Make It Personal: How to Make a Great Final Boss
The party really hated that hag towards the end.
Dungeons & Dragons offers a world of possibilities, for both the player and the Dungeon Master. And for the Dungeon Master crafting the campaign, there is nothing more important than designing the antagonist.
These characters are also known as the final boss, or, my favorite term, the Big Bad Evil Guy. Many DMs are tempted to make the BBEG a powerful monster, something with a Challenge Rating of 20. Something powerful to really give the players an epic adversary to overcome.
Many DMs choose some kind of dragon, because they’re in the title of the game and they’re just really cool. Others choose the scary, super-powerful undead lich as the real force behind the world’s woes. And true intellectuals use mind flayers as evil, alien antagonists.
But the most successful BBEG I’ve ever run was none of these things. The reason behind the town’s trouble wasn’t because of a vile necromancer trying to raise an unliving army. There wasn’t a humongous tarrasque poised to bring destruction on the entire world.
Mine was just an old lady. A hag whom the players hated with all their hearts.
Nana Frostbite was a bheur hag, which meant she was a terrifying icy witch. Still technically fey, she wasn’t…
