Henchmen
Henchmen are a great way to give your villains some extra clout and make them into more interesting characters. Able to provide a little color, build your villain’s reputation, and even pose a potential threat to meddling heroes, these characters are clearly an important part of any evil ecosystem. Why, then, do a villain’s minions so often end up being non-descript bandits, or whatever monster is CR-convenient? The following ten henchmen are among the best of their class and should provide you with a good place to start when creating your own evil assistants
1. Nessoria, the exceptionally lazy imp. Nessoria is actually the familiar to a particularly evil wizard who is lacking in minion-management skills. With limited resources, Nessoria gets stuck with all sorts of henchman-like tasks, such as guarding the lair, mocking invaders, and even kidnapping locals for her boss’s terrible experiments. Nessoria, however, is exceptionally lazy, even by imp standards, and would rather sleep than work. Thus, she makes little effort to guard the lair (posting a sign that warns of a terrible devil which guards the place and relaxing elsewhere), gives only hastily thought up insults, and rarely kidnaps a satisfactory victim, leading to her master being forced to raise an army of zombie dogs, squirrels, and other small, weak creatures.
2. Jonath, the excited newcomer. Recruited by a wicked coven of witches, Jonath is a very enthusiastic, if somewhat incompetent, henchman. Hopelessly in love with one of his villainous bosses, Jonath does whatever he can to impress his paramour, leading him to plunge headlong into danger and take on tasks far outside of his ability. A clean-cut villager, Jonath doesn’t really look the part of villainous henchman and often has to convince people of his evil intent. Still, for all his positive can-do attitude, Jonath doesn’t pose much of a threat to anyone.
3. Og the strong. A massive human male, Og seems like the traditional muscle of any evil operation, a role he plays quite well, dressing in an imposing suit of spiked bone and carrying a massive axe. He even talks a big game about how his masters payed for his sword and that it belongs to them. In actuality, Og, whose real name is Ogmilliandorius, is a cunning bard and not much of a fighter, despite his great size. He cuts a very intimidating figure, but prefers to deal with foes who call his bluff with a mixture of enchantment, magic, and terrifying songs.
4. The Dog Pack. This group of six goblins is completely insane, even by goblin standards. After witnessing their chief being torn apart by wild dogs, this band decided to abandon goblin ways in order to become dogs. They speak with confident barks, chase after squirrels and rabbits, fight by biting and tripping their foes, and even permit their villainous master’s small children to pet and play with them. For all their ridiculous behavior, the six are an excellent team and are far more coordinated than the average goblin band. They are also fiercely loyal to their master, and immune to the goblin’s normal fear of dogs.
5. Brenda. Brenda isn’t really much of henchman, being a rock with a crude face painted upon it. Nonetheless Brenda is the top advisor of a powerful, if quite mad, warlock, who treats the stone as if it was a close friend and confidant. The warlock speaks to Brenda constantly, consulting it for every little decision and listening for advice, which he heeds without hesitation. Some question whether the warlock truly believes that Brenda is speaking to him, or is merely using it as a convenient excuse to justify terrible actions.
6. Roarnthrax the mighty. A wyrm red dragon, Roarnthrax is far more powerful than his villainous employer, who originally contracted Roarnthrax to help her destroy a kingdom, bribing him with a great store of gold. In order to keep Roarnthrax from destroying her, his employer is forced to continue to keep him on the payroll at ever more extravagant rates, forcing her to rob and pillage with reckless abandon. For his part, the dragon makes a mockery of the villain-henchman relationship, though despite his subservience being sarcastic, his mere presence keeps many foes from his mistress’s throat, which is lucky for her, as Roarnthrax won’t lift a claw to aid his mistress.
7. Joira the good. Joira is actually a really good and nice person, who signed on as henchman for an evil druid her father greatly respected. She tries her best to persuade her villainous master from doing anything evil, and actively seeks good and helpful ways to carry out his villainous commands, which are often wicked for their own sake. Even so, she stays on in the hopes that she can redeem her increasingly frustrated master.
8. Arilee, the iron hand. A charming halfling girl, Arilee is a confident fighter and rightly so: her skills are more than sufficient to allow her to serve as a bodyguard for her villainous boss. She takes on the r0le enthusiastically, claiming that no one else appreciates her talents and that by being a henchman she gets the unique opportunity to face down many unusual challenges. Many don’t expect such a small and sweet-looking girl to pack such a punch, a fact she constantly uses to her advantage.
9. Boris the Kobold. A sniveling kobold in service to a human sorcerer, Boris speaks in an excited shriek and constantly jitters as though afraid for his life, which he is nearly constantly. He joined his mistress’s service as a way to get away from his tribe, and is deathly afraid that they will find him and kill him without his mistress’s protection. As such, he shows exceptional, almost comic, deference to his mistress, whom he believes can protect him. A useful servant, Boris makes for a skilled scout, an effective messenger, and even a decent fighter, though he never receives praise for any of these things and believes he is far worse at them than he actually is.
10. Brorock the personal assistant. He despises the term henchman and is very insistent that he isn’t a henchman, minion, thrall, or any other such thing. He insists on being called by his proper title of personal assistant, and is always quick to explain his many duties, whether those who meet him want to hear them or not. This handsome human man is always impeccably dressed, is highly competent, and is happy to do his master’s bidding. In truth, however, Brorack is actually a powerful demon in disguise, using his role as henchman to witness the rise of great evil.