The villain is dead before the campaign even starts

>The villain is dead before the campaign even starts
Is there anything more frustrating than this? Everywhere you look, you see the fruits of his depravity, and every bad thing that you encounter is one way or another his fault, but you can never make him pay for it, because, well, he's dead.

>Raise him from the dead
>Kill the fucker again yourself
Done.

>this was his plan all along
>proceeds to curbstomp party and take over the weakened world
Sorry kid, you're a thousand years too early to stop Morningwood.

This

He's not really a villain then, is he? He's just part of the worldbuilding.

You can't raise someone who doesn't want to be raised, if we're talking about DnD.

No spoilers please
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

If we're talking D&D the Speak With Dead + sufficiently high Diplomacy modifier can make sure they will want to get resurrected.

>extent of my failures
>your head

>but you can never make him pay for it, because, well, he's dead.
Oh, like fuck you can't. At least in DnD:
> Raise Dead, torture, kill, repeat.
> Find him in the outer planes, kill it there.
> Reincarnation, kill whatever he's turned into
> He's not actually dead. That was actually part of his plan.

The combined strenght of the Underwood clan might be able to do it.


Can I express my admiration for Gandalf the God of You Know What for arranging for millenia the forces to kill himself?

>Spoilers
The game came out years ago. If you haven't played it yet, it's your own fucking fault, you twat

Good idea. The groups the villain inspired use speak with dead to get directives from him/her/it.

>Speak With Dead
>This spell does not let you actually speak to the person (whose soul has departed). It instead draws on the imprinted knowledge stored in the corpse.

what if your party is lead to believe he is still alive?

the rampaging army of brigands and beastfolk loudly proclaim their service to the dark lord, even if nobody has seen him in a long time.

I prefer stories like this on to be honest.

But he's already in hell. Why should I care about making him pay? Nothing that I could do to him would make his fate worse. At most, I could rez him to force him fix his mess.

No rez spells in this setting. Because I say so.

>being this overconfident
REMIND YOURSELF

Of course there is!
All of what you said, but you are not capable of changing things for the better, and the world rots away, even as you bleed for it.

Some conflicts cannot be resolved, they can only be continuously endured. It's more of a man vs nature. You can kill a pack of wolves preying on your flocks, you can fashion warm clothes to survive the winter, but you can't stop the underlying cause.

That's not a spoiler, that's the premise. Everything's fucked up and it's your ancestor's fault somehow. In time, you'll know the extent of his failings.

I think Sky Captain did it best.