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Satyrus
2010-10-06, 10:39 PM
Hey there playgrounders so I have a game coming up Saturday, it's a one-shot campaign. I have a plot-line layed out and a BBEG character but I have no idea what class or class combinations he should be to fit the concept and still pose a significant challenge to the PCs in combat with only a few flunkies.

So here's the idea...a plague that is fatal to the intelligent races has been racing across the country that the PCs are in for years, with sporadic outbursts decimating entire cities in a few weeks time. The BBEG's entire family was killed by this plague and he was a healer of some kind and still unable to save them. He vowed to find a cure for the disease but by the time the outbreak disappeared he had failed in that task. He followed the outbreaks for a few years trying in vain to find a cure but always it was too short-lived to get a good handle on.

Finally he was able to syntheisze the disease artificially but still had not found a cure and it is as this point that he turned down a very dark road in pursuit of his vow. He actively spreads the plague in city's so that he can study it and as the years have gone by he has become more agressive in his methods, to the point of the campaign where he is killing those infected to try and discern more of the disease.

The PCs are aware that he is a mass murderer who claimed to be working on a cure for the disease but only later will they find out he is spreading it too.



I had thought that an archivist was a good choice flavor-wise but from experience they aren't much for fighting themselves. I've also thought about a cleric but of who or what I can't concieve since he sees his works as for a greater good (sort of) but would have obviously turned his back on any gods he might have worshipped before. Any thoughts? The PCs will be level 7-10, so this guy can range between 10-13.

Thanks:smallbiggrin:

Arcane_Secrets
2010-10-06, 10:56 PM
Initial thoughts:

Necromancer
Cleric/Cancer Mage (from Book of Vile Darkness, you could perhaps adapt it a bit since some elements don't quite mesh RAW-he could still be a cleric, but I'd say that he doesn't quite follow his/her gods as much as the abstract idea of curing the plague no matter what, which is definitely evil)
Druid

gorfnab
2010-10-06, 11:02 PM
Cancer Mage (BoVD) maybe?

Edit: Swordsage'd

Satyrus
2010-10-06, 11:03 PM
I should have mentioned some of the limitations on character builds.

I do not allow Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds or any psionics. Pretty much everything else though for 3.5

I'm trying to shy away from necromancy only because I feel that I have overused it in my campaign world already.

Perhaps he could draw his energies from the negative energy plane as a cleric.

Hmm...

Grynning
2010-10-06, 11:10 PM
Ur-Priest sounds about perfect for the flavor (turned his back on the gods and what-not) and is a pretty good bad-guy PrC with fast-tracked casting. It's in Complete Divine.

Dust
2010-10-06, 11:12 PM
Definitely a Druid if you're dead-set against Vile Darkness for your own personal use.

Make him a veritable nature-nut. The reason he spreads his plagues in cities is because they're already places of filth - he'd never destroy wildlife. People, on the other hand....

Make the PCs not aware he's a murderer, just introduce him as a Druid attempting to cure the disease. It'll be a nice eye-opener when they finally follow the clues back to the source and realize that he's been the BBEG all along.

Gabe the Bard
2010-10-06, 11:14 PM
How about a good ole wizard? Just because he was trying to find a cure for a disease doesn't mean he has to be a divine spellcaster.

Here's an idea: A wizard was trying to develop the right arcane spell to eradicate the disease. Since the disease affected the intelligent races, he tried to create a spell that would preserve a person's intelligence. In desperation, he tested the spell on himself, but something went horribly wrong. He succeeded in preserving his most terrible memories within the maggots that soon devoured his body, and he rose again as a Worm that Walks (from the Epic Level Handbook), driven by the twisted obsession of defeating the disease that he himself now embodies and spreads.

Raging Gene Ray
2010-10-06, 11:14 PM
You're the DM, just because your players can't use it, doesn't mean you can't.

However Archivist is still a good route to go...that or a Cloistered Cleric with Knowledge, Pestilence, and maybe Pride domains (I think those are SC, not BoVD, but I'm not sure).

Have you determined how he's spreading the disease? Poisoning food and water supplies or infecting animals that hunters will take could fall under the domain of a Druid/Blighter or a Rogue/Assassin.

Even Bard could work. Bards are more than just performers, they are collectors of information and keepers of history and lore. And a Good aligned bard could very easily learn Cure spells and work as a Healer, speaking words of reassurance to the town before the plague drives him mad, sending his alignment to Evil.

One thing...what is the general "flavor" of the setting? Was his village an isolated settlement of hunters (the kind that would foster a Druid), a center of academia and the aristocracy (the kind of place for a Wizard, Bard, or Rogue), or a typical town where life revolved around the church (Cleric)?

Randel
2010-10-06, 11:20 PM
If necromancy is out then perhaps look through transmutation spells. Maybe a Druid (if he's studying living things and has healing ability. Perhaps his ability to wild shape would give him a sort of immunity to the disease.)

There's also the Daelkyr Half-blood race in Magic of Eberron which might be worth half a look. Basically a race that grows symbiotic abberations to work with, could have a breed leech symbiont that somehow gives him a resistance to the disease by pumping him with chemicals or filtering his blood. If he's got a bunch of breed leeches then he could be using them on people in an attempt to cure them or remove their 'bad blood'.

Satyrus
2010-10-06, 11:40 PM
I feel I should elaborate a little bit on the rest of the background.

The setting is my homebrew world. It's a straightforward fantasy setting in the time period that they'll be playing in, nations are mostly headed by monarchies backed by churches or long traditional lineages. The notable exception to standard D&D are that the traditional "forest elves" have been virtually wiped out and "humanized" elves which have urbanized are the dominant type.

The campaign will be taking place in a heavy-handed but generally fair monarchy nation that is landlocked but has borders one a large lake. The nation has urbanized centers, particularly along the lake with more agrarian tendencies the further inland you go. The PCs and the BBEG are going to be convicted criminals, sentenced to death or life in prison, in transit to one of the cities around the lake. Along the way their caravan is ambushed and the BBEG is released by some "followers" that I was thinking might be infected people who were promised the cure.

The PCs are told by another prisoner that the man is a liar and has murdered several people instead of trying to cure them. The PCs are left to be killed but will survive and are now pursued by both the authorities and the BBEG. The authorities will eventually offer them pardons if they capture/kill the BBEG. As they track him down they find out that he is spreading the plague and then his history before finally confronting him.

The plague is spread by immune hosts, such as rats or insects. Haven't decided which or maybe even both yet though.

Now on to the actual mechanics responses.

Ur-priest is definitely a good one to check out

The nature-crazed druid is fun but not really what I'm going for here. He cares for nothing anymore other than finding the cure, what he'd do afterward nobody can know.

The straight wizard might be an effective method and it is easily adaptable to fluff

My general rule of thumb for using sources is that if I don't allow my players to use it I won't either. I feel it just makes things fair. I do really like the idea of having him be a crazed bard actually, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Grynning
2010-10-06, 11:43 PM
My vote is still for Bard 5/Mindbender 1 (for the fort save to qual for Ur-Priest, plus Telepathy)/Ur-Priest X. If you don't like him having Bardic Music, just swap it out for some different class features (it is an NPC after all). For his "healer" background, just give him heal as a class skill.

Raging Gene Ray
2010-10-07, 12:15 AM
I do really like the idea of having him be a crazed bard actually, that sounds like a lot of fun.

You DO allow Libris Mortis, right? Dirgesinger might work...the fluff would work nicely with him constantly mourning over his family's death, and I could envision him using his music to raise people who died from the plague he spread, then demanding they tell him how they died so he can get more info on how to develop a cure. When the mindless zombie, can't answer, he screams at them for being useless and slaps them around.

I just remembered you said you felt necromancy was overused...I still think that's a funny scenario.

A bard is also known for social skills, including disguises and false aliases. Maybe he has spread the plague, and goes into town to encourage the local healers and churches to try and find a cure. If they seem to fail...he blows up, drops his cover and slaughters them.

This could be a way to have some other NPC, a cleric working to find a cure who doesn't know the BBEG is the one spreading the plague. He should be lower level (possibly the BBEG's cohort) and the PC's should have a way to get him to defect by telling him the truth.

...sorry if this feels like I'm writing your campaign for you...the description you gave just started me thinking.

EDIT: Greynnig's Mindbender idea is perfect for that whole concept! He manipulates others into finding the cure for him...and Ur-Priest makes sense because he's thoroughly disgusted with the gods for creating the plague/not stopping it.

Greenish
2010-10-07, 02:51 AM
So here's the idea...a plague that is fatal to the intelligent races has been racing across the country that the PCs are in for years, with sporadic outbursts decimating entire cities in a few weeks time. The BBEG's entire family was killed by this plague and he was a healer of some kind and still unable to save them. He vowed to find a cure for the disease but by the time the outbreak disappeared he had failed in that task. He followed the outbreaks for a few years trying in vain to find a cure but always it was too short-lived to get a good handle on.

Finally he was able to syntheisze the disease artificially but still had not found a cure and it is as this point that he turned down a very dark road in pursuit of his vow. He actively spreads the plague in city's so that he can study it and as the years have gone by he has become more agressive in his methods, to the point of the campaign where he is killing those infected to try and discern more of the disease.Sounds like an archivist/nosomatic chirurgeon. The latter is a PrC from Dragonmarked for "healers gone bad", complete with a bunch of disease-related abilities. Needs some adaption for non-Eberron setting though.