plot line help

[Tak Jr]

One of my PC's wants to be a Deva that has gotten tired of trying to make the world a good place and has reached his breaking point. He wants to control a Shardmind and rebuild the Living Gate in a way that will destroy existence because he does not want to be reborn anymore, even if it takes destroying everything that is. I just need some ideas of how I would go about this.

[Musco]

That depends. Is your group of players good-aligned? If they are, this is a no go, it simply won't fly in that group. Sure, he can try to trick and manipulate everyone into achieving his goal for him, but in the end, he's gonna croak, and since he's going to be with the party, he won't have time to build a lair or something like that, so when it comes time for the final showdown, it's him against all the other PCs.
If the party is on board, you could make it possible, but end the campaing when he finally gets the components for his masterplan (and the other PCs escape to an alternate reality or something, where they live like true kings)... and then start a campaign for good-aligned PCs, that ends up with thwarting a ritual from a certain mad deva that could destroy reality itself... ;)

[Tak Jr]

Sure, he can try to trick and manipulate everyone into achieving his goal for him, but in the end, he's gonna croak, and since he's going to be with the party, he won't have time to build a lair or something like that, so when it comes time for the final showdown, it's him against all the other PCs.


That is one of the problems I was having. He does want to trick them into thinking he is sealing the gate, but like you said, then it's him against them. I don't think he cares though cause if he gets them to do it, there won't be a fight at the end, because nothing will exist anymore.

Sure the party will try to stop it from happening, and the only have to go through him, but one of his ideas was to have something come through the gate in the end to help him fight the party off til reality dies.

[Musco]

Thing is, it's still a PC VS. other PCs, so even if monsters come out to help him (balancing the encounter for the now-reduced party, of course), the other players would just nova him into oblivion and then let him sit idly watching the fight unfold against the monsters. There's also the problem with Passive Insight and Perception, some players might complain, A LOT, about him not having made ANY bluff checks (he could "pre-roll" the checks, so other players do not see it, or you could roll it for him), and players with ridiculous amount of Insight not noticing anything about it all that time (even if they do not know exactly WHAT is wrong, they should still now something is amiss).
OTOH, I think it MIGHT make for a memorable campaign in the end, so I'd actually have the ritual chance him into a Solo monster (perhaps a Demon, or anything with some fluff to resemble his former self - it's more about the stats and defenses anyway), so he'd have actions, defenses and HP to go toe-to-toe with the party, and have the fate of the campaign decides by that battle. You'd just play referee, and they would duke it out. Also, since he was formerly a PC, he'd actually know the strengths and weaknesses of the party, and where to hit them hardest (not to mention PROBABLY getting a surprise round when the efect kicks in), so scale the Solo accordingly.