PDA

View Full Version : Whack-a-mole! Builds for red herrings!



true_shinken
2010-11-05, 10:42 PM
So, my players currently have a castle and are trying to rebuild a city. Said city was devastated by recent events (an outbreak of slaad fever and a civil war), so they are searching for survivors and waiting for those who escaped to come back.
I'll be introducing a few characters in the next game - a few aristocrats from a noble house, some clerics of a minor god, a few guards, stuff like that.
I want one of them to be a spy, though. The players defeated a villain a few sessions ago - a tiefling truenamer. They killed her lover as well. Of course, she wants revenge. So she will be using this guy to get their secrets.
Now, I don't want the mole to be obvious. I'll probably use a human Factotum/Spymaster for him, but I want at least 4 other characters that might get the player suspicious.
Thoughts on this? I wanted them at around levels 8-12. One of my thoughts is a true neutral Binder and a tiefling Incarnate, because both sound suspicious enough.

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-11-05, 10:52 PM
Hellfire Glaivelock. Okay, he channels the very fires of Hell itself. That in and of itself is pretty damn suspicious. Also gives the party a challenge if they try to take him down. Binder1/Warlock6/HFW3 is a neat level 10 build.

A halfling rogue who works for a crime organization. His job is to scout out the area to set up shop for the mafia-like organization. So yes, he's a spy, but the spy you are looking for is actually in another NPC

A half-drow cleric of Ellistrae. But it's a half-drow... which is enough to make most parties suspicious as hell. Toss in an arrogant streak and a disinclination to listen much to the party (fine, you're the secular law, but I follow a Higher Law which takes precidence! You will respect my religion!!) to really get on their nerves.

true_shinken
2010-11-05, 11:00 PM
Hellfire Glaivelock. Okay, he channels the very fires of Hell itself. That in and of itself is pretty damn suspicious. Also gives the party a challenge if they try to take him down. Binder1/Warlock6/HFW3 is a neat level 10 build.
That might be interesting. The party includes a non-hellfire glaivelock. Thanks, think I'll go with this for my Binder idea.


A halfling rogue who works for a crime organization. His job is to scout out the area to set up shop for the mafia-like organization. So yes, he's a spy, but the spy you are looking for is actually in another NPC
I absolutely loved this idea. I'll be sure to do something like this.


A half-drow cleric of Ellistrae. But it's a half-drow... which is enough to make most parties suspicious as hell. Toss in an arrogant streak and a disinclination to listen much to the party (fine, you're the secular law, but I follow a Higher Law which takes precidence! You will respect my religion!!) to really get on their nerves.
Currently, drow in my setting are trapped and their existence is not common knowledge. There is, however, a whole kingdom raised by half-elves (I used the Scar organization). Just making her a half-elf would make the players suspicious. I just need something else to spice up. We have clerics of Bahamut and Trithereon in the castle, so a cleric of another god might work. Maybe a cleric of vengeance or something like that.

Jack_Simth
2010-11-05, 11:20 PM
I'll probably use a human Factotum/Spymaster for him, but I want at least 4 other characters that might get the player suspicious.
Thoughts on this? I wanted them at around levels 8-12. One of my thoughts is a true neutral Binder and a tiefling Incarnate, because both sound suspicious enough.If you really want to drive them nutty? Use a [urhttp://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghost.htm]Ghost[/url] for the actual spy. The actual spy makes hefty use of Malevolence (acts as Magic Jar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicJar.htm)) to infiltrate. And regularly uses a different victim for each op. Doesn't detect as undead (as the ghost takes on the vic's type for the duration). Doesn't necessarily ping as evil (there's a low-level spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/undetectableAlignment.htm) for that), and doesn't necessarily detect as magic (there's a low-level spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/misdirection.htm) for that, too (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm)).

So they catch someone... who claims to have no idea what's going on. See, the ghost simply leaves during a moment when the vic is momentarily unobserved. And the ghost has a high Bluff/Disguise check for when that's not an option.

Careful, though - you don't want to annoy them too much.

true_shinken
2010-11-05, 11:23 PM
So they catch someone... who claims to have no idea what's going on. See, the ghost simply leaves during a moment when the vic is momentarily unobserved. And the ghost has a high Bluff/Disguise check for when that's not an option.

Careful, though - you don't want to annoy them too much.

I really like this idea, but I did something similar with a hengeyokai (sparrow) Bard spamming suggestion. Doing it again might annoy them too much... but it feels so much fun!

JonRG
2010-11-05, 11:26 PM
We have clerics of Bahamut and Trithereon in the castle, so a cleric of another god might work. Maybe a cleric of vengeance or something like that.

St. Cuthbert has retribution in his portfolio (as do a lot of other gods I'd imagine), but you can even have the person not be evil. You know, the decent, quirky type who the players think might be the spy, but he could just be strange. Who knows?

Well, aside from you anyway. :smallwink:

Spamotron
2010-11-05, 11:46 PM
An Idea of the party's general Alignment might be helpful. NPC's proposed for a Goodish party that mostly respects peoples rights could be quite different from those for an Evilish party that has a "Kill Em All and Let Gygax Sort it Out" mentality.

For example an obnoxious Bard who has taken a personal dislike of the Party and spreads nasty tales and rumors about them will be more or less viable a concept depending on if they'll begrudgingly let him stick around because of Bardic Immunity (or whatever your equivalent is) or if they'll just kill him out of hand. The second case could actually make him more viable if he's a member of a powerful Nobel family and you aren't worried about side plots possibly hijacking the main plot. Actually that might work even if they're mostly good. The Bard stirs up some trouble for the Party. the Tiefling hears about it and kills him off in a way that makes the Party the prime suspect. The Bard is the younger brother of the local duke...

Dusk Eclipse
2010-11-05, 11:56 PM
Cas is the demigod of venganze, he is stated in HoH.

Also IIRC there is a feat in Elder evil or the other villains books... (it had a lich on the cover IIRC) which lets you detect as neutral on detect aligment spells, might be worthwhile to look into

true_shinken
2010-11-06, 04:39 PM
An Idea of the party's general Alignment might be helpful. NPC's proposed for a Goodish party that mostly respects peoples rights could be quite different from those for an Evilish party that has a "Kill Em All and Let Gygax Sort it Out" mentality.

My party is all good.


Cas is the demigod of venganze, he is stated in HoH.
Oh, I think I'll go with him. Thanks.


Also IIRC there is a feat in Elder evil or the other villains books... (it had a lich on the cover IIRC) which lets you detect as neutral on detect aligment spells, might be worthwhile to look into
Hm, might be worth it, I'll check.

My new idea is a red dragon disguised as a merchant. How about it? He is 'tired of being fearsome' and just wants to settle down. He's still evil, just lazy about it.

Kyouhen
2010-11-06, 05:31 PM
My new idea is a red dragon disguised as a merchant. How about it? He is 'tired of being fearsome' and just wants to settle down. He's still evil, just lazy about it.

There's an idea. Have his evil goal to own a monopoly on everything. He's determined that burning down cities and looting the remains results in a few more adventurers hunting him than he cares for, and has decided to use a more 'honest' approach at building his hoard. He ruthlessly expands his enterprises and forces the competition out of town, aiming to be the sole owner of every business in the city. And of course if the players catch wind of a red dragon in their city, they'll immediately assume he's the evil dude they're trying to kill off. :smalltongue:

PersonMan
2010-11-06, 06:49 PM
Also IIRC there is a feat in Elder evil or the other villains books... (it had a lich on the cover IIRC) which lets you detect as neutral on detect aligment spells, might be worthwhile to look into

Exemplars of Evil.

Danin
2010-11-06, 07:15 PM
There are two main ways of establishing someone as a suspect. Either make them so normal, so average as to arouse suspicion that they are trying to fly under the radar (difficult, as they might actually fly under the radar) or to make it reasonably obvious that they are hiding something but the mystery lies in what. A combination of the two is possible, but I would recommend against it (how annoying is it when a DM says "No, it wasn't one of the suspects I implied! It was the scullery maid I mentioned once in the first session! Ha ha, how cunning am I.")

I think a binder trying to pass off as something else would work perfectly, as it is a secret he would be very intent on keeping. I played a binder masquerading as a paladin once and had everyone fooled until I, in a very dire situation, expelled Andras and quickly bound Amon for is fire breath. I then incinerated the hallway whilst spewing blasphemy. Saved our hide but the jig was up.

Someone guilty of another crime works as well, such as a murder. Have an aristocrat be guilty of killing a prostitute/sibling/rival or some such and is being blackmailed by a criminal organization threatening to out him. He is obviously lying about his whereabouts when questioned and is called to secret meetings with the people blackmailing him to pay the money. This could lead to the PCs jumping to the wrong conclusion and confronting the 'spy' resulting in bloodshed.

A cleric of a demon prince could have a demon riding along inside him (rules found in the Fiendish Codex 1). Hearing him have conversations in the privacy of his room could make people think he is communing with someone magically, and if done in abyssal it might mean no one can understand him. In actuality, its the fellow asking for advice from his demon companion.

An overly paranoid character is also always a good suspicious type person. He alarms his door, sleeps under his bed with a silent image of him in it and does all sorts of odd things. Anyone that nervous must have something to hide, right?