13 Villains You've Never Thought Of | Inspiration from "Non-Evil" Subclasses
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- Still struggling with creating a villain for your campaign? Well you don't need tips, you need inspiration! Generally, we gravitate towards edgy subclasses like Oathbreakers or Undead Warlocks? But what about Glamour Bards or Divine Souls? Let's brainstorm new ways to look at villains and create impactful ones!
Whether it be Homebrew, Worldbuilding, World Setting, Roleplay, Narrative, Character Building, or other elements of Dungeons and Dragons, let's all strive to create stories that we will carry with us for years to come!
Check out the Villain video from The Geek Pantheon's Channel!
• Your Villains Could Be...
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📖📖📖📖📖📖CHAPTERS📖📖📖📖📖📖
0:00 Big Beautiful Evocative Gift
1:16 The Alchemist
2:09 The Beast
3:24 The Glamour
4:29 The Forge
5:34 The Wildfire
7:05 The Geek Pantheon
8:42 The Cavalier
9:57 The Long Death
11:13 The Redemption
12:28 The Horizon Walker
13:46 The Inquisitive
14:44 The Divine Soul
16:00 The Genie
17:23 The Scribes
18:18 What Next?
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Thanks so much for having me Ryker! Love the Druid and Ranger concepts.
An honor and a privilege!
On the divine soul, I once had a villain who was a necromancer and I had set up a bunch of evil villains over the campaign who had died in history and the necromancer brought them all back.
I bet that was insane!
an idea for a villain with a healing subclass? They're a torturer who inflicts wounds on his targets by torturing them only to heal them and start all over again
One of my favorites is a Genghis Khan-inspired warlord (I promise there's a twist). Towering human warrior, Echo Knight specifically, very cunning, gracious yet cutthroat, loads of magic items and (curiously) seems attuned to more items than should be possible. Between the echoes, a displacer cloak, and a relic that lets him use the Contingency spell, he is VERY slippery. But he'll try to reason with the party, and people will talk about his numerous achievements. If they speak to him and ask about his deeds, one stands out. His earliest notoriety was killing a mere con artist who irritated his home county. Though he regrets his enemies had to die rather than be part of his glorious future, he never regrets the actual decision to kill them. A necessary evil. But he does regret killing her. He says she wasn't really a menace, but a lost soul lashing out because she was never shown decency. She was a gnome illusionist and the humans abused her because she was small, disrespected because she was an independent woman, and mistrusted her because of her illusion spells. He wonders how his life would be different if he had known her longer. Well, if the players defeat this warlord or manage to dispel his many layers of magic protection, they will find the towering human echo knight is actually a tiny gnome woman who finally made people respect her through the very illusions they hated.
H'oh shit, this is really good!
Villain I'm currently running:
Magical slumlord.
He's hired the party to clear out houses of monsters. Aka the people who own the house that he wants to turn into his new rental property.
The party is progressively wrecking its goodwill in the city by aligning with him, but is making enormous amounts of gold. To win, they need to simply do three things 1) take the written contract to wipe out a house that is owned by someone to the court and 2) go under the court's order and fight and defeat their former employer. 3) then find his papers and bring them and his body to the court.
The party hasn't figured out that this is a city level BBEG. He's an Armorer Artificer, and will be a somewhat troublesome opponent for them.
Dang, that's awesome!!
This is making me realize that I can recycle some character concepts as villains, such as a Goliath Forge Cleric counterfeiter, using Artisan's Blessing to manipulate material prices and currency ratios. Or a Halfling Soulknife Rogue luck build as self -centered mary-sue, pursuing their own glory and gratification as a 'hero'.
Both sound so fun!!
More Villainous Ideas:
Archfey Warlock: Rather than having a villain who kills a bunch of people, this one is more like Dennis the Menace. Lots of annoying pranks. They are seemingly harmless to begin with, however their actions have unintended consequences. The Warlock and their Patron only want to spread mischief, but have no intention of harming other people. However as the pranks get more elaborate, people begin to suffer.
Anti-Bard: More for a comedic campaign. This loud abrasive Bard has a terrible singing voice. Their performances have magical power and can cause people to scream in agony. The Bard's only motivation is to entertain people, however they are deluded enough to believe that they are entertaining. Now their uniquely bad singing is being used by a tyrant to keep the subjects in line.
Gentleman/Lady: This villain is polite, noble, cunning, smart and loves to dance. Any class could work here. The main idea is that they actually give out compliments to the party. Their main purpose is to forge a party of heroes. They are there to serve as an Great obstacle to overcome. This villain wants to be defeated. Their goal is to train the party to face a greater threat. Upon defeat they will congratulate the party.
Unending Rage Barbarian: As a game master you can bend the rules a little. This Barbarian cannot stop raging. Some kind magic stops them from sleeping and keeps them enraged. This drives them towards violence. However the troubled Barbarian actually wants to die so that the raging can end. Their constant anger makes them sad. They are saddened by the amount of people they have killed but are unable to stop. The Barbarian is begging to be killed but is unable to turn the blade on themselves.
Life Domain Cleric: This well intentioned person indiscriminately heals everyone and has sworn an oath not to kill anyone. A curse has hit the land in a last ditch attempt to wipe out an army that will surely ravage the land. What is the Cleric doing? They have an issue with the curse because it will wipe out an entire race, however the curse is necessary to take care of an invading army who will easily conquer the world. The Cleric cannot allow an entire race to be wiped out even if it means everyone being oppressed. This Cleric in battle will try to knock out the party and imprison them but refuses to kill.
Perfectly Balanced Monk: This Way of Mercy Monk is dedicated towards balance. Balance between the forces of good and evil. If there are too many good people in an area, they will kill a few good people. If there are too many evil people in an area they will kill a few evil people. They will also engage in social engineering to bring evil people to places where there is an abundance of good and good people to places where there is an abundance of evil. They also hunt down Celestials and Fiends alike to keep both forces perfectly balanced. They heal and harm in equal measure.
Moon Druid: I will have them as a full on shape shifter. Not just shape shifting into animals but also plants, humanoids and objects. There are a group of them. Their goal is to cause fear and paranoia as anyone could be a shape shifter. The shape shifters kill a handful of people but for the most part sow the seeds of paranoia into people's minds causing people to go lynching each other. Once society has collapsed they go to the next city to do the same.
An interesting one is, oddly enough, to take inspiration from Eragon and the inheritance cycle. The main villain of the series is Galbatorix, an ex dragon rider who went insane and killed the other riders until he had only his chosen few. Over the course of his life since, he was tinkering with the magic of the world until he figured out the very code to the world itself that allow him to shape it as he saw fit, alongside ruling the humans with an iron fist and enslaving another dragon.
In short you can make a wizard/ranger with a knack for spell tinkering, maybe even an understanding of true names and how to find them.
Bonus points for the use of the parties true names as a form of dominate person, for having these fell riders as mini bosses for the campaign, or for having any from of battle on top of a dragon as an impressive two-stage final battle.
Great inspiration!!
The Alchemist- I found it really difficult to think of a good alchemist villain except for Jack Nicholson's Joker with Smylex and holds a city hostage.
The Beast- Though I like the idea of goblinoids led by a warrior who has been mystically transformed to fight back against adventurers, I like the of a barbarian who doesn't know they are a barbarian and perhaps they think they are a druid or the next evolution of society (great way to introduce simic hybrid to the players)
The Glamour- Just David bowie from Labyrinth/ although I can see inspiration from resident evil maybe
The Forge- blacksmith version of Dorion Gray.
The Wildfire- probably more an urban environment but a Spring-heeled jack character would be fun.
The Cavalier- cavalier works well maybe you are a group of soldiers on the run from the locals like in the film the centurion, or even like they are part of the wild hunt.
The Long Death- go full Eldorado and the damage the monk does slowly turns you to gold.
The Redemption- Danni from Game of Thrones, or the idea of them becoming this malformed monster because their vision for the future blinded them.
The Horizon Walker-The master from Doctor who could work, like someone who was scared of the power source so much so that once given it they rebelled against the bereau/ council that gave it to them.
The Inquisitive- The riddler from the batman or even Howard Payne from1994's Speed.
The Divine Soul- I feel like this could be great for those wanting to have a villain like Arthur Harrow from moon knight that calm but dangerous character.
The Genie-Malik, a supporting character in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands could be a great reference for a character who uses genie or djinn powers incorrectly and would work as a great multiclass with redemption paladin.
The Scribes- lonely child who thinks they are reading a fairytale, but the book is corrupting them.
I know that is a lot to read, just a soon as you explained the concepts my mind went places
INCREDIBLE! Thoroughly entertained and inspired by these additions. Especially love the monk that turns people to gold!!
Great ideas, thank you
These videos are fantastic for the games that I run. Thanks so much for the work you put in to make these happen!
Thank you for watching them!! 😁
I made a villain that was a samurai fighter in the historically accurate sense who deeply regrets her actions but is honor bound to follow the will of a much greater evil.
Love the dichotomy!
LOVE the video! These ideas are so refreshing and already sparking all sorts of ideas in my mind! Thank you so much!
Yay! I'm so glad!!
Amazing ideas! Rangers are my favorite class as a player so a ranger villain would be fun for me to run as a DM.
They are so good!! Please do it!
Great vid! Gives me lots of ideas for how to handle some characters in Ghosts of Saltmarsh who don't get much of a deep dive in the book itself
Oh I'm glad!! Yeah, a few module villains are a little lackluster 😬
Ranger subclasses are a fantastic resource for villains. Especially if your players are min maxers who think gloomstalker is the only option in the game.
Take any CR 5 or lower stat block you like. Give it as many warrior sidekick levels as the party has levels, any ranger subclass, or fathomless warlock or echo knight fighter if you're feeling spicy, and multi attack with enough hits to ping everyone in the party.
Need inspiration for a swarmkeeper or echo knight villain? Go watch the trailer for the Magic The Gathering card set Ikoria. Have them ambush the party on a bridge over a ravine, a high wall, the edge of a cliff, or any other "bottomless pit" environmental hazards. The party will have to think fast to avoid or beat all those Str saves to resist being dragged 15 feet over the edge of an abyss and then dropped by spectral beasts.
Need inspiration for a Horizon Walker enemy? Go watch any good Nightcrawler fight scene in an Xmen movie or show. Or go watch the movie Jumper. Have the villain Bamf all over the battlefield so the great weapon master characters can never get a swing in with the weapon they built their entire life around, and if anyone drops to zero HP they don't die. No, if your horizon walker villain drops a character they don't die. The last hit just portals them to any plane you want to tie into your campaign. Eberron, Ravnica, Kamigawa, Theros, Dark Sun, any plane from Journey Through the Radiant Citadel, Sigil, Innistrad/Ravenloft... Sure, they won't be making death saves, but they are out if the battle in ways revivify and healing word can't fix.
My favorite might be fathomless warlock. Want to have fun with your players? Take the warlord stat block, or a bear, or anything at all. Give that stat block a bonus action that summons a number of Fathomless warlock tentacles equal to the number of PCs. Then give each of those tentacles the swarm tricks from the level 3 swarmkeeper ranger. Running a nautical campaign? This makes every monster stat block a kraken, and every humanoid stat block a kraken summoning cultist. Running any campaign with cosmic horror or great old one antagonists? This makes for a much better villain than the great old one warlock subclass would have you believe.
Edit: I should mention why you never do this with Gloomstalker.
DM: "Make a group perception check."
Players: "Our average result was 12."
DM: "Okay, that's fine..." *waits 40 seconds* "an hour after you set up camp an arrow comes out of the darkness and deals 400 damage to..." *rolls on a table with PC names* "the healer."
The measure of the value of a subclass should never be dpr. It should be actual gameplay. If the entire table would declare open rebellion if the DM hit them with an insane burn all my resources Nova burst of damage on round 1 then they probably shouldn't do that to the DM.
Great concepts as always!
Thanks Rolan!!
Just found your channel, glad I looked around! I'm starting a game soon and have the final villan as a necromancer who's collecting undead to essentially create an artificial intelligence using a plant sized computer-like construction that can cast higher-than-9th level spells perfectly to ■■■■■■■... but need some in between to lead up to that, and these are perfect!
Thank you! I'm happy you stuck around!
Just found out this channel existed, and it's awesome! Thanks for all the good content my dude :)
Briefly, here's the same idea but with other subclasses:
-Battlesmith Artificer: a battlefield medic, who, in their youth, would have wanted to try and save everyone. They have since realised that because not everyone can be saved, no one SHOULD be saved. Think of Sweeney Todd's 'they all deserve to die' epiphany but with more sadness. They would want to provide a quick and painless death to anyone, rather like the Lamb of Kindred in League of Legends.
-Wild Magic Barbarian: someone who wants to become the living manifestation of the Weave by channelling infinite possibilities inside him out of pure greed (a la Strange Supreme in What If)
-Valor Bard: instead of allying herself with adventuring parties, this Valor Bard manically foretells their deaths and then sings about it before retreating into the darkness, as an eternal penance for the fact she couldn't save her family long ago.
-Mutant Blood Hunter: a scientist who concocts their formulas from the actual blood of enemies they have slain, so as to prevent their unstable physiology (they're from another plane) from dissolving on the Material Plane
-Order Cleric: Any chaos must be stamped out, especially when an inquisitor like this cleric is on the scene. True order is the best way to lead a society for this cleric, and will not only smite the wicked, but anyone who breaks their personal code (yep, it's Javert).
-Dreams Druid: a demonic lord of nightmares on a quest for vengeance to pollute the dreams of all who have wronged him. Because he is vain as the Nine Hells, that means everyone.
-Echo Knight Fighter: the echo is the soul of the original's twin. This original fights alongside the soul of their sibling, and just wants to see them one last time in the flesh: to anyone who doesn't want to help them, they kill.
-Way of the Sun Soul Monk: they think they're the subject of a long-told prophecy and, as such, try to steer a star towards the Material Plane in pure zealous madness
-Oath of the Ancients Paladin: Ancients is to be taken literally; disgusted with a world blighted by arcane technology, this warrior years to turn everything back to Nature; including those who resist them.
-Beast Master Ranger: The bond with this ranger's beast has become corrupted: the beast has taken over the ranger's body and mind, and wishes to create an empire of its brethren to spread across the Material Plane. Bestial strength and now intelligence? Horrifying.
-Arcane Trickster Rogue: The up-and-coming seemingly meek prince of a kingdom secretly kills the 9 people who are standing in his way to rule. Its rumoured that he possesses no magical abilities, but the deaths of the other heirs to the throne all died in coincidences-nothing to do with him at all... (and yes this is the plot to A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder)
- Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer: having received a demented whisper from Tiamat, this dragonborn wants to start a civil war between each individual species of dragon, in order to have Tiamat standing as the last true dragon to finally defeat Bahamut
-Archfey Warlock: this warlock loves nothing more than revelry, but, like, a Dionysian cult, would want their parties to be filled with blood. Whether innately mad, or having to satisfy their archfey patron with blood sacrifices, their festivities are always afflicted with madness and carnage.
-Abjuration Wizard: immense pride; a demigod born without any sorcerous powers, this individual still feels bitter that that didn't get magic the easy way. They still believe they're virtually untouchable, and wants to try and find a way to become immortal via abjuration magic, ultimately to protect themselves against the wrath of the gods.
(Well that was a nice 20-minute 1am creative session to end the day...I should really get some sleep- but hope you enjoy!)
love them all! Keep up the creativity! Glad you found the channel!
Another good idea for a villainous valor bard is that they hero worship...that worlds previous villains....or even some famous thieves like fantasy Bonny and Clyde.
Not necessarily BBG’s, but some villains none the same
Beast master Ranger - a poacher: Illegal hunting on lands or endangered species & selling if them. Has an army of loyal beasts of many different kinds, wolves with pack tactics, bears for strength, hawk to distract with speed. Any and all used as a sacrifice to escape & be replaced. Cos we all now people hate animal cruelty
Life cleric - torturer: once a character is caught, this villain can torture them for days! Inflict pain & then heal them back up to start aaaallll over again.
I might work on some more now 🤔 one for each class
Both very solid ideas!
These are so good. I love it!
Thank you!
This reminded me a bit of what I'm doing while DMing Rise of Tiamat, since it doesn't even have stat blocks for all the main 5 cultists, I remade all of them to embody a class and subclass, but they all have the same motivation
That's awesome! Goes to show you how versatile you can make them! :)
Love the idea of a Glamour Bard. Thought of an idea for an infernal glamour with a Tiefling with a Rakshasa ancestor
Name the rouge pain and you can use the line: "The world shall know pain" -pain
These are interesting ideas. Thanks for eye opening choices. The ranger choice made me think of Flashpoint Paradox DC event. Tried to make something good, but choice rippled through their timeline into something twisted.
Ooh! Absolutely! I mean who doesn't think that's a blast 😂
Rasputin from one of Kingsman Movies is basically how I imagine college of Swords Bard as a villain.
Oh very much so! Love that movie!
Already did the evil monk thing by having the head monk's chosen replacement fall to demonic corruption, and when the head monk dies, the new head monk either kills or converts the rest of the congregation to his side, knocking off his biggest competitors by spiking their drinks with some sort of abyssal poison that causes the equivalent of negative levels and/or exhaustion.
Sounds awesome!
ooh if i could do another subclass as a villain, id love to create a hunter ranger that is a similar villain to disney's gaston or clayton, basically a poacher of magic creatures who hunts them for the glory and fame. alternate for this one would be monster slayer or gloomstalker
Ive been working on my own world for a wee bit, and one of the things ive made is a group called the Praetor Hexis. Whos sole goal is to basically wander the lands and hunt down magical gifted things and people. pretty close to "the Cavliar" idea .
Ooh, too bad for the party spellcasters!
Thanks for your videos I look for them every time in my Facebook group
That makes me feel so good!! I'm so glad you enjoy them! ☺️
No problem man. You should do a video on gunslingers.maybe how to fit them into your fantasy setting.
@@calicojack7196 hmm, that's actually a good idea!
“You SEE Frieza, I’m not your AVERAGE villian anymore…!”
😂😂
@@TheClericCorner I see you too are a man of classic UA-cam culture.
The forge cleric is fantastic, a ticking time bomb that will end up handing the equivalent of a nuclear weapon to the actual final boss, I love it
Oooh, yesss 👀
This was an awesome video although the wildfire Druid terraforming is interesting but sometimes naturally cause wildfires are good allowing new life to grow, so would burning the old world in the campaign in order to build a better one from the ashes be good thematically for a villain as well?
I have a Divine Soul Sorcerer as a villain in my homebrew Ravenloft domain. He's the result of vile experiments by the Sanguine Church and works as one of their most vicious and ruthless inquisitors.
Love this!
How would a Halfling, Divination Wizzard with the Lucky Feat be evil.
He is the luckiest beeing in the world, but how can this be evil?
Mega-gambler channeling gold and funding other sketchy sources
@@TheClericCornerAnd if he is the magister of a kingdom? To what end?
@@derigel9783 hmm, wonder how he got to be there!
@@TheClericCorner Dear Lord, thats terrifying!!!
@Diego Palacios paiva ooooh that's a good one
The Divine Soul, run that one in campain 3 or 4, and have them bring back bads you killed in the old campains.
Hoping for the opposite, turning usually evil subclasses into heroic figures. Perhaps a necromancer that teaches people how to raise the dead as a way of keeping the population safe during wartime (with an abundance of corpses, this makes sense), reduce the need for servants and slaves, etc.
Oathbreaker Paladin is classified as an “evil” class, but what if used to be a Conquest paladin? (Btw, how do you make a literal conqueror “good”?) They got sick of spilling the blood of innocents, blood spilled by their own hands, but by breaking their oath, they’re now hollow, seeking a new spark.
That could definitely be a future video!
I’ve got one that’s similar to the alchemist I’ve wanted to try. The Child of Atom (inspired by fallout game series). Scourge Aasimar Evoker Wizard who studies atoms.
Scourge consumption ability is radiation you give off like a feral ghoul. Cast sickening radiance as your fave spell. Tell the non believers if they just believe in the power of atom then they shall be baptized and saved in the glory of the light of the atom (ie wizards evocation sculpt ability).
Great vid! Beast Barbarian sounds like Goblin Slayer.
Goblin slayer?
@@TheClericCorner Goblin Slayer is an anime that is heavily based on D&D. But the idea that is played with is that all the adventurers think goblins are super easy and low level, except for one, who dedicated his life to slaying all Goblins, and you learn about the different levels of goblins. It’s a pretty awesome show.
@@edwardg8912 sounds like perfect inspiration!
So the Redemption Paladin Villain is basically Kingpin from Netflix Daredevil.
2:42 Someone watched Goblin Slayer. A whole campaign about goblins with a goblin BBEG... That sounds like Goblin Slayer.
How scary would a super evil politician with bard skills be?
VERY
Have you seen Adolf Hitler then again he is a vegan because he hate people hurting animals so he is a animals lover and he play peekaboo with children so even a pure evil character can have some good things about them what make Hitler terrifying is that he convince even people of faith to commit murder against the Jews by convincing them they're avenging Jesus death by using Martin Luther book on Jewish conspiracies during the medieval times to convince people that it's okay and even that they're doing god work and other people thought it was okay to kill the jew because everyone else considered it a okay things to do a social morality and a religious beliefs that that what they're doing is righteous Hitler is the very definition of a evil bard and he is a politician but a bard can also convince people to do the right but also the wrong like Winston Churchill convinced united kingdom that what they're doing is right and even give them courage during dark time.
ok, it was great.
A barbarian king is such a good idea!
Justice for the barbarians! 😂
Marge Simpson holding a Mindflayer:
"I just think they're neat."
That me 😂
I have a silly idea. The mirror party. Yes. This antagonist is a party of adventurers with the exact same race, class, Subclass combination.
The entire party has been afflicted with curse that creates duplicates of themselves. The duplicates are the same in every except one. They represent the dark side of each player character. Their flaws and insecurities are more extreme. They are living breathing cautionary tales.
Whenever the duplicates do evil deeds, the party gets the blame. The party must stop the duplicates whilst also dealing with an increasingly hostile society that cannot tell them and their duplicates apart.
Also yes they will level up at the same time as the party.
The scribes wizard gave me doctor octopus vibes
ooh, absolutely!!
And the redemption paladin also gives me vibes of two-face
My teifling wildfire druid is upset on the thoughts they could ever be a villain even though they hate almost every humanoid, hey wait a minute (for those who don't get it its a joke i know there's gonna be one)
Scarlett Rot Monk
Ooh, Scarlett rot monk?
@@TheClericCorner your monk of the long death Sounded Like Melania blade of milquella to me. Pretty awesome.
oh HECK YEAH!!
Lol big bad couch potatoe
I'm glad someone appreciated that 😂
-_- before you click away? wut?
UA-cam algorithm is real
Fb spam. Maybe you could actually contribute to the group instead of posting for views? It's not just a platform to constantly promote your channel.
My goal is to add value to the d&d community and share my ideas with others. I'm sorry if my intentions seem malicious to you or if you didn't like my videos