4/27/2002
by Dan Rose

Thanks to movies such as Austin Powers, we know how a villain should not act: they should not capture the hero and place them in a trap sure to kill them, and leave them there to assume they’ve died. They should not have such rampant fighting amongst their followers that it interferes with their attempts to conquer the world. And, above all, they need to have the intelligence to conquer, and not just strength or resources. So why are so many D&D villains built on exactly those lines?

Evil comes in many forms, from the low thugs who roll drunks for coins to the insane madman who seeks revenge on the characters for some imagined offense to the mastermind villain who doesn’t care about the characters unless they get in his way. There’s a place for all of them in any good campaign, primarily because all of them exist in the real world, but the one most DMs have a problem creating is also the most interesting: where would Sherlock Holmes have been without Moriarty? Where would Bond have been without Dr. No? Where would Picard have been without Q? These can be some of the most fun characters to play for the DM, provided it’s done right – know that your players will eventually beat you (because if evil always triumphed, they would feel powerless to stop it, and hence less interested in playing), but try to prolong your villain’s life as much as possible.

With this in mind, there are a few things to consider when creating a villain:

Smart villains are good villains. Stupid villains don’t last long
You’ve heard the saying “evil is its own downfall”? This is because most villains are either stupid or overconfident, either sabotaging their own plans, or not considering what could happen if small details fail. In Star Wars, the empire left a breech in their defenses that was tough to get at, but possible. The entire rebellion could have been crushed simply by sending out two storm troopers with a large piece of shielding to put over the opening of the ventilation shaft, particularly considering they found out about the flaw with more than enough time to fix it.

You, as DM, have an advantage over the players – you know everything about their characters, including all of their weaknesses. As a villain, play off those, and also protect yourself from their strengths. Be cautious about doing this in an omniscient way: if a player just got a wand of magic missile, don’t have your villain suddenly discover a ring of shield. However, feel free to send your legions of minions at the player until his wand is out of charges. Then step in and face him.

A good villain knows when to cut his losses
Which is more fun for your players to face (and more fun for you to play)? The evil fighter who goes toe-to-toe with the entire party, and gets slaughtered by their superior numbers, or the evil fighter who carefully separates the party members from each other, then takes them on individually? Or, if he’s unable to do so, sets off a trap that will hopefully get a few of them, while leaving an escape route for himself? The best villains are returning villains that will become the arch-nemesis of your players. They foil his schemes (just barely) at every turn, but he always manages to escape and start trouble somewhere else, until finally, after years of game-time, they finally manage to track him down and face him in a glorious final battle, after which they can toast his memory. Plus, if you have a short prepared speech to have your villain say just before he ducks into his hidden escape passage, it’ll make your players dislike him – and like you – even more.

A good villain knows what he wants and is focused on that goal
Does your villain want to rule the kingdom, or even the world? Does he want riches or fame or magical artifacts, or just power? Good villains will want these things, whereas a poorly planned villain will simply seek to fight the characters – after all, if he managed to defeat them, what would he do next? Your villain has some goal in life, and he might have to take out the characters because they stand in the way of that, but more often than not, they’re not related to his plans. The characters, on the other hand, usually have an obligation to stop the villain. For instance, good characters cannot stand by while some villain carefully poisons every member of the ruling council until he’s the only one left. This makes it easier for you, because you force the players into reacting to your schemes, rather than having to come up with schemes that react to them. Also, if they manage to ruin your plans, you still have your goal, and simply go on to plan B. Don’t fall in to the trap of having your villain’s goal being to ‘get those lousy adventurers that spoiled my plan last time,’ as this makes for very short-lived evil.

A good villain is ruthless
Good villains are evil – play them that way. While your players might have a problem with killing innocents that are in their way, your villain won’t. However, this doesn’t mean that your villain should spend his time killing for the fun of it – as above, you have loftier goals than this, and you should focus on them. As an example, in my current campaign, the arch-nemesis of the characters is seeking to take over the warehouse section of the city. He has money, but the current owners are unwilling to sell, except for one small warehouse. So, he goes down there with several carts loaded with explosives, fills up his newly bought warehouse, and then invites the current owners (and the players) up to his estate overlooking the city, just in time to have them see a large portion of the waterfront go up in smoke. He then buys the land at a drastically reduced rate. Quite a few of the dockworkers were killed in the blast, but that wasn’t his concern.

And in the end, remember one important thing – while a good villain is smart and powerful, he’s not infallible. The players should be able to foil his plans, even if they can’t kill him just yet, and every time he slips out of their grasp will make them want to come back to the gaming table more and more.

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