My Story My Villain

[tedcahill2]

Brainstorming for an E6 campaign I want to run:

Major Storyline: The party are magically summoned and told that they were brought there by use of a spell that calls heroes of prophecy to stop a great evil. Little did they know that the spell used to summon the heroes also awakens the great evil they are to stop.

Plot points: These heroes of prophecy are level 1 nobodies, and there is much concern over why the spell summoned them. As the story unfolds the party learns that this great evil has appeared throughout history, and each time is thwarted by a group of heroes, more specifically by them. The spell used to summon them was actually a type of resurrection, and for thousands of years this group keeps getting resurrected to stop this villain.

Further, the party finds that the villain they've fought against was once actually one of them, a good guy. Long ago they fought together to stop a devil army from wiping out the continent, they were able to trap the leader's essence, but when the trap began to fail the warlock (villain) bargained with the devil which ultimately lead to the devil gaining control of the warlock's body. Here's the catch, you may wonder why this powerful devil, who is well aware that he and the players are revived every few hundred years to battle, doesn't just kill our level 1 heroes. Unfortunately the bargain struck between the warlock and the devil prevents him from ever harming the players

Now the party can approach this in a few ways. They can disregard the fact that their former friend is the villain and go balls out to kill him. Or they can try to exorcise the devil and free their former friend. Their actions will determine if the final battle is against a warlock or a devil.

I was thinking of having at least part of this campaign be an all out devil war (I have heroes of battle to help).
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1) Can someone help me optimize the villain. Since it's E6 I was thinking of having the warlock also max out at level 6, but the devil inside him should give him additional powers to up his ECL/CR/whatever. What sort of devil could be possessing him? Are their templates or anything I can add to represent the possession?

2) If you are inspired to think of other plot points based on the above I'd love the ideas.

[Uncle Pine]

Fiend Folio has Fiend of Possession, a PrC available to any outsider with the Evil subtype and a base Will save bonus of +5. The ability to possess a creature is only gained at 4th level, but ever since the 1st level a Fiend of Possession is at least able to possess a single object (and make it magical at 2nd level and higher).

[tedcahill2]

Fiend Folio has Fiend of Possession, a PrC available to any outsider with the Evil subtype and a base Will save bonus of +5. The ability to possess a creature is only gained at 4th level, but ever since the 1st level a Fiend of Possession is at least able to possess a single object (and make it magical at 2nd level and higher).

I don't need class levels tacked on to the devil. I was more wondering what sort of powers the host would get if they were possessed. The warlock character will only be level 6, but I want the devil to add enough powers to make him more like CR 10 or 12. So the players would have a hell of a time with him.

[Thealtruistorc]

Devilbound Template from Pathfinder offers a lot of zany powers in this regard, tied to the fiend that is possessing him. Maybe add the half-fiend template as well if more firepower is needed.

All else fails, gestalt the guy with a sorcerer or wizard and then have him use those abilities.

[NOhara24]

Brainstorming for an E6 campaign I want to run:

Major Storyline: The party are magically summoned and told that they were brought there by use of a spell that calls heroes of prophecy to stop a great evil. Little did they know that the spell used to summon the heroes also awakens the great evil they are to stop.


So why summon the heroes if summoning the heroes also summons the great evil? What's the motivation for the campaign prior to the heroes being summoned? Based on what I'm reading, everything was fine until the heroes show up to fix something that didn't exist until they did.

[tedcahill2]

Devilbound Template from Pathfinder offers a lot of zany powers in this regard, tied to the fiend that is possessing him. Maybe add the half-fiend template as well if more firepower is needed.

All else fails, gestalt the guy with a sorcerer or wizard and then have him use those abilities.

I found Acolyte of the Skin in Complete Arcane and think I may have the devil possession be represented by additional levels that will be lost to the warlock if they exorcise him.

[tedcahill2]

So why summon the heroes if summoning the heroes also summons the great evil? What's the motivation for the campaign prior to the heroes being summoned? Based on what I'm reading, everything was fine until the heroes show up to fix something that didn't exist until they did.

The people doing the summoning didn't know it would summon the devil. The summoning scroll was designed by the devil and is intended to deceive it's reader into summoning the heroes.

This cycle of summoning happens every few hundred years, and no one alive knows that using the scroll also summons this devil. It's been going on long enough that a great deal of lore surrounds the heroes of the scroll. The gist of it is that every few hundred years the devil returns, and so do the heroes, every time. It's so prevalent that when the scroll is found it is cast even if their has been no signs of the devil. Of course it's the devil that leads someone to the scroll every few hundred years to begin with.