Nastiest Villain Of Them All

[Gauntlet]

Who would you think would be considered the nasties villain of them all. I mean the one that all your players are truly scared to have to encounter. 

[death tribble]

Usually of the published ones, that would be either Dr Destroyer or Mechanon

[Lord Liaden]

Of all the published Champions villains, it would have to be Fleshtone (Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains). His powers involve "biokinetically" reshaping living flesh in practically any manner he desires, with attacks expressed through Drain, Transform, and Blast or RKA NND Does Body, with SFX that are grotesque and hideous. He's powerful, murderous, sadistic, very difficult for most heroes to defend against, and his attacks can leave someone disfigured and/or crippled permanently. He can also use his power to make himself look like anyone, so he can easily lose himself in a crowd, or sneak up on someone in disguise.

 

I've never had the nerve or the cruelty to actually run him in a game.

[Gauntlet]

I actually find Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon as being a little to direct in their fighting style and they do seem to have problems with groups of heroes. I find odd ball attack based villains to be much nastier. So I would have to agree that Fleshtone is definitely more of a problem than Dr. Destroyer. My players have found Harlequin as one of the ones they hate to have to deal with. He isn't as powerful, but he likes to attack them from a distance with traps and such. Means that even if they have won the fight, they never defeated him.

[Lord Liaden]

After Fleshtone, I'd probably rank Demoiselle Nocturne, one of the Inner Circle of DEMON (DEMON: Servants Of Darkness). She's an analogue to Freddy Krueger and Pennywise, with all the powers and attitude implied by those examples.

[Sketchpad]

In the official books, my group hated PSI. I ran Mind Games once, and then had them pop up here and there to haunt the heroes. It was a great time for all.

[Scott Ruggels]

 In Bob Simpson's campaign, it was [Magic user, I am blanking on her name], Who would take over the minds of Player Characters, and make them willing minions.  (What Bob really did was Player characters of Players that had left the game could end up as minions, and that was enough to scare us.  We attracted her attention and she abducted one of our team mates (Player went to Michigan for a month on a family matter), We had to rescue them. THis was one of those situation where we used a lot of teamwork just to escape, and Thunderbird used contacts to get weapons that were not available to the public in any form.  IT was a Brutal, scary fight, but we got out team mate back before his brain alteration.

[Lord Liaden]

An argument could be made in favor of Taipan (CV3) for nastiness. Reputedly CU Earth's deadliest superpowered assassin, Taipan's SPD of 12 and HTH OCV of 18 (with CSL) are intimidating enough in themselves.

[steriaca]

There is my in my mind only so far revision of The Director (of Crime), who is basically a deformed man in a floating chair and camreabots. But one of the new tricks I plan on giving him is a "Instant Wardrobe Gun", a combo Cosmetic Transform (air around target to costume), and a linked telepathic Mind Control (act like whoever your costumed as). While the idea of zapping a big strong brick into a stereotypical Victorian damsel in distress costume comes to mind, one could as easily zap the brick into a 80s Slasher Villain costume also (with terrifying results).

[Christougher]

Previous GM had one who might qualify.  Vapor was Invisible, Desolid, SPD 12, and had a 4d6 KA Affects Solid World.

 

It was a Crowning Moment of Awesome for my PC when she Stunned, Knocked Out,  and *Killed* that SOB in one hit.  (Vapor skimped on defenses...)

[Gauntlet]

On 11/9/2023 at 4:54 PM, Lord Liaden said:

After Fleshtone, I'd probably rank Demoiselle Nocturne, one of the Inner Circle of DEMON (DEMON: Servants Of Darkness). She's an analogue to Freddy Krueger and Pennywise, with all the powers and attitude implied by those examples.

 

I had forgotten about her (or him, or it, or whatever she/he/it wants). I like the DEMON writeup. I believe it was one of the best and she is pretty much the nastiest villain in that book. 

[Lord Liaden]

The CU's first volume of collected supervillains, Conquerors, Killers, And Crooks, included a number of "quotations" from various characters about themselves or other supervillains. I was struck by one attributed to Ironclad of the Champions, regarding the pyromaniac villain Blowtorch: "The media often describes villains such as Takofanes, the Slug, or Dark Seraph as “the most evil being who ever lived,” or something like that. But if that’s true, what can you say about a man like Blowtorch, who sets children on fire for fun?"

[death tribble]

That is a good point.

 

And also brings in Black Harlequin with his deadly toys.

[Lord Liaden]

Now you make me think of Black Harlequin gathering a team of other psychopathic villains to enhance the destruction and suffering from his "escapades." Say, Blowtorch, Freakshow, Plague, and if you want to be really nasty, Fleshtone. Black Harlequin sometimes regrets that he has no "playmates" with him, and all of these villains are socially isolated and might respond positively to the company of others who would accept them and share in their madness. Also, none of them are really stand-up fighters, more effective striking at a distance or by surprise; so they would work best for horror scenarios, something that's normally difficult to pull of in a supers game.

[Steve]

The Blood Red King from the Gestalt setting had a strong scariness factor for me.

[death tribble]

Should have thought of that myself. After all, who was it commissioned Storn to do a full head to foot picture of him ? Yup, this Tribble.

[Sailboat]

I don't know whether my players felt the same way, but in my entirely homebrew campaign the villain I felt most uneasy inflicting on my players was Doktor Endlosung, a Nazi holocaust-themed medical madman with poison gas and barbed-wire-based powers.

 

The absolute worst villain in all of comic books is probably Willy Pete in Empowered.  look him up if you're curious.

[Rich McGee]

46 minutes ago, Sailboat said:

The absolute worst villain in all of comic books is probably Willy Pete in Empowered.  look him up if you're curious.

He's nasty, but arguably no more so than the supposed heroes in the Boys.  Guess it depends on how you feel about skulls.  And really, he's much less awful on an ongoing basis than many of Emp's equally-supposed hero peers, for ex Major Havoc (who's currently getting a beating in the webcomic).  Willy Pete will kill you pretty quickly and most likely abuse your corpse, but so many the other "heroes" drag the workplace hell out day after day after day.  That strip's motto ought to be "with heroes like these, who needs supervillains?" most of the time.

 

Ah well, at least Maid Man is on her side.

[AlgaeNymph]

No mention of Menton?  Not just for his ability to one-shot a team, but what he does afterwards.  It's heavily implied in what's written about him that rape by mind control is his thing.  To start with.  Usually of the loved ones who any who speak against him.  He'll even send you the videos.  Here's this treat from UNTIL Superpowers Database 1 (p.85):

 

Quote

“As if to underscore the threat he presents, two weeks ago, while the final draft of this report was being prepared, Menton sent this photograph to Representative Frank Mitchell, who’d spoken out against Menton and other psionic criminals on the floor of the House several times in recent months. The two women in the picture are Mitchell’s daughter and niece. Apparently, by manipulating their emotions, Menton made both of them fall in love with him, then used and discarded them after sending several photos to Rep. Mitchell. Both women are now institutionalized, as medical personnel attempt to undo the psychological and physical harm Menton inflicted upon them. Representative Mitchell has made no further public statements about psis."

—Excerpt from the introduction to Menton: Current Activities And Threat Assessment 2003, prepared by UNTIL researchers

 

[Lord Liaden]

No question, Menton is slime of the first water. It's not the primary focus of his personality and plans, though, unless a GM modified him in that way. The likes of Blowtorch or Fleshtone, horribleness is the core of what they do. It's like Dr. Destroyer, who has inflicted horrific punishments on people who have invoked his wrath; but that's only a fraction of what he's about.

[starblaze]

The original.  Not very complex but man that killing attack is brutal.  I used him several times when I just want a near unstoppable villain.

[Lord Liaden]

Agreed. Whether you leave him a mystery, or work in an origin for him as I did, the Monster is a terrifying opponent for standard-point superheroes. But as written he's a pretty straightforward physical threat. When I think of "nastiest villain," I look for a deeper, more horror-inspiring kind of menace. Rather like the difference between Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger.

[Rich McGee]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

No question, Menton is slime of the first water.

The sexual assault element of his character is going to cross so many lines it'll never show up at all in most modern games, the ones where people respect hard boundaries and X cards are in use.  Using that kind of thing without discussion in advance and a full-table buy-in doesn't fly the way it did even ten years ago.  Good thing, too.  I don't roleplay so I can experience the worst parts of everyday news, and damn few stories in any medium are improved in any way by the inclusion of rape - especially when it's done solely to coerce a male character into doing something, as in the example.  Tone deaf in the extreme, that.

 

 

[Stanley Teriaca]

4 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

The sexual assault element of his character is going to cross so many lines it'll never show up at all in most modern games, the ones where people respect hard boundaries and X cards are in use.  Using that kind of thing without discussion in advance and a full-table buy-in doesn't fly the way it did even ten years ago.  Good thing, too.  I don't roleplay so I can experience the worst parts of everyday news, and damn few stories in any medium are improved in any way by the inclusion of rape - especially when it's done solely to coerce a male character into doing something, as in the example.  Tone deaf in the extreme, that.

 

 

Why would Menton resort to rape when he could mind control his target into doing what he wants?

 

And sex is usually not what he wants.

Edited January 23 by Stanley Teriaca

[Rich McGee]

3 minutes ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

Why would Menton resort to rape when he could mind control his target into doing what he wants?

That's rape, period.  Mind control eliminates consent.  As for why he'd do it, read AlagaeNymph's quote from the Superpowers Database above.

Edited January 23 by Rich McGee