How do I make a villain my players will truly hate and/or fear? 🅿️2  

One of my most successful villains had the party furious beyond compare. They had journeyed into the Tabaxian deserts on a mission from the human empress to secure this shipment of magic crystals meant for the war effort. Upon arrival, they met the city leader, a Tabaxi named Clever Jewel, who was supposed to help them get the crystals. She agreed to help them, and even offered them lodgings in the city. Fast forward a few sessions and their now on the run, having discovered Clever Jewel was not only the city leader, but the head of the crime family that ruled that part of the desert, and she was the reason the crystals hadn't arrived in the first place. Out of desperation, they took up with a rival crime leader who wants to see Clever Jewel dethroned. Now, they obviously wanted my villain gone at this point, but its what happened next that had them fuming. They Journeyed to a town called Hessina Crossroads, that was in the grips of a new plague, in order to help the people and recruit the doctor aiding the locals. While there, they discovered that Clever Jewel was behind the plague, having sent these artificer designed plague constructs (flumstructs they were called) to secretly infect the people. None of the parties healing magic worked on the infected, in fact it actively made it worse, and the doctor had failed to find a cure thus far. While they desperately tried to find a solution, a caravan - guarded by the Clever Jewels personal guard - arrived in town, carrying a cure for the plague. The caravan leader made a big speech about how they were here to help, and how her magnificence - Lady Clever Jewel - would never abandon her people. The party realized that this was all one big PR stunt, and even worse, their was nothing they could do about it. They had no actual proof that Clever Jewel had caused the plague, so if they attacked the caravan they would look like monsters, and if they left, they were admitting defeat. The party was forced to head back to their hideout, knowing that my villain of the arc had poisoned and killed hundreds of her own people, just to make herself look good, and had gotten away clean. Most of the time, it's just the players characters that have an issue with the villain, but if you can make the actual players want to kill your Villain, then you've done your job well.

I actually did this for my Fallout game. One of the players asked me to make an enemy NPC for his background, he's my GM so he left his back story interesting but not having a lot of things as he wants the other players to shine but wanted something as well. He's a prewar ghoul who was a mechanic for the Chinese army in Alaska who was "saved" from execution at the hand sof the US military by the end of the world. Given this I created not just an NOC that was hostile, but a straight up Nemesis who is actively hunting him in the form of Sgt. Delco a member of the 31s Army Regiment who on the days the bombs fell he defended his position from the "communist agents" attacking it, see terrified civilians trying to get to safety and run straight down the barrles of his minigun. He is a what I'd assumed to be a ghoul trapped within his t-60 power armor who is no longer anything thst can be considered human as all he is is the embodiment of prewar propaganda and he will do anything to defend America unable to process that the nation is long gone. He transcended from a mere soldier into a force of nature viewing the wasteland through the lens of prewar indoctrination and he will not stop till till the communist threat has been eradicated.....even his suit running out of power didn't stop him as he forced it to move on sheer force of will. The players described him as "A Roaming Raid Boss" when they learned exactly what Sgt. Delco had become and they already have a plan for when theu encounter him. Run.

"where are all the other bones" "what do you think my castle is made of"

I think it’s a fun idea for the villain to actually see the party as friends rather than enemies. This actually makes them more terrifying because while they might act friendly they can be a true psychopath whose idea of friendship is utterly warped. The party might start receiving increasingly disturbing gifts a such as a freshly cut out heart as a token of their twisted affection.

" I'm with the department of the Treasury... You have unreported earnings that need to be settled "

12:15 that pronunciation of simulacrum is killing me

I guess I did make my players hate my villains once, but what I did was pretty tame. One of the players was playing his first necromancer and made him pass himself off as just a creepy item salesman with a pet rat to the commoners. No one came even near to his stall, despite the the surplus of people there. Well, no one, until a pristine elf who would soon become the first miniboss. The exchange between them went something like as follows: Elf: "What all do you have here?" Necromancer: "oh, all sorts of alchemical tools and remedies. Are you looking for something in particular?" Elf: "Are you familiar with 'antiplagues?'" Necromancer, excited: "Why, yes! I am." Elf, clearly disgusted: "Perhaps you should try one." Necromancer: 😮😡 From there, the elf explained that he was working for the old man that the rest of the party was either hired to protect or was old war buddies with, and offered him a job tending to the needs of the old man. Y'know, passing him off as a quest giver with clear plot-happens-this-way flags. Player begrudgingly came along. During the wagon ride to the next location, I had this elf show interest in the necromancer's spellbook, dirty and grimy as it may be. The player and the player's wife (fighter PC) were happy he was going to have to get off of his high horse to appreciate his talents and accept the offering of borrowing the dirty spellbook. My GM heart actually sank a little hearing how excited they were for this, because I was just about to describe that he got out his handkerchief to accept. The party was going to have to kill this guy later anyway, so I followed through on this and watched as these two got even more offended. When this guy later did his traitor reveal (he was disguising the fact that he was a drow until then), he tried to recruit the necromancer to his true goal of killing the old man during the artificial blood moon the rest of his faction was getting ready for, and it became clear that he actually understood what he was reading in the spellbook, but also implied that the only reason he hired him to take care of the old man was because he had absolutely NO faith in him to keep the old man alive. Necromancer respond with Piercing Scream. By this time, the other players were really fond of the old man he was attacking and really didn't like this drow, so they were really happy to kill him. Flashforward to just about every other dark elf they hear talk and they are JUST as rude. (There's a small exception, but that's another story, and she still had a little bit of a mouth on her.) Yeah, the party wanted to stop the drow before they break the world beyond repair, but even more than that, they wanted to kill these people who were so rude to the entire being of this character that a player was excited to play. The only drow that successfully left the carnage was the only one who was polite and helpful to them; all others involved were hunted down. Looking back, I'm really glad I was able to give them enemies they were able to hate so much.

One of my favorite villain archetypes is better described as "the force of nature." Think of it as an impending doom whose victory is all but ensured, unless... I love the idea that the party can look the evil force in the eye, and it does nothing to them out of sheer hubris, so they spit in its eyes to thumb their disdain towards it (metaphorically). One of my favorite stories (minus the ending) is Mass Effect because the enemy has this exact feel to it. How do you overcome an enemy that can brute force you to death? It's a matter of survival, wits, tactics, and everything that makes a TTRPG great if DMs can pull it off. I've created a Mass Effect inspired campaign out of the Star Jammers scenario, and by the end of the campaign the players had such contempt for the Reaper proxy that it warmed my cold, nearly dead heart. They wanted these things SO DEAD that they even risked unleashing the Celestial plane and the denizens of the Hells upon the multiverse to slap the $h!t out of the BBEG. Be big, be bold, use scope, and don't confine the antagonists to doing evil things for the sake of being evil. The dread they inspire should mean something horrendous on a macro level, and only your players stand between them and annihilation. Remember, the story's for them, not for you. Let them shine and the villain will look like a badass.

Give them a cute pet, then have the villain brutally kill it. Watch as your players become John Wicks.

C'lo C'hlu. She started out as one of them, briefly. Kidnapped their runaway noble charge. Raided a village they had recently saved and razed it. In fact, she made it her mission to not only advance her goals but to go behind the players and undo good they did. They rescued orphans, she would come in and begin warping the children to Cthulhu worshippers. She always presented to the world as a good friend of theirs, and she knew them very well. She always found a way to stay one step ahead and one step behind at every turn. She even attended their retirement party. The constant thorn in their side, they never found a way to completely defeat her. She retired with them, never finding another worthy hero(es) to replace them. No villain was ever as hated as she.

My most successful villains have been ones built with the mindset of "the ends, if good, justify the means, if necessary."

As mentioned previously, the key to making the BBEG truly hated by the PCs is to give them a personal connection to one or more of the PCs. Look at Vox Machina for example. The Briarwoods were the ones who murdered Percy's family and took over rulership of Whitestone. The Cinder King was the dragon that killed Vex and Vax's mother. Grog's uncle Kevdak used the Titan Stone Knuckles to beat Grog nearly to death. They all had reasons to hate one BBEG or another during the campaign. If it weren't for goblins short lifespans compared to gnomes, they might have even had a quest where Scanlan were to hunt down the goblin that murdered his mother and avenge her. Unless he did that much earlier in his adventuring career. Imagine a campaign set in a reimagined Age Of Conan setting, based on the hypothetical shared Hyborian Cinematic Universe of Conan The Barbarian, The Beastmaster, Deathstalker, Red Sonja, and The Barbarians. Story Arc 1: Team Conan tracks down and defeats the BBEG Thulsa Doom, but in the process find a clue that he was simply a lieutenant of an unknown, much more powerful enemy. Story Arc 2: Team Conan tracks down and defeats the BBEG, High Priest of Set, Maax and defends the city of Aruk against the Jun Horde. But in the process they discover a clue that Maax was just a lieutenant of a much more powerful and mysterious BBEG. Story Arc 3: Team Conan tracks down and defeats the BBEG, Queen Gedryn, and destroys The World Maker Talisman, only to find clues that she was only a lieutenant to a much more powerful BBEG. Story Arc 4: Team Conan journey to the kingdom of the wizard Munkar, where they enter a gladiatorial tournament to the death where Deathstalker collects the Three Items Of Power (Sword, Amulet, and Goblet). Before the members of Team Conan can be made to fight each other in the tournament, they defeat Mulkar, but learn that he's a lieutenant to a much greater BBEG. Story Arc 5: Team Conan must acquire The Magic Ruby of the Ragniks, free Queen Canary from the clutches of the evil warlord Kadar, and defeat Kadar and his army. After defeating him they find clues that Kadar was a lieutenant of an even more powerful BBEG. Story Arc 6: When the clues of the above five story arcs are put together, it's learned that the BBEG that all of the other BBEGs were working for was in fact the evil wizard Toth-Amon (who, unlike in Conan The Destroyer, was an incredibly powerful wizard capable of doing much more than just turning himself into a bird of smoke and a mirror monster). So each story arc allows for one or more characters to face a personal BBEG (Thulsa Doom for Conan, Maax for Dar The Beastmaster, Queen Gedryn for Red Sonja, Munkar for Deathstalker, Kadar for the barbarian twins, Kutchek and Gore). Then, each clue found should build up Toth-Amon to be a bigger, badder, and more powerful BBEG than any of his lieutenants. That should generate the fear.

So, it wasn't a villain, per se (villainous af, but not against the party). Nana was a neutral-ish helpful-esque NPC, mostly for exposition and a giving a quest or two. She was an old witch (night hag) living in the woods (spawn camping a fey crossing) that really liked the children in town. Absolutely nothing nefarious about it, she liked mortal children. None of the adults in town acknowledged her existence in any way, even when she was in sight. After the PCs met her in her human form in town, they were all immediately like "look, out of character, can we do this, right now?" I told them that they stood zero chance at their level, but they were, of course, welcome to do what they wanted. Later, they went to her house and met the real Nana. They developed a very healthy fear, and never did try to put the hag down, though she was always around, peripherally (I was allowing them the chance). She appears from time to time in games I've run since then, always off the main quest line, but available if they want to. Nobody has 😂😂😂

Ngl, the goat one made me laugh.

You could make some of the characters that are meant to be an important part of your PCs backstories a part of a bigger, more intricate web. Was their village wiped out by a bandit clan, you could reveal that the bandits were actually soldiers, sent by corrupt general/evil king, trying to stir up trouble and spread the kingdom's standing army thin. Was your rogue Bruce Wayned? That thief was actually a hitman, working for the BBEG, and their parents were a potential threat to their ascension.

One of my personal favorites was called the doopleganger king. Basically, early on the king they served was replaced by a changeling. Now this changeling didn't do anything directly to the party per say. He acted normally, sending them on the same missions etc. But he slowly stole bits from each party member. A strain of hair, a document and so on. By the time they realized it was him stealing from them, he had cast a ritual to clone them and had sent these clones off to replace them as his new soldiers "were superior" to them. The party would soon get somewhere just to learn another party had already beat them to the task and left. Since they wore armor that covered their faces, the party just assumed they were a rival group.. until the truth came out. Turns out several of the fakes had been living with their families whilst the party had been traveling. The GM made them have to figure out if the party wete actually the clones themselves by uncovering the plot to replace them. Once it came out that the fakes had been around actually being them the whole time, they were livid at this king, who had basically been using the royal coffers to distract them. I should mention that what made the villian so fearsome is the unknown element. While he never confronted the party, it was the implications. Was he holding loved ones hostage? Were all the players real? Were there more fakes? What else was he planning? And so on. But in reality, this false king couldn't be bothered. He knew he had legitimately better versions of the players and had actually replaced an ineffectual king. He was just keeping the players around because both he and they needed to be alive for the spell to keep working.

I did it by having a lot of NPC hype up one particular NPC. Talking about how strong they are, how they are almost a god and having that power be showcased in someway. Then having the big bad come in and kill said hyped up NPC quite quickly and easily in a slightly brutal way. When I did it my players said they were actually scared in real life, like heart pounding. And it was the best session we’ve had

I had a billion that the party barely defeated. Every time they told somebody that they had defeated the villian, they were either laughed at or told they were lying. The party pieces it together that this guy had been a big deal and his death was something that most people that knew him did not believe happened. Then they learned that the real villian, the one they had known about the whole time had bested the one they defeated in one on one combat. The party went silent for a second and they started to talk about just fleeing and letting the story play out.

This was beautifully educational. Thank you to those who contributed.

This only works if your party is mid-level(6-12). Make him do a bunch of of petty acts to random npcs. Then make your party fight him . Have the villain not care for them. Just let the villain fight them long enough for the party to know not to mess with him. Doesn't matter if it risk a TPK or to deal enough damage to them to get their point across. Then make the villain feel powerful because the party is beneath him and he doesn't care enough about them to beat them.

Easy. Make your BBEG either impersonally personal (like it seems like he doesn’t even care about the parties response, yet his actions personally effect the party) or make him obsessively personal to the point of being an extremely threatening annoyance.

My dnd campaign is a post apocalyptic style world I've homebrewed a lot of stuff. Ever present in the universe is the Evolutionary Society. A group of humans driven mad by the desire to evolve past God hood. This group having been unseen by a large time, and if ever seen its usually just a few weak grunts or 1 strong dude...till we got to a settlement. This is still dnd after all so the king of the style mentioned enlists the party's help for jobs, he treats his subjects with respect and everything he does usually tries to benefit all party's. He had seen the horrors combat brought and doesn't want to see them again. His 'wife' is one of the leaders of the evolutionary society. And during a large banquet where close friends and the party attend in the castle. The King is acting weird, more stiff and ridged than usual and staying upon his throne. He is moving but oddly. The party discovers that, the king is dead and has been hollowed out and inside of him are a series of mutated worms that are pu Piloting him as a flesh suit. He queen doesn't leave his side all night because the worms are coming from her, they aren't worms. They are a series of new appendages the queen mutated onto herself. She has infected most of the royal guard and orders them to fire onto the dinner party killing almost everyone but the party and maybe one npc if the party can save them. The non infected guards are executed by the infected ones. The queen then told the party "You wish to know the reason I didn't kill you? Because your weak...and I can't have my lowly minions be as weak as you. So grow stronger...so my power may take over you at your best..."

An idea I've always wanted to try: Mold the villan after "that guy" a theiving, lying murderhobo that senselessly throws wrenches in every plan the group has, for sh*ts and giggles. Was the legendary sword/armor/treasure etc supposed to be there? Roll a D20 if it's a multiple of 3, that guy has already taken it or teleports in with dmpc plot armor and takes it. Nothing that guy says makes sense but it almost does, because its plagiarized. He breaks the 4th wall, he meta games (secretly roll a d20 again to see if he actually is right) Then get the hate flowing by using prestidigitation/ slight of hand or simmilar to mess with the bodies, foods, clothing, bed rolls etc of the group. The majestic haired elf now has a bald spot. The bed roll has been slashed. Why do all the cookies have exactly 1 bite taken out of them? Where did all the clothes go while talking to that important npc?! Then add self doubt/ fear If the party attacks that guy in ernest, he does not attack the party... he attacks the surroundings in the same measure the party attacks him. They start lobbing arrows at that guy? He starts planting arrows in the people and animals around them until the party tends to the wounded. Sets fire to buildings with children in it. Straight fireballs their favorite shop keepers shop... depending on what build you give that guy. I think that could stoke righteous rage and immense satisfaction in pinning him down.

Introduction is one of the most important part. In an hombrew campaign, my players where in a blood dimension traveling to find a portal to got back. They meet an oracle who had a vision and said : In a world where the kings are fueled by greed where the gods are bitter i'm the one who makes the bleed the answer. They go on and meet an fallen angel and soon after an middle aged man. when asked about himself, the old man said : I just woke up, when i do, i get out from under the dead leafs, i stumble to the nearest pile of snow and watch my enemies become terrified, because seeing me drink, they know i'm back. the fallen angel ask what's his name and he says: I had many names but where you came from, they called me the answer. fallen angel sh!t themselfs.

A few methods: 1, the most underappreciated option; you can just let your group interact with some moderately shady/mysterious NPCs you've made, and then wait for them to become unreasonably suspicious of one of them...then THAT is your main villain, and you slowly start revealing that fact. Makes it seem like the villain planned to encounter the party, and gives lingering frustration at having been so close to the villain, but not having done anything to stop them right then. 2, write the villain in a way where they're simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. Their influence is felt constantly, but they remain unseen - or are sighted for brief periods. 3, you can go the route of the villain who is seen the whole time, taunting and interfering with the party...but it takes really good writing to pull off; it can just become annoying if done wrong.

Had Strahd tell a small boy to kill the party paladin or else he'd kill his sister. Paladin disarmed and pinned the boy, so Strahd kept his word.

Wasn't mine but I heard of someone who uses a lich that knew all the spells from 1e to 5e.

PANR has tuned in.

It's easy to hate a guy when he's personally slighted you somehow. or you can take a page out of Araki's book, and have the villain kill a dog for some petty reason.

Little tidbit from my Radiant Citadel campaign if you REALLY want to make the party scared: Have that villain know more about the party than they really should, maybe even more than their character knows about themselves. You have the PC's backstories, after all. Make sure you know HOW that villain knows it, but don't let the party know right away. Let them be a little paranoid. That'll do a good job of scaring the players, as they now know this villain knows all this about them, but not how, Now, if you want to make the party afraid of what the villain might do and hate them: give them an interest in an NPC the party really likes. Could be a creepy stalker thing, could be some scientific motivation, could be revenge, ect. In my case, it was because the villain knows the NPC is in a reincarnation cycle and is fascinated by the idea of killing her to find out if she instantly reincarnates in another world (and thus the party can't resurrect her), or will stick around long enough to be revived. But, and this is important: give the party a chance to STOP the NPC from dying and protect them. The fact they have a CHANCE to stop this, but know failure is possible is much tenser than just killing them out of nowhere. The important point is to make the party care about this NPC, but know they're NEVER safe so long as this villain exists because the villain has a vested interest in killing their beloved NPC.

Good villains are all about build up. Not just an adventure, but over the course of a campaign. You have to make the players see the clues, and then build upon them. Take the BBEG of my last campaign, which ended this very week. The vizier to the king and Archchancellor of the tower of high sorcery, the players were working for him for quite some time. I started seeding clues from the start. Just nagging questions that they could pick up on if they thought about it. Why are they being asked to raid the tomb of a good wizard for this tome. Why is a wizard asking the group to get a book on summoning angels and divine magic. Why is he keeping the kingdom’s military stretched so then that they can’t even be called to do standard escort missions, leaving the party to pick up the slack. As the campaign went on, the questions kept getting presented. A friend of theirs heard about what they were doing, and went to do research. At the time, the party was tasked with more tasks, these specifically odd, such as finding a succubus and bring her in alive and finding a man escaped from prison that was, in fact, innocent. Sadly, the party did not catch the clues until it was too late. They congratulated me on pulling the wool over their eyes, despite the fact that if they had followed the questions that were always present, they would’ve figured it out quickly. They even told me I played them all like a riddle. I mean, I do know how to play the violin, but hopefully they’ll pay more attention next time.

Fear can be hard to pin unless you're doing fear of the unknown. But if you want things to be scary in description alone, read some Lovecraft, or just listen to the narrators of the Darkest Dungeon games. Listen to that maniac and pay attention to the words and tone. Use THAT for the villain. Fear is all about tone. They can be the most dangerous thing around, but if they're not taken seriously then they're not inspiring fear. So use a dead serious and dread filled tone for them. Horror is your friend. A Huge and Strong Knight in Black Armour who hates you is a domino to knock over. A towering figure clad in dark metal vaguely in the shape of a man radiating a miasma of malice is BAD news. Hate is different, it's anger sustained to the point that it's weirder not not be angry at them, it's where the person loses their good judgement to try and hurt the thing they hate. This is easy to do but hard to balance as you just need to make it personal to the party, kill a favourite NPC, damage their gear, destroy, corrupt, steal or otherwise damage something they like and they'll learn to hate you pretty quickly. The problem is that this can very easily turn into bullying and that's taking things too far.

There is only one motivation for a villain I could imagine that could actually scare a party: None

currently in a game, where only 3 of the party know the BBEG due to them being the only ones left from our 5 session prologue/trial play (new to the game) we have yet to have said BBEG revealed in our first main campaign with a party of 5. our wizard however already knows who it is and only has a small idea of the power they wield. (our wizard is over 1000 years old...dont make deals with the fey) the reveal is going to be fun. yes as a player i know who it is, myself and the DM are building the campaign as we go. he bounces ideas off me all the time and i pitch him ideas.

That's easy. Make an extremely cute little furry creature that is very popular with most people and, when something specific happens to them, they turn into a nightmarish creature for a short period of time and then change back. (Like in the movie Gremlins)

Had them start out trapped on his workshop basement. Eventually they found out they had been there for fifteen years in comas. In thay time he had taken the world by force, uniting all kingdoms by giving all the people freedom and magic, banished all the monsters to the hells, imprisoned the gods and devils, and taken the entire domain of peace for himself. He then got bored and released the heroes. Now they have a choice to fight him and become the villains or join him and rule in his Iron Fist Utopia.

Make him work for the irs. Like we never aknowledge the power of taxes. Everytime a villian exist he is a slave owner or a murder. But taxes? Imagine controling like 5 villages and goes. Ok 25%, of money is mine. The struggle of people. Is money.

Secrecy, power, a motivation that involves the party in a personal capacity. These are all very good to give a BBEG, but what really gets them engaged is nothing more than mark 1 mod 0 mind games.

Given how Im finding players who don't get what a hero is what if their nemesis is an actual hero who drive them nuts as they get the glory for what they think is their right and their actions only prove their nemesis right!

Symphogear mentioned!

You know I have noticed it’s never about throwing gods at them. Or overwhelming beings who can put up a fight against my players. The one character that truly scares them is a villain that was on there side. A Lich who had the ability to eat anyone and bring them back as apart of there army. They wish to do this to the entire world but care more about their relationship with the party to do so. Now he wasn’t ment to be so powerful as he was ment to be a a bad guy and die did they have different plans though and they kept him alive. Using his abilities whenever they would still just out right kill the enemy and feed them to him. Nowadays they changed their ways and spare most enemies only for him to try and eat them and get slowly agitated. So the party is now stuck trying to appease them to prevent him from turning on them with his army of undead soldiers who well lets say they killed a lot of people.

sim·u·la·crum

Someone mentioned Symphogear and this makes me happy.

the best villains are the ones the players start out trusting and uses that trust against them. city guards that have you take care of bandit camps while they raid the village. Also permanent loss of or restrictions on use of specific equipment. (town that bans and destroys all magic equipment) Another non evil but hateful thing is treating the players like a normal person and holding them accountable for all there actions.

The EASIEST way: have the villain kill a puppy. (Bonus points if they mount it on the wall)

Chuckles the clown

A villain who is so complex in everything they do, have the party barely know them, have them believe he or she is just an ordinary person or noble hero who maybe started up an academy dedicated to training warriors to defend the world from all sorts of evil and monsters. But in reality eventually over time perhaps thing's don't start to add up, perhaps thing's start to become contradicting and they question what they are fighting for, maybe just maybe the very organisation they are working for is just a front to cover up the truth. This supposed noble or ordinary NPC could secretly be conducting twisted experiments on innocent people or children, trying to create his own form of life or find a way to achieve immortality. Maybe he has indirectly caused the deaths of thousands if not millions of poor souls all in a pursuit to find a way to resurrect his dead beloved and thus using the organisation as a front. In short make the villain complex and have emotions and feelings. Make the party question their own morality and if what they are doing is truly right.

It all starts whith a pet like a cat let them love it, showsup in the most unlikely of situations usually some horrific murder or otherwise unpleasant place , npc shop owner you argued with is now dead somehow with one of the daggers that went missing from your bag lodged in his back ,slowly let tension go up as the murders get a little more bizarre and incriminating

Make an adorable and lovable little creature have it join the party have the party learn the BBEG tortured and experimented on the character. Boom, instant hated character, basically turn Overhaul from My Hero Acadamia into a BBEG for DnD.

What's the music in the background?

The worst villains could be real

Fear: The villain needs to be threatening. The first encounter with the party, the villain needs to win. Very easily. That doesn't mean that the party should TPK, but you need a moment where the party can see how dangerous the threat is, where they are hopelessly outmatched. Whatever the villain is doing here, it can't be trying to kill the party. Rather, the party are just some mooks who are in the way, and the villain should treat them as such. Go for contempt. An alternate approach is the Sephiroth intro. The party is ready to attack the compound of the group they thing are the main villains, but when they go in, everyone is has been horribly slaughtered. Really lean into how disturbing and violent the whole thing is. They reach the "boss" just in time to see him brutally dispatched by the true BBEG. Hate: Make it personal. Have the BBEG take things from the party. Ruin their reputation. Kill beloved NPCs. Destroy the party's castle. Steal magic items or other things that the party worked hard to get.

So my favorite villain I haven't gotten to run yet. But to give you an idea this guy is a walking metaphor for capitalism. He's basically an Oath of Crown paladin but his crown is his family's company which he has recently become the head of. Think Jeff Bezos, meets Gaston, meets Prince Charming from Shrek. His money is in everything and he has people wrapped around his finger. This guy would start off as the first big patron if the group. Once they become local heroes this guy sees an investment. Sends them on important quests to get items, fight bandits, etc. In reality he's using them to amass power as they slowly find out how corrupt he is as he's been sending them to bust unions and steal artifacts under the pretense of adventuring. They understand how powerful he is and they'll hate being manipulated.

Casos mimic

Have the villain work with the party at first, gain their trust, and then betray them and leave them for dead. I never expect one of the villains from my first ttrpg game ever. I even confided in him that I trusted and appreciated him help during a dire attack upon my character's noble house, (parents and siblings) he was the first ally to "show-up" in truth he was the bastard that snuck through the house tormenting them, I was initially actually suspicious of him but due to a misunderstanding the scene continued and I fell for his act, that and my character's main characterisitc was Loyalty, and I just did what my character would, and threw away my suspisions of my ally, trusting and thanking him for rushing to my aid so quickly he hadn't the time to dress properly. (He threw off his disguise) This actually cracked the resolve of the villain cause I gave him what he was betraying our homeland for after. Respect and acknowledgement, sad to say his plans actually worked. Because our party made a bad call proitizing something else and accdientally fufilled the set up for his plan. Costing the empire a city of 1 millions souls, half the party of heros and 1 stupidly loyal knight. The villain, meanwhile got his hands on the nation's wish spell and made his wish... All it cost him was the one person who genuinely gave him what he wanted all along.

Take what they care about most. Character values their intelligence and has serious personal issues about being helpless or not the smartest person in the room? Feeblemind. Character values their strength and hides their pain to seem strong and stoic in front of the others in order to make them feel safe? Weakness, + cause fear or crushing despair. Recently lost a loved one and feels guilty about it? Disguise self or Nightmare, pretend to be the ghost of said loved one and completely lay into them. Horny bard? Use Mage hand to induce testicular torsion. No one is safe from the bbeg's wrath. Obviously ask your players before doing anything too extreme, but try to keep it a surprise somewhat, because nothing beats their reaction to that level of disrespect. I personally love torturing my characters for character develpment, but not everyone is going to have that storytelling/writer's mindset of "they must suffer to learn". Some people just want to have fun, and that's fine. For them just... idk insult them to strike up a banter and have some sort of rivalry or just make the character annoyingly smug or cruel.

Deffinitly make sure your party are at low level first, if they are above level 12 it wont work Make the party gets gaslighted by the villain over something that is true without even the need for checks because its actually THAT obvious

A villian that isn't powerful, well not in the spellcaster or warrior or even have any ties to anything supernatural. Just ungodly rich with a nonexistent moral code. Everything has a price to him, your lives and everything you've experienced can be put to a price tag for this villian, and the whole campaign is that your adventures are his newest form of entertainment, with each quest and peril you must face either orchestrated by him, or made by someone he paid to surprise him. He only shows himself to the party if he is sure there is nothing they can do to harm him, but his words are always present and your never sure if he is watching or not. He even offers them prizes to betray an ally or to do something he knows would be difficult for your character to do. Your party starts becoming an annoyance? Trying to kill a party just usually ends up maybe getting one or two killed and somebody wants revenge and inspires more people against him. Instead he'd rather pay off the party to just leave, never return with a promise that he will go after what they care about most should they go back on the deal. Business is business.

steal and hijack the parties animal companions. make a lot of opponents with counter measures against their specific class our favourite item and spell loadout. or just invalidate their achievements and steal their work or frame them. like samuel hayden from doom

Make it gross like super big and fat like the baron from dune talk about how the flesh jiggles and makes noise I hate this stuff and I find it works with people

I feel like that last one has the viewpoint of, "Obvious villains are _lame._ Secret villains are _way_ better." And meanwhile I'm just like...No they're not? Some of the _best_ Disney villains of all time were _Obviously Evil._ Seriously, _what is so wrong with an Obviously Evil villain?!!_ I'm getting _sick and tired_ of all this obvious slander I keep seeing these days against Obviously Evil villains. _Not every villain HAS to be a calculating, Manipulative Bastard, damnit!!!_ 😤. That's not to say that I _hate_ manipulative villains, oh no;I actually quite like them. I just like obvious villains better, sometimes. (Though I'm autistic, so which types of villains I like better - obvious or manipulative - _really_ all depends on which sorts of villains I'm in the mood for at the current moment in time). And like I said, I'm just _sick and tired_ of all the slander I've been seeing over the last several years against Obviously Evil villains. :P. Thoughts? Opinions? I wanna get a nice, _civil and respectful_ conversation and discussion going on this topic, please. :P.

No. Attention. Whatsoever. It doesn't find them funny. It doesn't find them threatening. It doesn't find them valuable. It doesn't find them inconvenient. They're just... there. Make it so your players could literally walk into its war room, sit in a meeting with the BBEG and its Generals, and no one would even acknowledge their presence. No plans change. No guards summoned. No speeches. Because no one cares. The party isn't important enough for that. The party isn't special enough for that. The party isn't powerful enough for that.(Side note, make its schemes deal with NPCs who can be as incompetent, lazy, or easily swayed as you want to make the BBEGs plans more likely to succeed.) They'll be motivated to mess with it out of pure spite, and it will continue to not care. The knockout punch for this is after they've eventually worked through all the BBEGs schemes and encounters(which are vague enough that they could work on any party, but yours moreso) and made it to the final showdown, it says 2 sentances before combat starts: 1. Who are you? 2. Never heard of you. Roll initiative and crush their delusions of grandeur.

some of these dont sound like good villains, just annoying/mean spirited ways to upset the players.

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