10 Ways the BBEG can Mock the PCs (and not die)
Header Art: Dungeon Master’s Guide by Wizards of the Coast
We've been there before, the BBEG wants to tell the players how silly they are for trying to stop them and the party immediately tries to kill them, completely unprovoked. Maybe you want your boss to live longer than your party wants them to live. Maybe you have great plans for your boss to rise from commoner to demigod, with the final session of your campaign the party putting down this evil god… but you can’t do that if your party of murderhobos straight up kill your boss before they get a chance to get their plans going.
We all want there to be a bit of give and take. We want our players to win, but we also want them to stop messing up our plans when they decide to attack someone who is rude to them one time. One of the biggest fantasies of a Role-Playing Game is that you get to be powerful, and sometimes that goes to the party’s head and they end up solving problems by just removing them entirely. I like my bosses to live, to flaunt a bit, and even to have a light conversation with my party. That gets more difficult when a table is a bit more bloodthirsty, meaning I have to get creative if I want my BBEG to taunt, talk, and even joke with the party.
Here are a few ways the BBEG can still deliver its message without being murdered before the final fight.
1. Minions
Minions are so useful, how they are willing to take on suicidal missions and do so with a smile on their face. It’s even better when they have big muscles and are willing to smash a character’s head in for the BBEG.
Lackeys, minions, servant, vassal, retainer, footman, and anything else you want to call them are quite useful for sending messages. They can taunt your party, pass on information, and even provide some dialog. You could even have a bit of magic allowing them to be used as the mouthpiece of the BBEG, allowing the players to directly communicate and hear the BBEG’s exact words without the minions messing up.
Your players can also then take out any frustrations on the minions, allowing them to feel good for beating up the BBEG’s servants and teaching the BBEG that they aren’t to be trifled with.
2. Letters
What’s more eloquent than sending a letter, outlining just how unimpressive the players are? Best part, the messenger has no idea what they delivered, why the rogue just grabbed a huge dagger, and why they are being tied up and hit with a stick.
Letters are a pleasant way of corresponding and say a lot about the BBEG. Maybe they are the type of person who likes to write letters to be smug, to congratulate the party on a win, or to simply send information to a minion, but the letter gets apprehended by the party. It also gives you a chance to make a physical prop to hand out to your party and give them something concrete to hold, to mock the BBEG’s handwriting, and to be a constant reminder that there is someone out there they are trying to stop.
You can even send letters via messengers who have no idea what’s going on. The party might demand answers, but the messenger is just at the end of a long line of mail runners. They are just a random person who the party can’t deal with how they want… unless you are running an evil campaign. This can get the motivation going in your party, pushing them to continue down the path you have laid out.
3. Magic
Magic solves a lot of problems, and a BBEG probably has a lot of minions with some control of it. With the power of magic, you can not only embarrass the party, but also invade their sleep or make new minions.
There is a lot of magic out there that, while players may not take, there is no reason your BBEG can’t utilize it. The dream spell is great for the BBEG to remain safely in the dreamscape of a character, beating them up and mocking them relentlessly, stopping them from gaining a long rest. On the other hand, a skywrite spell is perfect for sending a big message, maybe drawing obscene images and including their name in it. Simulacrums are also great for letting the players get a taste of the BBEG’s power, and giving them someone to beat up. It even helps clue them into any weird powers the BBEG might have, letting the party come up with plans on how to fight them in the future.
4. Royalty
You can’t touch royalty, especially if you have a funny hat, an impressive chair, and a load of guards.
By placing your BBEG as an important noble, you give them a shield within society. The king can say insulting things because he has a room full of guards and the power of a nation on his side. People have to be respectful if they want to take on jobs for nobles, or even just keep their head on their shoulders. By making a BBEG someone important, with lots of friends, they gain a certain amount of immunity that only the most foolhardy adventurers will ignore, and those who ignore it will be facing grave consequences.
5. Traps
Isn’t it hilarious to mock an adventurer when they trigger a trap in your lair? Even better is when you mock them from a distance, where they can’t hit you and must stew on their anger, tricking them into making mistakes.
By setting up traps throughout a lair, a BBEG can not only reduce the party’s resources but also makes it so that the party really doesn’t like them. The best part is using magic, like magic mouth, to further stack onto the players. When they fail to make it through a trap, the spell begins spouting off, calling into question just what type of heroes they really are. Even better, the magic mouth spell talks about how they’ll never find the trap, in a corridor with no traps.
These traps can be made tailor-made for the party, focusing on things that they are bad against. If the party is largely made up of plate-armor warriors, then a heat metal spell can be stored in a glyph of warding, or perhaps they are all experts at their perception skill. In this case, there can be all sorts of ‘odd’ details that can trip them up, like a door handle that doesn’t look right but isn’t actually a trap. Depending on how well-known the party is, there can be very specific traps for each member of the party, finding ways of exploiting their weaknesses, all the while the BBEG is safely hidden in their lair, laughing maniacally.
6. Backup
Goons are so useful, how they are willing to stand in front and get hit while the BBEG remains safely in the back. It’s so nice to watch your minions do their jobs sometimes.
While having backup might be considered minions, the difference is that the BBEG does travel with them. Their backup is there to separate the heroes from them and gives the BBEG a chance to gloat, talk, or simply levy some threats at your party. In such a situation, the BBEG might not even be ready to fight the party, making sure to stand or move more than 60 feet out of their reach, to avoid counterspell, and then use teleportation magic to make their escape after they have said all they wanted to say.
Even if this is the final fight with the BBEG, they aren’t going to travel without allies. By the rules of the action economy, it would be ridiculous for them to face a group of heroes by themselves, simply because they would get swamped by the party. Backup is there to help take some focus off of the BBEG and help keep them alive a few minutes longer so they can continue talking to the party while also casting spells, swinging a weapon, or even eating the party if your BBEG happens to be a hungry monster.
7. Advertisement
The power of print means, that if it was printed, it must be true. A big smear campaign throughout the city can help turn the city against those pesky adventurers, running them out of the town as the populace turns against them.
For those BBEG with a lot of money, and most all seem to have some money, then hiring town criers, printing presses, and more to all begin smirching the good name of the party is an effective way of not only staying out of the line of sight of the party but to also get the city to start seeing them in a different light. Not only is the reputation of the party called into question, but people they might have considered friends begin being nervous around the party, unsure if the rumors are true.
It’s even better if the BBEG can dig up some information that is somewhat true but is stretched slightly to make the party appear worse. This could be something they did early in their adventuring career, like set fire to an orphanage while they were trying to kill a vampire, the BBEG just leaves out the vampire part. Now, all of a sudden, the party are horrible people, and when they try to explain themselves, people aren’t likely to believe them.
8. Kidnap
No hero ever seems to have parents, but that’s ok as friends are just as useful to steal.
A BBEG that can go after the family or friends can hit the party where they are vulnerable. While some adventurers refuse to have friends and claim all of their family is dead, not every adventurer is such a narcissist as to have no one they like. By going after the important people to the party, you not only guide them down the story path you have been creating, but also make it so that they can feel weak to the BBEG. They have been made vulnerable and attacked in a way that their superhero power can’t help them.
This can also be used as the means that the BBEG uses to gain information on the party. They can torture and interrogate them, gaining important information from the person, and then turn that knowledge against the party, creating minions and traps that will best challenge them, and maybe even kill them.
9. Burn It All
The best way to deal with adventurers is to destroy everything they hold important.
If the party has an important town, tavern, or location; then one way of raising their ire is by destroying it. You can even leave behind a message, informing them of how they are too weak to save those they love, to stop the places they care about from being destroyed. This can be especially effective if the BBEG is something like a dragon, who can quickly fly across the land, allowing them to outpace the party and breath down destruction on buildings, forests, and more.
You can even have the destruction be the party’s fault, at least in the minds of the people affected by the devastation. If they hadn’t been friends with the party, then their homes, businesses, or town wouldn’t be destroyed. It was the party’s fault for sticking their nose in places it didn’t belong and they managed just fine before they came along.
10. Host a Party
Everyone just loves parties, exquisite dinners, and major events with lots of witnesses.
Not every BBEG is a powerful spellcaster, warrior, or monster. Some may just be influential members of the upper class of nobility, making it so that they can use their wealth and prestige to get things done. They aren’t protected like royalty are, but they are protected by the social contract of having lots of powerful friends, the adventurers might not even realize just who the BBEG is, making it so they are caught off balance when the reveal is made.
To properly get an understanding of the party, the BBEG might invite them to a lavish affair, forcing them out of their armor and carrying their weapons, into a place where they feel vulnerable and put off. A wizard might still have all their magic, a rogue might slip in a dagger, and the monk is never unarmed, but they are in a place where they can’t simply destroy things. They are surrounded by the wealthy elite, the ones with the greatest influence in the city, and must be respectful, even when they realize that their host might just be their mortal enemy. If they cause a scene, it will only be reflected poorly on them, no matter what evidence of wrongdoing they can find.
To Mock or Not to Mock
Sometimes, you just want your BBEG to give a big speech, informing the party of their evil plots and plans. It's fun to have a speech, though if your players are anything like mine, they can’t help but scream fireball within the first sentence of my speech. It’s not a long speech, but they never care. They’ll scream they aren’t listening and then try to blast the BBEG, claiming they get a surprise round because the BBEG wasn’t expecting to be attacked during their monologue.
So if I ever want to give a speech or to pass on important information from the BBEG, I’ve had to learn how to get creative with those speeches. Now it comes in drips, slowly making the party hate the BBEG and giving them a reason to continue pushing through the adventure so that they can finally face the final BBEG and end their adventuring careers, at least at our table.
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