Recurring the Villain

I’m not sure about you, but I have a lot of problems with getting a villain to have a life of more than 1 encounter. (I also have players that get cranky about bad guys that get away.) This blog is basically inspired by two things I’ve recently come across specifically for the purpose of letting the villain recur.

Escape Powers

Firstly one of the easiest ways to have the villain recur is to give them a power or movement mode that will let them escape to come back and taunt the players another day. Obvious things like Flight or Phasing Insubstantial will work, but they bring with them other problems for encounter design and so on if they are always on. Invisibility as an escape tool can work, but the players might well be able to locate and kill such a monster depending on your parties make up. So in general you want something that is essential an “escape” button, like an ejection seat for the villain!

The Cambion Wrathborn (DDI) from Monster Manual 3 is an excellent example of a usable villain for Heroic Tier with just the right sorts of powers. As a level 9 Skirmisher its defences are low enough that the PCs could encounter it over several levels, even from as low as 1st and still get a shot or two in, while still allowing it to disdainfully walk away. But the key things are its Wicked Guise and Burst Skyward powers. Wicked Guise lets it disguise itself as a Medium Humanoid, while Burst Skyward lets it move 8 (Fly) without OAs and then still have another move 8 (fly) afterwards! The trick is that Wicked Guise stops working when Burst Skyward starts working! So the Cambion can spend a lot of time disguised as someone else only to have a “final confrontation” with the party which it will escape from using Burst Skyward once its true form is revealed. So if it has been turning up for a while, each time slipping away using mundane means, or being in a place where the PCs couldn’t attack it (think Holy Ground in Highlander for example) when they finally get their chance (say around level 7) they beat it down to bloodied, and it looses its disguise and then on its next action flees. The next time the party see it they must wonder is it the devil or the villain, or are they the same person until at last your campaign allows them to fight it where it cannot fly away and they get their victory.

A Convenient Distraction

The other way of having a villain recur is to have them put something in the PCs way, ideally something the PCs have to fight. Anyone who has read or watched Rurouni Kenshin’s Shishio arc has seen this hard at work, and the two pages below show the simple version.

The set up is very simple, this is the first confrontation between the main villain, Shishio, and the heroes. As such there is the usual banter and plot explanations where the villain explains his reasons so that the hero is sure he is a villain and they can do battle. (Why yes it is just trope filled, but that isn’t a bad thing, tropes are your friend not your enemy.) Then finally satisfied that he should slay the villain the hero makes his challenge, then the villain does a classic bait and switch. He calls forth an ally and sets that ally on the hero, then escapes out the back door while the hero is busy.

In DnD the set up is very much the same, the PCs should be in a position where they need information (and the villain should at the time of the encounter be able to easily defeat them if they decide beating it out of him later would be best, and they should have clues that is so – eg Dragon villains, the above Cambion vs lower level PCs) then when they have learnt everything the villain can call forth his ally. That ally might come bursting up through the floor like in the comic pages above (Bulette for eg), or appear from a summoning circle, or any number of other interesting things. You can use a solo, or multiple enemies it doesn’t really matter. The truly annoying thing to do is to have the main villain stay and watch for a few rounds before disdainfully telling his allies to destroy them, as they are unworthy of the villain’s personal attention, or something similar, then simply turn their back and walk away while the PCs are busy (hence the need to have a villain who is known to be powerful).

The Enemy You Cannot Fight

Rurouni Kenshin also gave me some other ideas for dealing with villains (recurring or not). The obvious way of dealing with a villain is to beat or blast them out of existence with your characters abilities. But is that the most interesting way? What happens when the party has the means, and reason to seek another way of defeating the villain? The Kenshin vs Saukaku fight is an example of this; Kenshin does not want to reveal his secret techniques (ie powers!) to the main villain because doing so would give the main villain an advantage, but at the same time he must defeat Saukaku. In DnD terms Kenshin uses athletics, insight and heal to determine Saukaku’s weakness and exploit it. Instead of using powers he engages in a skill challenge. This could be important for the PCs if they are fighting something with high resistance to their attacks for example that it can adjust to deal with their damage (especially if it is the main villain). The key element here is in finding those other ways of dealing with the villain that will render it harmless without killing it, and thus defeating it. The convenient thing being that a villain that isn’t dead but rendered harmless can recover and return to fight again!

One way of setting up this “you need to beat him, but just doing powers isn’t going to work” is also modeled in Rurouni Kenshin; the gauntlet of enemies. When Kenshin finally goes to face Shishio he and his allies must first defeat a series of henchmen. By putting a clock on this you can force the PCs to arrive at the last fight injured and out of big powers, and even possibly without having rested effectively. (Shishio does this by sending an overwhelming seperate force to attack the “PCs” “NPC” friends, so the “PCs” must either turn back and let the villain enact his plot, or rush in the hopes of defeating him in time to save their friends.) This way the PCs arrive to face the main villain in a weakened state, and they must find other ways to work around their problem other than simply “hitting it with a stick”.

“I want Solo alive!”

Of course the easiest way to set up a recurring villain is to make them an “untouchable” maybe the PCs can fight and defeat the villain, but their employer wants them alive, or maybe the first villain is has been dominated and so on. This route works even better if the party has a number of Good PCs or PCs with an honor code that will make them avoid killing the villain for some reason. Then while the PCs are off dealing with some other problem the villain can escape (or worse be set free) and resume mayhem all over again.

“It’s your reputation old boy.”

If you have seen the new Sherlock Holmes you know where this one leads (if you why not?). Firstly it is a good addendum to the “I want them alive” idea, having captured the villain the villain is sentenced to death and the sentence is carried out. You can even let the PC’s check the body. Then the villain is returned to life (lots of ways for this) and resumes their evil ways, perhaps on an even grander scale.

Conclusion

Obviously some of these things can be mixed and matched, but the key is to build an enemy that the PCs want to kill, and give them a means of escaping at least once to make it all the more satisfying when the party finally does get to kill the villain. The main thing about having a recurring villain is that each time the PCs face them and they escape the plans and deeds of the villain must become more “evil” so that the tension and desire to defeat him increases. Using a series of escapes such as using an ally, then a fake death or dramatic escape, until at last your PCs corner the villain and get to render their justice/revenge etc upon them is a key thing. But keep an eye on your players if they react with only frustration to the villain’s escape you will want to use it sparingly.