What the shortest the main villain can be before they lose any

>>51434169
Depends on the size of rest of the world, and how the character looks.

Snakes/Spiders are small compared to people but can still be intimidating.

The Staypuff marshmello man isnt that intimidating even when he's 50 feet tall.

>>51434169
It's not the size of the villain that makes them a threat, it's the size of their villainy.

>>51434169
Toddlers are fucking terrifying.

>>51434169
They can be a disease of some sort. Bacteria & viruses aren't tall.

>>51434169
Any size if they have a shrink ray.

>>51434169
6'

Anything less is a manlet

Generally, you can't be taken seriously if your legs dangle over the edge of the chair you're sitting in.

File: frieza_final_bout_update_by_kingvegito-d540koo.jpg (96KB, 900x675px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 900x675px

>>51434169

>>51434169
>implying I can't do a campaign focused on hunting down the Kender that stole your shit, stomping a mudhole in his ass and then walking it dry.

Viruses can be pretty threatening

>>51434512
this

It's not size, but the proportions and prominence of features.

badgers are considered scary and they are small as fuck.

>>51434169
They can get pretty small and still work as a main villain if the threat they represent isn't direct physical combat. Supernatural power, political power, etc.

>>51434169
Some of the most terrifying antagonists in real history were literally microscopic.

I am, of course, speaking of bubonic plague, smallpox, and the like.

So your villain is now a sapient disease. An entire strain of viruses or bacteria which somehow exist as a single hivemind of human intelligence at least.

>>51434169

I ran an interesting campaign where the BBEG / mastermind was a Ferret. This was NOT bunnies & Burrows or Mouse Guard, it was AD&D.

You see, at level 1, the party broke in to a hedge-wizard's tower, and murdered him in his sleep.

The thing was, they killed the wizard, and looted his spell books and whatnot. But they didn't kill, or even find his familiar. The familiar who the bulk of the wizard's daily writings were about... you see, this wizard had been experimenting with stretching the abilities and intelligence of a familiar, and, after many difficult experiments, he had successfully created the ferret.

The Ferret was an awakened familiar who had been growing in power through sorcerer class levels. By using Charm and eventually Dominate spells he managed to turn a slew of otherwise extraordinary people with positions of authority into his thralls, all while posing as *their* familiar / pet. A Queen (whose pet Ermine was the Ferret) locked 3/5th of the party in her oubliette, where they barely survived the pit and the pendulum. The pirate admiral, whose fleet of goblin-crewed ships were the scourge of the coast, had a pet sea otter was that same ferret, disguising himself. The ferret always survived final encounters, slipping off to find another host to use for his revenge scheme.

The final encounter was around level 8, when, after fighting their way through an actual army, they slew the general, only for the ferret to turn his Domination spell against the same rogue who had killed his master.

I don't really remember what happened overall, but the party had to kill the thief, while the ferret slipped away again.

>>51434169
1 Plancklength

>>51437044
That's easy to change. You just sit on the chair, dangle the legs and pluck peoples eyes with a spoon. Kind of puts others around in a serious mood.

Gnome Barbarian who just headbutts people in the dick, all the time

>>51438312
The slippery ferret tales

File: 1473018181901.jpg (282KB, 1000x885px) Image search: [Google]

282KB, 1000x885px

>>51434169
>his villain is below 12 feet
>any of the characters is below 8 feet
Manlets, when will they learn

>>51434169
A sapient and malevolent virus would be intimidating as all hell.

Size doesn't determine threat level.

>>51439282
not just one virus it would take a lot of them, so next question is how many halflings need to fit in an overcoat to be a good villain

>>51439390
>18 feet towering villain is really just a bunch of gnomes in an imposing suit of armor
Fund it

>>51439225
Hard to maintain an image of fear, constantly banging your head

File: __tanya_degurechaff_youjo_senki_drawn_by_ifuji_shinsen__e7d3b669fbe66709a01e7081c80f9f42.jpg (1MB, 1556x1100px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1556x1100px

>>51434169
You tell me.

Anything under 6 feet just cannot be threatening.

>>51434169
Even just a humble pixie can be terrifying if you do it right.

File: 91dd4e33030400e652f540b8249b11af.jpg (40KB, 564x558px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 564x558px

>>51439452

>>51439541
I feel like this little bastard should've been a lot easier to stop.
Like, the moment she checked his battery pack and he jerked his head around, she should've just shifted her grip to his ankles and started using his skull to redecorate her house.

>>51439558
Agreed. Chuckie was always a shit baddie.

>>51434169
Depends on the person. I'm notably tall and can't find anyone at least as tall as me to be intimidating.

>>51434169
What's with all the fateshit leaking onto /tg/?

I mean I love fateshit, but.

>>51439452
>What are murderous feral dogs

>>51439694
>>What are murderous feral dogs
6 feet long?

File: 1432352930769.gif (1MB, 200x190px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 200x190px

>>51439684
>I mean I love fateshit

A five year old child throwing a temper tantrum, but with the ability to rip tanks apart by looking at them funny, would be frightening as hell.

Waking up in a tent with an angry, one foot long, saw scale viper in your face would be frightening as hell.

A small, broken vial on the floor can be frightening as fuck if the label on it reads HF(g) or Cyclosarin.

If you want a sense of threat, start with having an actual threat there.

Meanwhile, it'll take a bit more than just being seven feet tall to intimidate five heavily armed hardened killers.

>>51439714
Plenty of dangerous dogs are smaller than that.

File: krang.jpg (57KB, 456x281px) Image search: [Google]

57KB, 456x281px

>>51434169
>implying

>>51434169
Depends on what they do. A leader / brains type can be terrifying at 2 feet if his army / spells / schemes is strong for him.

Fighter? Not so much, unless you throw in dirty tactics like poison. Plus if you are fighting them in a cave with a shit ton of 3 feet tunnels your 6 foot Warrior is not going to have a fun time.

Really size doesn't make the validity of a threat, it would be the situation that is threatening. A 50 foot golem isn't scary when it can hardly move, a 2 foot Gnome / Goblin / Kobold can be terrifying if you can't catch the fucker and he knows every route / ambush points around you.

>>51439820
And if the dog is foaming at the mouth... You have a much better chance of surviving bubonic plague, ebola and a few nasty puncture wounds all at once without treatment than you have of surviving rabies with treatment.

>>51437066
Isn't frieza like 130 or 140? He is like 5cm taller in final form.

File: 1483865842740.png (165KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

165KB, 600x600px

>>51434169

File: LaughingMicroscopically.jpg (76KB, 724x620px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 724x620px

>>51434169
And killing macroscopically.

>>51434169

If you can't find a way to make a four inch tall villain intimidating then you simply aren't a good GM...

You aren't necessarily a bad GM, but you'll never be better than mediocre...

>>51434169
Depends how they're written, what they do/have done, how their abilities compare to other characters & monsters in their verse and their success rate all matter -- losing/conceding/being stopped too much/often can make any character hard to take seriously.

>>51434169
Any size really.
A demilich can simply be a finger bone.

File: Hannibal Bean.jpg (8KB, 294x214px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 294x214px

>>51434169
The most threatening villain in Xiaolin Showdown was a literal talking bean.

File: 1451528275821.jpg (533KB, 900x900px) Image search: [Google]

533KB, 900x900px

>>51434169
Junpaku no apron!

>>51434169
>villain is a possessed china doll
scary

>villain is a grot
wot's all this den?

File: 1432422270964.png (255KB, 637x624px) Image search: [Google]

255KB, 637x624px

>>51439733
Are you trying to say something?

>>51437044
That's why you use someone that looks powerful and imposing as a footstool.

>>51440024
Where else would a dog be foaming?

>>51434169
one of the worst bosses my players came across was a halfling dervish that was the warboss of an army of goblins. after getting their asses handed to them 3 separate times by her, she ended up becoming an important npc friendly after it was revealed that they were driven out of their homelands by an invading drow army.

>>51437089
Only to bitches that can't handle their hygiene. Learn to bathe.