How to Create an Advanced Villain in DND

Key Takeaways

• To move the story forward, always remember your villain's goals.
• Plan your villain's resources for stronger opponents.
• Design a hideout and create a memorable lieutenant for a high-ranking villain.

One of the things Dungeon Masters usually take most pride in is their villains. This is an opportunity to let loose and create something memorable for the players to struggle with and overcome. For DMs, there's nothing quite like it in Dungeons & Dragons.

It can be fun, but it's not always easy to do right. At high levels of play, balancing the villain's power with the player's power can be tricky. It's challenging, hopefully not insurmountable, but what's much more difficult is making them feel like fully fleshed out characters with their own place to live. In your world. We've put together some tips to help you create the perfect high-level villain.

8 never forget their goals

Eye on the Prize

Generally speaking, the defeat of the player character is not the villain's primary goal. The only exception is when the character has already canceled their plans and is purely seeking revenge. Whatever your goal, keep it in mind every step of the way.

Make sure every action they take serves that goal, putting players in a position to try to stop them. Let your villains adapt as needed while they take action. They can even move their base to a new location or send out minions to slow down pesky adventurers. No matter what happens, their master plan can come to fruition.

7 resource planning

You may need a spreadsheet

At high levels of play, villains are rarely just lone, powerful enemies roaming the land. They are often ancient lichs, rulers of nations, demon lords, or other beings with significant resources.

Take the time to plan out whatever these resources are. Magical artifacts, the wealth of entire nations, and hordes of bizarre demons; See what the villain can call upon when needed.

6 give them shelter

location location location

There's a good chance your villain lives somewhere, or at least has a base from which they operate. Every type of dragon has its own lair, and the vampire ruler has his own eerie castle. This could be an entire dungeon that players can traverse, or it could be a single impressive location.

Whatever it is, map it out and consider the benefits of having the bad guys on home turf. This will help players feel more confident and prepared as they explore, and give the villain a mechanical edge in the final showdown that involves some hideout action.

5 Create some lieutenants

Delegating is important

Skeleton minions and faceless goons are all great, but the best villains have trustworthy lieutenants to deal with their rank and file. Fleshing out the forces of evil with some mid-level villains serves a number of useful functions, both narratively and mechanically.

The Lieutenant provides players with combat encounters along the way to the climactic final battle, as well as the opportunity to learn more about the master plan through inadvertent boasting, interrogation, or clues found on corpses.

Unless it suits the evil faction you've created, try to have at least one lieutenant switch sides.

They may be able to see the error of their ways, or they may have been working under duress the whole time.

This can make them a much more memorable NPC, and perhaps even a valuable ally and source of information.

4 write their backstory

everyone is someone

No one thinks of themselves as the villain of their own story, and they certainly don't start out that way. Take some time and write down a rough outline of their history and what led them down the dark path they took.

This will help provide insight into everything else and give you some ideas about important NPCs from the past that the party might be able to find information about or even use against bad guys. But, if you threaten a villain's family, aren't you a real villain?

3 Get ready for mobility

High level player Go Zoom

High level play is a completely different beast than low level play. Players no longer need weeks to travel from one city to another on horseback, and much faster methods of travel are available. Flight, fantastic vehicles and even instant teleportation.

These options will completely change how your campaign runs, so prepare accordingly. Don't forget that villains have access to some of these methods too. So think of your D&D setting a little smaller.

2 Target NPCs

Now it's an individual

Their sphere of influence is usually much larger than that of lower level villains, making it much more difficult to keep valuable NPCs safe from higher level villains. They have more ways to learn about them and more ways to reach them.

Make it clear to players that their characters and allies may also be in danger. The need to protect loved ones will prove that the stakes are now higher, adding a personal motivation for your party of adventurers to see the villain fall.

1 Get inspired

Find your favorites

Above all, remember that you don't have to create a villain in a vacuum. Get inspiration from other sources, including official sources. If you're creating a vampire, you can use the Strahd statblock instead of creating your own, and you can even use his personality as a template if you want.

Shall we create a powerful red dragon? It's totally okay to look to Smaug from The Hobbit as a point of inspiration. You can use your favorite super villain from the comics and paint some fantasy paint over it. Doctor Doom fits surprisingly well into Dungeons & Dragons. There are no limits, so don't limit yourself.