Whether a Dungeons & Dragons campaign is a mystery, a horror story, or a classic adventure, it almost certainly needs a central villain and final boss to fight. The choice of a big bad to stand against the party can make or break a narrative and set the tone for the entire tale. Many DMs will spend hours agonizing over their antagonist, their goals, and their methods. Yet, for all this work, the same creatures seem to be used again and again. Dragons, Vampires, Liches, and Mind Flayers make lots of appearances at gaming tables and, while fun to fight, can get boring after a while.
Long-time DMs may want to consider shaking things up with something unique and unexpected. These lesser-used monsters aren’t as famous as some of the classics and DMs will need to do some extra prep to figure out how to use them effectively. Some will also need to be carefully fit into the right sort of campaign to make them work. Still, it could all be worth it if the players are shocked and delighted by a new sort of threat and a novel villain to heroically oppose.
5
The Doppelgänger Lends to a Detective-Type Storyline
The Shape-Shifter is Perfect For a Mystery Campaign
The doppelgänger doesn’t appear to be much of a threat based on its combat stats but, when it comes to this shapechanger, looks can quite literally be deceiving. Capable of mimicking the appearance of small and medium-sized humanoids and even reading the thoughts of those near it, this creature can make for a cunning spy, deadly sleeper agent, or terrifying assassin.
Once its identity is uncovered, a party of anything but brand-new adventurers would be able to dispatch it easily, but the doppelgänger could serve as an excellent evil mastermind, pulling the strings from behind the scenes and manipulating the adventurers from afar.
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A doppelgänger villain might have secretly killed a king and taken control of his country. He might even hire the party, tricking them into serving his own evil purposes while telling them they’re helping to save his kingdom. While they would think they were involved in a traditional adventure, their true challenge would be unraveling a set of clues that lead them to deduce the truth.
After figuring out the villain’s actual identity, the next step would be gathering evidence to prove to the king’s advisers that he’s actually a doppelgänger or, perhaps, infiltrating his castle to defeat and magically unmask him. DMs that love a good third-act twist should definitely consider the unassuming shape-shifter and what sorts of schemes someone with its skills could orchestrate.
4
The Githyanki’s Tragic Backstory Gives a Lot to Play Off Of
Githyanki Make for Sympathetic Villains
Baldur’s Gate 3 and its companion, Lae’zel, have certainly increased the popularity of the Githyanki race and their perpetual war against the Mind Flayers. The RPG, however, casts one as a hero and generally overlooks their potential as major villains. While they were victims of the insidious Ilithids for countless generations, they are now a powerful civilization.
Further, their experience as slaves has twisted them, making them violent, brutal, and cruel. DMs looking for a villain with a tragic backstory or a campaign that forces players to choose a lesser evil may want to draw from the various Githyanki options to create a deadly but sympathetic antagonist.
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A fun Githyanki villain could be a pirate or warlord, raiding the Material Plane for plunder and slaves. They could be a powerful psionic or Dracomancer out to destroy Mind Flayers but unconcerned with any innocents harmed along the way. They may have lost their entire family to the Ilitihids and be full of grief or have their memories of being enslaved and unwilling to ever be seen as weak or a victim again. The party might want to try to redeem them or simply defeat them, bargain with them, or form an alliance against a greater Mind Flayer threat. Nearly unlimited options could arise from a Githyanki antagonist.
Further, a Githyanki villain would give DMs a chance to explore the even less-discussed Githzerai. A small splinter faction of the Gith that rejected the violence and expansionism of the Githyanki, the Githzerai include many monks and sages that could serve as allies against the party’s enemy. A campaign with both groups of Gith could be used to explore the different ways people cope with trauma and have players contemplate the Gith’s competing philosophies.
3
The Arch Hag is Great For High Level Play
Curses and Dark Magic Will Challenge Even Experienced Parties
The classic witch-in-the-woods of fairy tales, a hag, or group of them, can be a dark and horrifying menace, using strange magic to deceive and harm the party. Often taking the appearance of old women, these evil fey delight in tricking others and causing misery. Their ability to change appearance, their alien minds, and their unpredictable nature mean it can be almost impossible to unravel their web of deceptions and uncover their true intentions.
Their schemes often involved talking mortals into making magical bargains that inevitably backfired on them. A village or king having unwittingly made a “deal with the devil” involving a powerful arch hag could be the perfect hook for a campaign involving high-level characters.
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An adventure involving an arch hag might involve investigations into her magic, seeking a loophole to get a victim out of their bargain. Conversely, it could be about a search for the hag’s anathema, the only item that will allow someone to truly kill it. It might even be a series of smaller boss battles, forcing the party to track down and slay the other members of the hag’s coven before confronting her directly. However it plays out, the final fight is sure to be dramatic and challenging for even veteran gamers.
An arch hag has a Challenge Rating of 21 when by herself and only gets more powerful if she’s with her coven. Featuring legendary actions and resistances and bonuses when in her lair, the greatest of the hags can be a superb, and unexpected, big bad for a high-level campaign.
2
Empyrean Can Connect the Party to the Multiverse
A Fallen Celestial is a Terrible Threat
Though not true demigods, these children of deities are incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous beings. Possessing several resistances, deadly attacks, and limited spellcasting abilities, Empyreans would require a well-prepared and balanced party to oppose effectively. An adventure to defeat an Empyrean could tell the story of a fall from grace.
The party might learn how a child of a good god was corrupted, either by an evil deity or by their own hubris, and became a tyrant in the mortal world. The group might even be given their quest by the Empyrean’s parent, sadly requesting that the party slay their own child for the good of the world. An Empyrean would work particularly well with a party that includes a paladin or cleric, especially one devoted to the god that created the now-evil titan.
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For groups that are becoming more powerful and ready to start engaging in adventures that impact entire worlds and span the various planes, a battle against an Empyrean could be a good introduction to celestials and help them build contacts and make allies among the truly influential beings of the multiverse. Whether the campaign ends in the defeat of a giant or the redemption of a fallen creature of divinity, the climax would undoubtedly be epic.
1
The Mummy Lord is Great For Dungeon-Delvers
A Twist on the Undead Mastermind
DMs looking for an undead villain will often go with a Lich or Vampire, complete with all the classic tropes of those necrotic monsters. A fun twist on the formula, however, would replace these traditional threats with a Mummy Lord from a long-forgotten empire. The desert-themed monster has the same Challenge Rating as a Vampire while featuring mechanics similar to the more powerful Lich, complete with a heart that, like a phylactery, must be destroyed to fully slay it.
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The new Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual has simplified and slightly buffed the Mummy Lord, making it the perfect time for DMs to build a campaign around this underrated undead threat. The Mummy Lord should be especially appealing to DMs who love dungeon delves and designing complex maps. The monster has lots of lair actions to enhance its tomb and an entire adventure could revolve around uncovering and slowly exploring a massive pyramid or temple that was once the center of an evil empire.
The Mummy Lord might be seeking to revive its kingdom or just be unaware that it disappeared millennia ago. Of course, a Mummy Lord could come with lots of zombies and other undead minions to challenge players along the way and deliver everything one might expect from any other foe that straddles the line between life and death.
Dungeons and Dragons
- Franchise
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Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
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January 26, 1974
- Publisher
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Wizards of the Coast, TSR Inc.
- Designer
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E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
- Player Count
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4-8 Players Recommended
Summary
Dungeons & Dragons is the fantasy tabletop role-playing game that has persevered for nearly 50 years and continues to grow strong. Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the game first made publication in 1974 and now falls under the Wizards of the Coast publishing wing. A typical game of DnD consists of 4-6 players, with one player acting as the Dungeon Master. Players can take a sheet and by consulting the various rule books and expansions, can create their own character with weapons, skills, and physical appearance. Once all characters are created, the Dungeon Master sets them off in a campaign of their choosing or design, where players will have to follow the rules of the DM as they roleplay their way through storylines. The characters will level up, find equipment, and experience permanent changes based on the way the story plays out. A roll of the dice can mean the difference between a successful hit, and a painful end. The most recent edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the 5th edition rule book.
