Handling Secretive, High-Level "Big Good"s

[Da'Shain]

So in the campaign I'm running now, my players are currently mid-level and are just starting to grasp the presence of the true threat as a menace to the entire plane. My current plan is to lead them to a character who's high-level enough to have the resources and know-how to point them in the right directions, but is still figuring things out himself and is unwilling to reveal exactly what he is (he's the oldest gold dragon in Golarion; I decided to appropriate Astarathian for this). I plan to drop a few hints in their first meeting (he'll appear in a "teleport circle" that is actually just a sham, as he's teleporting himself; an assassin sent to kill him will have True Seeing up and immediately bug out upon Astar's arrival when he had before been giving the players a hard fight; I'm calling him "Lord Astor" and making him a minor Nidalese noble who runs a town of political refugees, for the members of the group that have a bit of Golarion background).

What I'm concerned about is how to play him intelligently without having the eventual reveal make the party feel as though he could have done all of their tasks himself. Gold dragon fluff is that they apparently manipulate heroes into going where they're needed all the time; I want to play that but not have him come off as just lazy or worse, playing around. My previous campaigns have usually involved giving the players a set goal and letting them loose; this is the first time I'm using a "mission" structure (at my players' request, since we just got done with one open world game and are still in the middle of another), and I'm concerned I'll make it seem patronizing.

So does anyone else have experience with this? What are some tricks or clues you've used in the past? What mannerisms have worked well for keeping the players satisfied even after the reveal?

[Seto]

Your Dragon can have a good reason for not being able to fix it himself : perhaps he's made some pact ? perhaps the threat somehow prevents dragons from dealing with it ? perhaps he just wants to operate from the shadow through your players so he doesn't give his presence away (which would tip off the threat) ?

[Da'Shain]

Well the idea is that he's only slightly more knowledgeable than the players at the point he's introduced; a pact might be interesting, as for the middle of the campaign I had been planning to have the PCs essentially gather a dragon convocation to finally go on the offensive. Perhaps Astarathian made a pact with some powerful evil dragon that both would not act openly for any reason short of a planar invasion, since too much collateral damage would ensue?

The last idea doesn't quite work (at least with what I had planned), since the enemy will become aware of him essentially as soon as the assassin sees him with True Seeing. Perhaps I can rearrange the encounter though; I had planned the assassin to be the BBEG's Dragon and a rival for the PCs, so I'd built him to survive (and possibly toy with) the party at the level they'll face him. Perhaps they could actually drive him off beforehand. In fact, now that I think of it, that will most likely happen, since it seems they're always surprising me with godly rolls :smallbiggrin:.

[BWR]

I'd handle reasons for not doing it himself like this:

1) as an ancient and very wise and intelligent and experienced creature, the dragon has a laid-back attitude. He doesn't feel the need to rush about and do everything personally. These lesser beings can be quite resourceful if given half a chance. It's their world too, and everyone likes some feeling of agency and control over their own destiny.

2) There are always big world-ending threats to take care of or any other threat that threatens his interests. He can't do everything by himself, so he tips off other people who have the right attitude and only gets involved personally if it seems they are unable to do it. As a very intellligent being he can do most good by coordinating the efforts of lots of beings and sending them where they need to be rather than doing everything himself or having do-gooders muddle around on their own.

3) Distractions. There may very well be forces who realize he's a major obstacle to any plans they have, so they try to keep him busy chasing after shadows. He can't know ahead of time which is a real threat and which is phantom menace, or even which of two threats is the graver, so he gets the PCs to work for him.

4) He needs information. He could probably acquire it on his own, but he's a very busy dragon. So he gets the PCs to follow up on what leads he does have while he's busy with more pressing issues. Who knows? by the time he thinks to check in on the PCs, they may have investigated the problem and solved it. So much the better.

[Da'Shain]

Hmm, the distraction angle could work, as I had planned for there to be multiple tears in planar integrity around the world. I don't want him to seem laid-back, though, because a friend of his has already died due to this plot.

I also think, if asked, one of his explanations would be that if he went somewhere himself, he'd be more likely to draw the entirety of the bad guy's forces (who are perfectly capable of teleporting and plane-shifting) to himself and get essentially ganked, great wyrm gold dragon or no.