I was just wonderng who your favorite darklord is and why? What part of their curse do you find compelling and/or appropriate? Do you find them to be sympathetic figures or just plain evil that got what they deserved?
My favorite is probably Harkon Lucas. Not only is he a mostrous werewolf with enough strength to rip a human is half but he also has a sort of style usually absent in Ravenloft. While most are dark and brooding, he's flaboyant and outgoing, using his skill with people to his advnatge as much as his physical attributes.
I also find his curse is also funny, since he wants to rule over a huuge empire but is stuck in a no-where two horse town.
So who is your favorite?
least favorite is easian the mad from vechor. and the illithid god brain, for lack of story i can't see that creature doing anything more or less vile then any other version of its species. the only story ive read is that lyssa von zarovich and it tried to make vampiric illithids, and thats it.
Of the others, I like Vlad Drakov and Harkon Lucas both a lot along with Azalin Rex.
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Strahd and Azalin are good but overused; Soth needs to stay on Krynn, but he's an awesome villain - kind of a medieval Darth Vader. :D Death was a neat idea but I didn't really like how they chose Darkon for nuking. Vecna doesn't fit in Ravenloft because he's too powerful to be stuck there. I mean, the dude mixed up the whole multiverse back in the 2e/3e edition change adventure path.
Yeah, I played through that, it was pretty intense. Lucky me, my paladin was the guy who got the eye, and hand of Vecna and the Sword of Kas. I was pretty much screwed after that, but at least I axed the old boy pnce and for all...
Only to find out that he became a full diety again a few months later when I got my 3rd ed player handbook! D'oh!
I like quite a lot darklords. They are: Strahd, Azalin, Victor Mordenheim/Adam, Ankhtepot, Arijani and Lord Soth (have you seen my avatar;) ). I know that Lord Soth is now not a darklord, instead Azrael Dak rules Sithicus but I also played a lot in Dragon Lance and Lord Soth's story is awesome in both worlds. I like that their stories are highly detailed and most of them have sad stories in some way.
Soth was once a darklord, I'd say that qualifies him for this discussion.
My favorite is Jaqueline Renier.
I like many of the others, of course. Strahd & Mordenheim are classics, and the evil heroine in Baroness of Blood is also quite delightful.
But after him, definately Strahd. He is the coolest.
I've always been partial to Elena Faith-hold. Paladins are my favourite class. She intrigues me, I guess.
I can see that, she is what happens when an over rightous paladin forgets that law needs to be tempered with understanding. I tend to slap such paladins (prior to 4th edition) down. They can't just kill anything they detect as evil, they have to be an actual threat in some way. After all a thief or a greedy merchant could well detect as evil and yet have never done anything that warrents death.
Count Strahd von Zarovich and Lord Soth. (This would probably have me branded as a heretic in the "Dragonlance" boards, but I've always preferred Soth as one of "Ravenloft"'s Dark Lords.) Strahd is THE archetypical D&D vampire, in my opinion, and he's a good reminiscent of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", while Soth is THE archetypical Death Knight. And both have the most interesting curses of all, in my opinion.
I have to agree with you there. Why did they get rid of Soth in the first place?
As I understand it, and keep in mind I'm no sage, Soth was introduced to Ravenloft by the novel "Knight of the Black Rose", and as novels and settings were more tied together then, subsequent Ravenloft writers fleshed out Sithicus as an actual domain. The problem was, the author of KotBR hadn't asked permission from the original author of Dragonlance and she, naturally, was offended by this and took legal action. When she did get sole authority over Soth back, she officially wrote out in DL canon that Soth was returned from Ravenloft minutes after he left/that he had never been in the Demiplane of Dread to begin with. With Soth legally removed from them, but with no burning desire to consign Sithicus to oblivion, the Ravenloft authors slapped Inza, corrupt daughter of Magda, into place as Sithicus's new Darklord.
The problem with Death is that PC's can't actually go into his domain, which defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.
Harkon Lukas because he has style and is willing to set up things just to get what he wants...and if that doesn't work out he'll just kill 'em. Classy.
My favorite darklords are the 3 hags and the headless horseman. You can put them into almost any storyline with a minimum of fuss. You don't have to have a long drawn out story to get the players involved with them (like you probably due for any Strahd, Azalin, or other major realm rules), but you can also expand their importance to the storyline if you want.
anton misroi lord of souragne, i have several others that i love to use from the clusters and pockets but the need to flesh out the details is so time consuming
I have fond memories of that, because the first ever adventure I played was Night of Walking Dead. No Anton in it, but it was such a new experience for me.
As I understand it, and keep in mind I'm no sage, Soth was introduced to Ravenloft by the novel "Knight of the Black Rose", and as novels and settings were more tied together then, subsequent Ravenloft writers fleshed out Sithicus as an actual domain. The problem was, the author of KotBR hadn't asked permission from the original author of Dragonlance and she, naturally, was offended by this and took legal action. When she did get sole authority over Soth back, she officially wrote out in DL canon that Soth was returned from Ravenloft minutes after he left/that he had never been in the Demiplane of Dread to begin with. With Soth legally removed from them, but with no burning desire to consign Sithicus to oblivion, the Ravenloft authors slapped Inza, corrupt daughter of Magda, into place as Sithicus's new Darklord.
Im fairly sure the explanation that was given is that Soth did indeed spend his whole time in Ravenloft, all 30 something years of it, but on the Night of Screaming Shadows he was returned to Krynn mere moments after he originally left, accounting for his time in both RL and DL.
For me, they both have the most intriguing backstories.
Strahd and Soth.
For me, they both have the most intriguing backstories.
I'll have to say Soth.... for the reason that he captures the imagination like very few characters do. I'm also partial to Maligno, the evil pinocchio darklord of Odiare. Very much a "Chucky" vibe going on with that... love it.
... In the bright days, before morgoroth darkened the lands of Avenleigh, before that fair world slipped into the domain of dread, there lived an order of paladins known as the circle...
a good back story to the character and good -if thats the right word- domain to sent pcs to their doom -ahem- i mean to adventure
