Gentlemen, how do we make a good revenant bbeg?
>What kind of revenant?
The kind brought back to kick the ass of whoever wronged him in life.
>>46862574
Play him off like a supernatural serial killer whose crimes get increasingly worse. Make the game focus on investigation and let the players unravel exactly who the Revenant was and who he intends to kill
>>46862643
So...Jason Voorhees vs Sherlock Holmes?
>>46862704
That wouldn't be appropiate for D&D, maybe treat the players as kind of the "hard-boiled detective" archetype and let it branch off from there unless the group doesn't care for fighting
>>46862788
>All settings are DnD.
>>46862991
What setting is it then?
>>46862788
Jason Voorhees vs. Max Payne?
>>46862574
>The kind brought back to kick the ass of whoever wronged him in life.
Well there you fucking go. Just have the revenant maliciously hunting down the party while they try to figure out what the fuck it is and which one wronged him.
It was most likely the rogue or the resident evil/chaotic alignment member, but still.
>>46863030
Max Payne is more like a revenant himself.
>>46863030
Jason Voorhes vs any Dashiell Hammett main character. If you don't read a lot of detective fiction, think something like Harry Dresden but more violent. Which is coincidentally appropiate since I figure they'll be using some kind of magic
>>46862574
First off, functionally immortal. He can be killed to save a single target. He will still return later, but it's intelligent and maybe it can only kill on a Tuesday or something. So the players figure that bit out quickly and are ready to stop it while trying to figure out the rest other days of the week.
He's more lethal and dangerous than any other character. Low power setting. Undeads are not easily dealth with.
He's uncooperative and simply does not want to pass on. He's not finished. It's not going to be simple either. His rampage is justified. His daughter really was killed by the government of England. He can't be reasoned with and as the campaign progress, figuring out more details he will turn to hunt them.
He's also intelligent, drawing them into traps. Communicating with other beings. Learning about new techniques. And so on.
>>46862574
He disappears for periods, and the players have to get on with other things, and all of a sudden he appears again at an opportune moment, holding as many cards as possible, chipping away at their options by targeting alliances and such. Not so much constantly hounding and hurting them as patiently driving them into a corner, while avoiding to overextend himself. No maliciousness, just patiently driven and calculating. He's undead, after all, he had time to be patient.
>>46863141
Cont: also he avoids making enemies of others, because he doesn't want to spread grudges that may cause others to join the PCs in opposing him. He carefully aids their enemies from the shadows, telling them about the party's strengths and weaknesses, in exchange for the opportunity to be the one to finish them off.
>>46863112
Seconding the low power bit, you can even let the players have a shot at it very early on so they can be graphically BTFO and will understand they cannot simply murderhobo their way out of that one
>>46863040
You know. A game that basically runs like that. You fight the seemlingly immortal being. Bullets seems to miss, he fights furiously with startingly accurate bullets(bullet time makes headshots really easy) and while he might be invulnarable, he seems to take a beating, small wounds appear giving the players the illusion he can be hurt.
Also, he's quick and will murder non-stop. He will find the right place and shoot everything. He looks completely mundane so people keep thinking they have a chance to hurt him.
>>46863189
Making an enemy nigh invincible is just begging for That Guy to derail the campaign in his attempts to kill it. Just make it clear it's a extremely strong enemy and fighting it would be hopeless
>>46863141
>>46863173
An example of hurting alliances: the revenant could, for example, find out who's been helped by the PCs in the past, and who among them could aid the PCs against him. So he decides to help those people himself in some way, so that they're less inclined to pick a side, while at the same time letting them know that a confrontation may occur in the future and that it's a personal matter, surely they understand. Maybe secretly strengthen the enemies of these people as well, so that they'll be hesitant to divert any strength towards helping the PCs.
>>46862574
That depends on the power level, drama, and personal tailoring you want to include.
For example, for a less personal, moderate level situation, you could have a corrupt, Fantasy Gotham type city in which a typical nobody was murdered for witnessing something he shouldn't have and his body dumped into the river, where it found its way into the orc infested swamps where druids perform strange rituals in the night and beasts wander amid the strange, energetic vines. Weeks later, he emerges from the swamp with purpose. The players first hear of his doings when the city crier announces the constabulary is offering a reward for any information about the murderer of a local guard, as well as news of more strange murders in the night. A priest, a tax collector, a constable, eventually a judge, at which point the Mayor doubles the reward.
Of course, behind the scenes the Mayor is noticing that the people dying are all members of the same corrupt ring of racketeers and mobsters and is working franticly for the cause, be it a paladin with a nose too strong for his own good, an assassin with a change of heart, a spurned noble with gold to spend and levels in Rogue? Regardless, the revenant continues to check off names from his list of killers, and his actions gain him hushed support among the poor, as others who have been wronged by the corruption of the city give support and join his efforts.
Eventually, rumors of a cult following an undead leader are spread by the city's elite through the church, debates of martial law, mass arrests, or worse are discussed among the nobility, the courts, and the cardinals alike, and even the king has heard of the growing unrest, fearing one of his largest sources of taxes will potentially rebel or worse and begins stationing his royal guard in the area. If the players don't find a solution, things could easily come to a head as the corrupt house of cards slowly crumbles bit by bit.
>>46862574
>revenant uses scary Underworld powers to teleport behind you
>Psssshhh.. It's personnel, kid
>>46865677
Wouldn't the revenant technically be the good guy if he's going full Punisher on criminals? Heck if one of the party is a charismatic bard you could probably convince him to only kill the real assholes.
>>46865878
Technically yes, but the party doesn't know that at first, and even then, the chaos being caused could be reasoned to be worse in the long run. At first the players just know there's a serial killer on the loose murdering public officials, town guards, merchants, and priests, and the local law enforcement is willing to pay the party a bounty to stop it. Seems like an open and shut case at first.
Then they start to uncover the victims' dirty laundry. That priest was embezzling from the church, that guard was unusually wealthy from bribes from just about every criminal in town, ect. with it all leading back to one dark night on the docks where a man was beaten to a pulp, his throat slit open, and dumped like a sack of old fish.
The party may eventually put it all together themselves, at which point they'd have to decide who they really want to side with. What manner of justice they want to uphold, or if justice is worth more than the gold they've been promised.
