Naraku-Style Dickery: Making the Party Split Itself

[CrazyYanmega]

I'm thinking of making an Inuyasha inspired campaign, and I really want to play the part of the "Smug @-hole who knows your every move and everything you do is just part of my plan" type BBEG. How is the best way to go about this?

One of the key points is how Naraku is able to constantly turn his enemies against each other. What are good ways to do that outside of full-on mind-controlling the PCs?

[Phelix-Mu]

A couple ideas:

- Insidious Corrupter PrC from Drow of the Underdark. I have long since stripped the racial element from this PrC, and as DM, you don't have to worry about that. Especially early on in a campaign, non-magical manipulation of normal people is darn useful, and some of the class abilities are pretty nice.

- Minions that can shapechange in some fashion (sparrow hengeyoki, even), or maybe the ability to borrow senses from remote people/animals (Psibond Agent) or some such. Knowledge is power, and a good spy network (especially of unwitting dupes or people controlled by the mastermind via proxy or chains of intermediaries) is a great way to do this.

- Politics. Have the setting involve strongly expressed opinions of different factions allows a manipulator-type BBEG to play the common folk and the officials off each other by pandering to their party-oriented beliefs and ambitions. Alternately, race/racism can sub in for politics, as can radicalism (a.k.a., radical good v radical evil or religious conflicts, purges, inquisitions, crusades). Background conflict is key to creating an atmosphere of distrust or polarization that allows a manipulator-type to really thrive.

[nedz]

What sort of level ?
A Diviner/Enchanter could work, though Enchantment is poor at high level.
A Fiend of Possession has possibilities as does a Shapechanger of some kind.

No reason you couldn't combine some of these together.

[paperarmor]

One if my favorite ways to do this is with a village of the damned. Everything seems Idyllic until the PCs let their guard down and Bam! a whole village is about to attack. it works best with a psion/thrallherd as the bbeg forcing the villagers to go about like everything is fine nothing wrong, but it's slightly off and too perfect the tavern is quiet despite it being full, no one prays in the chapel down the road, building rot and people live happily within etc.

[CrazyYanmega]

Thank you for the tips! I'll put them to good use.

I'll have the party start at level 1. That way I can feel out the players without worrying too much about a bad seed deciding "slaughter everything and piss on the corpses" is the party's modus operandi.

[Kazudo]

Firstly, make sure your players all have very well fleshed out characters. Not backstories necessarily, but well designed. Motives, goals, tics, important events in their past that shaped who they are, why they are where they are, etc.

Secondly, start a psychological mind game with your players. Communicate one-on-one by passing notes when it suits you. Smirk once in a while, looking at another player when one player does something. Roll dice for seemingly no reason just to hear the sound. I'm not saying do this all the time, or when you actually want an effect where a rule would suffice, but to keep your players on their guards.

Thirdly, and this is important, discourage player agency. The ONLY way to effectively pit your players' characters against each other is to consistently demolish their agency. Person-specific magical items, hordes of enemies that seemingly always target one character, playing certain rules as hard as possible while others softly, etc. Create paranoia and ignorance.

Finally, MAKE SURE THERE'S A WAY OUT. Always leave an out for every situation but only if the players betray one another. Start in small ways. One character owes a debt and the next treasure horde has enough to cover it, and he's the only one who knows about it. If you've done well, he'll hoard it to pay his debts. Eventually, the only way to survive will be to push the player with the cursed amulet around his neck into the river of lava beneath him. The party will know what to do.


Do I encourage this kind of thing? No. I believe roleplaying games to be very psychological and that waging ANY kind of psychological warfare in the name of an interesting game mechanic is risky business especially with people you know and like.

Does it work?

...If done well, no one will suspect you for anything.

EDIT: From a BBEG standpoint, create lots of lore about him. All of it conflicting, but most of it pointing to one or two easily discernible facts. A political boogeyman who can get away with anything.