the Staff of Power or some such) and this guy had a facinating discusion on magic that led to my Red Robe developing a spell that transformed evil dragon eggs into good draconians (to maintain the balance!). He was the most interesting bad guy I ever had the pleasure of playing against, more like a worthy chess opponent, someone you can both admire, learn from, and fear, then someone whom you chase down for experience points. Rosisha