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6 months ago ::
Dec 19, 2012 - 9:24PM
#1
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I am attempting to make a recurring nemesis for the party, but I am stumped as to how to keep him from dying. I don't want to wipe the party with him, just put him in for a good story element. But I don't want to make cliche and overall dissapointing events occur for him to escape. He is a Free - Willed Undead Black Knight who's overall goal is to get revenge on the main villain, who raised his soul from rest to become an undead being. He wants to die, but only in a one on one duel, no holding back. anything else would be dishonorable. I want him to be a potential ally to the party, but he is slightly villainous due to the fact that the dark magic within him has made his judgement of good and evil impaired. How can I make a good reacurring nemesis (Who will later either become and ally, or die) without him dying early or getting groans from the party?
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6 months ago ::
Dec 19, 2012 - 10:35PM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Escape abilities - such as mistform, teleportation, burrowing into the ground, creating a diversion/simulacrum, ability to regenerate from apparent death.
Immortal abilities - such as a phylactery, soul sword, magic painting, the one ring, something that can only be destroyed in a particular way.
Sending abilities - the nemesis only appears via illusion (hologram), possessing other people, haunting dreams, speaking to the party via a divination devise such as a crystal ball or magic ring.
You can make a nemesis memorable and important long before the party actually meets with him, simply by having the party encounter the results of his interactions with the world. If he is a leader type, you can have him 'speak' through minions that attack the party and leave clues about how he might be defeated or useful to the party. It might be useful to 'deafeat' the nemesis and give his 'magic sword' as loot. Treat the sword as an artifact with it's own purpose and allow the nemesis to appear to the party again and again as long as they have the sword, but make the sword useful enough (powerful enough) that the party will be reluctant to part with it.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 19, 2012 - 11:09PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2010
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Pretty much what Gelf said. I won't even bother saying anything else.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 19, 2012 - 11:44PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Oct 19, 2012
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If you want some real advice, be prepared for your players to kill this guy when you least expect it, and don't take their victory away from them when they do. Even if there's only a small chance, this could still happen.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 3:49AM
#5
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- Biohazard Barbie, on sale now!
Date Joined:
Sep 15, 2005
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I am attempting to make a recurring nemesis for the party, but I am stumped as to how to keep him from dying. I don't want to wipe the party with him, just put him in for a good story element. But I don't want to make cliche and overall dissapointing events occur for him to escape. He is a Free - Willed Undead Black Knight who's overall goal is to get revenge on the main villain, who raised his soul from rest to become an undead being. He wants to die, but only in a one on one duel, no holding back. anything else would be dishonorable. I want him to be a potential ally to the party, but he is slightly villainous due to the fact that the dark magic within him has made his judgement of good and evil impaired. How can I make a good reacurring nemesis (Who will later either become and ally, or die) without him dying early or getting groans from the party?
I have it on good opinion that any character prepared to walk away and leave the human race to die a bad case of extinction is an Anti-hero. So a Good Villain is prepared to assume failure the instant the Heores show up at his front door on anything other than an impailing pole that he has lost and it is time to leave. If the secret has been leaked, it is time to poison the well, turn the hounds loose and walk out the back door.
The Citadel Megadungeon: http://yellowdingosappendix.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-citadel-mega-dungeon-now-with-room.html
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 5:41AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Aug 23, 2012
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I am attempting to make a recurring nemesis for the party, but I am stumped as to how to keep him from dying. I don't want to wipe the party with him, just put him in for a good story element. But I don't want to make cliche and overall dissapointing events occur for him to escape. He is a Free - Willed Undead Black Knight who's overall goal is to get revenge on the main villain, who raised his soul from rest to become an undead being. He wants to die, but only in a one on one duel, no holding back. anything else would be dishonorable. I want him to be a potential ally to the party, but he is slightly villainous due to the fact that the dark magic within him has made his judgement of good and evil impaired. How can I make a good reacurring nemesis (Who will later either become and ally, or die) without him dying early or getting groans from the party?
I'll echo Zaramon's point on the get ready for him to die if things don't go as you have planned.
On a side note you could just have him stronger than anyone of the player characters and challenge them to a one on one. If he is winning because he is stronger than he might not want to kill the player, and he holds back with the hope that this will encourage that person to get stronger and be the one to kill him in a duel perhaps he sees that player's character as the one to finally "do him in". If you do walk this path keep in mind that the other players might not be too fond of long drawn out combats they don't play a part in.
As for the ally thing, I wouldn't try to force that, particularly if you were trying to stick him as an extra party member. Ultimately your players will respond with whatever action they deem appropriate that can range from killing him, to ditching him, to letting him go along and any version in-between.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 5:45AM
#7
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I am going to weigh in on this before Centauri gets here and say "talk to your players." One issue I've run into is when I create a character who is more than just a target for the PCs to attack, the players don't know that. They by default want to eliminate threats to their characters, and they are in a setting where violence is the quickest most effective way to do this. I have a recurring villain named "Bobby" who shows up and causes issues for the PCs. However, he is not an enemy, he is an antagonist. He makes life more difficult (read: Interesting) for the PCs, but there is a benefit to keeping him around. There have been times where Bobby has been surrounded by the PCs with their weapons drawn and there have been times the PCs have saved Bobby from certain death only to watch him run like hell when he is supposed to be helping. He is the guy they love to hate. But that's because I've TOLD my players what I'd hoped to do with him and they liked the idea. Instead of trying to set up contingency plans for when your players try to kill the guy, give them reasons not to kill him. Talk to them and say "Hey, I think this would be a lot of fun, you all on board? Any suggestions?" etc. My two cents. 
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 8:45AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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Collaborate with your players. Explain the kind of character you're after, and explain the role you want that character to have, including a tendency to get away. If they're up for this idea, they'll help you make it work. If they're not, then it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.
If you don't want to kill the PCs, give the villain goals other than killing them. Recovering something, killing someone (other than the PCs), destroying a target, performing a ritual, etc.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 6:43PM
#9
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I have spent hours building up elaborate villains, with names, histories, motivations, relatives, and super-cool powers.
And they die the first round of combat. Usually before their initiative comes up.
I've done that to other DMs, too.
3.0, round 1, my 1/2orc fighter crits the named villain. With a scythe. x4 crit damage. and maxed the die roll. Three brothers of the named villain were a little miffed. That was the first round of the first fight of the first adventure of the first game of 3.0 that the group played. It was memmorable.
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Bow down, my subjects, for I am your master! Yesss.....
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For some reason, none of my friends were surprised by this...
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6 months ago ::
Dec 20, 2012 - 6:52PM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Which is why you should make the character interesting before you reach initiative.
If you throw a new 'monster' at the party with the idea that it will escape the encounter and become an interesting recurring element, then the chances are the PCs will foil your escape plans and just kill it. Much better to create the villian in the minds of the players well before they reach a combat situation.
Also don't be afraid to throw alternate goals into a combat involving the villian. The PCs meet the villian and have to choose between killing him or letting him escape while they save their loved ones who are rigged to an elaborate trap.
Another option is to just play mosters as ones that seek to surrender or escape rather than fighting blindly to their deaths. And when a monster does successfully escape, make that one interesting and recurrable (although it probably won't escape twice in all honesty).
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