DM needs opinions [PF]

[Ryulin18]

Hey guys, I'm running pathfinder's "Rise Of The Runelords - anniversary edition" and I'm having a great time doing so. I have a fantastic team of players and I've succeeded at bringing them into the story enough for them to roleplay and think outside of the box!

I'm here to share what has happened to them in the first 2 chapters (not storytime) and my thoughts on how to wrangle my precious little "murder hobos" along.

I hope that with your help and ideas, which I have found are endless, I can create a fantastic campaign for them. Because of numerous reasons, they have never played a campaign from 1 to above 10, so all the way to 18 would be a real treat.


To clarify some of my creations, they know every book inside-out, so I create new things to keep them interested and thinking.

Putting each member in a seperate post below.

[Ryulin18]

We begin with the party's human magus, Deputy Sebastian Smooth, a black blade with almost unlimited pride.

He got his black blade at 3rd, amid the chaos they created at Thistletop. I told him that he couldn't access his blade until I gave him a cue in the near future, causing great confusion. Why couldn't he just use his class ability?!
FLUFF! THAT'S WHY!

When they killed an evocation wizard in the lower rooms of Thistletop and proceeded to loot her body, I gave him the cue. An orb of light came from her corpse, circled his arm and anchored itself on his shoulder as a tattoo that resembled her wand.

This activated his blackblade, appearing as a representation of his soul, all gold and shiny and good looking. It was prideful in every manner and spoke a language he didn't know (Thassilion, something no one expected).

During a rest, Sebastian slept and was haunted in his dreams with the voice, waking to find that common was replaced with Thasillion and that he could talk to the blade. The blade was polite, very old and gave little information to his questions.

In short order, they went to a sage and asked "what the f***" was happening. He showed them a book with tales of people who could do this too, ancient Thasillion warriors who were highly prized for their abilities. This was confirmed when he took a blood sample and showed how his blood reacted to magic, becoming black and charged with energy, the energy that created his blade. The blade said that this was a "pure magic" and that he wanted to cleanse the world of impure magic users.

Since then he has added 2 more tattoos (the necromancer from Habe's sanatorium and an illusionist I created) and asked what the blade can tell him about the tattoos. It said that the magic was quenching, that when their thirst was sated, they would gain power.

I'm ruling it that when he collects a soul of a user from each school of magic, he will gain 1 more point in his arcane pool. Not crazy powerful, but enough to point him towards the power he can unlock. Planting a thought in his head, that if he can kill enough, he can become crazy powerful.

[Ryulin18]

Second party member is a monk. Started out human...now a bugbear.

In the rune well area, he was struck down and died. The party was found by Shalelu and I felt bad for killing him at 2nd level, so I gave him a chance to reincarnate.
He rolled the 1% and became a bugbear.
He gained +4 str, +2 dex, +2 con and +3 natural armor. Fair at the time because it was a 3 person party with 15 point buy and they really needed a meat shield.

Recently, we found our 4th member (an inquisitor). So the party was nice and even, meaning he didn't need such a huge bonus. So I'm giving him options.

I told him that when he bathed, the thick quill-like hairs that gave him his natural armor were starting to malt off quite quickly. He lost 1 of his 3 natural armor. This troubled him and they called to Shalelu, the caster of the reincarnation, for advice.

The body was rejecting his soul and it was ill, possibly dying. Her only advice was that he could find a willing body to transfer himself into, like soul jar magic, or...die?

They immediately twigged on that finding a person willing to die, so he can have a body was going to be hard. They had to find another way, possibly one not so...willing...

I'm thinking of this character either becoming a "body hopper" parasite or find a way of getting a willing subject. I'll see how they roleplay it out and with your help, decide

[Ryulin18]

The other two have very little story. They are the hardest to lead towards roleplay and improvisation.

A witch and an inquisitor. Taking ideas on what they could have happen to them.

[PlusSixPelican]

The witch and Inquisitor, especially if they're different on the Law/Chaos axis (with the witch being the chaotic one), could have an interesting petty indignance towards each-other, with the Inquisitor being like, "You's Evil!" and teh Witch being like, "That's none of your business, ya butt!"

Also, Lawful Evil/Neutral bodyhopper monk is cool.

[Ryulin18]

The witch and Inquisitor, especially if they're different on the Law/Chaos axis (with the witch being the chaotic one), could have an interesting petty indignance towards each-other, with the Inquisitor being like, "You's Evil!" and teh Witch being like, "That's none of your business, ya butt!"

They're actually being quite good bros, Which surprised me entirely, the witch being true neutral and the inquisitor being neutral good. They're good friends in real life, so I don't make them do the dance of alignment differences.


Also, Lawful Evil/Neutral bodyhopper monk is cool.

The monk is neutral good and might not like the idea of body hopping, but who refuses to survive?! Hard choices are ahead.

[PlusSixPelican]

Monks gotta be any Lawful (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk). It's in the SRD, and has been around for many, many editions.

[Ryulin18]

Monks gotta be any Lawful (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk). It's in the SRD, and has been around for many, many editions.

My bad. I don't have the character sheets here, with me. He must be Lawful Neutral then.

[Fibinachi]

Or you just waived the alignment requirement and forgot about it. /shrug.
Now:
A body hopping parasite and a Magus that's going to go on a murder spree once he snaps and figures out the only thing standing between him and limited, granular power gains is a sea of warm bodies?

Oh dear.

How does the inquisitor feel about that? Or, perhaps more to the point, how does general divine institution the Inquisitor serves feel about the people said inquisitor is travelling with? The inquisitor might be fine with the companions, but maybe the people above will have something to say, point out and argue with? That gives you an in for an interesting dynamic between faith / loyalty / party members / Iconography clad kill team paladins busting through windows in the dead of night because the person they expect to root out heresy is unknowingly and accidently abiding it (What seems normal can be normal to someone merely because they've been around it for long. Body hopping adventures is perfectly reasonable to have happen because, well, the monk died and what else were they going to do? The moment its mentioned to someone else they might get shocked at how strange it actually is)
That's assuming the inquisitor has the backing of some church authority, however vague.

Alternatively, maybe the domain starts influencing the judgements, giving some little extra spice based on what you feel is appropriate, if the inquistor is acting within a way that is reasonable. (Judgement: Destruction, Domain: Air - tiny sparks do 1d2 extra damage, Judgement: Protection, Domain: Earth - the earth beneath your feet stabilizes you, +2 to balance checks when on the ground.
)
So on. That turns the inquisitor into a direct channel for godly powers, and also gives it a great way to roleplay a specific set of behaviours, standards and actions based on what the player derives for domain and judgement connections.

As for the witch, what's the patron power? That gives you a good in to work with thematically appropriate events.

The statement: " This patron is a vague and mysterious force, granting the witch power for reasons that she might not entirely understand" is pretty much all the reason you need to have any strange shenanigans happen. What does the patron want? Why is it granting powers? It can have any unreasonable alien motivation. (DANCES FOR THE POLKA PATRON)

Maybe a tiny temporary bonus accrues whenever something happens that fits (Dancing around for agility, being a wise person for Wisdom, lying for Deception, so on, so on). Don't mention this is happening mechanically (You get a +2 bonus), just mention if something appropriate happens (You know, there's a strange feeling creeping up on you... almost like... approval) and then leave it at that. It's omnious and strange and seeing as it's entirely up to you, not particularly open to abuse. Eventually someone will catch on that when that happens things tend to go easier, and then they'll start trying to court favour.

Bonus points if the thing(s) they need to do are radically different to what might be good sense at the time. Not so much it's a punishment, but, say, patron power transformation gets really happy whenever the witch changes clothing and hairstyle and mannerisms, despite the fact everyone's supposed to blend.

You can also build up a sort of points base and allow tiny things to happen, influenced by said patron power. That would be things outside the direct purview of game mechanical spells. Maybe Portens would give warnings or Time heal a few wounds.

That's off the top of my head, since it seems you're playing with thematically appropriate class features.