Make your bad guys the talk of the table even after they finally get beaten in combat. Here are some tips for making memorable villains!
The right villain can make all the difference in a campaign. They give players something to rail against, can help drive the plots unfolding in the world around you, and of course, are a great source of adventure and conflict, the key parts of drama.
But what makes a villain memorable? Is it a cool sword? An evil laugh? It could be both. Here’s a few things to consider when trying to make a bad guy that players will remember long after the campaign has ended.
Scheme Big And Live Mas
If there is only one piece of advice to follow, it’s this: try and make a villain that’s larger than life. Live mas, in other words. Let your villain dream big – Raul Julia as M. Bison is the best – and only good – thing about the Street Fighter movie, and it’s because he understood the assignment. The best villains are audacious and bold.
They dream of things that other people wouldn’t dare to do. This works whether you’re playing it up for laughs a little – like with a daring pirate who won’t stop until he’s stolen the sun – or playing it somber as the grave, with a forgotten lich queen who will one day drown the world in shadow. We, as humans, love a big personality whatever flavor it takes.
Being big doesn’t mean you can’t have subtle schemes, but it means having the sharp personality. The one-liners, the trash talk, the boasts – all the things that make villains cool.
Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts – Emotionally
Also if you want your villain to be memorable, it can be helpful to have them actually be villainous. They gotta do things that will make them feel like an enemy. This can be as simple as trying to conquer the place where the player characters are – but you can get more specific.
Have a villain attack that beloved NPC, or threaten them in some way. Burn down the cool palace, crash the party airship – not necessarily all at once. But if there’s something that the villain can do to paint a target on themselves, the players will not only be more motivated, they’ll remember why this villain is a total bastard who has to be stopped.
Be Cool, Or At Least Have Cool Powers
Villains that are memorable are villains that are fun to fight. Or they go down in like one round in some spectacular fashion. But that’s usually not up to the DM, that’s up to the dice (and boy will they make it known when a villain is going to die no matter what).
But what you can do, DM, is make a villain that has interesting abilities. Give them cool powers. Or a cool weapon – something that makes them feel iconic. Plus, if it’s somehow something the players can loot after a fight, the villain is going to be even more memorable.
But even just something like using a teleport speed to seem untethered in space. Or to create clones or whatever else you can think of – a unique mechanic makes for a fun fight. And a fun villain, if all goes well.
No Villainy In A Vaccuum
Also, you can’t control how your players react to a villain. But you CAN control how NPCs react. And if you want to sell your villain, you gotta give them a jobber, to use a wrestling term. It can be hard to defeat players – especially in 5.5E, but an NPC ally? Or a rival that the villain can threaten/take out? These you CAN control.
Convey that a villain is serious business by having the local peasants be afraid of them. Or send in a few guard NPCs to be killed as though they were nothing to signify how powerful they can be. You have all these ways of showing the world reacting to someone’s presence (you probably use them all the time for players), put them to use for the villain!
This Isn’t Even Your Final Form
Finally never underestimate a good transformation sequence. This is an easy one that you can’t pull out all the time. But if you have a boss fight that has phases where the boss becomes something different and cool, that’s going to stand out. Mythic Mnsters (introduced in the Mythic Odysseys of Theros) are just one example. Run out of hit points, become a different kind of thing.
Same goes for Elemental Cataclysms in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. But even if your boss transforms after the fact – that is, comes back from being dead, like Goku or Palpatine, somehow; it can still be memorable. Just give them a new look. A fresh coat of paint, and a few dark new abilities can help the villain feel like they’re progressing too.
Happy adventuring!
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