3. Lolth, Queen of Spiders

As it happens with the Illithid, the drow are also an evil race exhaustively used as main villains in several adventures in D&D. And if the drow are the bad guys to ruin everybody’s days, Lolth is the true antagonist behind the dark elves. The Queen of the Demonweb Pits is not only a Demon Lord, but the goddess of the drow, spiders, trickery and lies. She is a cruel mistress who encourages a matriarchal society of slavery and dominance over the weakest.

Lolth spends most of her time fulfilling her duties as a goddess, giving little importance to the machinations and plots of other Demon Lords. Her lair is a plane-spamming web where she brings her most loyal servants to be rewarded, or her most hated foes to be punished. The Dark Mother, as she is also called, is a very important piece in the history of elvenkind and the drow.

The Queen of Spiders is also one of the oldest and most detailed villains in the game, having been firstly mentioned in Descent into the Depths of Earth and more fully described in Vault of the Drow. She was the main antagonist in Queen of the Demonweb Pits, and, nowadays, plays an important role in Out of the Abyss, although she doesn’t appear as one of the enemies to be faced.

• Lolth is one of the oldest and most famous villains in the D&D universe, both as goddess of the drow and as a Demon Lord;
• She lives in a plane entirely covered by her demonwebs;
• She is a cruel mistress who teaches her followers cruel lessons. The entire society of the drow is based on slavery and dominance, and Lolth doesn’t tolerate weakness;
• Lolth is thoroughly detailed on several books, adventures and webpages, being one of the favorite villains of both players and DMs;
• Lolth consider spiders as a sacred animal, and unleashes her fury upon those who mistreat or kill them;
• Besides being mother of the drow, she is also creator of the Drider, a hybrid drow-spider monster always present in the Monster Manual;

Lolth stat block is never described, since it’s not needed. She mainly acts through her worshippers, and holds all the powers of a goddess. Remember yourself not to kill the next spider you find in the caves, or the Dark Mother will find a way to punish you for getting in her way.

2. Tiamat, the Dragon Queen

If you’ve ever watched the Dungeons and Dragons TV series, you know who Tiamat is. If you’ve played Horde of the Dragon Queen and the Rise of Tiamat, you know who Tiamat is (of course). If you’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons for more than a year, you should know who Tiamat is. More than just a villain, a cultural phenomenon, Tiamat is probably the most easily recognizable enemy to ever feature in the game.

Tiamat, the Dragon Queen, is the evil goddess of chromatic dragons and enemy of her brother Bahamut (god of metallic dragons). She is a tyrannical mistress with an arrogant, greedy and vain personality. She loves hoarding treasures brought by her servants, and keeps one consort of every type of chromatic dragon at all times.

Tiamat is the main force behind the events in Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the Rise of Tiamat, as she is trying to come to the mortal world summoned by the Cult of the Dragon. And if you’re unlucky, you have to face her for real by the end of the campaign.

• Tiamat is probably the most famous dragon (and villain) in the history of D&D;
• She was also mentioned at Forbes as “the most fearsome dragon in D&D’s history”;
• Tiamat made several appearances in the Dungeons and Dragons TV series as a brutal force of destruction, being feared even by Venger;
• The Dragon Queen is cruel, tyrannic, arrogant, greedy, vile and vain, and so are her worshippers;
• She is present since the first supplement to the original Dungeons and Dragons, Greyhawk (1975);
• She has several deals with devils and has a lair in Avernus, the first layer of Hell;

No matter the time, Tiamat is always hungry for the destruction of new realms and the amassing of immense treasures. She is certainly an utmostly classical villain who can be inserted in several ways into any campaign. Should she ever be personally faced, Tiamat is one the most terrific foes any party will ever have the displeasure of fighting. Beware her dangerous breath!