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View Full Version : 4E: need some creative assistance.



juggalotis
2010-02-21, 10:41 AM
My party i will admit is nearly impossible to keep on track and in character. I actually kind of have them hooked in currently with the campaign i am running. the problem is the dont have a healer. i have put in an npc cleric aiding them. in a couple sessions another player will be joining us as a healer. i want to have an epic end for this npc character but i need to do it in a way thats sound in my campaign. right now they are creeping through subteranian tunnels looking for someone they know has info they need about the main villain. Im thinking something to do with his falling to the power of a dark god. the cleric worships pelor. i need to end him in a way that is a shocker to the party but stays within the game mechanics. help me please?

Greenish
2010-02-21, 10:47 AM
Having tag-along NPC turn on the PCs will make them vary of including NPCs in the future, and might feel cheap to them.

You could establish how evil and strong a boss X is by having him to smash the cleric like an insignificant insect, though. Or perhaps dominate/possess the cleric and force the party to kill him, just for evuls.

[Edit]: O hay, I'm contradictin' meself. Such is life.

oxybe
2010-02-21, 10:52 AM
easiest way with largest impact?

Cleric(in a faux french voice, a la Team Fortress 2 spy): "i was never on your side all along!" *brutally kills NPC as he begins revealing secrets*

that character sheet? that's what he WANTED them to think & know. all this time he was an agent of "evil god" or BBEG or whomever and just hooked up with them to pass the time until he got the opportunity to off this guy who knows too much. the PCs just happened to have also been hooked into looking for him.

sure he might die while trying to run away, but he did his master a service and hopes for an afterlife at his side.

at this point it's up to the PCs as to what they're going to do... are they going to try to revive this guy (who now knows the evil god or BBEG knows he knows his weakness... does he really want to be revived only to be hunted down again?). do they try a "speak with dead"? do they try to follow another path(guy has a coded letter on him, PCs try to trace the letter to it's writer)?

juggalotis
2010-02-21, 10:52 AM
ive been thinking of domination like effects. as more of a narrowing down they have escaped the big bad guy once and are trying to find information they need to stop him. he is an evil wizard and currently believes the party to be dead due to the manner in which they escaped. they recruited him from a temple of pelor.

Dimers
2010-02-21, 02:32 PM
You could design a trap intended to hit whoever's at the back of the party, and whenever the PCs are all rushing ahead somewhere, that defines where the trap was placed. "Of course that combination sleep / ongoing acid damage spell was there all along! Would I lie to you?" More to the point, a disabling trap (e.g. daze+immobilize) plus a horde of ambushers would let the NPC healer appear to "go down swinging". Undead would probably be the way to go -- the intelligent ones would love the opportunity to kill a godservant, and the mindless ones can be ordered into suicidal attacks to that end. Either way, make it clear that the NPC doesn't have the option of saving himself but is taking hits that would seriously mangle the party.

Hal
2010-02-21, 02:41 PM
I like domination, personally.

"Oooh, look, a mysterious trinket. I wonder what this does?"

*Domination*

"Oh my. Excuse me, I need to slowly go insane, but first I must go join the BBEG. Pardon me."

All else fails, you can have him killed/kidnapped by the BBEG. A sure-fire way to motivate players against the villain is for his actions to have visible consequences throughout the campaign.

greenknight
2010-02-21, 03:19 PM
Having tag-along NPC turn on the PCs will make them vary of including NPCs in the future, and might feel cheap to them.

You could establish how evil and strong a boss X is by having him to smash the cleric like an insignificant insect, though.

^^ This. Although I'd have the cleric put up a bit more of a fight. Done right, it could be a Gandalf in Khazad-dum moment, with the cleric fighting valiantly to the end (most likely against a hoard of undead). As his final act he might bring down an old tunnel on himself and his attackers. Add in an ominous warning that there will be even more undead (and worse ones) if the BBEG isn't stopped quickly, and you should be golden. And of course, there's nothing stopping that cleric come back as an undead later on, his body having been retrieved and reanimated by the BBEG.

erikun
2010-02-21, 04:07 PM
The cleric thought he was following Pelor, but was unwittingly a follower of Zarus (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20041203a). Upon the final battle, the BBEG reveals the deception. Zarus then possesses the unfortunate cleric, turning him into an Avatar of Zarus under command of the BBEG.

Shardan
2010-02-21, 05:18 PM
replace the cleric with a changeling evil cleric. let them find the real NPC clerics body later, perhaps as an undead puppet of a bbeg in a big scene..

Or perhaps have the new player have knowledge of the NPC's death and have to convince the players that the changeling is a fake