Backstory for the Villian [Archive] - Wizards Community

Backstory for the Villian [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Power_of_Kung_Food
09-12-05, 07:56 PM I really hate those stereotypical villians that are simply out to destroy, loot, and cause havoc with little to no motivation. I'm trying to design a villian for my current campaign, I want him to be a paladin gone blackguard, but I'm having trouble coming up with a good reason for this. I want the paladin to have fallen out of favor with his god for doing something against his alignment for the greater good...but not something too cliched...and have this event somehow shape him into his current self. This is going to be my second shot at DMing, and my first time attempting a full campaign, I really want this villian (and the campaign) to be fun and memorable for the entire group so any suggestions you could supply would be much appreciated. Don't worry too much about the details...I've got the general idea for the campaign in my head, but a lot of it could be subject to change. Thanks again!
Crystal Monk
09-12-05, 08:54 PM here's a simple way to make a paladin fall: he decided that something was worth more to him than his current way of life.

I've heard it said that selfishness is the root of all evil, and that's a good start for creating a blackguard. so what happened? maybe his church wanted him to go fight in a war, but going where they told him would leave his homelands abandoned. he told the church to bugger off and defended his homelands, which was the start of his separation from the church. or perhaps he killed a BBEG of some kind whom the church wanted alive, but the paladin had encountered him personally and knew he couldn't be reformed.

or here's an interesting one: the paladin and whatever group he was part of was in a battle with an allied vampire and werewolf under a full moon. the vampire had level-drained the paladin enough so that the paladin was no longer immune to magical diseases. in the battle, the paladin was inflicted with lycanthropy, which immediately took hold. the paladin used his new were-form to slay the vampire, and the party took care of the werewolf. naturally, the paladin went through a lengthy atonement after that and was cured of lycanthropy, but the church never trusted him after that, leading to an eventual break.

hope these were helpful. I think one or more of these will see use in my campaign... :D
Gort32
09-12-05, 09:31 PM http://giantitp.com/frm0005.html

A nice article on designing a villian ;)
LuciusT
09-12-05, 11:44 PM Hmm.. reasons for a good man to all from grace:

1) Becoming the enemy... the paladin, in his zealous battle against evil slowly begins to feel that the ends justify the means. Perhaps he becomes increasingly brutal and cruel in his battle or perhaps he starts to use evil methods, like torture, to achieve his goals.

2) The enemy of my enemy... to defeat a great evil, the paladin comes to an accord with a lesser evil. Later, to defeat another evil, he makes another deal with another, less minor, evil. Over time, the lines blur and the paladin begins to use evil against evil, becoming evil himself without ever really knowing when he fell.

3) Evil for the greater good... the paladin believes that the only way he can really achieve his goal is to sacrifice his own soul. He joins an evil cult because he thinks he can use them for a greater good. (I actually tried to use this in one campaign but the PCs threw me a curve ball... knowing the guy was evil, they supported him anyway and tried, successfully, to save his soul. I had to come up with a new ultimate evil villian on the fly.)
Amene
09-13-05, 12:03 AM The paladín was part of a good-aligned church.

BUT the head of the church is Evil, and he was using the church to fullfill a prophecy, that said "unless the cubs overthrown the dark light, it shall shine over the land" (this is the best prophecy I could come out with :-p), basically unless the sons of the paladins of said church defeat him, he can conquer the world, so the head of the church summoned demons to posses all the paladin's children and ordered to slay them "because they have no salvation".

The paladin saw the murder of his possesed son, entered on maniacal rage, and murdered the head of the church even though he surrendered (his father is also a paladin, so he is the cub, and now his father is after him). He fell from grace.

Now he needs to do some uberevil act to revive his son because his soul was lost during the possesion (he needs to sacrifice 1000 innocent lives during some eclipse or something that lasts 10 mins, so he needs to summon a meteor rain over a city, or a terrible magical event to fullfill this).

If the condition he needs to meet is rare enough (the eclipse happens once every 100 years for example) it adds a sense of urgency (he hill commit his evil deed in 3 months from now for example). The characters could meet him while he slays his own father to add more dramatism (obviously weakened he rans away before the PCs can do anything).

This is the best I could come out with in 5 mins :-p
FriendoftheDork
09-13-05, 06:42 AM Ok here's my deal: The paladin was a good guy but became abhorred over all the evil in the world... he started a killing spree and killed everyone he detected as evil. Soon, their nonevil companions attacked him and he killed those as well, thinking that those who consort with evil are no better than the evil ones.

Sodme time while doing this and escaping just law he became mad, and became a Blackguard. He still think he detect evil but he actually detects good and wants to smite them all. Now he travels from village to village detecting what he thinks is evil, and finding ways of destroying those with too many "evil" people in. For this reason he has started to employ goblins, orcs, monsters undead... all those things that doesen't register as evil to him anymore.

What do you think?
Morka
09-13-05, 10:46 AM Inspired by WarCraft III plot:
In an Undead campaign, the paladin enter a border village that is under attack by a large amount of ghouls. The villagers were able to get rid of the ghouls, unfortunately everyone is infected with Ghoul Fever. The paladin could heal a small amount of them, but the rest of the village will eventually die and raise as ghouls, putting the whole kingdom/country at risk. The paladin has no choice but kill every villager.
Now the paladin knows he should attone, but he is the only one who knows there is another troup of ghouls in the forest, so he doesn't take the time to attone, and leave to attack the ghouls with all his rage...
tackleberry
09-13-05, 12:12 PM if you want to avoid a cliche villain then the blackguard is not the answer imo!
however, I quite like the idea of maybe he is posessed and his actions are not his own. this gives the villain two layers and also gives the pcs some moral questions to answer (do they slay the paladin to free him - is this the only way? etc)
If the paladin went mad, then again, is this really HIS fault? and does that make him evil?
this can give the players something more to think about rather than just finding the bad guy and killing him because no matter what his background and how rich and detailed his fall from grace was, he is just another bbeg to be smote in the eyes of the players!

in my campaign, the emerging BBEG is a high priest of a LN church (Helm in FR) who has been seduced by a succubus who is manipulating him for her own ends. Problem is, the priest - his reality blurred by the succubus's machinations - doesnt know he is the BBEG! oh, he is also the pc clerics father.

I also borrowed from fight club a year or so ago in a previous adventure - the guy who hired the pcs in trhe first place was the bbeg and didnt know it because of a split personality/jeykl and hyde night/day problem he had.
the pcs trail went full circle and lead them right back to their employers door.
when presented with the evidence, he hurled himself from the highest tower in the city. love a tragedy me.
Surprise
09-13-05, 01:08 PM A palladin is doing his thing, when along comes an evil necromancer who wants a new pawn to play with. He frames the palladin for a crime he did not commit and manages to fool/bribe/convince the local authorities that the palladin is the bad guy.

The palladin knows he is innocent but cannot prove it. His name is marred and no one trusts him. The necromancer continues to assault the dear palladin from afar (with spells like nightmare) until the palladin begins to the loathe the people who have spurned him.

Enter our dear, sweet necromancer who has come to show our confused palladin the "real" nature of the world. The palladin goes blackgaurd and joins with the necromancer, the very person responsible for the former palladin's troubles.

-Surprise
Power_of_Kung_Food
09-13-05, 03:12 PM Thanks guys, these are great suggestions and I will probably end up blending a few of them together to create my BBEG. Thanks for all your help! Much appreciated.
john_045412
09-13-05, 03:38 PM I love it when the Paladin is still a Paladin, but his moral code brings him directly at odds with the players.

Example. The Paladin is leading an army for his king/god against something the players are interested in defending. Or he is questing to obtain the same object the players are for his own means and there is no room for compromise.
Treetrip Danglefoot
09-13-05, 03:42 PM One I've never used but always wanted to:

. The paladin is a loyal servant of __(Good deity here)___. But the good deity is not Lawful, and thus allows and encourages certain actions to be performed that conflict with the paladin. Instead of seeing this as a reason to switch deities, he instead sees this as a reason to depose said good deity and take its place (since becoming lawful AND good is an improvement, in his mind). To do this he researches and researches and finds that theres only a few paths to deification laid out, most of which are unpleasant. And in order to fulfill these certain unpleasant things must be done. But no longer viewing the world in a good vs. evil mode, but a me vs. Non-Lawful Good God mode, he rationalizes this, and doesn't even notice his fall from grace.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Power_of_Kung_Food 09-12-05, 07:56 PM	I really hate those stereotypical villians that are simply out to destroy, loot, and cause havoc with little to no motivation. I'm trying to design a villian for my current campaign, I want him to be a paladin gone blackguard, but I'm having trouble coming up with a good reason for this. I want the paladin to have fallen out of favor with his god for doing something against his alignment for the greater good...but not something too cliched...and have this event somehow shape him into his current self. This is going to be my second shot at DMing, and my first time attempting a full campaign, I really want this villian (and the campaign) to be fun and memorable for the entire group so any suggestions you could supply would be much appreciated. Don't worry too much about the details...I've got the general idea for the campaign in my head, but a lot of it could be subject to change. Thanks again!
Crystal Monk 09-12-05, 08:54 PM	here's a simple way to make a paladin fall: he decided that something was worth more to him than his current way of life. I've heard it said that selfishness is the root of all evil, and that's a good start for creating a blackguard. so what happened? maybe his church wanted him to go fight in a war, but going where they told him would leave his homelands abandoned. he told the church to bugger off and defended his homelands, which was the start of his separation from the church. or perhaps he killed a BBEG of some kind whom the church wanted alive, but the paladin had encountered him personally and knew he couldn't be reformed. or here's an interesting one: the paladin and whatever group he was part of was in a battle with an allied vampire and werewolf under a full moon. the vampire had level-drained the paladin enough so that the paladin was no longer immune to magical diseases. in the battle, the paladin was inflicted with lycanthropy, which immediately took hold. the paladin used his new were-form to slay the vampire, and the party took care of the werewolf. naturally, the paladin went through a lengthy atonement after that and was cured of lycanthropy, but the church never trusted him after that, leading to an eventual break. hope these were helpful. I think one or more of these will see use in my campaign... :D
Gort32 09-12-05, 09:31 PM	http://giantitp.com/frm0005.html A nice article on designing a villian ;)
LuciusT 09-12-05, 11:44 PM	Hmm.. reasons for a good man to all from grace: 1) Becoming the enemy... the paladin, in his zealous battle against evil slowly begins to feel that the ends justify the means. Perhaps he becomes increasingly brutal and cruel in his battle or perhaps he starts to use evil methods, like torture, to achieve his goals. 2) The enemy of my enemy... to defeat a great evil, the paladin comes to an accord with a lesser evil. Later, to defeat another evil, he makes another deal with another, less minor, evil. Over time, the lines blur and the paladin begins to use evil against evil, becoming evil himself without ever really knowing when he fell. 3) Evil for the greater good... the paladin believes that the only way he can really achieve his goal is to sacrifice his own soul. He joins an evil cult because he thinks he can use them for a greater good. (I actually tried to use this in one campaign but the PCs threw me a curve ball... knowing the guy was evil, they supported him anyway and tried, successfully, to save his soul. I had to come up with a new ultimate evil villian on the fly.)
Amene 09-13-05, 12:03 AM	The paladín was part of a good-aligned church. BUT the head of the church is Evil, and he was using the church to fullfill a prophecy, that said "unless the cubs overthrown the dark light, it shall shine over the land" (this is the best prophecy I could come out with :-p), basically unless the sons of the paladins of said church defeat him, he can conquer the world, so the head of the church summoned demons to posses all the paladin's children and ordered to slay them "because they have no salvation". The paladin saw the murder of his possesed son, entered on maniacal rage, and murdered the head of the church even though he surrendered (his father is also a paladin, so he is the cub, and now his father is after him). He fell from grace. Now he needs to do some uberevil act to revive his son because his soul was lost during the possesion (he needs to sacrifice 1000 innocent lives during some eclipse or something that lasts 10 mins, so he needs to summon a meteor rain over a city, or a terrible magical event to fullfill this). If the condition he needs to meet is rare enough (the eclipse happens once every 100 years for example) it adds a sense of urgency (he hill commit his evil deed in 3 months from now for example). The characters could meet him while he slays his own father to add more dramatism (obviously weakened he rans away before the PCs can do anything). This is the best I could come out with in 5 mins :-p
FriendoftheDork 09-13-05, 06:42 AM	Ok here's my deal: The paladin was a good guy but became abhorred over all the evil in the world... he started a killing spree and killed everyone he detected as evil. Soon, their nonevil companions attacked him and he killed those as well, thinking that those who consort with evil are no better than the evil ones. Sodme time while doing this and escaping just law he became mad, and became a Blackguard. He still think he detect evil but he actually detects good and wants to smite them all. Now he travels from village to village detecting what he thinks is evil, and finding ways of destroying those with too many "evil" people in. For this reason he has started to employ goblins, orcs, monsters undead... all those things that doesen't register as evil to him anymore. What do you think?
Morka 09-13-05, 10:46 AM	Inspired by WarCraft III plot: In an Undead campaign, the paladin enter a border village that is under attack by a large amount of ghouls. The villagers were able to get rid of the ghouls, unfortunately everyone is infected with Ghoul Fever. The paladin could heal a small amount of them, but the rest of the village will eventually die and raise as ghouls, putting the whole kingdom/country at risk. The paladin has no choice but kill every villager. Now the paladin knows he should attone, but he is the only one who knows there is another troup of ghouls in the forest, so he doesn't take the time to attone, and leave to attack the ghouls with all his rage...
tackleberry 09-13-05, 12:12 PM	if you want to avoid a cliche villain then the blackguard is not the answer imo! however, I quite like the idea of maybe he is posessed and his actions are not his own. this gives the villain two layers and also gives the pcs some moral questions to answer (do they slay the paladin to free him - is this the only way? etc) If the paladin went mad, then again, is this really HIS fault? and does that make him evil? this can give the players something more to think about rather than just finding the bad guy and killing him because no matter what his background and how rich and detailed his fall from grace was, he is just another bbeg to be smote in the eyes of the players! in my campaign, the emerging BBEG is a high priest of a LN church (Helm in FR) who has been seduced by a succubus who is manipulating him for her own ends. Problem is, the priest - his reality blurred by the succubus's machinations - doesnt know he is the BBEG! oh, he is also the pc clerics father. I also borrowed from fight club a year or so ago in a previous adventure - the guy who hired the pcs in trhe first place was the bbeg and didnt know it because of a split personality/jeykl and hyde night/day problem he had. the pcs trail went full circle and lead them right back to their employers door. when presented with the evidence, he hurled himself from the highest tower in the city. love a tragedy me.
Surprise 09-13-05, 01:08 PM	A palladin is doing his thing, when along comes an evil necromancer who wants a new pawn to play with. He frames the palladin for a crime he did not commit and manages to fool/bribe/convince the local authorities that the palladin is the bad guy. The palladin knows he is innocent but cannot prove it. His name is marred and no one trusts him. The necromancer continues to assault the dear palladin from afar (with spells like nightmare) until the palladin begins to the loathe the people who have spurned him. Enter our dear, sweet necromancer who has come to show our confused palladin the "real" nature of the world. The palladin goes blackgaurd and joins with the necromancer, the very person responsible for the former palladin's troubles. -Surprise
Power_of_Kung_Food 09-13-05, 03:12 PM	Thanks guys, these are great suggestions and I will probably end up blending a few of them together to create my BBEG. Thanks for all your help! Much appreciated.
john_045412 09-13-05, 03:38 PM	I love it when the Paladin is still a Paladin, but his moral code brings him directly at odds with the players. Example. The Paladin is leading an army for his king/god against something the players are interested in defending. Or he is questing to obtain the same object the players are for his own means and there is no room for compromise.
Treetrip Danglefoot 09-13-05, 03:42 PM	One I've never used but always wanted to: . The paladin is a loyal servant of __(Good deity here)___. But the good deity is not Lawful, and thus allows and encourages certain actions to be performed that conflict with the paladin. Instead of seeing this as a reason to switch deities, he instead sees this as a reason to depose said good deity and take its place (since becoming lawful AND good is an improvement, in his mind). To do this he researches and researches and finds that theres only a few paths to deification laid out, most of which are unpleasant. And in order to fulfill these certain unpleasant things must be done. But no longer viewing the world in a good vs. evil mode, but a me vs. Non-Lawful Good God mode, he rationalizes this, and doesn't even notice his fall from grace.