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View Full Version : [3.5]How can I deal with my PC losing his soul? (bishfish: stay away)



Brendan
2010-06-26, 10:23 PM
so my current character just was full attacked by a hydra that killed all but one member of the party, and now is about to be raised. straightforward enough, but there are some complications.
My character's concept is that he was possessed by a spirit of sorts that passes to a new person immediately when the last host dies. more accurately, my character is the spirit, and I just moved to another body hundreds of miles away. so because of this, when I am rezzed, the CE devious b****** I had been possessing will be the one in control of the body. And he wants blood.
I will be controlling him for the time being and in that time I kind of want to kill as many party members as possible. after all, they had just been helping out that spirit for a good two months, and since I can't kill the spirit, I might as well kill his comrades.
then I run into a problem. first, I need to figure out a way to effectively kill them all, but preferably give the PCs a chance to kill me instead. after all, we all just lost a level from an almost tpk (one survived) and going too far down would be way too inconvenient.

Our party is:
Me: a CN (soon to be CE) lizardfolk monk 5/dragon devotee 1
Alice: aasimar NG druid 4/ sorc 1
Son poi: poorly named rogue 3/spellthief 1
"z": dmpc LE drow wizard 5

The DMPC is currently in a relationship with my character, so I was intending to lure her either into some dorm room (a wizard college is nearby) or just down some alleyway. I would full attack her 14 hitpoints away, and scratch myself up. returning to the group with news of a "monster" that just attacked us, I would try to lure alice into either the room or the alley, and attack her. This is where i probably would die, as this is a druid I am facing. admittedly one who never made an animal companion and can't wildshape yet. The rogue would join in, and I would (probably) die. perfect.

However, the problem is that, the two other PCs would be very annoyed. One, "son poi" very occasionally cheats and sort of expects everyone else to metagame more than actually game. He would probably be very angry, but then again, he isn't very happy about his character, and might be fine with the switch.
The other, "alice" dies constantly. whether due to his wizard having 1 hit point (Flyvan: never forget.) or just healing fallen allies when she is within full attack range of a minotaur barbarian, she somehow seems to die every single game. being killed by a teammate might be too much.
then part of me just wants to make the story exciting and kill everyone I can. Also, the DM likes the idea, but I'm not sure if he knows how far I want to take it.
I don't want the campaign to fail, and going overboard might do that, but it might make the campaign better.

So, forumgoers, what should I do:
Kill them all? How?
Kill the NPC?
just go berserk and get killed immediately?

The Glyphstone
2010-06-26, 10:25 PM
Let him get killed. Screwing over your party is never a good idea, no matter how much the DM likes it.

mucat
2010-06-26, 11:23 PM
I disagree with Glyph; if I were one of the other players, I would think this was a great plot twist (once it as all over and you explained OOC what had happened; up until them I would want to throttle you.)

As you say, though, you don't want to end the campaign, just to scare the **** out of everyone. A few things you can consider, then, to keep things under control:

How much does the CE lizardman know/remember about what happened when he was possessed? The less he knows about what's going on, the less effective his plans will be; in fact, if he wakes up in a human city with no memory of how he got here, he might just bolt in confusion. Or attack in a panic and die without doing much damage.

If he does remember, he still might be more interested in escape than revenge. He could kill the easiest target on general principles (this would be the Drow NPC, whom he would know how to get alone and defenseless) and then make for the city limits before anyone knows something's wrong. If trying to kill the others would likely get him killed instead, the most reasonable course is for him not to try.

Another thing to consider: you say the possessing spirit has moved on to a new body, hundreds of miles away. Does he remember his friends from his last incarnation? If so, he would realize that they are in grave danger if they raise his old body, and might be making a beeline for them to warn them.

If the other players would not enjoy a scenario where the lizardman turns against them, then discuss this with the DM and arrange for your real character, in his new body, to show up right at the crucial moment. If I were the DM, I would set it up so that if everyone plays their cards perfectly, they can save the Drow. Even if they blow it, the price is that they lose the NPC wizard, not that they lose the whole party.

And your character, if he is not a total cold-hearted bastard, will want to get the Drow raised, so at the worst, the whole escapade would cost her a level and the party 5000 gp. Not bad for a really memorable turn of events!

Protecar
2010-06-26, 11:52 PM
Mucat, asides from being privileged with the most adorable avatar that's also a letter gets a definite +1 from me. I don't see Glyph as necessarily as being wrong, because some people don't mind losing their characters, but if you aren't sure: Mucat has certainly thought out a very nice plot-twist scenario that would surely leave your fellow players more nicely flabbergasted at the change of events and less spiteful for losing their characters.

Good luck! And please return and share the tale of what exactly goes down in your campaign. :smallbiggrin:

nahmoss
2010-06-27, 12:07 AM
Why not instead of secretly murdering them, talk to the DM to allow you to go hire some mercenary henchman and then set up a nice full scale battle. You can even do an evil monologue to explain the situation.

Roll up a couple of henchman beforehand and some gear ahead of time so that you can present the entire scenario.

Ceaon
2010-06-27, 06:30 AM
I say, don't let this character attack the party. Let him instead attack a NPC they care about, instantly killing him. Then the party can attack your character and win more easily. Since the DM is okay with this plan, you can even handpick a NPC together!

742
2010-06-27, 07:26 AM
if the character is already made, play it out. CE does not mean "impulsive and stupid". betray them at some critical point, and make bluff checks or just play it bland until then.
at least one of the other characters has sense motive, right?

Brendan
2010-06-27, 09:17 AM
I agree that CE does not instantly mean impulsive and stupid, but this character has very low wisdom, and I have been playing him as fairly impulsive. and now that the spirit is gone, these abilities are highlighted.
The body has been conscious the entire time he was possessed, and remembers everything, and has been planning the entire time to kill them all, especially the drow for "allowing a noble lizardfolk to engage in elf filth like her."
Meanwhile, the new possessed thirteen year old beguiler is chartering the fastest boat he can, and is going to get teleported as soon as he gets to somewhere where the creatures don't have a -2 to int.
I want the change to be drastic between the two characters. almost as drastic as angel/angellus, but less angst and guilt and planning. and just so you know, the spirit was possessing the short lived dictator of the lizardfolk empire and he/it intends to destroy the empire brick by brick.

Rothen
2010-06-27, 09:50 AM
I agree with the others. You can go ahead and murder the DMPC, as it'll definitely shake up the others without having a lot of influence on the players and their fun. Then, your monk can either run for it or try to kill the others and get murdered. It's really up to you.

mucat
2010-06-27, 10:14 AM
I agree that CE does not instantly mean impulsive and stupid, but this character has very low wisdom, and I have been playing him as fairly impulsive. and now that the spirit is gone, these abilities are highlighted.
The body has been conscious the entire time he was possessed, and remembers everything, and has been planning the entire time to kill them all, especially the drow for "allowing a noble lizardfolk to engage in elf filth like her."
Meanwhile, the new possessed thirteen year old beguiler is chartering the fastest boat he can, and is going to get teleported as soon as he gets to somewhere where the creatures don't have a -2 to int.

If your character can't yet find a wizard to teleport him, how about a cleric to cast Sending and warn his friends?

Ah, and during the time he was possessing the lizardman, could he tell what his host was thinking? If so, he would know that the Drow wizard was the creature's first target, so he would probably target the Sending directly to her. And while the timing would of course be up to your DM, if he's open to suggestions from you as to how the scenario plays out, something like this could be fun:

Lizardfolk lures Drow away from the rest of the party.

Just in time, Drow receives Sending, tries to escape/defend herself.

Other PCs hear the commotion, show up to find a fight / chase scene between the lizardman, who they think is your character (and at the table, you would in fact be playing him) and the NPC wizard.

Chances are they will think at first that the NPC is the betrayer. The challenge will be for them to figure out what's really happening, or at least who to side with. Since the lizardfolk has low wisdom, you can have him drop little hints that he's not really "himself" to give them a better chance. (And of course the Drow, if she has a chance, will want to tell them what she now knows.)

Ten minutes after the first Sending (since that's the casting time of the spell), a second one will reach the druid or the rogue. If they haven't screwed things up too badly, hopefully the wizard is still alive; either way, the izardman is in trouble now, and one more fight/chase scene is likely, with you still playing the lizard guy who is now openly their enemy.

Sound fun?

Brendan
2010-06-27, 10:54 AM
Sound fun?

I like. I think what I'm gonna do is attack the npc in an alley, and when the rest of the group shows up and I explain the "monster attack" a sending of the beguiler appears, saying "Z! you're in danger! my spirit passed on and the old Gornargh (me) is back! you need to kill him. Whatever you do, don't be alone!"
I'll try to explain it away as a trick of the monster, but probably inevitably die. I'll focus on the rogue, as his 7 cha makes me kinda hate him and he is weaker. If the battle takes a turn for the worse, I'll retreat, and maybe become a recurring villain. although I'm not sure how well controlling two opposing characters at once would work.

mucat
2010-06-27, 11:29 AM
If the lizardman becomes a recurring villain, best to let the DM take him over as an NPC. But for this initial confrontation, it sounds a lot more fun to have you run him.

Let us know how it all plays out!

Kiren
2010-06-27, 12:38 PM
Use the alleyway, set a powerful trap there, go on other side of trap, as the character with a relationship with your character comes to you, trap activates, go tell the party, let them enter the alley, then block all entrances to the alley, perhaps drop in a few explosive rune sticky notes.