Why does the BBEG always delegate?

I just had a thought the other day about BBEG actions.

I'm currently in a new campaign where we accidentally released the BBEG. Instead of just casting a well placed shatter, or some other low level spell to kill us all, they send their minions after us and teleported away.

This happened to be a D&D campaign, but it occurs in every TTRPG I've ever played.

Why do they always delegate dealing with low level PCs to their minions? Well, I know the answer. Because if they did, there wouldn't be many 2nd level PCs.

Certainly in the multiverse of BBEGs, there must be a few that take the "roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches with the troops" approach. Or at least "I'll deal with the pesky flies myself".

But no, until the PCs reach a certain power level, it's just minions...

Things like this are why I prefer to avoid BBEGs as plot drivers.

It's a legacy of the progressive "fair" challenge focus of "Classic" play culture. You can see proponents of OSR eschew this in favor of more variable challenge in statements about players learning when to run from a fight and the like.

cranberry said:

Why do they always delegate dealing with low level PCs to their minions? Well, I know the answer. Because if they did, there wouldn't be many 2nd level PCs.

Certainly in the multiverse of BBEGs, there must be a few that take the "roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches with the troops" approach. Or at least "I'll deal with the pesky flies myself".

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Now I'm imagining a game where the PCs regularly find other completely decimated adventuring parties' remains as they try to track down the BBEG.

One reason for a BBEG not sticking around someplace outside their lair (which it feels like no low level should be able to get to), might be that it is really dangerous to be out in the open in a world of teleportation and silence spells and scrying and etc., where you have accrued a lot of enemies.

If it is a world where there aren't powerful opposing factions, and it's just the future PCs who are a threat, then I'm not sure why the BBEG wouldn't nuke the party, except that maybe they have doubled down on living up to some tropes. (Do they monologue and only kill heroes in really slow convoluted ways too?)

cranberry said:

Why do they always delegate dealing with low level PCs to their minions?

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As you said if they didn't there wouldn't be too many 2nd level characters. I think TTRPGs have evolved to make sure everyone has fun, but there was a time in the 80s and 90s in games I played where the DM was not so forgiving, and it was common for players to die no matter what level they were if they didn't pick and choose their battles. Sometimes I think its hubris on the part of the BBEG and they feel fighting lowly adventurers beneath them. At other times it could be just plain old self-preservation, if you don't know who you are dealing with.

I think the way Fellowship plays it makes sense. In Fellowship this is sort of hard-coded into the rules. One player takes on the role of the Overlord and is the BBEG for the campaign, but all Overlords have three foibles.

1. The Overlord is arrogant. Every setback is minor and can be dealt with. Everything is fine and you know you cannot lose.
2. The Overlord is busy. The destruction of the PCs is not your actual goal. You have something you want, and your focus is on getting that. When you personally engage the fellowship, your goal is not to kill them all, but to get them out of the way so you can do your thing
3. The Overlord is honor bound. When you make a promise, you will always keep it, even against your better interests. This may seem silly, but it makes for a better game when you can negotiate or gamble with the heroes and they can trust you to keep your end of the deal.

I've found that playing to these principles both makes sense and makes for a better game, for the most part. In the game I'm currently running (and getting close to wrapping up), the Overlord is so much more powerful than the PCs that she doesn't see them as a proper threat; they're just one of the many forces arrayed against her. That explains her arrogance; she really is overwhelmingly powerful compared to her opponents, for the most part.

As for being busy, her actual goal is to murder the gods and steal their power, so most of her direct attention and energy goes to that. Her armies, meanwhile, are tearing across the world and putting people at risk, so the PCs are driven to protect the people that are thus threatened, which puts them on a collision course with her forces without putting them in her direct path most of the time. And when she does show up, it's time for the PCs to get wrecked - though each time there's been a direct confrontation they've managed to do better than the last, so it's clear that they're evening the scales somewhat, giving them a feeling of advancement.

Her being honor bound doesn't really need explanation, but in this particular game my Overlord is a fallen hero, and she still thinks of herself as a good guy, just one driven to monstrous acts by intolerable circumstances. So she clings to opportunities to behave honorably as a remnant of her past.

I usually have faction play that complicates this issue. Its not a single BBEG making all the decisions in a vacuum. There are many irons in the fire, plates spinning, etc.. that an organization is going to pay grade level out the tasks. Add in other factions, with their own spinning plates and pay grades working against one another, and things get interesting. My games are not in a singular typical story telling in structure, they are campaign settings with many stories working simultaneously.

That said, ive never employed the trope of the BBEG sicking his dogs on the PCs while they flee. Either the BBEG sees the PCs as a threat, and the players made the mistake of storming the castle too early, or the BBEG has other reasons for not taking them out and just leaves. The BBEG might not actually be evil, just extreme in their plans, and thus isnt going to kill a band of adventurers for having the audacity to disagree with them. Yes, this could leave their plan vulnerable in the future, but this BBEG is going to take that chance to avoid wanton murder, or what I call the easy path. YMMV

CandyLaser makes a great point. I would add one other possibility. Your BBEG might just not see the players as that big of a threat. Assuming your BBEG is running an organization of some kind, then they would no doubt employ minions to keep minor nuisances from becoming too big of a problem. Narratively this allows for a stable progression as the players deal with escalating attempts to stop them.

This doesn't apply to the situation in your game, but here are a number of reasons a BBEG might delegate:

1) They are gathering power. They are not yet powerful enough to have the characters, and so send their allies and minions to fight while they grow in power. Maybe they once had power, or have influence in other ways.

2) They are trapped or far away. The BBEG might be trapped in another realm, imprisoned somewhere, or manipulating events from across the sea. The characters face their agents, thralls, etc.

3) They are drama queens (aka Strahd). The BBEG enjoys tormenting the characters by sending minions. Their goal is chaos and suffering, not necessarily the death of the characters.

4) They want then characters alive. Maybe they owe the characters a debt (perhaps the characters freed them from a tomb or a magic trap), they want the characters for a ritual, the characters are part of a prophecy... For whatever reason, they don't want to kill the characters, and it's quite inconvenient that the characters keep killing their minions!

Maybe it's because the hate being refed to as the BBEG?