So, Starting where we left off last time...
5. Be Creative
Fun fact: all that stuff in additional rulebooks and on the SRD isn't just for players. A GM is allowed to use stranger content just as much as a player is, so never should a villain be compelled to stick with the predictable. Regular skeletons not scary anymore? Animate some Crypt Things, Berbalangs, and Pharaonic Guardians and see how the heroes deal with them. Fireballs starting to lose their gusto? That's what Ice Spears and Ball Lightning are for (throw on dazing spell for extra danger). Party already prepared for anything a sorcerer or barbarian could throw at them? Surprise them with a killer alchemist, mesmerist, or vitalist who forces them to rewrite their tactics from scratch. Heck, most monsters can easily be tweaked to be made more menacing or to pull of radically unpredictable tricks; A few switched feats or properly applied templates can go quite a ways from turning a ho-hum monster into a deadly threat (have the powerful wizard train his giant soldiers to fight with reach weapons and utilize tripping. The results go a long way). If the PCs figure out the trick, have the big bad hit the books and pull out a few new weapons to win the day with. Anything that the PCs can use exists in the world, so there is no reason that the villains shouldn't be using the best feats and spells that your bard cribbed from an obscure sourcebook. Not only does this unpredictability factor make the villain more dangerous, it also keeps them interesting, because the heroes get to see a lot of things at work that they never would have come up with or prepared for.
This doesn't just apply to game statistics, but to actions as well. As I mentioned before, doing something unexpected and unprepared for can give the bad guy a huge head start in the strategy department, so the villain shouldn't just be resorting to conventional military tactics to get his way. This is a fantasy game, and fantasy games rewrite the rules of war all the time. If you figure out some way to bypass the city walls with an unusual spell usage or to move your forces in ways no real-world tactician would anticipate, then invoking your wild card is the perfect course to the situation. Hannibal didn't nearly take Rome by using conventional tactics, and Scipio didn't beat him with the regular playbook either. Effective command requires innovation, and innovation shouldn't be too hard for an evil genius to figure out.
6. Be Inspiring
In the words of Alan Moore's classic madman, "Ideas are bulletproof". You can kill a leader and burn down everything he stood for, but his cause will most certainly live on so long as others share in his plight. Loyal disciples, more than any phylactery or clone spell, are the ultimate backup plan, the assurance that your mission will continue long beyond your demise. Sauron failed because he made his entire plot dependent on himself, and the same principle applies to the Emperor. V, however, knew that the best way to keep a revolution going is to recruit people to your cause, showing them why they should take up arms to fight for you and thus starting a pyramid scheme of bloody revolution. By the time that you bite the dust, thousands of souls will be ready to take up your mantle and keep the dream alive. In the context of the villain, this means that a plot to take over the world is doomed from the start if it is obviously beneficial to only the big bad. Rather, a proper villain creates a philosophy, a set of ideals that he can convince people to place themselves behind. They write and orate, explaining to the world why it is flawed and why their evil plan must be put in place for the good of the world. Rather than needlessly butchering their followers, they treat them, ensuring that it is in their best interest to keep serving the dark side. Rather than killing their enemies, they recruit them, adding more and more firepower to the cause. Rather than fostering hatred, the best bad guys are widely liked by their followers, creating a sympathetic or inspirational position that stirs the ranks to greater loyalty. Rather than taking the heroes on alone, the villain brings some friends to the slaughter-fest, giving him the upper hand while also ensuring that his posterity idolizes him in death. That way, the heroes are tasked with defeating not a figure but a symbol, a symbol which will unify the legions in the face of crisis rather than dissuading them. That symbol may have a thousand faces and personalities before it eventually dies out, but so long as it maintains an agenda and a following it cannot truly be defeated. In time, this symbol may even become immortal. Now, imagine how pathetic the PCs will seem as they try again and again to put down the evil cult only to find it rebuilding with a new patron. Likability is the oldest tool in the handbook of Tyrants, and no evil cause is truly capable of surviving without it. With the right words, however, a villain can ensure a legacy that will overwhelm the air with bloody screams for centuries to come.
7. Be Intimidating
On the other side of the coin, a good villain should be as feared by his opponents as he is loved by his underlings. Heroes should be afraid to take this guy on, constantly questioning how badly the big bad is capable of kicking their collective posterior. In my game, the most memorable and dangerous villains were the ones that were built up slowly, never accessible but at the same time always sort of present. When the PCs attempted to gather information on the gal, most of it was cobbled together from enemies who were burnt to a crisp (assuming the records weren't ash as well). Every NPC that the heroes sent to scout was either eliminated or sent back as a stir fry of mutilated body parts. If someone asks what this person and her forces are capable of, all one of the players needs to do is point to the country she turned into a wasteland. When a particularly hard-headed character wanted to try and take her prematurely, the intelligent members of the party quickly got in the way and told him that moving against her was a death sentence; they had seen what she had done to some of their comrades, and they could easily discern what could happen if things went south. All of this was done without the GM intervention, as it should be. If heroes want to know how big a threat is, the setting should display it, with knowledgeable NPCs getting the hell out of dodge whenever the big bad comes a-calling. Their name should be dropped somewhere at least once a session, and the threat of them swiftly and effectively obliterating the PCs should be lingering every time that the heroes march in to fight them off. An effective villain should have a reputation for power and danger, keeping opponents down just by mentioning that they could step out and reduce them to a stain on the pavement should they fail to play along. You don't need a single rank in intimidate to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, you just need to display the consequences of opposition. Rumors of your wrath have a larger area-of-effect than any spell you can muster, and may be just as effective in ending a fight. As the PCs get stronger, they should dread fighting the big bad more than they look forward to it. If the villain is not scary, they become irrelevant, and I'm sure that no GM wants that to happen. Meanwhile, if everybody knows what Baron von Badguy did to that one heavily-guarded city that didn't pay taxes, you can bet that they will pay their dues. If you want to make sure that your villain becomes the stuff of legend and not the stuff of jokes, let everyone know what he can do and why he is worthy of being a villain. Force the heroes to sleep with one eye open for fear of this bastard finally coming to take them down. One of the best ways to do this is to...
8. Be Mysterious
You know that big bad that I've been talking about all last paragraph? The players haven't even figured out her level, much less her build. All they know is that she is a wizard who can cast some high-level spells and that she has an appetite for destruction. Beyond that, their minds fill in the rest, and whatever they came up with was certainly enough to make them turn tail and run when she force-punched through their front door. This is a lesson picked up from the Xenomorph in Alien, the White Walkers, Maleficent, half a dozen Worm villains, and Kenny Loggins: You never count your money (or resources, or soldiers, or spell slots) when you're sitting at the table. If people never see you sweat when your 40th legion gets mown down, they assume that you have about 500 more, most of which they will not stick around to fight off. Bypass all the defenses with a time stop spell, and people won't assume its a scroll you spent half your WBL on, they'll think that it was the real thing and they will huddle in the corner when they think that a 17th-level wizard has stepped into town to ruin their day. Smart players tend to assume the worst, and that is certainly something you can leverage. That way, the party will be quaking in their magic boots when it comes time to deliver justice. My favorite way to handle this sort of enigma while still giving the villain an active role is by handing out resources to their minions. Have the lieutenants and underlings come at the heroes with high-end gear, information, and maybe some high-level buff spells thrown on for good measure. I can tell you that nothing makes a 4th-level character flee the field with breeches full of chocolate faster than realizing that the ogre they are up against somehow got stoneskin and extended haste cast on him before he rushed them. When extreme minions are not needed, have the villain act through proxy, utilizing summons or long-range attacks while keeping himself out of the fight. If the heroes ever see the villain, they will dogpile them, so it is best never to let that happen. If a public display is inevitable, some illusions and maybe a body double or two can get the job done in a pinch. The number one rule, however, is that the heroes should never be able to figure out everything that the villain, be they mage, warlord, or assassin, is capable of doing to thwart them. Caution makes any game more engaging and more interesting, and that is exactly what a little bit of properly placed mystery can bring to the table. What the PCs don't know is what is most likely to kill them.
9. Be Tenacious
The number one piece of advice I can give to any GM is that things are assured not to go as planned when you put your adventure into action. Plot hooks can be ignored, NPCs can be ganked, and unexplored paths can be forced open. When these things happen and your villain's epic plot gets thwarted by a genre-savvy player not falling for a simple trap or a particularly lucky character sabotaging a crucial part of the master plan, the big bad should have at least one trick in their back pocket to deploy when things go south. Did that priestess you were going to kidnap and sacrifice get murdered prematurely? Either save up some cash for a resurrection spell or find some other heir who can do the trick just as well (it's a big world, so there has to be one). Did the PCs escape your clutches and kill a bunch of your best men? Bide your time and take revenge when they least expect it, or maybe take advantage of the fact that they have family members you can take out (that psychic warrior can take hits, but I'm guessing that sort of durability isn't really shared by his 6-year-old daughter). When you set out to take over the world, you should have at least five different methods of accomplishing your goal, otherwise you're effectively beaten before you even begin. Villains exist in most stories to be thwarted by the heroes, so you should count on every sort of opposition that could come your way smacking you right in the face. If you wind up flat on the ground, you should be able to get back up with yet another plan, accounting for what you did wrong the first time and making sure that your next plan won't fail for the same reasons. Remember that the best leaders and soldiers of history took plenty of losses, and the best villains will as well. What matters is not that your first attempt is successful, but that you are able to roll with the punches and get back up every time some adventurer sticks his sword in your business. Eventually, you'll be able to figure out something that the heroes don't have a countermeasure for, and that's the point where they are getting shoved out of the picture for good. The best part about doing this in a fantasy world? You have all the time in the universe to plot your comeback, either from the comfort of your phylactery/personal demiplane or from the big fire below. A good villain will never be truly defeated, just delayed until he gets things right. In the words of Thomas Edison, "When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't." There is always another path to getting what you want, be it revenge, power, or glory for your nation or god. Never stop fighting and always plan for what could go wrong, so that you can ensure that failure in a certain regard will do nothing to stop you from succeeding in the long term.
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