Villains Who Can Create Their Own Minions

[Marcus Impudite]

The mad scientist who builds killer robots and/or creates mutated abominations in his laboratory. The evil wizard who can conjure up a wide range of dangerous magical constructs. The criminally-insane artist who has somehow acquired the ability to make his drawings literally come to life. The chaotic reality warper who can manifest pretty much any kind of monsters and henchmen he has a mind to. One and all, baddies who can create their own minions. How often have these kinds of villains appeared in your game world? How have the players handled them when they and their minions made an appearance?

[TheQuestionMan]

Machinist - Gadgeteer/Inventor with Robotic Minions. 

 

NeckRomancer - Mystic Raising the Dead. 

 

Vampire Master - siring Vampire Minions. 

[TheQuestionMan]

Werewolf - Werewolves 

[Nothere]

I've made a few such charecters over the years, but actually used in the game only one.

 

The Summoner got hold of a spellbook and could use it to summon three types of monsters. Weak and fast, Slow and strong, and middle with odd powers.

 

The most important I never used was the Icelord who could make ice soldiers, but never appeared in the game. Not even his greatest creation the Ice Prrincess. But his role in the background did affect a few things in the game.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I ran two in my recent Golden Age game.  One was a guy with a magical wand that could make any animal become his servant, and the other was a ice projector that could create ice minions.  The PCs tend to avoid the minions and plaster the summoner, if possible.

[Lord Liaden]

NeckRomancer - Mystic Raising the Dead. 

 

 

Have to say, that name reads kinda like a porn title.

[BoloOfEarth]

I've had Artificer, a technokinetic (?) who could instantly create temporary robots from machinery lying around.  I'll never forget the look on one player's face when his character was standing atop a forklift, and the forklift suddenly started to morph into a robot right under his feet.

 

I've used a few summoners, mostly DEMON morbanes.  Most recently, Morbane Huthcul has summoned Demon Hounds to hunt down and kill victims, as well as

 

Necroma, who could raise the dead to do her bidding.

 

Muerte's Hands of Death would qualify as "created" and I used them to creep out the players a time or two.

 

In Boston-VIPER, the Professor uses robots a lot.  I've created Flyer Bots, Roller Bots, and Diver Bots, each with VPPs with Plug-and-Play modules for defense, offense, sensors, and what-not.  Until recently, the PC superheroine Maker loved them, since she'd disable them and later reprogram them to use herself.  And since she didn't pay points for them, I felt justified in having that come back to bite her in the butt.

 

Overall, I think my players are okay with their characters fighting "created minions" since they can then go all-out and trash them without feeling like killers.   And I like them because the heroes can capture / trash as many as they want, and I don't have key villain team members locked away in Stronghold.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Have to say, that name reads kinda like a porn title.

 

Second base isn't porn in any universe I'm aware of.

[TheQuestionMan]

As a Supervillain their Minions should be Pains in the Neck, Low-Powered enough to really bite, and Night Owls.

[DShomshak]

I've used quite a few villains like this. Demonologist, of course, but also some weirdies like the Monster Maker, who could apparently materialize any creature he could imagine... but his imagination was limited to the old AD&D Monster Manual.

 

In my current campaign, several of the megavillains can and do create minions. Doctor Thane uses robots. Helix creates genetic abominations, from clones to kaiju. The Warlock summons demons and can let people take a chance on giving themselves origins using the grimoire called the Green Butterfly. Professor Proton built battlesuits for his elite Nuclear Kshatriya minions, turning each into a low-power super. And so on.

 

Some lesser villains have minion-creation as their main power, such as Doctor Digital (another roboticist) and Tonton Cadavre (zombie-master, and zombie).

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

Along those lines, Dean, I got a fair bit of use from the Great Beast and his grotesqueries, from your Creatures of the Night Champs villains collection. I followed your suggestion of having him knocked by PC heroes into a vat of his own synthetic tissues, and emerge with composite animal powers. For his post-transformation I used the illustration of Scoff from Strike Force.

 

For the most part, created minions don't have to interact with your PCs differently from any other type; ultimately it's just another kind of origin. But IME it's an origin that lends itself better than most to creating a group of NPCs with a unifying theme.

 

[Lord Liaden]

Second base isn't porn in any universe I'm aware of.

 

Depends on how the dead was raised.

[Badger]

*Badger wonders if Marcus has recently watched a FullMetal Alchemst Brotherhood marathon*

[Christougher]

Have to say, that name reads kinda like a porn title.

 

Re: Neck Romancer.

 

A friend used this name for a City of Villains Mastermind.  Poison/Robots, IIRC.  He just liked necks...