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Zaydos
2011-02-08, 03:43 PM
I'm running a game that started randomly last Wednesday and I'm finally trying to flesh out where the campaign should go from here. I intend to have the characters be "marked by fate" (kind of ta'veren if you've read the Wheel of Time) and for one faction for each alignment to try and recruit them.

I've got ones for Good and Evil but not Law, Chaos, and True Neutral. I do not intend to have all 9 factions try at once but instead have LG approach them first, if they refuse NE will approach and offer them a boon and additional, later rewards (trying to decide whether to have them sign a contract now or after one or two boons). Then have the CE faction, which they just unknowingly attacked, offer them the choice of "join or die" and maybe have one other make an offer this next session.

So the real question is what should the three neutral factions be?

For Lawful Good I have the church of Tyr (god of justice, war, courage, nobility).
For Neutral Good I have the Order of the Crescent Moon (a group of Neutral Good wizards and druids that work to maintain the balance of nature and magic in the world).
For Chaotic Good I have the eladrin (CG outsiders).
For Lawful Evil I have illithids; who are aware of the party and have already made one offer which was turned down (they suspected betrayal and tried to put a geas on one player; the next one turned them down; and the third one was currently incarcerated and they were attacked by his parole officers).
For Neutral Evil I have yugoloths who will offer boons.
For Chaotic Evil I have apocalypse cultists.

I have nothing for Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Neutral, and True Neutral though.

Eldan
2011-02-08, 03:55 PM
Well, the obvious examples are Slaad, Rilmani and Modrons, of course. But since you are not just using Outsiders in your examples, I'd also suggest Yen-Wang-Heh for lawful neutral (he's cool), as well as the Fraternity of order and the Harmonium (though they lean towards good a little). For true neutral, the far realm is also fun. For chaos, there's Xaositects, the Anarchists and the Free League (those wouldn't really be an organization, though). You could also think about Anarchs. It seems you already have something Doomguard-like for CE, so adding them for chaos won't work.

Jair Barik
2011-02-08, 04:00 PM
LN could be the Modron's (stats can be found on wizards website) or one of the other Mechanus races.
TN could quite happily be an order of druids (the epitomy of neutrality)
CN...drawing a blank on this. Perhaps Zaoists (pretty sure I spelt that wrong) the faction devoted to pure chaos, or some zerth (live in Limbo), either way wild mages and anarchaic initiates would be the way to go class wise.

EDIT:Ninja!

Eldan
2011-02-08, 04:03 PM
Zerths always sounded more of a lawful than a chaotic sect to me, despite living in Limbo.

There's a few non-Modron mechanus races, though. Being approached by a Mediator would be pretty cool, though they haven't got any 3.5 stats, as far as I know. Inevitables got a lot of spotlight. Wizards also moved the Formians to Mechanus, so there's that.

Ooh! Moignos! They are awesome. And gear spirits.

Tael
2011-02-08, 04:06 PM
Inevitables! They rock my stripy socks. And are quite awesome, especially with certain Elder Evils in play.

Jair Barik
2011-02-08, 04:07 PM
By RAW zerths are true neutral so I wasn't really sure which way they'd go. On the one hand they live in the elemental plane of chaos (I know that makes no sense, but its chaos so it shouldn't) but on the other hand they set up areas of stability within it. On the one hand they are a society whose origins lie within rebellion but on the other hand they diverged from the more rebellious/evil section of their species to pursue their own goals (though Zerthimon in part was corrupted by the mindflayers so make of that what you will). Would be easy enough to say some Zerth's devoted their lives to chaos and rebellion but the other factions (Xaositects, Anarchists etc.) are probably a better fit.

Zaydos
2011-02-08, 04:08 PM
Zerths always sounded more of a lawful than a chaotic sect to me, despite living in Limbo.

There's a few non-Modron mechanus races, though. Being approached by a Mediator would be pretty cool, though they haven't got any 3.5 stats, as far as I know. Inevitables got a lot of spotlight. Wizards also moved the Formians to Mechanus, so there's that.

Ooh! Moignos! They are awesome. And gear spirits.

What 2e book can mediators be found in (I ought to have it if it's planescape) and what are Moignos?

I might go Harmonium (the Fraternity seems too much of a passive group). If the Zerths are who I'm thinking of (githzerai philosopher monks from 2e) they're explicitly lawful and I'd be tempted to use them as the lawful faction except that I'm not actually working on the outer planes (yes they exist as do all the original factions, but this is on the prime so)

On second thought I shouldn't have used faction in the title.

Eldan
2011-02-08, 04:12 PM
In original Planescape lore, Zerths are described as a mostly underground sect, not working officially with the Githzerai wizard god-king. In Torment, one was made the official priest of Shak't'lor.

Moignos are living equation.

Mediators are described as the proxies of gods of law, much as angels are proxies of the powers of good. Mechanus mediators are clusters of geometric shapes. They are mentioned as being able to create whatever they want out of thin air, as long as it serves keeping the balance in Mechanus and use Wish. They are in the Monstrous Compendium I.

The Harmonium is always fun. For their prime operations, check out the Orthos project on Planewalker.

Jair Barik
2011-02-08, 04:18 PM
Regardless of who you take as your CN faction I'd strongly recommend some CA wild mages and CP anarchaic initiates. Both are good fun and are good representatives of chaos for any non explicitly chaos creature who is take levels in wizard or Psion (Wilder or Sorcerer too).

Zaydos
2011-02-08, 04:27 PM
In original Planescape lore, Zerths are described as a mostly underground sect, not working officially with the Githzerai wizard god-king. In Torment, one was made the official priest of Shak't'lor.

Moignos are living equation.

Mediators are described as the proxies of gods of law, much as angels are proxies of the powers of good. Mechanus mediators are clusters of geometric shapes. They are mentioned as being able to create whatever they want out of thin air, as long as it serves keeping the balance in Mechanus and use Wish. They are in the Monstrous Compendium I.

The Harmonium is always fun. For their prime operations, check out the Orthos project on Planewalker.

Where can I find moignos? And thanks for pointing me towards Orthos project that sounds interesting (Harmonium was always my least favorite faction; actually LN is also my least favorite alignment).

Thanks for pointing me to mediators.


Regardless of who you take as your CN faction I'd strongly recommend some CA wild mages and CP anarchaic initiates. Both are good fun and are good representatives of chaos for any non explicitly chaos creature who is take levels in wizard or Psion (Wilder or Sorcerer too).

Oh yes I love Wild Mages; game mechanically they are bad unless Practiced Spellcaster negates the -3 (in which case they are pretty good). I will be using them at some point for chaos.

I think CN will be the hardest alignment, though, as they typically don't cooperate well enough. The wild mage suggestion is giving me ideas, thanks.

Jair Barik
2011-02-08, 04:35 PM
Remember though! A true disciple of chaos does not outright disobey the law. He is either unaware that such a thing exists or follows it and periodically disobeyes it. Simply doing the exact opposite of the law is far too predictable, to be truly chaotic you must live a life where people are never sure what you are about to do next :smallamused:

Jair Barik
2011-02-08, 04:37 PM
Scrubbed. Stupid forum error... it can be so.... :smallcool: chaotic

Lord Loss
2011-02-08, 04:41 PM
Law: Inevitables, Modrons and Formians would make good choices.
Chaos: Slaadi come to mind, or reflavored demons.
Neutrality: Fiend Folio's Rilmani are the only thing I can think of right now.

EDIT: Super Ninja'd.

Zaydos
2011-02-08, 07:17 PM
I think I'll go with the Harmonium, the followers of the god of time trying to prevent a slip towards any alignment, and an order of Wild Mages and chaos psions as the Law, True Neutral (really Balance in this case), and Chaotic factions.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

Any advice on how any of these should be run or how they should approach the party?

Edit: Realized Harmonium would just be really a more antagonistic version of the church of Tyr (both would stress it is just and right and be Lawful) so I decided to go away to something else. I'll have to dig up my Planescape Monstrous Compendium and find mediators because they might work.