D&D review: Exemplars of Evil

You’ll talk about that villain for years

Exemplars of Evil is the ultimate resource to create a memorable villain. It is the best collection of villain archetypes, feats, abilities, and behavior I have come across.

All ratings are on a scale (no pun intended) of 1 to 5 red dragons. 5 red dragons is the best rating possible.

Fun factor - 4.5 red dragons

The best campaigns revolve around a villain that the PCs will love to hate. The making of a villain is always fun. With Exemplars of Evil you will have more tools than ever to design the ultimate opponent – a nemesis worthy of your players.

Inspiration factor – 5 colossal red dragons

Not only is Exemplars of Evil great for creating a compelling recurring villain but it also provides you with all the necessary elements to craft interesting minions and one-shot villains. You can take the NPCs straight from the book or take concepts, archetypes, alternative class features or feats and create your own.

I have one hour to prepare before my next game factor – 4.5 red dragons

Exemplars of Evil offers 8 pre-made villains or villainous organizations that you can include in your game. They are broken down into 10-15 pages sections. A few sample encounters are provided for each of them and could be quickly and easily implemented in any campaign.

Usefulness after 4th edition is released – 4 red dragons

These villainous concepts will still be useful in 50 years. The encounters will have to be tweaked if/when you switch to 4E.

Plot I have to introduce in my campaign award

“A disturbed beholder captures and petrifies halflings so that he can memorialize them forever.” Has to be an entertaining story.

Best medieval fantastic sounding name award

Zargath!

Useless ability award

A fine-sized creature (that’s smaller than diminutive) can have a Favored of the Fiends class feature that allows them to do a bite damage of 1. This is great if you plan on running a campaign with tiny villains.

The verdict – 4.5 red dragons

Great resource! It has everything I look for in a book for DMs. You can pick it up. Spend an hour reading and you’ll have something ready for your game. You can spend a little more time and easily come up with your own villains and groups too.

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