D&D Villains: How to Create a Good Villain

D&D villains are tricky to write. A deadly but personality-less dragon will not leave a mark like a recurring bandit that your players fight repeatedly. So, how do you bridge that gap and create a strong antagonist that your players will remember? Here, we’ll establish design philosophies and provide tips on how to create a good villain.

Fit Your D&D Villains to Your Player’s Play Style

D&D is a game, so D&D villains should fit the kind of game you're running for your players. Every group will prefer to play D&D in a different way. Create villains that complement the play style of your players. Let’s use the pillars of D&D: “Exploration, Social Interaction, and Combat” as a starting point to show how you can design bosses around play styles:

Exploration:

“The Dungeon Mimic,” a living dungeon fused to ancient ruins that feasts on adventurers. The boss would be beaten by, essentially, just delving into a dungeon! Every puzzle cleared, piece of lore discovered, and mini-boss defeated contributes towards defeating the Dungeon Mimic by making it weaker and the players stronger. The design of this villain rewards curiosity and engaging in puzzles with a tangible end goal of making the antagonist's defeat easier.

Social Interaction:

“Count Traitorough” is a vampire lord orchestrating a coup in a corrupt kingdom. Players must build their political influence to counter the bosses before their final confrontation. Players can aid royals to gain favor, attend lavish galas to network, and gather allies to help unravel the count’s influence. The design around this villain facilitates NPC interaction and rewards role-play by making politics and socializing the weapons to defeat the antagonist. 

Combat:

“Abyssamania” is a massive arena situated in the depths of the abyss, where imprisoned creatures fight for the amusement of a demon lord. Players will fight monsters and challenging puzzle fights, such as protecting a child or battling on a raging lava lake. Every battle aims to strengthen players to the point where they can defeat the demon lord. The design is straightforward but effective. Give the players cool fights, powerful equipment, and a central villain to aim to conquer.


Many groups prefer more than just one of these “play styles”, and plenty more exist beyond the ones described above. So experiment with what your players engage with the most.

D&D Villain Inspiration and Customization

As covered in Guide to Character Creation and Roleplaying, do not be afraid to get inspired when crafting your D&D villains. All manner of antagonistic icons exist in media: Darth Vader, Thanos, Voldemort, Hades, and many more from which to draw inspiration. There’s even an entire wiki of villains to look through to help develop your own.


This advice is not a plagiarism endorsement, but an invitation to use existing antagonists as the bedrock of your own! Identify what about your favorite villains you like most (personality, look, goals, etc.) and infuse them into your character. At that point, add what makes this character setting/campaign specific and proceed from there. You could turn Darth Vader into a death knight with conflicting loyalties or Thanos into a deranged demigod with a death cult. It is only a matter of time before your source of inspiration evolves into a character suited for your campaign.

Give your Players A Reason to Care

As previously discussed, getting your players invested is crucial to any successful campaign, and villains play a key role in fostering engagement. A good place to start is making your villains living elements in your world that your players can feel. The earlier the presence, the better. Your villain could appear as early as session one, thoroughly thrashing the players or worse. You can have the villain’s minions attack villages your players come across, or have a unique landmark like a massive crater be the villain’s doing. Want something less direct? Have your villains be foreshadowed indirectly through lore bits or chatter between NPCs. Whatever approach you take, make your villains feel tangible in the adventure, even if they are not always there.


Another trick: Incorporating your villains into player characters’ backstories. Most players will have a vested interest in their characters’ stories, so give them a villain they have a good reason to get into. Best of all, it generates role-playing potential between PCs and the villain, which can lead to memorable moments for everyone!

PRESENTATION!!! 

What sets super D&D villains apart from regular ones? PRESENTATION! A villain must be striking, so engineer dramatic locations, visuals, and confrontations to make your players feel like they're facing an epic villain. The specifics will vary; all that matters is its impact on your players. Here are a few broad examples to help you get started:

Physical Presence

An intimidating and awesome physique is sometimes all you need. Monsters like dragons, demons, and beholders don’t need much build-up as their physical presence strikes fear and raises the stakes instantly.

A Display of Power

A show of force can effectively give a villain their due. It could be a wizard raining meteors on an entire city or a warlord slaughtering an army single-handedly. What matters is that it's an epic feat of power that inspires awe and pause in players. 

A Sudden Reveal

A shock that suddenly shifts everything happening to the villain’s appearance. Have an assassin appear from the shadows and kill a king, or a giant suddenly fall from the sky. It’s so abrupt, and it’s hard not to have it stick out in your head!

A Steady Build-up

A steady trickle of information builds interest and curiosity in a villain. You could go as small-scale as a few sessions or an entire campaign with minion fights, glimpses, and lore drops, all to make the first encounter with the villain unforgettable. 

A good way to study the execution of presentations that make for great villains is to examine other DMs and their execution of villains. There is a world of D&D streams, podcasts, and more to learn from. Here are some of my favorites I would recommend watching:

Critical Role

The Unexpectables

Dimension 20

 

Conclusion

D&D villains start as blobs of stats, but it's up to you to make them iconic members of your campaign. By understanding what makes a villain stand out, both as a character and in your players' eyes, you're one step closer to a truly epic D&D adventure.


Want to read more insights on making the most of your TTRPG experience, player, or GM? Read my other blogs and see how to make the most of a campaign!