From a fantasy villains perspective. And while we’re at it: what are the perfect goons?
>what are the perfect goons?>>>/trash/ is that way
>>93433359Numerous enough to be disposable.Stupid enough to be docile and obedient.Capable enough to perform whatever functions are required of them. The henchman isnt supposed to be good, hes supposed to be a cheap way of making sure a task is baseline completed. Whatever creature/race/whatever fulfills those criteria best is the ideal henchman for a fantasy villain. The issue however is that point #3 is at odds with points 1 and 2, so you often have to cut corners.
>>93433359She has to be hot. That's literally it.
>>93433498You're thinking of a henchwoman
>>93433445In theory, ideological commitment to the villain's cause can replace the need for docile stupidity. Done correctly, it can let you have the best of all 3 worlds (numerous, competent, loyal).Of course, in practice, if there is a mismatch between the villain's beliefs and their minions' beliefs, then the villain is liable to be hoisted by their own petard at some point down the line. So either way, there is definitely a tradeoff.
>>93433359>ideal henchmangives villain flawless advice to defeat PCs, which the villain consistently ignores
>>93433754The issue there is that findind someone capable who is willing to be a true believer for the villains cause is hard enough, finding LOTS of them is even harder. You might be able to convince someone powerful and capable that you totally deserve to rule the world forever as an immortal lich, but getting a lot of powerful and capable people to drink that particular koolaid is hard. Youre more likely to get a cult of crazies and lickspittles, mindless fanatics who think that once youre god youre going to reward their dedication (you probably arent but they dont need to know that).
>>93433359This right here is peak henching performance. The pinacle of the henching game.
>>93434046We can't all have a henchman so amazing that he himself is offered a shot at becoming a supervillain.
>>93433400>gooners of /trash/>perfectHow kind of you
>>93433811If you have to find willing humans or the equivalent to do your bidding then yes, this is a massive barrier.If you can e.g. magical 3d print minions, or rewrite the brains of volunteers/prisoners etc then your prospects look a lot better. It really just depends on what options are available to you.
>>93434173I don't think it's even possible to get a hench better than him. 2 ton 21 is the absolute best henchman a villain can have.
>>93434404Sure. Making your minions with magic is often easier and gets around the loyalty issue humans can have (even bandits and cultists need the carrot to work for you, golems dont). But (generally) theres a trade off to making your own, your mass produced mud people probably arent as good as even humans in some ways - whether that be them being borderline witless, them being weaker, them being inflexible, or whatever else have you.Obviously this all depends on setting and specifics, but as a general rule/intuitive basis I feel like it holds true, the attempts to circumvent it/deal with that fact often lead to the various "elite" variants various villains have. Sauron uses orcs, but orcs kinda suck, so he also uses lots of other stuff besides. Various dark wizards have their masterpiece flesh golems to serve alongside their regular zombies.
Does Sauron qualify as a henchmen
>>93434562Definitely.
>>93434562During Melkor's Heyday, absolutely. By LotR, he was in the big seat.
>>93433359Completely faithful, selfless, and competent
The black knight as loyal to his kings ideals as the protagonist is to theirs and who, assuming they don't get killed earlier, can pick up the role their lord left off when they invariably get killed.
>>93433562Yep. MY BBEGs only ever take henchwomen. I carefully write the many orgies the BBEG gets into with his harem of henchwomen. Woe betide any PC playing a female character. A single charm spell can fucking shrek your whole life up if you get chained downed and gangbanged til mindbroken.
The best henchman is the one that passes off as a friend to the Party. The level zero buddy-pal comic relief town guide that helps the Party at first. Carries their stuff, always has a healing potion, rations, or a funny voice on hand to add levity. Just off to the side during planning sessions. Considered both beloved and insignificant to the party. By the time the Party confront the Big Bad, the Little Guy will have enough info/gear on hand to backstab the Party or even usurp the Big Bad.
>>93435296Patrician taste
>>93435317You have my attention.
>>93433359Undead are number one. Super versatile, very easy to justify their numbers, relative weakness, loyalty to the bad guy, and can be endlessly scaled up in power without raising eyebrows. If your dark lord has zombies and unarmed mindless skeletons in session 1 and 5000 Power Liches and Death Knights in session 100 the PCs will find it completely reasonable and not even bat an eye. New enemies having wildly different powers and abilities can be explained in-universe via necromantic experimentation and various kinds of undead, you can have vampires and ghouls and Frankenstein's monsters and giant grafted multi limbed abominations and enemies with player abilities and classes and any sort of random bullshit you want and it's all completely fine from a verisimilitude standpoint. It's also a self-justifying campaign premise, all you need say is the words "A powerful necromancer...." And you've achieved buy-in. PCs might not care about some political intrigue or backbiting nobles or a religious conflict or a war of succession or pirates harassing merchants, but "there's guy in black robes with a skull mask coming to turn everybody here into skeletons, he's especially interested in turning YOU into skeletons because he hopes you'll keep your class levels as undead" is an external source of motivation regardless of whatever the party's internal morals or politics or philosophy or desire to adventure. It's also an easy answer to pretty much every world building question regarding your villain. >Why is this guy so powerful?evil undead necromancer>What are his goals/why is he fighting us/What's he doing as his villainous plotevil undead necromancer >Why should people oppose him?evil undead necromancer >what are the consequences of the bad guy winning?evil undead necromancer >Why would someone ever want to side with this villain and betray their own people?evil undead necromancer >What forces can we expect to encounter?Evil undead necromancer
I like goats.
>>93436657We know, Abdul, that's why you're banned from the zoo.
>racism
>>93433359Someone who knows how to hunt someone else down
>>93436202I like skeletons. Sometimes I just say its a skeleton, despite it having death knight stats.
>>93440117devilish
>>93433811>not charismamaxxing your pyramid scheme for world domination Ngmi. Bet y’all don’t even have triangular architecture.
>>93445382My taste in fiction isnt bad enough to recognize whatever youre talking about
>>93445527Sasuga, fag-sama! You did that autism, same as everyone else. Post best gril, master baiter.
>>93433359low payroll
