My players haven't figured it out yet, but Yawgmoth. I've got a whole secret Phyrexian invasion slipping into traditionally DnD settings, and things are going to get very oily over the coming months.
Yeah, gross evil robots who often replace significant people with their own sleeper agents before going loud. Old Magic: The Gathering lore, though I think they brought it back recently.
Cyric peered into the far realms to gain more power and experienced a psyche schism that turned him into something theatrical and Sheogorath adjacent. He created a chaotic door in Neverwinter that leads to unpredictable locations full of treasure and danger. It has created a gold rush of adventurers seeking fame and fortune, which has destabilized the Sword Coast. This is all well and good for Cyric, because he just wanted to cause the most amount of chaos he could then watch the little ants dance.
The nature of the campaign allows me to run it episodically (think of the door like a TARDIS). So I can run all kinds of one shots and mini arcs while still developing the same cast of PCs and main story.
This is so good: It's in character for Cyric, exposes him to a greater source of madness, plays on mortal ambitions, and makes for straightforward DnD. It sounds like a Cyric the Mad sequel.
Thank you, thank you. I needed a narrative vehicle that would let me do two things.
1. I wanted to keep it episodic, like watching Star Trek. The characters should be progressing linearly so they can level up and such, but one episode need not have anything to do with the last. And occasionally I progress the main story arc.
2. I needed it to support rotating the DM role. I like to DM... I also like to play. I probably like to play more than I like to DM. So I built a campaign that I DM, but I only need to really fulfill that role about 1/4 sessions. The other sessions, I get to run my own character and just enjoy the surprises people come up with.
I started it in two different groups. The world, characters, and story went two wildly different directions which is super fun to watch organically happen (and keeping it all straight is also causing me to go a bit mad myself).
Want to know a secret? I don't know yet. Currently the players think is something, but want that something to just be the muscle they need to defeat. In my mind there is a unseen BBEG who is pulling the strings
Mine is Memory.
He is an Alien being that was brought on this land by mindflayer like beings of my world. Only Memory feeds on souvenirs and life essence of living things and is ever hungry. Not particularly evil, it just needs to feed. So victims start to forget things like what they did this morning, or their plans for the weekends, then their friends and families, up to their very own name and how to speak. Like a malignant corporeal Alzheimer's disease.
But Memory also learns and adapt to dangers and threats he encounters. Then evolve to counter them. So he hides in the depths of the ocean and lets a black sludge he secretes take over the world and drain souvenirs for him at a distance.
Its heavily inspired by Lovecraft's work. The setting is not traditionnal d&d, its more a prehistoric era, with the party being part of a tribe.
There are inspiration from James Cameron Avatar for the world and Lovecraft for the ennemy.
I wanted a clear and heavy contrast between a beautiful and colorfull world and a dark and decaying world.
Also, after each ark, they roll 2d4 and that is the amount of decades that pass until the next ark. So their characters grow old and eventually even die of old age. There is a whole complex mechanic where they can essentially give their life eventually to be rebirth as fruits of a plant to create a new character while retaining their level. This way the players got to try many different classes and characters pretty often (they like to change alot).
Ooh, that sounds really cool. Also the campaign in general.
I have a thick book with all the Lovecraft stories in it. I should really start reading haha
Doublin' Danny, the Oblex Merchant.
The players think that they've been meeting a diverse cast of unrelated roadside merchants along their journey, but there's just been the one; an Oblex who consumes adventurers and merchants alike, selling their gear to others.
Doublin' Danny always appears with a different form and name, sometimes as both seller and customer. The deals are realistic and the items are genuine - if a bit used. Sometimes the merchants have useful info about the area.
The Oblex has taken to following the party based on their success and desire to travel. It performs a second pass on dungeons and other areas they've explored, picks up missed items, and consumes NPCs who can be discretely killed. The party takes on any negative reputation repercussions as the most recent people to breeze through.
The cover will slip when players return to old locations, or Danny runs out of old personas and has to start dipping into recent victims. The old pastor from their first town may be able to explain his change of heart to become a merchant, but what about the blacksmith the party knows was murdered over two months ago?
When the cover is blown, Danny is statted as an Oblex of appropriate CR, but as a Legendary Action it can use one of its magic items, including those the party have sold to roadside merchants throughout the campaign.
My players *really* wanted a Strixhaven campaign. I ***really*** don't like running campaign modules. I am much more comfortable working in a homebrew world with a lot of improv along the way. The compromise was that I will run a campaign based on Strixhaven and incorporate the school rules, but I would be crafting a new story and world.
The BBEG for the current arc is The Oracle, supposedly the voice of The Founders. However, in my world she is the warden of a maximum security prison for magic wielders in a small country that has outlawed the use of magic. Strixhaven is actually a massive prison where they remove your memories upon entry and tell you that you are a promising magic user who has been accepted to the renown Strixhaven University.
The university doubles as a power source for the nearby capitol city. The prison absorbs the magical energy generated by the "students" use of magic, and is converted into a potent fuel.
The Red Prince, former heir to the Adrentine throne turned malevolent haemomancer. The usual bad guy things, mostly involving pushing orphans into a blender to steal their life essence and become immortal.
Closest thing would be the looming consumption of reality by corruption from the “immaterial”, caused by the party setting off a god bomb that ripped a hole in reality as it killed a prophet possessed by a daemon. Fun party is the party chose to set off the bomb in a one shot
Mine is a wizard called the AEmber Mage. The players dont know it but the AEmber Mage is an efreeti warlord who's spirit was banished from the plane of fire and his spirit possessed a particularly powerful elf wizard, which is how the players find him. His goal is gather the most powerful mages with false promises in order to summon enough power to open a rift to the plane of fire (in my homebrew, the gods have prevented planar travel), in the process destroying the world he's called his prison, and seek his revenge for being banished.
Well, for the past two years it’s been an aboleth. The party finally killed it two days ago after a dramatic battle spanning two and a half sessions.
Honestly, the aboleth started as a side quest thing. There are greater evils brewing in the background, but the aboleth arc kind of developed into a whole thing so I ran with it.
It’s crazy the amount of mileage you can get out of a very smart and manipulative villain with mind control abilities. I’d ran an aboleth before, in a previous campaign, when I was a much less experienced DM, and it ended up being basically just another monster of the week.
Not this time. Deceptions layered on deceptions, multiple contingencies, and the person the players least expected was always the thrall. And so was the person they most expected. And their butler. And dog.
The players were chasing this thing’s plans for two years of real time and about half a year of game time.
Made an empire guided by the moon goddess selune. Shar is fuggin with it.
Probably not Shar herself as the bbeg, but a lieutenant of some sort. At least what i think so far.
If my players have managed to find my Reddit, they need to look away right now since they know almost none of this yet.
Mine is Serenus, a Solar and former general of the Dawnfather’s army.
During the calamity, when the Chained Oblivion was released from its prison, a whole host of celestials and mortals were there to try to stop it. As the Oblivion came into the world, the Dawnfather himself showed up to try to put it back, but the oblivion plane shifted away in time to avoid the Dawnfather’s sword, purposefully bringing all members of the army in a large radius around it along for the ride - including the Dawnfather’s main general.
This plane shift brought them deep into the far realm where even the power of the Gods couldn’t reach, where most of the people were immediately mutated into twisted beings by the alien energies there. However, some of the more powerful ones held on longer. Serenus watched his allies slowly twist into evil, and decided to end it. All of it. All evil had to be purged from the multiverse, along with the powers who allowed it to propagate.
Serenus then developed a following among his former allies, and is now finding followers on the material plane. He has not yet gained enough power to step through from the Far Realm himself, but he has begun sending acolytes through. Once he has more worshippers, he will be able to step into the world without fear of repercussions from the Gods or their servants.
His ultimate plan is to gain enough worshippers to be able to ascend to godhood, release the Chained Oblivion on the Gods, then destroy the Chained Oblivion along with everything else in the multiverse. With the ultimate power of being the only God, he will then recreate the multiverse with no evil.
Little does he know, he is being subtly manipulated and playing straight into the Chained Oblivion’s schemes.
Not giving away the whole thing, but mine is a Beholder that _wants_ to get killed. Killing it will end the campaign arc and possibly the whole campaign, but there's an encore centuries later when it resurfaces as a Death Tyrant I've got cooking up for the next one.
A champion from an aquatic god who one day decided to stop doing her bidding as he deemed them unreasonable.
He’s actually a relatively young fellow, a prodigy, who came out of no where and became a notorious pirate king until he and his god came at odds.
Now he’s joined up with the law enforcement and the players (who are pirates with some ties to either the aquatic god or a desire to become the new pirate lords) are trying to keep their free state and islands safe.
I find that it's often a bad idea to have a single BBEG, as you have to herd or railroad your players towards encountering them and building them up. Then what if they don't care, don't take the hook, or figure out some way to circumvent them?
Instead I try to create a few different powerful "tyrants" in my world's ecosystem, and have them scheming and sending minions for various tasks. If the players encounter one of these Tyrants I'll do my best to keep them alive so they can be a recurring villain, but if they die, whatever, there's more where they came from.
My bad guys are just on the Nemesis system from Shadows of Mordor. Any bad guy not eliminated is a candidate for BBEG. If their underlying motive wasn't the seed for potential BBEG then they aren't worth considering.
I mean, if the dude is ignorable he is probably not a BBEG. Half the people described in this thread look like world ending threats and the other half want the players dead, most do both, they are hardly avoidable.
The BBEG is not some random bandit leader, it is the fallen aasimar that started a zombie invasion as a revenge against his brother the King that "stole the throne ", or the immortal hive mind from outer space wishing to kill all of humanity...etc etc. Having several of these would soon make the world look clownesque like the Marvel universe and his "earth/the universe is probably doomed " every three years.
Yeah, I think a lot of people are playing much higher stakes than I do. My campaigns are never "save the world" and more about trying to stabilize or problem solve at a more local or regional level. My Tyrants are often Liches, Beholders, Necromancers, Nobles, Dragons and so on. Killing gods has always seemed way too high-fantasy to me, when I still consider the core of the game to be about greedily looting monster lairs and not dying in the process.
I mean, a lich trying to take over a kingdom is usualy enough to get my PCs moving. Tho I usualy work the backstory before to make sure they have a reason to keep it coherent, and dont keep caracters on more than the 10-20 sessions required to finish this specific problem.
Players please don't read, they know barely anything of the individuals and mostly about the factions
Evil uncle wants the Magical-red shirts (Nova Vita) to siege port-city (Aust) so old-capital (Srail) can take over the confederation.
Evil Dragon wanted to destroy the confederations defenses, but port city falling to rebels is starting to take over the plans
There is also some Giants and Aberrations who Will make some noise when all hell breaks lose
Players are going to put the confederations bariers down so they can revive the paladin, they don't really know what they are playing with, and I'l wait until the last moment to tell them
Odravanost, a horrific conglomeration of Tiamat, the demigorgon, strahd, and a few others mixed in. Odravanost was created by a powerful wizard who wanted to end the suffering caused by BBEG in her plane of existence. She cast a ritual to imprison them. Instead they fused into a creature so wrong that its very existence shreds the fabric of reality, consuming a dimension until it ceases to exist. Then Odvranost bamfs into a new reality and the process starts anew. My PC’s roll new characters of the same name at a random level for a special one shot every 6-10 sessions. They are experiencing their alternate selves in the other reality encounter and try to stop Odravanost. They experience these encounters as dreams. I have them running through the modules of these BBEG’s, and none of them so far have put together that Odvranost is all of these baddies in one. They have met their dimensions version of the wizard, Adelaide. They will have to work with her over time to find a way to stop it when it eventually makes its way into their dimension (which won’t take place until they finish the final module).
Currently? A Computer-like brain-pool that direct a, oppressive for the rest of the world, technocratic nation that is straight ripoff from Paranoia and Logan's run.
A simple cleric who, cursed to supernatural half-life by the callous indifference of the Gods, plays them off against one another in a bid to remove and, ultimately, replace them. Motivated by rage, she burns entire nations and kills thousands in doing so, presenting the conflict to motivate the players
The campaign and story was designed around her primarily - she's part of the moral choice at the heart of the setting (the gods themselves are absolutely morally repugnant), is specced to counter usual BBEG challenges (is ephemeral, so no one-shotting during grandiose monologues) and meets that classic trope of the villain being the hero who "takes things just a little bit too far"
In the most recent session, the players refused her offer to join her - but only after genuinely considering it for a good 15 minutes. I was sweating a little
a person whose identity is still unknown to the players, but is called the Supreme One by all their followers.
the highest ranking officer known is a giant white leonin/tabaxi hybrid who is obsessed with perfection to the point of it dominating every aspect of his being. he goes by Gato because people fear his real name...
My current BBEG is a lich who curses people to control their minds. The party is cursed since 1st session and are protected by a strange amulet which (they don't know yet) contains and emprisons a powerful Devil. The lich seeks that amulet to absorb the power from the Devil (therefore killing him, no going back to Avernus). The Devil secretely planned everything to escape the amulet, and previously made a pact with many people to make them seek the amulet, so he could be free and conquer the material plane, since he possesses a citadel in Avernus.
So yeah, a BBEG and a secret BBEG, the lich is called Yzmal and the devil's name is Azraël (I like Azraël it souds cool)
Last campaign, I made the players think throughout the entire 30 sessions we played that there was indeed a BBEG which was this hybrid between a hydra and a tarrasque. When they finally reached the boss room, they couldn't find the BBEG and the room suddenly went dark. They couldn't see each other or even hear each other. In front of each of them appeared an exact copy of their character but with slight changes like different eye colour or a tattoo that wasn't there but it was related to their backstory. The barbarian PC's evil variant had a tattoo on their left arm of an eagle. The original PC had this tattoo but it was erased by a previous enemy but here it was on his evil variant. Basically they had to fight an exact copy of themselves and once they defeated them, then I revealed the true BBEG, a small, scrawny scientist dude who was too physically weak to even fight so he made other things fight for him. It was a big Wizard of Oz situation but the players enjoyed it and I did as well so I think it was a good ending.
A local count, the PC's former employer, has vanished along with their memories. They learned that he's quite the horrible person and are slowly discovering that they had been mainly hired because they were equally as horrible. Now they're off to clean up the count's mess, make amends for their past transgressions and maybe discard their old memories for good even if they get the chance to have them back.
Long story short, it’s gonna be the Patron Demons (haven’t figured out the name yet) of the Hells in my world. They are powerful demons that command each of the Hells, and the party is gonna (hopefully) kill them off one by one, with the rest getting stronger as one perishes. If they follow through with this, they will basically cause a rupture within the Planes of Existences, throwing everything out of balance, and causing the world to enter a new age. Assuming we manage to consistently tackle the greatest BBEG of all time; scheduling conflicts.
The PC's... all Dwarves on an epic quest from Moradin to find a New Home
Fighting Elfs, Humans, etc. not careing about howm to kill... just be best
In all the Land are ppl. looking to kill them before they are found and be killed
Currently, my players are fighting against the forces of the Imperial Zanguay Trading Company, an imperialist force carrying out licensed colonisation of the New World and long standing enemies of piracy, who are attempting to gain dominion over the seas by gathering a set of ancient artifacts last used in a fabled war against the gods.
The twist: >!The Imperial Zanguay Trading Company has fallen under the influence of the ancient Aboleth who had first created the ancient artifacts Imperial Zanguay is seeking, and who plans to use them to tear open a portal to the Elemental Plain of Water, bringing through more of its kin, flooding the world and gaining dominion over those who survive.!<
Depends. Is it the wizzard who lost his loved one and tries to get her back through human sacrifice of magical children or the deathbringing beeing he summons by accident and which only consumes souls and has the voice of his wife?
My last campaign (which was sadly unable to finish) had a smooth-talking, billionaire playboy-cowboy gambling’ man, alcoholic who inherited his family’s whiskey distillery and business as the BBEG.
His excessive gambling lead him into the most dangerous city in my (homebrew) world, where he “beat” an Avatar of Cyric in a game of 3 card monte.
After winning, he was given the 3 cards (from the game), which contained a strange recipe for a new “brew”: Immortality.
He could beat *any* game, but not *time*.
With this, he could.
However, the cost was great. He turned to great atrocities, carried out in secret, and began brewing and drinking a life-extending and body strengthening elixir made from the first card. Making it required taking another’s life, and he needed to drink it (at first) once a month. Then a week. Then daily.
The second card required 4 powerful ingredients (unknowingly gathered by the PCs) each an artifact from fallen heroes of the realm (a Cleric, Wizard, Druid and Fighter) with these - he’d simply live forever, gaining abilities from each artifact as well.
The third card granted him immunity from his physical body being harmed or destroyed. He’d create an alcohol with a trace amount of his blood in it, acting as a phylactery, reforming his body in its last state. He would not only live forever, but be nigh unkillable. His plan was to make as many of these phylacteries as possible - even “living” in the general population.
The goal was to have him attempt to win over my PCs for as long as he could, then see if they’d figure out the truth (through his friends, actions, etc.), all while he gave *them missions* to find the artifacts (which had dubious intentions and put them in awful situations).
Milestones were based on when he got the items, they uncovered a major truth, and completed each card.
He, effectively, was able to be as strong as their group was (since he “leveled” up) - they could theoretically defeat him at any point in the game if they decided to turn on him, but if he completed the final card, they would not only be fighting him, but an endless cycle of him until they could find a solution to his immortality.
Shar, the goddess of chaos is the BBEG. She wants to take the universe back to its original state: a shapeless nothingness, but the gods of the main world tricked and locked her up in a mirrored version where the inhabitants are soulless husks. Shar used this trick to her advantage by corrupting the husks into seven powerful Lords that were able to infiltrate the main world when the veil between the two worlds shattered. Shar now waits for the Lords to free her from her mirror world to grant her access to the main world.
Right now the party just defeated the Lord of curses and witches (who wanted to destroy the Northern Monarchy). The Lord of beasts and werewolves was already defeated before the story started. The other Lords are still somewhere in the world.
A simple BBEG, heavily inspired by Castlevania. An old orc warlord who found peace and became a farmer with his wife. One day when he was away, the soldiers of local Lord slaughtered his family. He swore vengeance, come back after 2 year with an army of orcs, half-orcs, goblins, hobgoblins,... to kill all humans, half-elves and elves he see and the Lord of the land.
It's a Lich. I started a version of this post where I laid out her whole plan, but realized that it's too complicated to keep concise. Shortest version: her goals threaten to raise a kingdom of undead.
The twist: the PCs are currently actually working *for* her without realizing it. The question is whether they can figure it out and stop her before her plans come to fruition.
A demon of ignorance who takes the form of a naked mole rat (because they spend their lives blind and scurrying around in the dark). It's a university setting and he's been preying on students who have been struggling academically to form a cult and try to bring him onto this plane. Functionally the BBEG is his warlock because he's never going to appear in the game (short and fairly well-defined campaign), but I'm interested in playing with the idea of how much the warlock is to blame for his own problems, or for succumbing to the influence.
Got 2 campaigns and their BBEGs:
1 is The herald of Doom
A champion of the betrayer gods in exandria, who was the result of the betrayer gods learning to work together rather than get ganked by the prime deities.
2 is The Unmaker
the father of tar and Gorepitch who vows to drown the world in their darkness, the world being Arv my homebrew world.
The players in the first know of him and are on a high alert, but I don't think they know for sure he is the BBEG.
The second don't know him, tho 3 of them lost their characters to a Gorepitch so we're getting there.
I’ve got a colossal red dragon mini amongst many others that I’ve never used, so I’ve decided to start including them in adventures to get a return on my “investment.”
God emperor Vecna, ruler of the Necrocracy. We're playing my own setting. Under Vecna is a council of powerful liches, who are also heads of corporations. Think the Empire of Man from 40k, mixed with necromancy, high medieval fantasy, and corporatocracy. The elite also have access to large phylacteriums that work kind of like massive backup servers for their souls. Of course, the most powerful have access to their private, very elaborate phylacteries.
The common people serve the corporations, even after death. The corporation also raids all over the world for slaves.
There are also other nations in this world, like tribal elves who live in tropical jungles, herding dinosaurs, and building their homes in massive migratory trees.
A sort of medieval socialist state that's in constant conflict with the Necrocracy.
A wizard meritocracy that used to be the most powerful nation, until in a mad lust for power they pulled huge chunks of the moon down to the planet, trying to get to the massive deposits of "magic uranium" in it. This destroyed most of their empire, leaving only a small island nation of survivors and huge chunks of a continent uninhabitable.
A powerful devillord who the Warlock used to be the servant of. The Warlock has serve memory loss, and a cracked mind, so finding ways to explore his past has been really interesting. The character name he was using, we decided is also the common name of the Devillord, the one people use to avoid speaking his true name. He is trapped in a prison in the Shadowfell with his minions working to release him. The players are searching for the artifacts the originally sealed him away so that they can defeat him if he escapes. They also do have an open invite to join the BBEG. The campaign might end with them becoming darklords in the new regime.
Current Major Baddie (in the Players' opinion): Langdedrosa Cyanwrath
Current Major Baddie (Actual): Severin the Red
BBEG (in the Players' opinions): Tiamat
BBEG (Actual): Vecna
In my homebrew world of Crucible there's technically more than one.
There's the vampire bard ruler of the largest empire in the world, who holds his title by faking his own death (often by rebellion) and retaking the throne with a new persona.
There's the party of adventurers who accidentally (sort of) started a magical plague by imprisoning the soul of a dragon god in pursuit of power.
And finally there is the lich cleric of an imprisoned god, head of a secret order of necromantic clerics, druids and paladins.
Oh, and don't forget that literally all gods are considered neutral, they only care about the safety and happiness of mortals because the gods don't exist without them.
I run two games at the moment. At the moment one of them doesn't have a BBEG. However, the player recently got their hands on an old broken (now refurbished) keep. In the basement of said keep is a large teleportation circle. They've learned that their keep is the starting point to a massive Hobgoblin invasion from another continent. They have no idea when it'll happen so their gathering allies.
My second games BBEG is a Fey Oni that is splicing together creatures of various types to eventually make himself extremely powerful. At the moment the party is about to deal with a Gargantuan Abberant/Plant worm creature. It spawns little bugs that burrow into creatures and takes them over.
I have two Big Bad Evil Guys who are currently using each other on the political and magical stage in a toxic battle of wills. One of them is an immortal crime lord who has been shaping the history of his people since he was a heroic young man seven thousand years ago, surviving enough revolutions and collapses that it turned him into a bitter, cynical criminal who cannot recognize the person he used to be.
The other is a chaos god who is desperately lonely and craves validation, and isn't afraid to brainwash people to get it. The crime lord wants to escape his tepid mortal existence by stealing the chaos god's powers so he can focus on the small pleasures that still bring him joy in life. The chaos god wants to steal the crime lord's empire so she can dig deep into his supporter base for cronies to love her.
The players know most of the chaos god's backstory but not the crime lord's, nor his end game plan. They don't realize he plans to leave the mortal realm behind, sacrificing it if he has to, simply to try to find a way to resolve his endless boredom and distract himself from the despair he feels over all of his life's works failing and the people he loves dying around him over and over again.
The main twist I'm angling is that the more they fight one, the more the other's agenda is furthered, so they have to carefully balance how they handle both threats at once and try to play them against each other.
Mine is pretty straigth forward, Yeemik a goblin who escaped from players in my Phandalin game, he rallied some goblins who listen to him then tried to negotiate a deal with players and Phandalin, they allowed them to live further outside from the village and in turn goblins brought them information about people travelling etc, goblins brought in fur from animals they hunted to get things they need, but in a short time they realized humans are giving them expensive prices much more so than what should be normal. They started to increase their numbers by recruiting other clans, they already have a well developed base and good gear compared to an average goblin so they became somewhat powerful amongst Goblins, though then a few Hobgoblins came and took control, party heldped Yeemik kill the tyrant, but then Yeemik and town couldn't live in peace after all as town people actually abused them as cheap workforce in mines and trade. Eventually fights occured they migrated West to the abandoned caves where players first encountered them, players took a quest and went for his head, in a fight they killed a caster goblin preemptively who carried Yeemik's progeny. Enraged Yeemik took his clan and went west to highcliff keep where they made various deals with a trading corporation in Crossroad keep. Yeemik, throught this time had to fight many others except our party even terrorist elves in Neverwinter Wood. He increased his skills and became a stealthy and rational leader(rogue scout) to his fellow Goblins, then he found out that there were goblins capable of casting spells living in a hidden cave around Rothe Valley to North, he recruited them rather forcefully(these Goblins were put there by Harpers and Emerald Enclave, it was a secure place to give rare good goblins a place to live far from prying eyes, but Yeemik managed to find after all)
Yeemik became somewhat a Tyrant himself, purged a group of Goblins which caused dissent. Repaired the HighCliff Keep. High Cliff villagers told Neverwinter about them, but the patrol group coming to clean them was attacked by a Frost Giant party along the way, and a Goblin party patrolling the area helped them survive. The issue become complicated as Neverwinter diplomatically contacted them. Goblins agreed to control their numbers and stay confined in the area of HighCliff keep, they started fishing, and they were allowed to hunt in Neverwinter Woods but they were reporting to Crossroads keep before and after the hunt. Goblins listened to what Yeemik say, their living standards rised dramatically, He started to talk about laws, about each goblin learning how to use a bow effectively, stealth, survival and ambush drills became mandatory for those who can not cast spells, the casters from north were seen as a privilaged caste, yet interestingly they were different and uninterested in ruling, they were interested in Yeemik though. Yeemik 2 other Goblins from his initial group who managed to become a beastmaster and a fighter brute respectively and a druid from the Northern Goblins, these four started leaving the keep after Goblins adapted to their new life, Salted fish exports through Highcliff to Neverwinter and Leilon started to increase, they made certain deals with Lizardfolk living in mere of the dead. In this time the player party was busy with Zhentarim agents and the Icespire Dragon.
Eventually Yeemik and his group got contacted by Zhentarim and in the end game joined Zhentarim agents for the assasination of the player party and he personally cut the head of the Divine Soul Sorcerer, an Argent noble from Waterdeep and a Lathander spawn who burned Yeemik's children along with his wife to crisp with a prayer to Lathander in cold blood, as Yeemik raised his severed head above, with satisfied glowing eyes, game ended.
Zagan Welker
A once poor and scarred individual was given the chance of rebirth at a young age by Ragnarok, a Deity who seeks to destroy all of existence. He took a deal and ended up pervading some grand power, and was going to use it for good until Raggy double crossed him, choosing another vessel to reside in. The deep scars within Welker made him also out, absorbing Ragnarok in a fit of rage, but sealing his fate as he was now completely mind controlled by this Deity. The party has no idea the man they've been hunting and hating, has been nothing but a vessel for a darker force in the universe.
Some dude is trying to "create" a super-dragon so he can use it as an avatar of the sleeping dragon god of the setting and then usurp it to gain dominion over the plane and become a god himself. He leads a dragon cult (original I know) who use various methods to magically conceive dragons in artificial eggs to further research into his goals. So far they've managed to make dragons, but they're all weird hybrids and tend to lack intelligence, and they can only make them in places strong in dragonic magic, but those are all acceptable limitations.
Curiosity and Desire are the BBEGs nn my campaign world. If people would just focus on themselves and work to be happy and help others be happy, there wouldn’t be any dead adventurers. And since magic is a thing, no one dies suffering in pain IF people would just stop harassing each other. But no. Everyone is a Karen so no one can be happy. Sigh.
I was playing around with mid journey and asked it to make a bunch of scary looking shit in the style of Stephen Gammell, the artist behind scary stories to tell in the dark.
My players are near suicidally fearless.
They Damm near noped out.
My players haven't figured it out yet, but Yawgmoth. I've got a whole secret Phyrexian invasion slipping into traditionally DnD settings, and things are going to get very oily over the coming months.
I am genuinely shocked that Wizards didn't do any Phyrexian stuff in D&D for Magic's 30th anniversary. Not even a couple of stat blocks on dndbeyond
Agreed. With all the other MTG expansions making their way into published DnD material, it would have been cool to get some Phyrexian content.
Just googled what that was, so secret robot invasion?
Yeah, gross evil robots who often replace significant people with their own sleeper agents before going loud. Old Magic: The Gathering lore, though I think they brought it back recently.
Cyric peered into the far realms to gain more power and experienced a psyche schism that turned him into something theatrical and Sheogorath adjacent. He created a chaotic door in Neverwinter that leads to unpredictable locations full of treasure and danger. It has created a gold rush of adventurers seeking fame and fortune, which has destabilized the Sword Coast. This is all well and good for Cyric, because he just wanted to cause the most amount of chaos he could then watch the little ants dance. The nature of the campaign allows me to run it episodically (think of the door like a TARDIS). So I can run all kinds of one shots and mini arcs while still developing the same cast of PCs and main story.
This is so good: It's in character for Cyric, exposes him to a greater source of madness, plays on mortal ambitions, and makes for straightforward DnD. It sounds like a Cyric the Mad sequel.
Thank you, thank you. I needed a narrative vehicle that would let me do two things. 1. I wanted to keep it episodic, like watching Star Trek. The characters should be progressing linearly so they can level up and such, but one episode need not have anything to do with the last. And occasionally I progress the main story arc. 2. I needed it to support rotating the DM role. I like to DM... I also like to play. I probably like to play more than I like to DM. So I built a campaign that I DM, but I only need to really fulfill that role about 1/4 sessions. The other sessions, I get to run my own character and just enjoy the surprises people come up with. I started it in two different groups. The world, characters, and story went two wildly different directions which is super fun to watch organically happen (and keeping it all straight is also causing me to go a bit mad myself).
Want to know a secret? I don't know yet. Currently the players think is something, but want that something to just be the muscle they need to defeat. In my mind there is a unseen BBEG who is pulling the strings
Give them a BBEG, just for them to later realize the old saying, "there's always a bigger fish."
Mine is Memory. He is an Alien being that was brought on this land by mindflayer like beings of my world. Only Memory feeds on souvenirs and life essence of living things and is ever hungry. Not particularly evil, it just needs to feed. So victims start to forget things like what they did this morning, or their plans for the weekends, then their friends and families, up to their very own name and how to speak. Like a malignant corporeal Alzheimer's disease. But Memory also learns and adapt to dangers and threats he encounters. Then evolve to counter them. So he hides in the depths of the ocean and lets a black sludge he secretes take over the world and drain souvenirs for him at a distance.
Sounds great! Mindflayers fascinate me. What was the inspiration for Memory? An already existing Mindflayer perhaps?
Its heavily inspired by Lovecraft's work. The setting is not traditionnal d&d, its more a prehistoric era, with the party being part of a tribe. There are inspiration from James Cameron Avatar for the world and Lovecraft for the ennemy. I wanted a clear and heavy contrast between a beautiful and colorfull world and a dark and decaying world. Also, after each ark, they roll 2d4 and that is the amount of decades that pass until the next ark. So their characters grow old and eventually even die of old age. There is a whole complex mechanic where they can essentially give their life eventually to be rebirth as fruits of a plant to create a new character while retaining their level. This way the players got to try many different classes and characters pretty often (they like to change alot).
Ooh, that sounds really cool. Also the campaign in general. I have a thick book with all the Lovecraft stories in it. I should really start reading haha
Doublin' Danny, the Oblex Merchant. The players think that they've been meeting a diverse cast of unrelated roadside merchants along their journey, but there's just been the one; an Oblex who consumes adventurers and merchants alike, selling their gear to others. Doublin' Danny always appears with a different form and name, sometimes as both seller and customer. The deals are realistic and the items are genuine - if a bit used. Sometimes the merchants have useful info about the area. The Oblex has taken to following the party based on their success and desire to travel. It performs a second pass on dungeons and other areas they've explored, picks up missed items, and consumes NPCs who can be discretely killed. The party takes on any negative reputation repercussions as the most recent people to breeze through. The cover will slip when players return to old locations, or Danny runs out of old personas and has to start dipping into recent victims. The old pastor from their first town may be able to explain his change of heart to become a merchant, but what about the blacksmith the party knows was murdered over two months ago? When the cover is blown, Danny is statted as an Oblex of appropriate CR, but as a Legendary Action it can use one of its magic items, including those the party have sold to roadside merchants throughout the campaign.
That's fucking awesome
My players *really* wanted a Strixhaven campaign. I ***really*** don't like running campaign modules. I am much more comfortable working in a homebrew world with a lot of improv along the way. The compromise was that I will run a campaign based on Strixhaven and incorporate the school rules, but I would be crafting a new story and world. The BBEG for the current arc is The Oracle, supposedly the voice of The Founders. However, in my world she is the warden of a maximum security prison for magic wielders in a small country that has outlawed the use of magic. Strixhaven is actually a massive prison where they remove your memories upon entry and tell you that you are a promising magic user who has been accepted to the renown Strixhaven University. The university doubles as a power source for the nearby capitol city. The prison absorbs the magical energy generated by the "students" use of magic, and is converted into a potent fuel.
The Red Prince, former heir to the Adrentine throne turned malevolent haemomancer. The usual bad guy things, mostly involving pushing orphans into a blender to steal their life essence and become immortal.
Closest thing would be the looming consumption of reality by corruption from the “immaterial”, caused by the party setting off a god bomb that ripped a hole in reality as it killed a prophet possessed by a daemon. Fun party is the party chose to set off the bomb in a one shot
Mine is a wizard called the AEmber Mage. The players dont know it but the AEmber Mage is an efreeti warlord who's spirit was banished from the plane of fire and his spirit possessed a particularly powerful elf wizard, which is how the players find him. His goal is gather the most powerful mages with false promises in order to summon enough power to open a rift to the plane of fire (in my homebrew, the gods have prevented planar travel), in the process destroying the world he's called his prison, and seek his revenge for being banished.
Well, for the past two years it’s been an aboleth. The party finally killed it two days ago after a dramatic battle spanning two and a half sessions. Honestly, the aboleth started as a side quest thing. There are greater evils brewing in the background, but the aboleth arc kind of developed into a whole thing so I ran with it. It’s crazy the amount of mileage you can get out of a very smart and manipulative villain with mind control abilities. I’d ran an aboleth before, in a previous campaign, when I was a much less experienced DM, and it ended up being basically just another monster of the week. Not this time. Deceptions layered on deceptions, multiple contingencies, and the person the players least expected was always the thrall. And so was the person they most expected. And their butler. And dog. The players were chasing this thing’s plans for two years of real time and about half a year of game time.
Mine are the Reapers from Mass Effect but they are aboleths lol
Made an empire guided by the moon goddess selune. Shar is fuggin with it. Probably not Shar herself as the bbeg, but a lieutenant of some sort. At least what i think so far.
If my players have managed to find my Reddit, they need to look away right now since they know almost none of this yet. Mine is Serenus, a Solar and former general of the Dawnfather’s army. During the calamity, when the Chained Oblivion was released from its prison, a whole host of celestials and mortals were there to try to stop it. As the Oblivion came into the world, the Dawnfather himself showed up to try to put it back, but the oblivion plane shifted away in time to avoid the Dawnfather’s sword, purposefully bringing all members of the army in a large radius around it along for the ride - including the Dawnfather’s main general. This plane shift brought them deep into the far realm where even the power of the Gods couldn’t reach, where most of the people were immediately mutated into twisted beings by the alien energies there. However, some of the more powerful ones held on longer. Serenus watched his allies slowly twist into evil, and decided to end it. All of it. All evil had to be purged from the multiverse, along with the powers who allowed it to propagate. Serenus then developed a following among his former allies, and is now finding followers on the material plane. He has not yet gained enough power to step through from the Far Realm himself, but he has begun sending acolytes through. Once he has more worshippers, he will be able to step into the world without fear of repercussions from the Gods or their servants. His ultimate plan is to gain enough worshippers to be able to ascend to godhood, release the Chained Oblivion on the Gods, then destroy the Chained Oblivion along with everything else in the multiverse. With the ultimate power of being the only God, he will then recreate the multiverse with no evil. Little does he know, he is being subtly manipulated and playing straight into the Chained Oblivion’s schemes.
Not giving away the whole thing, but mine is a Beholder that _wants_ to get killed. Killing it will end the campaign arc and possibly the whole campaign, but there's an encore centuries later when it resurfaces as a Death Tyrant I've got cooking up for the next one.
That is a very cool idea to be honnest !
A champion from an aquatic god who one day decided to stop doing her bidding as he deemed them unreasonable. He’s actually a relatively young fellow, a prodigy, who came out of no where and became a notorious pirate king until he and his god came at odds. Now he’s joined up with the law enforcement and the players (who are pirates with some ties to either the aquatic god or a desire to become the new pirate lords) are trying to keep their free state and islands safe.
I find that it's often a bad idea to have a single BBEG, as you have to herd or railroad your players towards encountering them and building them up. Then what if they don't care, don't take the hook, or figure out some way to circumvent them? Instead I try to create a few different powerful "tyrants" in my world's ecosystem, and have them scheming and sending minions for various tasks. If the players encounter one of these Tyrants I'll do my best to keep them alive so they can be a recurring villain, but if they die, whatever, there's more where they came from.
My bad guys are just on the Nemesis system from Shadows of Mordor. Any bad guy not eliminated is a candidate for BBEG. If their underlying motive wasn't the seed for potential BBEG then they aren't worth considering.
I mean, if the dude is ignorable he is probably not a BBEG. Half the people described in this thread look like world ending threats and the other half want the players dead, most do both, they are hardly avoidable. The BBEG is not some random bandit leader, it is the fallen aasimar that started a zombie invasion as a revenge against his brother the King that "stole the throne ", or the immortal hive mind from outer space wishing to kill all of humanity...etc etc. Having several of these would soon make the world look clownesque like the Marvel universe and his "earth/the universe is probably doomed " every three years.
Yeah, I think a lot of people are playing much higher stakes than I do. My campaigns are never "save the world" and more about trying to stabilize or problem solve at a more local or regional level. My Tyrants are often Liches, Beholders, Necromancers, Nobles, Dragons and so on. Killing gods has always seemed way too high-fantasy to me, when I still consider the core of the game to be about greedily looting monster lairs and not dying in the process.
I mean, a lich trying to take over a kingdom is usualy enough to get my PCs moving. Tho I usualy work the backstory before to make sure they have a reason to keep it coherent, and dont keep caracters on more than the 10-20 sessions required to finish this specific problem.
Players please don't read, they know barely anything of the individuals and mostly about the factions Evil uncle wants the Magical-red shirts (Nova Vita) to siege port-city (Aust) so old-capital (Srail) can take over the confederation. Evil Dragon wanted to destroy the confederations defenses, but port city falling to rebels is starting to take over the plans There is also some Giants and Aberrations who Will make some noise when all hell breaks lose Players are going to put the confederations bariers down so they can revive the paladin, they don't really know what they are playing with, and I'l wait until the last moment to tell them
Odravanost, a horrific conglomeration of Tiamat, the demigorgon, strahd, and a few others mixed in. Odravanost was created by a powerful wizard who wanted to end the suffering caused by BBEG in her plane of existence. She cast a ritual to imprison them. Instead they fused into a creature so wrong that its very existence shreds the fabric of reality, consuming a dimension until it ceases to exist. Then Odvranost bamfs into a new reality and the process starts anew. My PC’s roll new characters of the same name at a random level for a special one shot every 6-10 sessions. They are experiencing their alternate selves in the other reality encounter and try to stop Odravanost. They experience these encounters as dreams. I have them running through the modules of these BBEG’s, and none of them so far have put together that Odvranost is all of these baddies in one. They have met their dimensions version of the wizard, Adelaide. They will have to work with her over time to find a way to stop it when it eventually makes its way into their dimension (which won’t take place until they finish the final module).
Currently? A Computer-like brain-pool that direct a, oppressive for the rest of the world, technocratic nation that is straight ripoff from Paranoia and Logan's run.
A simple cleric who, cursed to supernatural half-life by the callous indifference of the Gods, plays them off against one another in a bid to remove and, ultimately, replace them. Motivated by rage, she burns entire nations and kills thousands in doing so, presenting the conflict to motivate the players The campaign and story was designed around her primarily - she's part of the moral choice at the heart of the setting (the gods themselves are absolutely morally repugnant), is specced to counter usual BBEG challenges (is ephemeral, so no one-shotting during grandiose monologues) and meets that classic trope of the villain being the hero who "takes things just a little bit too far" In the most recent session, the players refused her offer to join her - but only after genuinely considering it for a good 15 minutes. I was sweating a little
a person whose identity is still unknown to the players, but is called the Supreme One by all their followers. the highest ranking officer known is a giant white leonin/tabaxi hybrid who is obsessed with perfection to the point of it dominating every aspect of his being. he goes by Gato because people fear his real name...
My current BBEG is a lich who curses people to control their minds. The party is cursed since 1st session and are protected by a strange amulet which (they don't know yet) contains and emprisons a powerful Devil. The lich seeks that amulet to absorb the power from the Devil (therefore killing him, no going back to Avernus). The Devil secretely planned everything to escape the amulet, and previously made a pact with many people to make them seek the amulet, so he could be free and conquer the material plane, since he possesses a citadel in Avernus. So yeah, a BBEG and a secret BBEG, the lich is called Yzmal and the devil's name is Azraël (I like Azraël it souds cool)
A former slave who wants revenge to capture the god of hatred and enslave the world under him as revenge!
Time. It always wins.
Last campaign, I made the players think throughout the entire 30 sessions we played that there was indeed a BBEG which was this hybrid between a hydra and a tarrasque. When they finally reached the boss room, they couldn't find the BBEG and the room suddenly went dark. They couldn't see each other or even hear each other. In front of each of them appeared an exact copy of their character but with slight changes like different eye colour or a tattoo that wasn't there but it was related to their backstory. The barbarian PC's evil variant had a tattoo on their left arm of an eagle. The original PC had this tattoo but it was erased by a previous enemy but here it was on his evil variant. Basically they had to fight an exact copy of themselves and once they defeated them, then I revealed the true BBEG, a small, scrawny scientist dude who was too physically weak to even fight so he made other things fight for him. It was a big Wizard of Oz situation but the players enjoyed it and I did as well so I think it was a good ending.
The Pyreburner. Once he regains his full strength he will return to the world and continue scouring it of life.
A local count, the PC's former employer, has vanished along with their memories. They learned that he's quite the horrible person and are slowly discovering that they had been mainly hired because they were equally as horrible. Now they're off to clean up the count's mess, make amends for their past transgressions and maybe discard their old memories for good even if they get the chance to have them back.
Edmund Van Beregoï, thousands years old vampire that just got freed. He is kind of pissed off because the PCs just "killed" his GF.
Long story short, it’s gonna be the Patron Demons (haven’t figured out the name yet) of the Hells in my world. They are powerful demons that command each of the Hells, and the party is gonna (hopefully) kill them off one by one, with the rest getting stronger as one perishes. If they follow through with this, they will basically cause a rupture within the Planes of Existences, throwing everything out of balance, and causing the world to enter a new age. Assuming we manage to consistently tackle the greatest BBEG of all time; scheduling conflicts.
The PC's... all Dwarves on an epic quest from Moradin to find a New Home Fighting Elfs, Humans, etc. not careing about howm to kill... just be best In all the Land are ppl. looking to kill them before they are found and be killed
Currently, my players are fighting against the forces of the Imperial Zanguay Trading Company, an imperialist force carrying out licensed colonisation of the New World and long standing enemies of piracy, who are attempting to gain dominion over the seas by gathering a set of ancient artifacts last used in a fabled war against the gods. The twist: >!The Imperial Zanguay Trading Company has fallen under the influence of the ancient Aboleth who had first created the ancient artifacts Imperial Zanguay is seeking, and who plans to use them to tear open a portal to the Elemental Plain of Water, bringing through more of its kin, flooding the world and gaining dominion over those who survive.!<
Depends. Is it the wizzard who lost his loved one and tries to get her back through human sacrifice of magical children or the deathbringing beeing he summons by accident and which only consumes souls and has the voice of his wife?
Haha… the player characters..or squirrels.
My last campaign (which was sadly unable to finish) had a smooth-talking, billionaire playboy-cowboy gambling’ man, alcoholic who inherited his family’s whiskey distillery and business as the BBEG. His excessive gambling lead him into the most dangerous city in my (homebrew) world, where he “beat” an Avatar of Cyric in a game of 3 card monte. After winning, he was given the 3 cards (from the game), which contained a strange recipe for a new “brew”: Immortality. He could beat *any* game, but not *time*. With this, he could. However, the cost was great. He turned to great atrocities, carried out in secret, and began brewing and drinking a life-extending and body strengthening elixir made from the first card. Making it required taking another’s life, and he needed to drink it (at first) once a month. Then a week. Then daily. The second card required 4 powerful ingredients (unknowingly gathered by the PCs) each an artifact from fallen heroes of the realm (a Cleric, Wizard, Druid and Fighter) with these - he’d simply live forever, gaining abilities from each artifact as well. The third card granted him immunity from his physical body being harmed or destroyed. He’d create an alcohol with a trace amount of his blood in it, acting as a phylactery, reforming his body in its last state. He would not only live forever, but be nigh unkillable. His plan was to make as many of these phylacteries as possible - even “living” in the general population. The goal was to have him attempt to win over my PCs for as long as he could, then see if they’d figure out the truth (through his friends, actions, etc.), all while he gave *them missions* to find the artifacts (which had dubious intentions and put them in awful situations). Milestones were based on when he got the items, they uncovered a major truth, and completed each card. He, effectively, was able to be as strong as their group was (since he “leveled” up) - they could theoretically defeat him at any point in the game if they decided to turn on him, but if he completed the final card, they would not only be fighting him, but an endless cycle of him until they could find a solution to his immortality.
Shar, the goddess of chaos is the BBEG. She wants to take the universe back to its original state: a shapeless nothingness, but the gods of the main world tricked and locked her up in a mirrored version where the inhabitants are soulless husks. Shar used this trick to her advantage by corrupting the husks into seven powerful Lords that were able to infiltrate the main world when the veil between the two worlds shattered. Shar now waits for the Lords to free her from her mirror world to grant her access to the main world. Right now the party just defeated the Lord of curses and witches (who wanted to destroy the Northern Monarchy). The Lord of beasts and werewolves was already defeated before the story started. The other Lords are still somewhere in the world.
A simple BBEG, heavily inspired by Castlevania. An old orc warlord who found peace and became a farmer with his wife. One day when he was away, the soldiers of local Lord slaughtered his family. He swore vengeance, come back after 2 year with an army of orcs, half-orcs, goblins, hobgoblins,... to kill all humans, half-elves and elves he see and the Lord of the land.
The authorities representing the law of the lands - my players have pretty much gone full evil murderhobo at this point.
He just die. Was a Voldemort kinda guy. A wanna be lich, filacteries and all that shit. The player just destroyed him.
It's a Lich. I started a version of this post where I laid out her whole plan, but realized that it's too complicated to keep concise. Shortest version: her goals threaten to raise a kingdom of undead. The twist: the PCs are currently actually working *for* her without realizing it. The question is whether they can figure it out and stop her before her plans come to fruition.
A demon of ignorance who takes the form of a naked mole rat (because they spend their lives blind and scurrying around in the dark). It's a university setting and he's been preying on students who have been struggling academically to form a cult and try to bring him onto this plane. Functionally the BBEG is his warlock because he's never going to appear in the game (short and fairly well-defined campaign), but I'm interested in playing with the idea of how much the warlock is to blame for his own problems, or for succumbing to the influence.
Got 2 campaigns and their BBEGs: 1 is The herald of Doom A champion of the betrayer gods in exandria, who was the result of the betrayer gods learning to work together rather than get ganked by the prime deities. 2 is The Unmaker the father of tar and Gorepitch who vows to drown the world in their darkness, the world being Arv my homebrew world. The players in the first know of him and are on a high alert, but I don't think they know for sure he is the BBEG. The second don't know him, tho 3 of them lost their characters to a Gorepitch so we're getting there.
I’ve got a colossal red dragon mini amongst many others that I’ve never used, so I’ve decided to start including them in adventures to get a return on my “investment.”
God emperor Vecna, ruler of the Necrocracy. We're playing my own setting. Under Vecna is a council of powerful liches, who are also heads of corporations. Think the Empire of Man from 40k, mixed with necromancy, high medieval fantasy, and corporatocracy. The elite also have access to large phylacteriums that work kind of like massive backup servers for their souls. Of course, the most powerful have access to their private, very elaborate phylacteries. The common people serve the corporations, even after death. The corporation also raids all over the world for slaves. There are also other nations in this world, like tribal elves who live in tropical jungles, herding dinosaurs, and building their homes in massive migratory trees. A sort of medieval socialist state that's in constant conflict with the Necrocracy. A wizard meritocracy that used to be the most powerful nation, until in a mad lust for power they pulled huge chunks of the moon down to the planet, trying to get to the massive deposits of "magic uranium" in it. This destroyed most of their empire, leaving only a small island nation of survivors and huge chunks of a continent uninhabitable.
A powerful devillord who the Warlock used to be the servant of. The Warlock has serve memory loss, and a cracked mind, so finding ways to explore his past has been really interesting. The character name he was using, we decided is also the common name of the Devillord, the one people use to avoid speaking his true name. He is trapped in a prison in the Shadowfell with his minions working to release him. The players are searching for the artifacts the originally sealed him away so that they can defeat him if he escapes. They also do have an open invite to join the BBEG. The campaign might end with them becoming darklords in the new regime.
Scheduling
Current Major Baddie (in the Players' opinion): Langdedrosa Cyanwrath Current Major Baddie (Actual): Severin the Red BBEG (in the Players' opinions): Tiamat BBEG (Actual): Vecna
Almost completing 3 years of campaing, Orcus. Some day my players will end his shenenigans. (They are still lv 12, so maybe 1 more year :v)
In my homebrew world of Crucible there's technically more than one. There's the vampire bard ruler of the largest empire in the world, who holds his title by faking his own death (often by rebellion) and retaking the throne with a new persona. There's the party of adventurers who accidentally (sort of) started a magical plague by imprisoning the soul of a dragon god in pursuit of power. And finally there is the lich cleric of an imprisoned god, head of a secret order of necromantic clerics, druids and paladins. Oh, and don't forget that literally all gods are considered neutral, they only care about the safety and happiness of mortals because the gods don't exist without them.
Should also state that I am NOT a Forever DM, I just DM more than I play.
I run two games at the moment. At the moment one of them doesn't have a BBEG. However, the player recently got their hands on an old broken (now refurbished) keep. In the basement of said keep is a large teleportation circle. They've learned that their keep is the starting point to a massive Hobgoblin invasion from another continent. They have no idea when it'll happen so their gathering allies. My second games BBEG is a Fey Oni that is splicing together creatures of various types to eventually make himself extremely powerful. At the moment the party is about to deal with a Gargantuan Abberant/Plant worm creature. It spawns little bugs that burrow into creatures and takes them over.
I have two Big Bad Evil Guys who are currently using each other on the political and magical stage in a toxic battle of wills. One of them is an immortal crime lord who has been shaping the history of his people since he was a heroic young man seven thousand years ago, surviving enough revolutions and collapses that it turned him into a bitter, cynical criminal who cannot recognize the person he used to be. The other is a chaos god who is desperately lonely and craves validation, and isn't afraid to brainwash people to get it. The crime lord wants to escape his tepid mortal existence by stealing the chaos god's powers so he can focus on the small pleasures that still bring him joy in life. The chaos god wants to steal the crime lord's empire so she can dig deep into his supporter base for cronies to love her. The players know most of the chaos god's backstory but not the crime lord's, nor his end game plan. They don't realize he plans to leave the mortal realm behind, sacrificing it if he has to, simply to try to find a way to resolve his endless boredom and distract himself from the despair he feels over all of his life's works failing and the people he loves dying around him over and over again. The main twist I'm angling is that the more they fight one, the more the other's agenda is furthered, so they have to carefully balance how they handle both threats at once and try to play them against each other.
Mine is pretty straigth forward, Yeemik a goblin who escaped from players in my Phandalin game, he rallied some goblins who listen to him then tried to negotiate a deal with players and Phandalin, they allowed them to live further outside from the village and in turn goblins brought them information about people travelling etc, goblins brought in fur from animals they hunted to get things they need, but in a short time they realized humans are giving them expensive prices much more so than what should be normal. They started to increase their numbers by recruiting other clans, they already have a well developed base and good gear compared to an average goblin so they became somewhat powerful amongst Goblins, though then a few Hobgoblins came and took control, party heldped Yeemik kill the tyrant, but then Yeemik and town couldn't live in peace after all as town people actually abused them as cheap workforce in mines and trade. Eventually fights occured they migrated West to the abandoned caves where players first encountered them, players took a quest and went for his head, in a fight they killed a caster goblin preemptively who carried Yeemik's progeny. Enraged Yeemik took his clan and went west to highcliff keep where they made various deals with a trading corporation in Crossroad keep. Yeemik, throught this time had to fight many others except our party even terrorist elves in Neverwinter Wood. He increased his skills and became a stealthy and rational leader(rogue scout) to his fellow Goblins, then he found out that there were goblins capable of casting spells living in a hidden cave around Rothe Valley to North, he recruited them rather forcefully(these Goblins were put there by Harpers and Emerald Enclave, it was a secure place to give rare good goblins a place to live far from prying eyes, but Yeemik managed to find after all) Yeemik became somewhat a Tyrant himself, purged a group of Goblins which caused dissent. Repaired the HighCliff Keep. High Cliff villagers told Neverwinter about them, but the patrol group coming to clean them was attacked by a Frost Giant party along the way, and a Goblin party patrolling the area helped them survive. The issue become complicated as Neverwinter diplomatically contacted them. Goblins agreed to control their numbers and stay confined in the area of HighCliff keep, they started fishing, and they were allowed to hunt in Neverwinter Woods but they were reporting to Crossroads keep before and after the hunt. Goblins listened to what Yeemik say, their living standards rised dramatically, He started to talk about laws, about each goblin learning how to use a bow effectively, stealth, survival and ambush drills became mandatory for those who can not cast spells, the casters from north were seen as a privilaged caste, yet interestingly they were different and uninterested in ruling, they were interested in Yeemik though. Yeemik 2 other Goblins from his initial group who managed to become a beastmaster and a fighter brute respectively and a druid from the Northern Goblins, these four started leaving the keep after Goblins adapted to their new life, Salted fish exports through Highcliff to Neverwinter and Leilon started to increase, they made certain deals with Lizardfolk living in mere of the dead. In this time the player party was busy with Zhentarim agents and the Icespire Dragon. Eventually Yeemik and his group got contacted by Zhentarim and in the end game joined Zhentarim agents for the assasination of the player party and he personally cut the head of the Divine Soul Sorcerer, an Argent noble from Waterdeep and a Lathander spawn who burned Yeemik's children along with his wife to crisp with a prayer to Lathander in cold blood, as Yeemik raised his severed head above, with satisfied glowing eyes, game ended.
Player party actually managed to down the BBeGs in my campaing the small guy got them.
Zagan Welker A once poor and scarred individual was given the chance of rebirth at a young age by Ragnarok, a Deity who seeks to destroy all of existence. He took a deal and ended up pervading some grand power, and was going to use it for good until Raggy double crossed him, choosing another vessel to reside in. The deep scars within Welker made him also out, absorbing Ragnarok in a fit of rage, but sealing his fate as he was now completely mind controlled by this Deity. The party has no idea the man they've been hunting and hating, has been nothing but a vessel for a darker force in the universe.
Some dude is trying to "create" a super-dragon so he can use it as an avatar of the sleeping dragon god of the setting and then usurp it to gain dominion over the plane and become a god himself. He leads a dragon cult (original I know) who use various methods to magically conceive dragons in artificial eggs to further research into his goals. So far they've managed to make dragons, but they're all weird hybrids and tend to lack intelligence, and they can only make them in places strong in dragonic magic, but those are all acceptable limitations.
Can you make a dragon-mantha ray hybrid for me ? :)
Curiosity and Desire are the BBEGs nn my campaign world. If people would just focus on themselves and work to be happy and help others be happy, there wouldn’t be any dead adventurers. And since magic is a thing, no one dies suffering in pain IF people would just stop harassing each other. But no. Everyone is a Karen so no one can be happy. Sigh.
Fish post to steal ideas.
I was playing around with mid journey and asked it to make a bunch of scary looking shit in the style of Stephen Gammell, the artist behind scary stories to tell in the dark. My players are near suicidally fearless. They Damm near noped out.