What's a nice innocuous hobby or other humanizing feature

>>51891308
Painting.

>>51891308

Playing games with his son.

>>51891308
https://youtu.be/Gj6r0Vi4-Bk

Cooking.

>>51891328
That's vicious. Have the sun run into the boss lair right before the final battle and have the BBEG politely ask him to leave to spare him the sight of violence and possibly his father getting killed.

>>51891368
>Sun
Whoops there

>>51891308
a big library full of cheesy romance novels with badly worn spines and pages

a comfy bedroom, encountered before the actual BBEG...I mean REALLY COMFY.

a wife or reasonably pleasant servant making a delicious and/or a very unhealthy meal.

a small herb or vegetable garden
>for best effect, this is encountered at the top of the BBEGs tower or the deepest part of it's underground lair.

a room full of partially carved stone or sculpted clay;

>>51891368

"Ooh he has a child he loves" is like, the most stereotypical humanizing "don't you feel worse now" thing.

Like finding a baby dragon hiding behind the hoard after you've slain the big one.

a pair of children's shoes, never worn.

Roleplaying.

>>51891522
Also, painting miniatures - then playing with his thugs. They always let him win, and he gets angry about it.

>>51891308
The BBEG, when not out on conquests or plotting the downfall of civilizations, is an amateur chef.

>>51891308
Stargazing.

The BBEG of my last campaign routinely stopped his marching army of darkness to set camp and look at the stars with his wife (also evil).

>>51891308
Wedding planner, Ironic isn't it?

>>51891308
The villain creates intricate clockwork sculptures.

>>51891308
My PC had a rival who she absolutely despised, nearly killed, and held in utter contempt. (Rival started it.)

Later, after rival had died in a war, (same side) she'd been wandering around Rival's former home and found a secret chamber with Rival's family relics, some private mementos from her children's lives, and the results of Rival's layman sculpture hobby.

PC felt just absurdly uncomfortable and indignant and self-conscious because when had *she* had time to engage in a hobby, or have a life, or have children.

It was a nice little moment.

>>51891308
>BBEG

How many dicks do you suck?

>>51891822
why do you keep trying to force your shitty meme
At the very worst can you try to unword something worth the effort?

>>51891483

Agree here. It's almost obviously a cheap ploy for sympathy.

>>51891841
What are you talking about?
If anything, BBEG is a meme, and calling it gay and dumb is just a proper reaction.

You seem to have deadened yourself to how gay and dumb Big Bad Evil Guy is, so people are reminding you.

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>>51891308
I want a hobby for my primary antagonist.
She's a devout worshipper of the goddess of hedonistic excess as well as a powerful mage, and was happily married until her beloved husband was killed and his soul imprisoned by a Fiend. Now his body is reanimated to do the Fiend's bidding, and his soul is held captive as leverage to force her compliance in conducting a dark ritual to elevate the Fiend to divinity by killing thousands and desecrating a huge swath of the world. He requires a mortal with certain arcane skills, and she's the unlucky bitch in the hot seat.

What's a good hobby for a hopeless necromantic filled with despair and hatred?

>>51891936
scrimshaw

>>51891936
Flower Gardening. It's the only beautiful thing left in her life and something that her husband always found wonderful about her. It's her last non-necromantic pleasure and the only thing that reminds her of the bond she had with her husband.
Don't know how to link that to hedonism though.

Dancing.

>Good tier: He only does it because his cute servant girl insists on teaching him. He's not very good at it and it's embarrassing but it makes her smile and that makes him happy.
>Cheap Sympathy tier: His favorite dancing partner is dead/permanently crippled. He tries to find a new partner or train one himself but they're never quite as good.
>God tier: He doesn't make stupid dance puns when you fight him.
>Elder God tier: He DOES make stupid dance puns when you fight him.

>>51892018
>>51892018
Surrounding yourself with beautiful things can be super extravagant.
I suppose she could fertilize them with halfling children if we want to get weird.

Cartography. They really like big, ancient maps. Collecting them, comparing them, making them.

Bird watching. Going out, finding tall places and watching birds do stuff.

his favorite drink is orange juice; whenever given the choice he picks it every time.

>>51891862
>>51891483
What if it's done in a way not to kick the players in the dick for killing the guy? Like it doesn't take away that the dude was a monster, he just happens to care about his kid. But yeah I can see it like a "well then why did you even include the kid if it -wasn't- specifically to make the players feel bad"?

>>51892217
Babysitter.

>>51891483
Last time this was pulled I shot the kid in the face with a crossbow.

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>>51892217

My general workaround is the kid is already dead.

>>51892217
I think a way to prevent this is to make him a bit more gray throughout the whole campaign instead of making him the usual ho hum burning down villages summoning demons type of pure evil that you usually fight in fantasy settings until suddenly at the end OH NO MY CHILD WILL NOW BE AN ORPHAN. That way you aren't just immediately assaulted with a sense of FEEL BAD NOW because you have seen his more humane aspects throughout the campaign.

I always thought knitting would be good for a dexterous character, but I guess plenty of old ladies knit with arthritis ... perhaps sewing?

I mean Bane in the Dark Knight Rises knits whilst Crane does his kangaroo court thing.

>>51891361
I'll second this. Preparing food for someone is just about the most universally recognized gesture of friendliness.

>>51891308
Autistically making a scale model of his planned capital city once he conquers his empire. Hitler seemed to quite like the idea of transforming Berlin into Germania a massive city full of architectural wonders and the capital of a Germany that dominated global politics.

>>51891483
Whenever I'm asked to think of some way to humanize the faceless superevil of the BBEG, I usually point in the direction of Mr. Freeze. He knows he's doing evil, but he has the best intentions.

Like the wizard who keeps his wife frozen in time while he tries to find a cure for her condition, only to realize decades later that he's running out of time. He's still trying to save the woman he loves, so he looks into necromancy to buy himself more time. Suddenly that hateful lich has depth and character, plus even though the PCs won't think twice before dispatching him from this realm they'll probably feel bad about it.

>>51891361
>>51892411
>BBEG offers the heroes a nice meal before their final encounter
>they refuse, thinking it's poisoned
>he's thoroughly offended- he just wanted to show off the result of his hard work learning to cook

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Painting.

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>>51891308
I JUST finished this guys story mode yesterday. Are you in my life OP?

Bonsai. I always thought it was a creepy af hobby, no idea why. Also im pretty sure i remember a villain or two from movies who collected fish.

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>>51891324
Mediocre but earnest painting.

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Stamp collecting.

>>51891904

>still using "gay" as an insult
>In the year of our Lord, the Twenty-First Century and Seventeen

You've got to be over 18 years of age to post here, son.

>>51891460

To add: a fairly unattractive wife that the BBEG actually cares for and cherishes deeply

>>51891308
Figure modelling

>>51891694
Season three never.

>>51891308
he likes getting drunk

>>51891308

Poetry, except maybe they aren't particulaly confident in their skills.
The party might find a draw of "in progress" poems hidden in a draw or something.

>>51892018

All the flowers are opium poppies.

>>51891308
Elaborate tea ceremony

Sampling food from around the world and has a giant exotic spice collection

Fireworks

Dollmaking and collecting, with a room dedicated to just that There is a doll of each party member on a prominent shelf, faithfully recreated based on reports from the underlings. If any characters have a thing for each other the dolls might be holding hands or such

Traditional folk music type stuff, like throat singing or playing a banjo

>>51894666
Mediocre but earnest anything. Being bad at something ans still throwing your ll into it is the most humanizing trait.

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>>51891361

>>51891308
Smithing. Not smithing horrific evil artifacts of doom, mind you. Just smithing everyday needful things, like nails, brackets, horseshoes, shovels and the like. He can even give the things he creates to peasants in need.

>>51891308
He makes movies starring old, washed up actors because they were the guys he looked up to when he was a kid.

All the movies are terrible, but not boring, and are distributed for free within his domain.

Amateur dramatics. The players find several scripts in his study, with his lines highlighted. Perhaps he's writing his own production with some mundane subject matter
Biology. He has several books on various flora and fauna, perhaps of one particular type.
Unicycling. You don't even need to have any details, just a unicycle sitting somewhere in his lair.

Between plotting the apocalypse, conducting human sacrifice, summoning demons, and scheming to bring about literal Hell on Earth, the BBEG shitposts autistically on Tibetan sand-painting boards about why Saber is objectively the best waifu.

>>51891324
>>51891328
He plays table top war games with his young son in the hopes of inspiring him to real life war as he was introduced.

The militaristic brute BBEG studies biology as a pastime and is actually compiling a revolutionary paper on the subject of dog breeding. This isn't connected to making a better war dog, dude just loves dogs and knows more about dog breeding than anyone else in the area.

>>51896480
>Amateur dramatics. The players find several scripts in his study, with his lines highlighted. Perhaps he's writing his own production with some mundane subject matter

Before the fight the party realizes that he's cribbed most of his monologue from one of the newer scripts.

>>51891308
Models.

Dude likes building model villages and cities, with little model people and animals. You could hint that he likes it because it appeals to his desire for total control and perfect order, but on the surface it's just a guy humming while he finishes the paint on his new villager.

Civilized, learned debate and interaction.
He's genuinely curious about why the PCs are trying to counter his master plan, and will invite them into his study for a snifter of brandy and a cigar (even agreeing to let the female party members in on it) before seguing into an earnest talk about the events of the plot.
He's not going to poison the drink. He's not going to rig the cigars. He's not even going to try to corrupt or tempt the PCs. Someone just managed to fight their way through all his minions and reach his door, and he wants to hear how they did it, what they feel about the events that came before and most importantly why they're acting against him. He's been doing all this for a reason, not just cackling cruelty, and when the people who've poured so much hard work into countering him and just him are knocking on his door, the least he can do for himself and as a gentleman is to talk before fighting.
A lot of 3.PF players freeze up in confusion when confronted with an antagonist who's not a villain. Even the most stereotypical "General-Emperor of the Empire of Dark Iron" can get players unawares if he's not a screaming berserker, just the kind of well-read, old-fashioned former army man that most of these people would actually be.

>>51891308
Tennis.

>>51896650
>not a screaming berserker, just the kind of well-read, old-fashioned former army man that most of these people would actually be.
>Former army man
>Not a screaming berserker who uses "Fuck" as punctuation, "Faggot" as an article, "pussy" as an all purpose adverb, and is at all times roughly six seconds from cussing you out and teaching you cuss words not even 4chan knows.
You must know a different kind of former army man than I do.

If you really want to fuck with your players, have a villain who either uses his innocuous hobby as a disguise or just earnestly wears it on his sleeve.
He's still engaged in the events of the plot, but you don't just throw away everything a lifelong hobby did for you. It reflects on your looks, your fashion taste, your way of speaking, your habits and your opinions, and there's no "villainous revelation" that blasts this all away and replaces it with pure evil.
Imagine a villain who used to be a comedian. It's in his every movement, laugh and reaction, and even though he doesn't make a career out of it anymore, he's still a bright, irreverent man with a smile on his face and a habit of making little jokes that still don't get Kender-level.
Just a shame that the drive to make people laugh and be happy at the cost of his own hard work also drove him to collect cult members from his fanbase, build a small private army compound and spend contacts on having the police look the other way, because he's convinced that unless he has a thousand human sacrifices by the end of the year, there'll be nothing for anyone to laugh at ever again.
>>51896696
There's a difference between "Jaden who went out of the army at 30 after a stint in Afghanistan" and "fantasy-medieval general who retired when he became too old to fight and spent the next thirty years of his life in the army, raising new recruits and worrying about his country".

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>>51891308
Takes care of their underlings, maybe even hanging out with them.

One that I'm always a big sucker for is collecting. Any type, be it 'collecting skulls or trophies from slain foes' or 'collecting a single knucklebone from each enemy/ally who died well', all the way through to 'collecting flowers from every territory conquered' and 'birdspotting & collecting rare bird feathers.

I don't know exactly why, but collecting mementos is the most down to earth, humanizing thing to me. To have a passive, orderly hobby that is little more than a simple pleasure to indulge in. No greater meaning or use, no purpose, and no value to anyone else. I love the idea of a BBEG asking the fight is moved to a different room in case his collection is damaged, or asking that he be buried along with his most loved treasures (which are, of course, utterly worthless but possess sentimental value).

>>51896768
>co's boardcanon is that all of the villains in gotham are horrible to their henchmen in their own twisted way
>except for freeze, who takes care of his hench people, and does things like hold of batman long enough to let the henchmen get away, provides healthcare and long term disabilty, etc

>>51896768
What show is this? I find that scene legitimately funny. Warrior dude just gapes with an open mouth after the master says he won't punish him.

Geology? Maybe they get a rock from every place they visit.
>>51894666
And to think that I can barely hold a brush.
>>51896033
These are good ones.

>>51892217
There's nothing wrong with making the players feel bad occasionally. We create sad movies and enjoy stories like this all the time. Acting like sadness never has a place in the story of a tabletop game seems pretty boring to me.

>>51893474
I'd absolutely promise to save her as he drew his last unbreath. It would be an awesome epilogue quest.

>>51896554
>Put the coffee down. Coffee is for closers.
>what the fuck are you talking about? We're here to stop your plan to unleash the hell army of Nito the Gravelord on the unsuspecting populous.
>YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Brewing wines and ales

Making cheese

Gardening

He enjoys music and frequently invites the best musicians into his court to play. Most think he just does that to add a shallow veneer of barbaric simplicity but In actual fact he knows and can play decently okay on several instrument and can even sing.

In order to preserve his image as a ruthless tyrant, no one knows this fact and the servants just assume that the singing coming from his private bath chamber are being used by a... well voiced male concubine.

He's even privately and secretly sponsored several aspiring musicians. More than one has ended up writing a song about rebellion against the dour king which caused some headaches, country wide bans and eventual beheadings. That said, the Tyrant begrudingly acknowledges the quality of songs and keeps copies in his private room.

Photography is something that seems innocuous but on further thought and seeing his work could be extremely fitting for a villain.

His best friend was a clown.

He picked up juggling in his spare-time.

>"Bbeg"

No thank you.

>>51891936
Music. Flute I would say, but perhaps a violin.

>>51891483
>Finding a baby dragon hiding behind the hoard after you've slain the big one.
"Score. Does anyone have some spare shackles? This thing will fetch a pretty penny.

Despite being a 1000 year old Lich, he will stop all his non critical plans to read up on the latest topics of history.

The lich will actually sit down and be hospitable to the heroes if they have interesting historical topics to discuss and is willing to share tidbits of what life was like during different periods of time.

Sometimes he uses it for his own neferaious schemes. But generally speaking it is just interesting to him and helps keeps his thinking into perspective.

>>51894712
Sucking cock is still insulting, even until the end of time. So enjoy the semen in your mouth and know that you are pathetic.

>>51893543
>Please, if I wanted to kill you I would have done so already. I wish you to experience my culinary skills before you die. Taste and be awed, mortals!
>Really, you made this? Alright then... Wow, it's delicious!
>I'm glad. And the pudding?
>Amazing!
>Seems like it was a complete success. Very good, you may start choking on your food now.

He's still a villain and you're a dumbass for trusting him, you know.

>>51899179
You can have villains who don't poison people quite easily you rube.

>>51899179
Just making him Lawful Evil. He has a sense of honor.

>>51899194
Honestly the only time a BBEG shouldn't be lawful evil is when they are either not in control of their actions or aren't humans, like a dragon.

>>51899179
>being this boorish

All the best villains have a sense of honour, or at least style.

>>51899190
But why would he bother fighting them after achieving total gastronomic superiority? If he values his pride he will perhaps offer them the antidote if they demonstrate they have an even finer palate.

>>51899194
This is why D&D alignments are fucking stupid, not to mention the sort of villains who refuse to poison people tend to be less civilized types.

>>51899250
>hurr durr fite me with sword not at dinner table
What would knuckle-dragging troglodytes know about style?

>>51899282
>But why would he bother fighting them after achieving total gastronomic superiority?

To demonstrate just HOW MUCH better he is than they are. Not only is he a better cook than they are, but he's also more honourable and more skilled in battle.

>>51891694
>>51895180

Why must you remind me! Goddamn that was a show

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>>51891308
> What's a nice innocuous hobby or other humanizing feature for a BBEG?
Collecting business cards. Listening to upbeat rock bands. Watching and returning videotapes. Taking care of his own skin.

>>51891308
Make them fans of murder mysteries.

Have a bookshelf of Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew rip-offs, and a draft of his own murder mystery. Have a box of a CLUE ripoff laying sprawled on the table, a small diorama with the setting of his novel, and lots of sticky notes.

A full gym set up could also work. Make the guy a health nut. Only good food, well worn workout equipment, ect.

Writing stories and/or memoirs.
Maybe collecting reports that his/her underlings give off enemies and writing stories about their exploits, then when he/she finally meet the PCs he can get excited and inquire about the stuff he's heard and written about them, even get upset when his expectations of them don't meet with reality.

He could also create characters/events into his stories and get confused with separating his own fiction/headcanon from reality.

Maybe he creates a fantasy world within his mind, a place he retires too for comfort, and at the last moment of his life before the PCs kill him he goes to that fantasy world and dies happily in it.

Or maybe he likes chopping wood

Tarrot reading and misreads the cards constantly

>>51891578
Does that explain Hannibal Lector?

Disguise and visiting towns, socializing with the locals

>>51893543
>The heroes start eating
>"Wow, this is actually really good! What do you call this"
>"Pommes de Terre à la Genocide"
>"....."
>"Oh, don't become speechless just yet! Wait until you've tasted the Orphan Surprise!"

>>51902309
>the surprise is, they weren't an orphan until -after- I cooked them!

>>51891308

Not a hobby, but a humanising feature. I got to thinking and I'm imagining a female overlord who has, for one reason or another, always dressed and presented herself as a man.

It's not relevant to her power. Maybe it once was - an inheritance thing or a law that once restricted power to men. Maybe she wanted to join the army when she was younger and it was male only so she pulled a polly oliver.

She's an older woman now and whatever her reason originally was, its long past. Noone is around to question her heritage, her grasp on power is fully established. she retired from the army and it doesn't really matter anymore etc. Yet she's continued acting the same way she always has for no real discernable reason other than habit.

It's not a sex thing - she's straight or at least not a lesbian. You could probably work in something about how maybe she's never had much experience with men, given that she just assumes they wouldn't be interested in someone as unwomanly as she is (and using her power as evil overlord to make them make love to her just strikes her as seriously pathetic).

And she doesn't really try to hide it to any particular degree. If you met her you would probably assume she was a guy, though a fairly slender and androgynous one. And maybe she goes by Lord rather than Lady, but her actual gender is an open secret and easily found out by anyone who actually looks into her history.

She doesn't *wish* she's a man. As long as you get her title correct she isn't going to make you correct your pronouns around her or get annoyed because you point out she's a woman (unless you do something actually disrespectful). Its really just habit, or the only way she knows how to live after all this time.

I don't know. Something appeals to me about this BBEG. Not sure what it is. The implication that she's slightly uncomfortable about herself maybe, that there's some social awkwardness there that comes with never really knowing how to 'act womanly'.

>>51903816

CONT

I'm imagining the players busting into her court to tell everyone the dreadful secret about their lord that she's actually a woman, as if that will deal some blow to her power, and them all explaining awkwardly that they are aware. Maybe with her being very non-plussed/bemused and them all being surprised that she's not more angry about this ("Because my mate Alex gets really prissy when we all forget to call him Alexa..)

Or hell. The players not figuring it out until they're sneaking around the Overlords manor or something and suddenly discovering a bra or some other incriminating female misc. objects, suddenly confronting the Overlord with the intention of mocking them. And just getting a very blank stare and a: "Yes. I see that is one of my bras. Most women do own bras."

>>51891308
The villain of Storm King's Thunder an ancient blue dragon basically has an ant farm
Technically it's Purple Worms but it's the same purpose

>>51891308
He draws furry porn.

Seriously though I just posted to say, that is the evilest looking guy I've ever seen.

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>>51891904
>>51898934

There's always a couple of these autists wanting shit thrown at them.

>>51891308
Not a hobby per se, but when going for this effect, I usually have my BBEG refer to his henchmen by their names. It's something simple but still gives both the mooks and the boss a little bit a reality to them, and I always love when my players start referring to them by their names as well at least when they even bother to learn them anyway.

For the dehumanized cyborg soldier. Personafixes. The only they feel flawed, human and mortal so they stay sane.

>>51904390
Not worth getting pissy over, but Villain is a perfectly good word. Don't see what BBEG has over it except internet trendyness. I don't say stupid shit like that irl when a real word could say it better.

>>51891308
Something I will use again is having the villain's fortress have a scale replica of the ruined city / countryside it towers over showing a gleaming utopia. Shows that the villain doesn't see himself as the bad guy. Depending on how thick your need to lay it on / how dense your players are you could make some buildings obviously named like "Free Hospital", "Orphanarium", "Cute Puppy Playground". Whatever you need.

>>51904282
Yeah seriously. Like if your nephew gets named "Mortarion", "Hannibal", or "Baal" just smother him in the crib before he becomes an issue.

>>51904282
He draws commissions for his minions OCs.

>>51894712
Gay opinion, fag

He play a game.

The same game.

Against himself.

For fifteen years.

>>51906518
Play a game, one game, against the village idiot for 15 years.

Hasn't beat them once. It helps the villain keep themselves grounded.

>>51894712
faggot

>>51891862
Everything in narrative is a ploy for sympathy, that's the point of storytelling, to make people sympathise and thus have feelings.

>>51891936
Literally anything.

>>51904977
The scale replica is in a dark, sealed-off room, and is coated in a dusty sheet. The notes he left nearby for his plans are wearing away, corner by corner. If the PCs know the town, they notice several important buildings that have been built recently, but are not present in the replica.

>Gardening. Plants might be utterly mundane, or they might be exotic and useful.
>Sculpting. Clay, gold, whatever your BBEG's style is.
>Painting
>Writing (terrible) poetry
>Writing riddles
>Designing or solving puzzles
>Caligraphy

>>51894712
faggot

>>51891308
Gambling, but he's no good at it and often loses, still, he enjoys it all the same and his underlings do too

>>51891308
A few I've done for notable antagonists:

>Though she knows she'll never meet a fair critic again, she still practices singing. She's not bad at it, either, though her songs of choice have gone out of fashion.

>When he has the time, he makes sculptures to pretty up his lands. And they aren't even the type to glorify him, they're just art.

>He keeps a nice garden around his mansion. A shame about him throwing hellfire at children who play too close to his lawn.

>She carries around a small collection of knick-knacks that old friends gave her. Too bad most of them are dead.

>>51896696
Officers vs. Enlisted

>>51904872

It's shorter to type.

>>51904977
There is literally nothing wrong with Hannibal or Baal if you're Phoenician as fuck, son

>>51906867
Even BDSM?

>>51891694
Sorry but whats the reference here if I may ask

>>51909139
>Though she knows she'll never meet a fair critic again, she still practices singing. She's not bad at it, either, though her songs of choice have gone out of fashion.
>gone out of fashion

Is it because she's some kind of ancient lich monster?

Unlike a group of homeless murderers and plunderers who ultimately brought his end, he is a respected and beloved leader of his community. He's got a family, and several children. He hasn't shed blood of hundreds like his executioners, at least not directly - but sometimes you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Someone in position of such trust must make difficult decisions and live with them...

>all of those terminally ill patients she's kidnapped and dissected?
>she is doing what no other doctor has the guts for.
>finding the cure for cancer no matter the cost.
>besides many of her subjects begged her to put them under the knife, once she told them her mission.
>they were in pain, with no hope for recovery. Now they serve the greater good.

In my campaign the biggest villain is an evil cleric with her own group that mirrors the party.

Her boyfriend is the bard, who is not evil at all, and just wanted to record her story. He's a non-combatant, being much lower level than everyone else.

He's teaching the cleric how to dance (she's really bad at it, but keeps trying because he likes it); he helps the evil sorceress maintain her gardens; is the drinking partner of the warrior and has drawn him in heroic light in some paintings; aids the ranger with her ever-growing collection of lost animals (and takes care of them when she is out); and helps the barbarian get into a normal relationship with one of their servants, as well as inspiring him to be more dramatic through tales of other legendary barbarians.

He's a pretty chill dude. The party wishes to be able to spare him when all is said and done

>>51911242
Obviously he has to die attempting to save his true love just as she's nearly beaten, causing her UNHOLY RAGE TRANSFORMATION into the final encounter boss fight.

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>>51891308
Ah, a fellow aesthete.

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>>51904872
>uses irl
>doesn't understand use of bbeg

>>51891308
He plays (Insert offbrand version of whatever game system we're using for our game) with his generals every weekend, as the DM.

Proceed to have players barge in on their weekly game unprepared for such an encounter just as the BBEG declares one of the players failed a perception check 'to notice what was behind the door before it was opened', to add a meta level of fun to the situation.

>>51891308
How about a male wizard that crochets as a means of meditation and testing of his attention to detail?

>>51912410
That sounds cute. Does he have any minions or servants that he dotes on?

>>51891904
>People
>Not just one autist

>Collecting porcelain figurines. Each shelf is filled with rows of exquisite figurines from different master sculptors. Here and there are empty spaces where one or more is missing from his collection.

>Listening to music. He has even invented a way to record long pieces of music to be able to listen to them when it takes his fancy. Think early 20th century wax cylinder recordings. When the PCs defeat him his final request is to listen to his favorite sonata one last time.

>The BBEG is a devoted fan of brewing. He has an entire garden of different strains of hops, a small wheat field and a clear spring he draws from to make his abbey-style ales.

>>51911125
So is this parody?

>>51891308
>Fishing. Goes out fishing whenever he's not on the war trail to think meditate about his actions. Is actually a very big fan of peace and quiet, however does what he does since it's his job.
>Farming. Owns his own small farm and produces crops for the locals of his hometown. Gives him a good overview of famine and logistics. Also the lazy days spent their help to contrast from his normal schedule.
>Linguistic training. Constantly practices speaking so he doesn't sound like a country hick. Is worried that people will see him as rough and uncouth if he ever goes into his normal accent.

>>51896911
I think it's Dancouga?

>>51891822
what did he mean by this?

>>51903176
>No wonder why it was so moist!

>>51911242
I like it. They sound nice.

>>51891308
Assembles and paints model ships/trains/dioramas of his hometown.

Grimdark mode he traps the souls of his victims in the models so that the tiny people are more realistic.

>OP here
>I thought this thread died
Thank you guys.

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>>51916220
Don't mention it. It gave me some time to think about and discuss my villain. I want her to be complete.

>>51894459
Actually I was thinking about him because I was playing Nioh (which he's in as well) and I posted his SW art because I figured it would be more recognized, plus I was surprised at just how much I liked the guy. Certainly much more than I could have anticipated (as I figured I'd hate him)
>>51904282
Well I mean the guy is historically kind of a dick and has been referred to as the "villain of the sengoku era" before so it makes sense that they depict him looking evil. That being said there were a lot of dicks in that era so maybe his role was exaggerated a tad.

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>>51916619
Forgot my picture.

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>>51891308

>>51891308
He's actually helping the world. Simple, yet it screws over all noble PCs. The guy is legit trying and succeeding in helping the world. He provides advanced care, protection, and a stable life with a good economy (if there is one-he might be communist).
It's just that his ways of doing it, are as you pointed out, questionable.

>>51891308
Have him play the saxaphone.

>>51891483
>having the baby dragon hiding behind the hoard
>not having the baby dragon back up the parent halfway through the fight because all the ruckus woke it up and it wants to play too
I have a dragon boss set up with two kids, they were taught to be flank-deterrent and focus down problem characters with synchronized breath weapons. The parent also communicates orders to them in Draconic, so unless someone translates, they can just scurry around the barbarian knowing "daddy's got this" and start pestering the likes of clerics, wizards, and rangers.

>>51891308
He sets up orphanages for the armies of the slain

Gardening herbs for the purposes of medicinal use


Horse breeding for his finest commanders

Agriculture, in an intent to leave the places he conquers better off then before he did so, just for the sake of spiting his enemies

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>>51891308
Wood carving

>>51891361
Baking, specifically.

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>>51917593

>>51917812
See, everyone will assume the orphanages are a scheme. You might get some pointless red herring investigation going with those

>>51919069
That only makes it better. Have your players try to get to the bottom of some evil scheme only to find it completely innocent.

And you know one of your goddamn PC's is an orphan. Have the orphanages be way nicer than the conditions in which they grew up

>>51891308
He's an author. The beautiful mistress he keeps around is actually just his editor who publishes his works under a pseudonym and helps him write his speeches.

He mostly writes YA coming of age stories that always end with the hero alone at the end, rather than with the love interest.

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The designated antagonist in my Exalted game was a super-powered barbarian warlord (Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North). He was talked up a lot whenever the PCs met with his enemies. Even when they had diplomatic meetings with the Bull's lieutenants, the guy was described more as a legendary figure than a real person.

Later on in the story, some of them, exploring a forest just outside of the Bull's territory, happened upon an older barbarian man who is living in a self-built cabin with his pet rabbit. He offers them shelter, and a share of his recent hunt. They have a pleasant conversation, spend the night under the same roof, then the PCs go on their way.

A month later, the PCs finally go to meet with their foe at his capitol city, only to discover that the older man was the Bull of the North, and the rabbit was his shape-shifter wife. He had been living off the land for over a month, trying to get back to his roots.

The shape-shifter had actually recognized the PCs, having met them before in human form, but didn't say anything to her husband (she was hoping the PCs would see how human the warlord is).

The whole situation made them all more sympathetic, and the PCs eventually convinced the warlord to become their ally.

>>51912824
Imagine his golems being festooned with intricate doilies made of spidersilk that he barters for. He makes his own cloaks and capes on his own, each having a different use for him.

>>51891308
The BBEG is srangely devout to a specific non-Evil (possibly even Good) God. Symbols of their God are hung throughout their personal quarters and have a copy of all relevant scriptures to the God. He perhaps has an altar of sorts in his room. Perhaps he daily caries out specific non-evil rituals, such as daily prayer, self-harm, certain exercises, etc.

BBEG is known to use or perhaps is addicted to some sort of minor vice, such as smoking, doing drugs, or drinking. Many of my more wealth BBEGs had personal wine/liquor storages close to their personal quarters or had open bottle of alcohol in several locations in their room. Perhaps it's their addiction that fuels their (insert negative quality)

The BBEG has an artistic talent. Maybe they can paint, draw, write or perform music, etc. Try to make it a bit more specific. Maybe they do pottery or rather have smithing skills and express themselves through ornate jewelry. Perhaps they love acting or they can play a small instrument, even if it's something simple.

>>51913148
>she's a pediatrician.

>>51918363
This seems totally legit and trustworthy

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Jeweling

>>51909418
People that generally turn out to be backstabbing politicking cocksuckers if they stay in past a few promotions vs people that want to do exciting things and get exciting training?

>>51891308
Air guitar aficionado

>>51891308
Bottles his own brand of hard alcohol.

>>51891483
Then you don't make it a young child. Have it be an adult son, who is visiting his father, and is near to the power-level of his father. Father asks for his son to not be included in the fight, also discourages Party from taking both on at once.

>>51910504
Way back in days of old! There was a legend Told
about a Hero known as Galavant!

>>51891308
By magical lottery. chooses one lucky citizen to be gruesomely dispatched by his own hand every year. The family of this citizen is then taken care of for the rest of their natural lives, given wealth, land, returned youth and healed of all current diseases or ailments. If the citizen has no living family another is chosen.

>>51891308
Knitting penis cozies

Horticulture

>>51891308
Beekeeping

>>51891308
The Empress BBEG in the previous campaign I was in loved the country, country towns and habits, farming, milling baking etc...
A few hundred hectares of land next to her castle was walled-up to make a safe, private country region for her to play in.
When she wasn't overseeing her empire, she could be found working as an apprentice baker, helping at the lumber camp, playing shepardess and more.
She even would have her concubines dress as dashing rogues to kidnap her and spirit her away to their gypsy bandit dens.

That's specifically how we cornered her in the end. We staged such a kidnapping and she wasn't aware of it being a fake till she noticed none of us were her concubines.
Once we got her outside, the very real threat of selling her to a rival power got her to agree to end the slavery of our people and then we ransomed her back to her own kingdom.

>>51891460
>a big library full of cheesy romance novels with badly worn spines and pages
This.
A few weeks ago we found the BBEG's hideout and invited ourselves in.
There were laboratories everywhere, rare and exotic alien plants, all sorts of research material everywhere and then we found their library.
Most of it was just works of fiction from around the universe, going back centuries and many untouched. One entire shelf however, was nothing but romance novels.
Every single one had creased spines and several were being held together by sticky tape.

We changed our plans from waiting till they got home and violently confronting them to using Mills&Boon as lure in a trap.

It even worked for the most part.

>>51891308
Art. Being a Painter for example. Or a Sculptor. Trying to find beauty in this world which is - with our without him - so full of bad and evil things.

>>51928590
>using Mills&Boon as lure in a trap.
not a signed box set of the entirety of Daniele Steele or Nora Roberts?

>>51930555
That was up to the DM, we just said we would find which looks the most loved and take it. He then mentioned that while the cover was torn, we could still make out the two words Boon and Mills.