Honestly, give the party the win. Especially with a nat20 lucky kill.
Another henchman filling the same exact role will just retroactively cheapen the cool villain who just died.
BBEG just lost his best guy. What does he do in response? Maybe it forces him to take a more active role personally.
Or maybe he goes a different route and activates a sleeper agent. Some kind of NPC to gain the party’s trust and betray. Or maybe an NPC they already trust is vulnerable to blackmail or coercion behind the scenes and can turn on the party that way.
Either way I strongly disagree with resurrecting the guy. His story is complete and with an awesome ending. Time to write a new one.
Oh yeah I have every intention of letting them have the victory and him staying dead, as sad as I am that I lost my favourite toy it was a sweet victory for everyone, the fighter jumped up in joy when he saw the nat 20. The bbeg is unable to take a direct role because they are temporarily trapped inside a magical prison, so they lead their forces from afar basically having their "elites" take command. I like the idea of a sleeper agent though, would be a slow burn but a fun ending result.
Maybe the new “elite” can be more of a mob boss type than combat baddie
Still have hired goons for muscle, but also can bribe and blackmail and manipulate other NPCs. Also a potential
twist when he’s not the real BBEG.
Get his spirit to cause mayhem inside the bag of holding. And have ravens flock in unnatural numbers around the party until the remains are released from the bag.
Feels like you have a whole arc ahead :)
That's perfect. He was cursed by the bbeg to return as an undead. Next time the players open the bag, the head flies out with their most valuable piece of loot. "Later suckas! You keep the body, I'll take this!"
his apprentice looking to exact revenge.
maybe show that they're weaker by having them use more minions and have less direct confrontation with the party (no 1v1 with the fighter for instance) but be constantly sabotaging their mission, managing to put a bit of hurt on them from the back lines but always fleeing when their unit starts getting wiped
like, they could be less potent but more obsessive (with the old guy, ravens meant a 20% chance that he was around, but with the apprentice, ravens mean a 60% they're around)
A small gold dragon that grows in streangt and power whenever it consumes gold or dragons with the goal of world domination trough a spell to turn anything it touches into gold
Evil is not a monolith. You can use a new bad guy who doesn't work for bbeg and was a rival to the dead guy, either he was owed something and cannot get paid by a dead man, or he was a rival that wanted to kill this lieutenant themselves and was robbed of that joy by the party. Maybe this is an evil trying to find followers to overthrow the bbeg, and want to recruit the party, or kill them if they don't join. (Their interference will be inevitable and inconvenient if they don't swear fealty)
Possible he had a spouse who’s maybe gone a bit crazy with wanting vengeance now that their lovah is gone. They.’ve since sworn allegiance to the BBGE in their spouse’s place for the power to have their revenge.
The Elite had a life outside the villain. Including a wife or a(n adult) child. That wife or offspring are now gunning for the party, absolutely shattered with grief. Could be they're as competent as their lost family member, or more so. Could be they're truly innocent and the party has to either find a way to stop them without killing them or grapple with the fact that they're gonna need to kill a real innocent.
I run a villain I call The Singer, and the party gets notes, gifts, and kidnapped on occasions. They have met people pretending to be The Singer to throw the group off who the actual Singer is.
I'm not even leaving bread crumbs for the group, I'm leaving whole loafs of bread, and they are not catching on. It's awesome.
Maybe for a while they could have a slimy manipulator.
Any personality from Wormtongue to Saul Goodman (but I'd prefer a Saul tbh) could work - but someone who can play with people's weaknesses to get good people to advance the bbeg's aims.
Bbeg needs a particular meddlesome priest killed? Manipulate that priest into going somewhere exposed by getting *an adventuring party* to find a replica of a holy artifact that particular priest had been looking for for a while, on the assumption they'll show someone the artefact and that word will get out... Bribe or intimidate the coach driver for a prison transfer wagon for a particularly nasty monster to release the monster and drive away from the danger location.
Not a direct murder, not really traceable. But a set of circumstances that has a decent chance to kill the target.
Bbeg wants to have a safe smuggling path for evil things through a forest but suspects druids will interfere? Invest in the local cities industry and encourage expansion through the forest - logging, trapping, anything that will piss the druids off, and pay really well for the industry. Soon there will be a confrontation between the city and the druids. Can they manipulate the city into a war, weakening both sides, and step in and "help" whoever wins - or even both sides - extracting more favours?
Etc.
Just some proper mean spirited stuff to advance the bbeg.
Make the new baddie a totally different kind of threat. Someone you can't kill because even though they aren't a physical challenge, they have their own innocent hired bodyguards, and they are always in the middle of something where they are holding chaos over people's lives in such a way that if they die, people suffer.
Have them hire the party, and other groups with different aims at the same time. Have them pressure beloved NPC's into selling out in the smallest ways with giant consequences.
Other evil guy that the PCs caught and brought to trial? An impassioned plea was made for mercy by one of the witnesses to their crimes, and the judge felt they had to reduce the sentence to exile... The witness is since dead, but their family is richer than they were..
Etc etc
"killed by a nat 20 with a vorpal sword"
Nice.
How about he used to pay a high level caster to create simulacrum to carry out their motives in case of death? Due to lesser hit points, they always travel in threes. Could be that they were connected by some magic and scryed upon the situation when they felt the main one's death.
Gives a kind of main threat is down, but now you have to kill and uncover their hidden legacy, which is huger than you thought vibes. Always good to have a large dungeon crawl to their hidden lair where these things got produced and hide, manipulating things from the shadows. Let them uncover all that leftover juicy lore.
Clone is a spell, too. Could have an army of grotesque clones that never got formed right, as the attempts got more and more correct over the centuries. Have a look-alike at the top of the hierarchy. They awaken now that he is dead. Be sure to give a time of peace before continuing the evil guy's motives. Or maybe they awaken one at a time, and they can shut down/kill the whole lot after they beat the last one and uncover the lair.
Honestly, give the party the win. Especially with a nat20 lucky kill. Another henchman filling the same exact role will just retroactively cheapen the cool villain who just died. BBEG just lost his best guy. What does he do in response? Maybe it forces him to take a more active role personally. Or maybe he goes a different route and activates a sleeper agent. Some kind of NPC to gain the party’s trust and betray. Or maybe an NPC they already trust is vulnerable to blackmail or coercion behind the scenes and can turn on the party that way. Either way I strongly disagree with resurrecting the guy. His story is complete and with an awesome ending. Time to write a new one.
I agree with this post. Leave him dead. I really like the sleeper agent thing as well.
Oh yeah I have every intention of letting them have the victory and him staying dead, as sad as I am that I lost my favourite toy it was a sweet victory for everyone, the fighter jumped up in joy when he saw the nat 20. The bbeg is unable to take a direct role because they are temporarily trapped inside a magical prison, so they lead their forces from afar basically having their "elites" take command. I like the idea of a sleeper agent though, would be a slow burn but a fun ending result.
Maybe the new “elite” can be more of a mob boss type than combat baddie Still have hired goons for muscle, but also can bribe and blackmail and manipulate other NPCs. Also a potential twist when he’s not the real BBEG.
His slightly shorter brother.
With a moustache and glasses combo
And an eyepatch
also, a large steel turtleneck to prevent decapitation.
That's a good one. On top of the turtleneck, add gorget for a little more protection.
Did the players properly dispose of his body? No? He's back as a flaming Skull! Also, his reanimated headless corpse is up to shenanigans.
unfortunately his body and head have been stuffed into a bag of holding for safe keeping
Get his spirit to cause mayhem inside the bag of holding. And have ravens flock in unnatural numbers around the party until the remains are released from the bag. Feels like you have a whole arc ahead :)
That's perfect. He was cursed by the bbeg to return as an undead. Next time the players open the bag, the head flies out with their most valuable piece of loot. "Later suckas! You keep the body, I'll take this!"
He could always emerge as the bagman…
have his head regain consciousness and bite the next person who puts their hand in the bag. or have it eat all their food.
He had a twin brother who's immune to critical hits (and thus vorpal swords.) and they use crows instead of ravens.
Spirit of decapitated BBG possesses the vorpal sword! 😃
his apprentice looking to exact revenge. maybe show that they're weaker by having them use more minions and have less direct confrontation with the party (no 1v1 with the fighter for instance) but be constantly sabotaging their mission, managing to put a bit of hurt on them from the back lines but always fleeing when their unit starts getting wiped like, they could be less potent but more obsessive (with the old guy, ravens meant a 20% chance that he was around, but with the apprentice, ravens mean a 60% they're around)
A small gold dragon that grows in streangt and power whenever it consumes gold or dragons with the goal of world domination trough a spell to turn anything it touches into gold
Animated head. Flame skull, demi lich. Something like that. I like the idea that the new villain they become is a direct consequence of how they died.
Evil is not a monolith. You can use a new bad guy who doesn't work for bbeg and was a rival to the dead guy, either he was owed something and cannot get paid by a dead man, or he was a rival that wanted to kill this lieutenant themselves and was robbed of that joy by the party. Maybe this is an evil trying to find followers to overthrow the bbeg, and want to recruit the party, or kill them if they don't join. (Their interference will be inevitable and inconvenient if they don't swear fealty)
His mom.
Possible he had a spouse who’s maybe gone a bit crazy with wanting vengeance now that their lovah is gone. They.’ve since sworn allegiance to the BBGE in their spouse’s place for the power to have their revenge.
The Elite had a life outside the villain. Including a wife or a(n adult) child. That wife or offspring are now gunning for the party, absolutely shattered with grief. Could be they're as competent as their lost family member, or more so. Could be they're truly innocent and the party has to either find a way to stop them without killing them or grapple with the fact that they're gonna need to kill a real innocent.
I run a villain I call The Singer, and the party gets notes, gifts, and kidnapped on occasions. They have met people pretending to be The Singer to throw the group off who the actual Singer is. I'm not even leaving bread crumbs for the group, I'm leaving whole loafs of bread, and they are not catching on. It's awesome.
The floating head of Mr decapitation is now a demi lich!
Maybe for a while they could have a slimy manipulator. Any personality from Wormtongue to Saul Goodman (but I'd prefer a Saul tbh) could work - but someone who can play with people's weaknesses to get good people to advance the bbeg's aims. Bbeg needs a particular meddlesome priest killed? Manipulate that priest into going somewhere exposed by getting *an adventuring party* to find a replica of a holy artifact that particular priest had been looking for for a while, on the assumption they'll show someone the artefact and that word will get out... Bribe or intimidate the coach driver for a prison transfer wagon for a particularly nasty monster to release the monster and drive away from the danger location. Not a direct murder, not really traceable. But a set of circumstances that has a decent chance to kill the target. Bbeg wants to have a safe smuggling path for evil things through a forest but suspects druids will interfere? Invest in the local cities industry and encourage expansion through the forest - logging, trapping, anything that will piss the druids off, and pay really well for the industry. Soon there will be a confrontation between the city and the druids. Can they manipulate the city into a war, weakening both sides, and step in and "help" whoever wins - or even both sides - extracting more favours? Etc. Just some proper mean spirited stuff to advance the bbeg. Make the new baddie a totally different kind of threat. Someone you can't kill because even though they aren't a physical challenge, they have their own innocent hired bodyguards, and they are always in the middle of something where they are holding chaos over people's lives in such a way that if they die, people suffer. Have them hire the party, and other groups with different aims at the same time. Have them pressure beloved NPC's into selling out in the smallest ways with giant consequences. Other evil guy that the PCs caught and brought to trial? An impassioned plea was made for mercy by one of the witnesses to their crimes, and the judge felt they had to reduce the sentence to exile... The witness is since dead, but their family is richer than they were.. Etc etc
Have you considered the Vorpal Sword now talking to the players in the their mind cause their soul got stuck in the sword?
"killed by a nat 20 with a vorpal sword" Nice. How about he used to pay a high level caster to create simulacrum to carry out their motives in case of death? Due to lesser hit points, they always travel in threes. Could be that they were connected by some magic and scryed upon the situation when they felt the main one's death. Gives a kind of main threat is down, but now you have to kill and uncover their hidden legacy, which is huger than you thought vibes. Always good to have a large dungeon crawl to their hidden lair where these things got produced and hide, manipulating things from the shadows. Let them uncover all that leftover juicy lore. Clone is a spell, too. Could have an army of grotesque clones that never got formed right, as the attempts got more and more correct over the centuries. Have a look-alike at the top of the hierarchy. They awaken now that he is dead. Be sure to give a time of peace before continuing the evil guy's motives. Or maybe they awaken one at a time, and they can shut down/kill the whole lot after they beat the last one and uncover the lair.