Top 25 Best D&D Villains of All Time: Page 2 of 7

Best D&D Villains
The most memorable villains we loved to hate.


20. Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Mage

Deep under the city of Waterdeep lies the Undermountain, an enormous and extremely dangerous dungeon created and maintained by the mad mage Halaster Blackcloak. Nobody really knows where he is from or how old he is, but rumours tell that he’s more than a thousand years old. One thing everyone knows for sure: Halaster is completely nuts.

When he’s inside the Undermountain, Halaster mutters to himself, is constantly distracted and has visions only he can comprehend. Outside of his lair, he seems to recover his lucidity, when he shows signs of honor and nobility. Still, he’s meticulous and thoroughly evil. His plans go from governing Waterdeep from the backstage, to spreading his dungeon across other parts of Faerûn.

  • A highly intelligent Wizard, though completely mad;
  • His madness might make he look like just a lunatic, but sometimes it is terrifying to testimony;
  • Lives in one of the most dangerous dungeons of Faerûn, the Undermountain, in the depths of Waterdeep;
  • Features in one of the highest level adventures of 5e.
  • In the 3.5 edition, Halaster Blackcloak was a 25th level mage, with 5 levels of archmage!

To have a glimpse of his powers, as decribed in the Water Deep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage adventure, we must check his stats.

  • Special gear: with a Robe of Eyes, a Blasting Wand and a Horned Ring, Halaster has access to many special resources;
  • Legendary Resistance: as any epic enemy, Halaster can succeed a failed save 3 times a day.
  • A versatile spellbook: Halaster is prepared to basically everything, having in his sleeve spells like Wish, Maze, Mind Blank and Meteor Swarm;

In resume, Halaster is a formidable opponent, with an ever more dangerous lair divided in several levels and a mad mind to challenge the smartest of parties. Good luck trying to steal some of his treasures, if you dare.

19. Tharizdun, God of Eternal Darkness

In ancient times dwelled a god so evil, so harmful to the multiverse that deities of all alignments bound him away for eternity. Tharizdun is the god of Eternal Darkness, Decay, Entropy, Malign knowledge, Insanity and Cold. Also called The Chained God, his symbols are a dark spiral rune and a two-tiered inverted ziggurat known as an obex.

Although Tharizdun has been imprisoned, he’s kept a good portion of his powers, having a divine rank of 11 (out of 20). He acts mainly by the work of his cultists, with whom he communicates through dreams and bouts of madness.

The cultists of Tharizdun aim for the return of their god, making evil rituals and sacrifices prophesying the end of days. Some might call him the Elder Elemental Eye, or Elder Elemental God, but not all of them agree they are the same entity. Maybe it’s all just part of the god’s plan…

  • He is considered dangerous to the existence of the entire multiverse, being also called the ultimate doom, the Armageddon trigger, patron of madmen, the hopeless, and the unspeakable vile;
  • In an attempt to avoid his return, the gods destroyed his temples and all memories of him. Still, his cult lives and they know someday he is meant to return;
  • All of his worshippers are mad, and they only wish to release him from his exile. And they are capable of everything in order to achieve their goal.
  • Tharizdun is the ultimate representation of evil, the enemy by itself, the typical archvillain;
  • He resembles Cthulhu, the famous elder god described in H. P. Lovecraft stories. The stories about mad cultists of an ancient evil being contacted through their dreams and the return of the Herald of Doom are just the same;

Being a god of immense power, Tharizdun cannot be fought directly. His presence as a villain comes from the acts of his cult, as represented in The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Still, he is a fascinating evil entity to use as a central piece of many D&D stories.

18. Iggwilv, the Witch Queen

If there is a type of villain that I particularly adore is the seductive bitch witch. And Iggwilv fulfills perfectly that role. She was a disciple of Baba Yaga and Zagyg, a member of the Company of Seven (under the name of Tasha), a consort of Graz'zt (another one?),  the mother of Iuz, the author of the Demonomicon, a ruler of the Perrenlands, and a rival of Demogorgon. What else can one desire in a villain?

Her story is long, as is resumed here. The most interesting about the witch is how manipulative and intelligent she was, and the great influence she had upon the world. She is a sorceress of great power, possesses a vast amount of magical artifacts and had simulacrums of herself walking this world. She is also allied with demons (or she directly controls some of them), and she can spy on the Abyss through the Iron Flask of Tuerny, which contains a portion of Demogorgon’s Essence.

  • As a disciple of Baba Yaga and, later, the archmage Zagyg, she is a sorceress of immense power and knowledge;
  • After having a complex relationship with Zagyg, Iggwilv and the wizard imprisoned the demon prince Fraz’Urb’luu, from whom she learned several dark secrets;
  • Iggwilv stole from Zagyg the Tome of Zyx, which she later modified to become the famous Demonomicon;
  • With the power of the Tome of Zyx, she summoned and imprisoned the demon prince Graz'zt, who revealed her the secrets she wrote to the Demonomicon, and forcedly became her lover;
  • From her relationship with Graz'zt, Iggwilv gave birth to Iuz, the Evil - another of the great villains on this list;
  • She is featured in several books, magazines and adventures of the D&D universe;

Her list of deeds is long, but one thing is certain: Iggwilv craves for power and knowledge, and would manipulate everyone on her path to do have it. She’s not been seen for the last decades, and many conjecture if she still lives.

There are no official Iggwilv’s stats, except for an exaggerated homebrew version of her.

17. Fzoul Chembryl, High Priest of Bane

One of the most important and easily recognized names of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Fzoul Chembryl was the high priest of Bane - the cruel god of Tyranny - and one of the leaders of the black network, the Zhentarim. Highly dedicated to the service of Bane, Fzoul was rewarded by his god by becoming his Exarch after death. He now has the powers of a demigod (whose sphere of influence is service to evil).

Extremely ambitious and intelligent, Fzoul started his career as a common priest of Bane, but thanks to his schemes and skills he quickly became the High Priest of the church. He then joined the Zhentarim, still under command of Manshoon. After allying with Lord Orgauth, Fzoul Chembryl managed to kill and remove Manshoon from the black network’s leadership.

Fzoul Chembryl turned the organization into a great cult to Bane, which was cause of conflict among its members. The arch priest had to fight the worshippers of Cyric (Bane’s rival), as well as the many clones of Manshoon that arose after his death. He finally died fighting the shadovar in the name of his god, for which he was largely rewarded with the status of an Exarch.

  • As the High Priest of the church of Bane, Fzoul enjoys many divine and political powers;
  • When he was master of the Zhentarim, Fzoul could be considered one of the most powerful men in all of Faerûn;
  • Fzoul has access to several magic items and artifacts, being a very resourceful enemy;
  • He forged the Scepter of the Tyrant’s Eye, a sentient artifact that could trap the souls of those slain by it;

Fzoul Chembryl was described in the 3rd edition as a Cleric 17/Hierophant 2 with a challenge rating of 23. Being so powerful and reliable, Fzoul had no fear to get his hands dirty and solve problems personally, which usually caused goosebumps on unsuspecting player characters.

16. Ashardalon

Ashardalon is one of the, if not the most ancient and powerful red dragons from D&D. He appeared in several modules, either as a main enemy or as a force behind all the trouble, and is considered one of the most memorable dragons to ever exist. His memory lives now on a board game called Wrath of Ashardalon.

About a millennium ago, Ashardalon reigned supreme over the land. Such was his power that people worshipped him as a god. With his hungry for power and destruction, Ashardalon one day slew a cult of druids affiliated with the Church of the Elements. The only survivor, a druid named Dydd the Wise, later came back to defeat the dragon, tearing off his heart from his body.
Ashardalon managed to stay alive by going to the Abyss and replacing his heart with A BALOR named Ammet, the Eater of Souls.

After centuries, Ashardalon’s demon-heart began to fail and to stay alive Ashardalon traveled to the Positive Plane and broke into the Bastion of Unborn Souls, where he fed under  waterfall of souls and started a multiversal cataclysm called “soul sickness”, in which bodies where thrust into existence without a soul.

Ashardalon’s story is spammed across several modules, including The Sunless Citadel,  The Bastion of Broken Souls and Heart of Nightfang Spiral. He is one of the most classic villains, and has certainly had some participation in one of your adventures.

  • He is one of the most powerful and ancient dragons in D&D’s history;
  • He replaced his heart with a balor in order to survive after his true heart was removed;
  • His heart was brought to the Nighfang Spiral, where his cultists worshipped him, and became the lair of Gulthias, a cultist who later became a vampire to be able to wait for his master’s return;
  • Ashardalon almost became a god, if it weren’t for the actions of one of Dydd’s heirs;
  • One of Demogorgon’s head, Aameul, tried to use Ashardalon as a receptacle to his essence to keep him alive after killing the other head, his brother Hethradiah;

Being a very ancient Dragon, Ashardalon is tremendously powerful and is a threat even to epic level parties. His stats are described in The Bastion of Broken Souls, but I could find a brief copy of it here.

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With all his expertise and knowledge on how to hack dragons with spells and swords, Gustavo never imagined adventuring could be ever funnier from behind a PC's screen.
Gamer Since: 1996
Favorite Genre: RPG
Currently Playing: AC Odyssey, The Witcher 3, League of Legends
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