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GameMastery Guide / Nonplayer Characters / Villains

Playing Villains

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
As every villain knows, minions cannot be trusted. Some are disloyal, many are incompetent, and the rest are too lazy to do a good job. This gives the PCs a chance to see the villain before the final showdown and become familiar with his personality. The villain can be present while the PCs are chewing through lower-level minions—shouting orders and threats, casting spells and other long-range attacks, taunting the PCs, and escaping before they can get within reach. Depending on the layout of a particular area, the villain can be standing at the back of the troops (and cutting down any who try to flee), looking down on the action from a balcony with a bodyguard or two, and so on. No matter the circumstances, the villain will always have an escape route planned, and a fine sense of timing about when to use it.

Hands-On Management

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
Spells like detect evil are the bane of any villain whose identity needs to be a surprise. There are spells and magic items that can conceal a character’s alignment and even make an evil character appear to be good, but the greatest defense is a crowd. At a royal court, for example, there should be a cross-section of people, many of them neutral. Inevitably, though, some will be evil or chaotic. Are the PCs going to scan the alignment of everyone in the castle, or the city? What will they do about those who read as chaotic or evil? If the villain keeps his head down, it could take the PCs forever to work through the list of suspects— time which the true villain can use to great advantage.

Secret Villains

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
Spellcasting villains can use magical means to taunt and provoke the PCs without exposing themselves to any danger. Scrying and clairvoyance spells allow the villain to keep an eye on the PCs and adjust the minions’ tactics accordingly, while magic mouth, whispering wind, and similar spells let the villain give orders and issue taunts. Various illusion spells allow the villain to appear before the PCs without any risk.

The Disembodied Voice

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
Every good villain has an escape route prepared for use if the final showdown goes in the PCs’ favor. Only fools, fanatics, and psychotics ever fight to the death—most others will try to escape as soon as it becomes apparent they cannot win. There are plenty of spells and magic items that a villain can use to escape and live to fight another day. The sidebar lists some of the spells, and with a little imagination it is possible to come up with more. The keys are planning (some spells will need to be cast in advance) and keeping a close eye on casting times and saving throws. A low-level spell with no saving throw can often be more useful than a higher-level spell that does have a saving throw.

A Bolt-Hole

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 93
Sometimes a villain needs to appear and then get away. With all the versatility and options at the hands of a capable party of adventurers, this can prove quite difficult for the villain and dangerous to the plot should she get trapped. At the same time, PCs should never feel incapable of opposing the villain or suspect the GM of unfairly favoring the antagonist. If it’s important that a villain escape, consider some of the following spells when planning her contingencies.

Airborne Escape: Air walk, elemental body, feather fall, gaseous form, levitate, overland flight, spider climb, wind walk

Barriers: Acid fog, animate plants, antilife shell, blade barrier, black tentacles, cloudkill, entangle, fog cloud, incendiary cloud, interposing hand, magic circle, minor creation, obscuring mist, plant growth, prismatic wall, spike growth, spike stones, solid fog, stinking cloud, storm of vengeance, wall of force, web, wind wall

Hindrances: Dimensional lock, hold person, hold portal, hypnotic pattern, power word blind

Instant Egress: Blink, dimension door, ethereal jaunt, etherealness, phase door, teleport, transport via plants, tree stride, word of recall

Illusory Escape: Hallucinatory terrain, illusory wall, invisibility, minor image, mirror image, mislead, persistent image, programmed image, project image, silent image, simulacrum

Rapid Retreat: Expeditious retreat, haste, longstrider, mount, phantom steed, time stop

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Playing Villains

Hands-On Management

Secret Villains

The Disembodied Voice

A Bolt-Hole