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Skyrunner
2012-04-01, 07:43 PM
What might be some ways to roleplay a succubus well enough that she isn't instantly killed?

I can't grasp how to xD Eh ... a slight problem would be the players are powerful enough to one-shot it >.>

Eakin
2012-04-01, 07:54 PM
Skanky is the ONLY appropriate way to RP a succubus :smallredface:

But seriously, the same way all clever and evil beings should infiltrate a group of good aligned people. Be indispensable somehow so they HAVE to keep you around, and slowly use your silver tongue to tear it apart from within. As a succubus you have a number of tongue-related options, I'm sure

Arbane
2012-04-01, 07:57 PM
Fake remorse. Fake friendship. Fake regret. Fake having standards.

Hide. They can look like anyone, fly and teleport, getting away should be easy.

Fight dirty. Warn the PCs that if they die, their Dominated victims will kill (insert people they actually give a rap about). Who cares if it's just a bluff, they're stalling for time, anyway.

Eakin
2012-04-01, 08:04 PM
Fake remorse. Fake friendship. Fake regret. Fake having standards.

Hide. They can look like anyone, fly and teleport, getting away should be easy.

Fight dirty. Warn the PCs that if they die, their Dominated victims will kill (insert people they actually give a rap about). Who cares if it's just a bluff, they're stalling for time, anyway.

I guess it depends on what the succubus is up against. I don't think the first one's going to work in a party where "Detect Evil! Head shot!" from any player can take you out of the game. Can you fill us in with any more information as to what you're trying to accomplish?

Morithias
2012-04-01, 08:10 PM
Never reveal your true form. Carry a ring of undetectable alignment at all time.

Use drugs to get men to sleep with you. The BOEF has a very nice one called "Black out" that has a good fortitude save.

Divide and conquer. Separate them one by one into bedroom and sleep with them to death. Keep in mind that just cause he's a paladin doesn't mean he has the vow of chastity feat.

Skyrunner
2012-04-01, 08:13 PM
Detect Evil, for some reason, is confine to the NPC character ....

I want to mildly inconvenience my players... but IC, she's a spy that wants to learn the party's capabilities and report back.

Shadowknight12
2012-04-01, 08:23 PM
Oh, I did this. I had an incubus pose as a helpful but broody NPC and fake a crush on the party's paladin to explain why he followed her around.

It's easy, just forget she's a succubus. No, I'm serious, just create her persona (or personae, as many as you see fit) and forget she's supposed to be a demon. If you want ways to conceal her true alignment and form, there are magic items for that, so just handwave it and assume she has them.

As for the roleplaying, just have her assume a persona and roleplay that. The entire point of roleplaying a shapeshifter is that nobody knows they're shapeshifters until the Big Reveal. Ergo, the best way to roleplay this is to forget they're shapeshifters. There's no better way to be convincing than forgetting the truth and only remembering the lie.

QuidEst
2012-04-01, 08:32 PM
Consider somebody not attractive, but still somebody they'll want to take care of. Little girl, little old lady, that sort of thing. Sticking them in as a pretend sacrifice is a pretty easy way to get them introduced. Could also be an attractive lady, but one who doesn't show any interest in the members of the party, or is even upset that her suitor didn't come to rescue her (not at the party, but a mix of upset at him and upset at herself for having these expectations).

Beowulf DW
2012-04-01, 08:50 PM
I'd recommend looking up info on Morrigan Aensland. Info, mind, not pictures.

Acanous
2012-04-01, 09:25 PM
I've seen succubi RP'd well (Hi, Rue!) and if you wanted to pull it off, from what I've seen I'd go like this:

First, she's in human guise. She approaches the party with some valuable information (Mayhaps some intel partaining to one of her opponents in the blood war?) and wants to sell that info to the party.
"I hear you are champions of good. Well, I've heard some rumours, I think you should know about... but I'm sure if I talk to you, they'll find out about it."
Have her barter for gold, magic items, or protection (which is, of course, what she wants. But don't open asking for protection directly. Have them come up with that offer ;) )
Then fill them in on the location of say, an evil cult in the next town over (Or even in this town!) and give the party some relevant information about the capabilities therof. (Their known defenses, types of magic they employ, etc.) You'll be able to throw your players a curveball or two, but so long as they stick to the succubus' advice, this *Should* be a cakewalk where they'd normally have a hard fight.
For instance, the cult heavilly relies on Fire-type magic. The clerics open against their enemies with Flamestrikes to force the opponents to scatter (Or flat out kill them if they come bundles in a nice tight area) while the fighters try to block avenues of approach, and a few assassins sneak around back for a flank. If the players are aware that the cult employs assassins and uses flamestrike, they can go in buffed with Resist energy (Fire) or even Fire Shield. The former isn't visable at all, so the clerics would still open with Flame Strike.

Meanwhile, the party KNOWS to prep a lot of ranged damage or Reflex Save-or-lose to take out the clerics and fighters, and to watch their flanks to protect against assassins. (Caltrops, Spike stones, Wall of X)

In most situations, a party walking into this deathtrap is not walking out unless they're a few levels higher or willing to teleport out and take a loss in order to come back more prepared next time.

In this case, they skip the loss and just win the encounter, probably in 2-3 rounds.
The succubus can be watching the party, gauging their ability here to help with her mission, while eliminating one of her enemies, AND indebting the party to her.

Basically, ensure that this succubus always has a plan she's following, that will end with win/win for her, with a side of more win, all while looking like she's being fair.

If something catches her off guard, she's more likely to run away than to stand and fight. That won't break character and it's more intelligent to come back later with an adventuring party.

Lord Tyger
2012-04-01, 10:12 PM
Depending on your players, it might be possible for you to play the Succubus AS a Succubus.

Succubus: "The thing about Good and Evil is that only Good tends to worry about it in such abstract terms. Me- I like power, and you have it. So, yeah, you could send me back to the Pit, or you could let me work for you. A little share of the spoils, a finger in the pie, and I'm your girl." Make her useful to them (though not enough to overshadow the party- maybe keep her to information and utility, granting PCs diplomacy bonuses with well-timed flattery and *ahem* charms) and let her appear to be converted towards Good if the players make an effort.

Of course, some parties might kill her on general principle, but you can twist the knife that much harder when it comes to her inevitable betrayal if you get them to accept the Succubus at face value.

Fhaolan
2012-04-02, 07:41 AM
The big obsticle is the 'Detect Evil' spell/special abilities. You have to throw doubt on that. Being intelligent, the succubus knows that unless she can get ahold of an 'Undetectable Alignment' item, she knows she's going to ping Evil. And she also probably knows how easy it is to get Evildar with groups like the PCs.

The succubus probably also knows that lower planes creatures ping Evil, even when they are actually Neutral or even Good, just because of where they're from.

So her best bet is to present herself as a *different* demon, or a demon-blood, who's breaking away from her natural alignment. Something like a cambion/alu-fiend or in 3.x back, a tiefling. And because adventuring parties tend to be a bit dim, she's going to play up the pseudo-Good alignment by making it *obvious*. Lots of holy symbols, possibly being a cleric or paladin, and playing it up. Be vocally frustrated that she can never *not* ping Evil, despite her 'true' intentions, and so forth.

hewhosaysfish
2012-04-02, 10:00 AM
Pretend to be something which isn't a succubus; the question then becomes "How would a human/elf/whatever infiltrate the party (if they had additional mind-control and polymorphing powers)?"

Now when you mention succubi, people's first reaction is going to be "OMG smexy hell-slut" but if she has an actual objective to work towards other than "suck out as many souls as you can" (and she does: to spy on the party) then a smart succubus would want to specifically avoid that.

She shouldn't disguise herself as a curvaceous seductress and she shouldn't try to seduce anyone. It would be a bit of a clue as to her true nature if she tries anda dead give-away if she succeeds.
Maybe pick another stereotype and run with that: cheeky gnome bard; hot-headed human sorceror; lecherous* half-elf rogue.
She could use a series of disguises to have one-off meetings with the party to gauge their likes and motivations. Then create a persona that won't piss the party off too much (e.g. no kender) and a suitable hook to get them to join up with the party.

A suitable hook might be a reason why this invented persona would want to help the party against the party's current nemesis and some credible way that they can help (note that the bard, sorceror and rogue personae I suggested can all be *mostly* faked by a succubus). Alternatively, a reason why they might need to recruit the party's help for something and reason for them to stick with the party afterwards.

So our succubus could:

Get a pile of gold somehow. Should be simple enough for a mind-bending, shape-shifting hell-whore.
Disguise yourself (preferably as an agent of the party's current nemesis). Pay/persuade a bunch of CR appropriate mooks to attack a mechant caravan/farm/noble manor. Use Charm Person and shapeshifting to not get killed and eaten during negotiations. Perhaps include a distinctive-looking shiny trinket in the payment.
Approach the PCs with a sob-story about how monsters attacked her family's caravan/farm/noble manor, killed your father and stole her "heirloom" shiny trinket. Explain how she used her rogue/bard spells and/or rogue/sorceror spells to escape. Offer gold (and implied xp rewards) for avenging this injustice, recovering the trinket and possibly reclaiming the caravan/farm/noble manor.
If the PCs say "Hey, you've got skills/spells! Come with us!" then agree; if they don't then just go along with them anyway.
Observe the PCs in action. Gather whatever data is needed. Also look for an excuse to join up with the PCs later. Try to make friends and/or impress them.
Kill all the mooks with the PCs. Try not let them get any hint about the mysterious person who organised the attack; if they do, let them speculate that it's part of their enemies scheme. Profess ignorance.
Pay the PCs with with loot "reocvered" from the caravan/farm/noble manor. Keep the "heirloom" trinket. Let the more paranoid members of the party inspect the trinket with Detect Magic if necessary to prove that it's not a plot MacGuffin but is just a random bit of jewellery. If one of them tries to take the trinket, protest but back down under pressure.
If she's made friends and impressed people, the PCs may ask her to come with them from then on. Otherwise she might have to ask/insist herself. Claim she has a great debt to repay to the party (i.e. more than the material wealth she's already paid them with). Claim she's inspired by the nobility of their quest against the evil Lord Evilface and wants to join them. Claim she's fallen for one of the party. Make up an obviously fake excuse while "secretly" plotting to steal back the trinket which that one jerkass PC impounded.
???
Profit!


*I know I just said that she shouldn't try to seduce anyone but if she pretends to be a guy who thinks he's God's gift to women and unsuccessfully hits on all the female party members then no-one is ever going to think "Aha! This is a crafty seductress trying to earn our confidence!"

Kalirren
2012-04-02, 04:11 PM
I'm in a game with a player who is playing a succubus right now. His RPing I can highly recommend.

Look for Lildorrinene.

Morithias
2012-04-02, 05:51 PM
This has come up as I plan to have a succubus (it's going to be either a succubus or a Pleasure devil which is basically the same thing) pop up in a future campaign.

She is summoned by an NPC by accident. Normally the succubus's first reaction would be "try to steal the soul", or some varient thereof, but as the NPC is the future Demon King she decides to help the PC's with the following logic.

There are 4 logical endings to how the whole "Demon King" thing is going to end.

1. The girl becomes the demon king and wins
2. The girl becomes the demon king and is killed
3. The girl dies of old age and never becomes the Demon King
4. The demon king is permanently defeated (highly unlikely but due to the whole "Epic magic" and all it's certainly possible).

Her logic to helping the PCs and the girl is as follows.

Path 1: The demon king remembers her aid and kindness and will hopefully repay her in kind with power and riches.
Path 2: Oh well I got to blow a few years on the material plane where I wasn't being abused by Balors/Pit fiends. It was a nice vacation.
Path 3: Considering you never sent me back, I got an 80 year vacation. Thanks for the fun times!
Path 4: Holy **** how did you pull that off. Oh well, since the demon king's power is gone you can no longer banish me which means I get to wander free on the material plane until someone kills me.

To be blunt, every path is self-serving and greedy, but ultimately it boils down to a very interesting point. Succubi are NOT very powerful. The chance to escape the Abyss and their Demon masters, who are the very definition of "Bad boss" is very tempting to them.

This enables you to have a succubus/pleasure devil/harvester devil/etc, who is aiding the PC's completely honestly just to, for lack of a better term, kill time. Wanting to prolong the PC's deaths for as long as possible so she can avoid the Abyss's torturous existence for a little longer.

It makes her sympathetic, without making her redeemed.

So do what I did, come up with a reason why the Succubus would want to help the PC's and just flat out explain it. A lot of PC's will listen to logic if you can explain it (although just as many will slaughter her cause she's a demon, but hey, you can't get all the best players).

DontEatRawHagis
2012-04-02, 07:26 PM
Chris Perkins once talked about how he made a Succubus character as part of a deal with one of the players.


Tyranny (a.k.a. "Tyra") was introduced at the start of epic tier as a foil for Deimos, a tiefling sorcerer and ship captain played by Chris Youngs. After Deimos's ship was sunk, he forged a pact with Dispater to have the vessel returned to him. As part of the agreement, Deimos was forced to take Tyra, one of Dispater's consorts, as a concubine and swear to protect her against all harm. Tyra appeared in Deimos's bed one night as a voluptuous tiefling, although her "big secret" is that she's a polymorphed succubus. (For her stat block, I used the level 9 succubus advanced to level 25.)

Tyra's arrival set the other characters (and players) on edge, for Deimos had not consulted with them prior to cutting his deal with Dispater. There were some personality conflicts, but a deal is a deal—the heroes couldn't risk throwing Tyra overboard or killing her. And so, she became a necessary evil.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dmxp/20111020

Sutremaine
2012-04-02, 10:31 PM
I know I just said that she shouldn't try to seduce anyone but if she pretends to be a guy who thinks he's God's gift to women and unsuccessfully hits on all the female party members then no-one is ever going to think "Aha! This is a crafty seductress trying to earn our confidence!"
So, in short: "Work that double standard".