@whiskeykitten I've played a few villains differently recently. Most notable was Fred the wizard, who was comically over the top in his villainous ways.
Like if someone saw old 80s cartoons as a user's manual for how to be evil.
@Crash Oh, brilliant! Sounds like quite the character!
I've always seen all sides to characters - I like finding out back stories and REASONS for behaviour. Especially villains.
@whiskeykitten On the other hand a recurring character the party can't stand is a goblin shaman that wants to protect the surviving children of her clan. Party killed most of the adults but she escaped with the kids.
Twist was that the party was never supposed to kill ANY goblins, but thought they were doing the town a favor. They literally turned this character into a villain.
At the first sign of danger she flees, so they haven't been able to kill her off and it bugs them.
@Crash Wow, interesting character twist and a great idea for an adventure.
Not just your run of the mill slash and bash and gather the treasure.
My brother would do similar, interesting stories for his adventures.
@Crash I personally like to look at people historically seen as evil (be that dictators like Stalin or just cutthroat businessmen like Edison or Ea-Nasir) and I don't like the idea of 'well-meaning but misguided' - but I see other factors in play than sheer malice, like Greed or Cowardice
@Shotagonist I don't think of traditionally evil villains in D&D as "well meaning but misguided." They often don't mean well. They want what's best for themselves and sometimes their groups. They feel their actions are justified because from their point of view they deserve the rewards.
And woe to those who would stop them from earning their due.
@Crash I've always seen "monsters" and villains that way, since I was a kid. My brother would DM and I would inevitably try and "save" the main bad guy in some way.
I always felt sorry for them.
My brother, the kind person he is, would do his best to play along, even if it totally ruined his adventure plans!
My fellow adventurers would sometimes help out, but generally would just get on with the battle without me!