Author Topic: Ancient Heroes and Villains...  (Read 10675 times)

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kevin_video

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Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« on: January 18, 2010, 06:01:10 AM »
And then some. They don't all have to be heroes per se, but definitely famous people. I'm looking to do a reincarnation campaign where the players are reincarnated heroes from the past who have to try and help rebuild humanity well after the apocalypse has occurred.

I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, and I've had to tweak it somewhat, but I'm looking for more heroes and villains that anyone could suggest for me. Women and mage suggestions would be awesome. I'll list what I have so far. And yes, they are where they are for a reason. I've researched many people, and it was quite surprising that some people who I thought were villains, turned out to actually be heroes in their own right. Imagine that.

The one's with a slash (/) mark means that they're of the same era, or they were considered partners (you'd choose one and get the other if you had Leadership from D&D). If they're in brackets it's because those people were based off of real people that existed in history. As for Roman and Greek mythology, lore and legends always start somewhere so I'm allowing those as well. Granted some I'm just not sure of. Like anything from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Nemo and Dorian Gray shouldn't exist, but they have lore around them, and Gray even has an item in the D&D books so I'm allowing him.

The players are going to choose for themselves who they want, but it'd be nice if I had suggestions for them to pick from. And you can never have too many villains.

Heroes
King Arthur/Merlin
Alexander the Great
Robin Hood/any of the Merry Men
Zorro (William Lamport)
Sherlock Holmes (Dr. Joseph Bell)
Joan of Arc
Hercules
Jason of the Argonauts
Houdini the Illusionist
Billy the Kid
William Wallace
Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday
Leonidas
Odysseus

Villains
Atilla the Hun
Rasputin
Napolean
Genghis Khan
Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes III
Jack the Ripper
Leatherface and Norman Bates (Ed Gain)
Jesse James
Elizabeth Bathory
Dorian Gray
Professor James Moriarty (Adam Worth)
Al Capone
Bonnie and Clyde
Adolph Hitler
Ivan the Terrible
Caligula
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy
Idi Amin Dada
Pol Pot
Catherine de' Medici
Locusta/Agrippina the Younger
Medea
Emperor Nero
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2010, 07:30:57 AM »
You have Hitler, but no Stalin?
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kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2010, 07:36:02 AM »
You have Hitler, but no Stalin?
I've heard about him, but the information I've found on him doesn't say a whole lot, and is more vague than informative so I just left him out.
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veekie

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2010, 11:36:18 AM »
No Achilles?
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[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
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kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2010, 02:27:08 PM »
No Achilles?
Well, if I allowed Jason, then everyone from Greek mythology (including those from the series Class of the Titans) would be allowed, but how do you create him? That was my issue. Same thing for Samson who was as strong as Hercules so long as he had long hair. Again, how would you build him? I only put down people who I knew it would be fairly easy to build. I'll accept others who'll be more difficult, but a head's up as to how you'd create them would be great too.
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veekie

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2010, 04:32:09 PM »
Well, if you take a step back from the legend(that is to say, go with what a 'realistic' Achilles could have), hes simply a damned good fighter under the auspices of high Damage Reduction.

The ankle thing critted him, went through his DR and then the wound went septic.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2010, 04:34:42 PM »
Well, if you take a step back from the legend(that is to say, go with what a 'realistic' Achilles could have), hes simply a damned good fighter under the auspices of high Damage Reduction.

The ankle thing critted him, went through his DR and then the wound went septic.
Again, how do you add DR to a character without being epic, or wearing adamantine?

But I guess that makes sense. I always just thought it to be that his ankle was the only thing that didn't have DR. Like a kink in the armour.
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2010, 04:38:17 PM »
Apply the quasilycantrope template?
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veekie

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2010, 04:48:14 PM »
He wouldn't need much more than 10, really, considering the people Achilles spent most of his time fighting, 10 points would make him swordproof against anyone from level 1-4, and by having a decent AC, he could similarly prevent higher level opponents from Power Attacking him effectively. Cause of death? He got hit by a fully power attacked spear that managed to crit, punching clean through his DR.
The dip in the Styx could have, for example, bestowed a permanent Stoneskin effect on him, with no maximum damage limit. Or make use of the Abyssal Heritor feats(though not recommended, since some of them are quite disfiguring) to grant DR.
Theres also Barbarian, for a lesser, if not very significant amount of DR, and going Warblade for Stone Dragon manuevers too allows for the legend of invulnerability.

Also, you need Circe for a villain, it's traditional to put heroes into pig form every now and then. :D
Other options could have maybe Cuchuainn, Gilgamesh(oldest hero in the first book ever, lol), The Monkey King, a whole crapton from Romance of the Three Kingdoms...
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2010, 05:16:47 PM »
The mineral warrior template adds DR 8/adamantine for LA +1. Leave off all the other crap that goes with it, and that could make for a decent Achilles... in a world that doesn't have adamantine. :P
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2010, 05:42:33 PM »
Apply the quasilycantrope template?

The mineral warrior template adds DR 8/adamantine for LA +1. Leave off all the other crap that goes with it, and that could make for a decent Achilles... in a world that doesn't have adamantine. :P
Where'd you guys find that?

@ veekie -- 10 points of what? Stats? DR? He could have had DR 10/magic and been hit by someone with a magic weapon. That could have happened.

Where's Styx?

Isn't Circe a god though? And baleful polymorph would be quite the evil spell to use.
I'm torn on Gilgamesh. Up until a little while ago I always thought he was the biggest douche of a warlord ever. That's exactly how they portrayed him in a lot of series, but it turns out he was actually a hero. Like, wow. How can you get that so wrong? So I have no idea. Again, the Monkey King would be hard to consider. I guess he could be a were-ape, or something. Not sure. I did say that I would allow mythology since every legend is born from something, but Romance of the Three Kingdoms? That'd be interesting, to say the least. Never heard of Cuchainn. Have to look up that one with the link you've given.
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2010, 05:52:02 PM »
Quasilycantrope is on the wizards.com website, and gives DR 10/silver, and the ability to look slightly more like a specific animal than normal.  LA+1
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2010, 05:57:16 PM »
Apply the quasilycantrope template?

The mineral warrior template adds DR 8/adamantine for LA +1. Leave off all the other crap that goes with it, and that could make for a decent Achilles... in a world that doesn't have adamantine. :P
Where'd you guys find that?
Underdark book.

Quote
Where's Styx?
It was the river that flowed through/into the Greek underworld. Google it.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

Agita

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2010, 06:10:57 PM »
King Arthur, you say?
Look no further. ;)

Also, Cu Chulainn (sp?) should totally be on that list.
Gilgamesh too. Not sure where he belongs, though... I'm going to tentatively go with 'hero', but only because he was the protagonist. :p
« Last Edit: January 18, 2010, 06:16:17 PM by Agita »
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Unbeliever

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2010, 06:36:08 PM »
+1 on Cuchulain and Gilgamesh

Honestly, I think you're being unnecessarily restrictive in your approach.  If I were so inclined to do such a campaign, I'd probably open it up to my players, w/ a list as some guidance, and let them bring me the info about the reincarnated heroes they want to play, they should be willing to pitch them.  Also, since you're willing to say that these are the "real world" versions of mythical characters, things don't have to literally track the mythology.  There are, as people have suggested, several ways to build an Achilles who is resistant to damage (and, again, that's sort of the player's problem ...), but even if you just gave him an astronomical AC or something the people would probably feel like he was invincible; viz. the flawed film "Troy." 

Also, I'm not sure how I'd approach the strong hero/villain dichotomy.  These characters, especially the older you go, are almost always flawed and often tragic heroes, but (1) they are heroes nonetheless and (2) they are interesting.  Achilles is an almost unimaginable douche, Lancelot touches off a conflict that essentially rekindles a civil war and an age of darkness that they just recently got out of, Hercules strangles his wife and child (under supernatural influence, but the Greeks were less understanding about that sort of thing), Alexander might have murdered his own father, and so on.  Moreover, a lot of them operate in a foreign morality -- I played a mythic Greece game, and there it's ok to rape, murder, and enslave people, but being rude to a host is a crime worthy of divine punishment.  Go figure. 

Which is all to say that I could totally see someone playing the reincarnation of Genghis Khan or Rasputin as a hero, perhaps a flawed (e.g., overly ambitious, temper). 

Oh, and I'd suggest Tamerlane (also called Timur) as a great villain, and one a bit less famous than the others. 

Btw, this sort of reminds me as a more epic version of "Riverworld," if you're familiar w/ it. 

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2010, 06:38:54 PM »
Watch the movie Mongol and you can easily see Ghengis Khan as a hero. ;)
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2010, 06:51:40 PM »
It was the river that flowed through/into the Greek underworld. Google it.
I've been hanging around this site WAY too long. I took "dip in Styx" as meaning the same as "a dip in fighter".

Yeah I know about Khan being the good guy too. It's so hard to make villains when they're not even villains. And chances are there'll be players wanting to be LE or something like that. I won't say no, but it would take away from my villainy side. Just means more minions.

As for me being restrictive, Unbeliever, I'm not. I'm asking honestly how you'd put those in. I'm not about to have the players walk blindly into these character write ups, even if they want them. I'm looking at the help as guides. If they have trouble, I want to be able to help them out of it. Also, starting characters will be lvl 5 as that's when they'll be "awakened" from their normal lives.

The villains who are absolute villains, will be the ones that you know full well are loony psychos. When you kill in cold blood to satisfy your own lusts, or vanity, that's evil. That's not LN or CN. And anyone who's played a LN character knows you can be as much of a douche as you want and get away with it because that's how they can be played.

I'll have to look up Timur. I've heard a friend suggest that person as well.

Can't say I've heard of Riverworld, no.

And no, not using Saber as the King Arthur. :P He's already been written up in an official book, but as an NPC from Dragonlance (Expert 16/Noble 4). The Excalibur in the link does look better though. A holy sword that does HOLY DAMAGE makes sense. I don't know their artifact version doesn't have that. The scabbard's pretty cool though. Oh, and his lance and shield.

I'll be either designing, or using pre-written  artifacts for everyone.

And I can't Google a link on Quasi Lycanthrope. Wizards isn't searchable anymore.
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When God gives you lemons... it's time to find a new God.

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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2010, 07:56:16 PM »
Linguist, Mad, Unique, none of these things am I
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2010, 08:03:53 PM »
It's here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a

Wow, that's nuts. I think DR 10/silver is actually worth the LA, but the flavor seems pretty dumb...
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

kevin_video

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Re: Ancient Heroes and Villains...
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2010, 09:09:32 PM »
Thanks to an episode of classic Spider-Man, I'm adding in Black Beard. The executioner of France was also there, but he didn't actually have a name, so hmm. Funny that Khan was also there, but I don't know who the women in red was. Maybe that queen who killed virgins to make herself young? Jack the Ripper was pretty easy to spot.
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When God gives you lemons... it's time to find a new God.

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