Looking for inspiration on Hermit Background (LMOP Spoilers)

[SiCK_Boy]

I'm looking for creative assistance in expanding upon one of my player's background.

I just started DMing for a group of six relatively new players (two new to roleplaying in general, 4 new to 5e after having last played more than 10-20 years ago). All of them are in their late 30s.

I'm using the Lost Mine of Phandelver module. Four of the players are using pre-made characters from the Starter Set: both human fighters (noble and folk hero), the halfling rogue and the dwarf cleric (with minor changes to his personality, but still using the soldier background and personal quest of dealing with the Redbrands). I repurposed the wizard's background (acolyte, on a mission to clean up and bless a shrine to Oghma in the Cragmaw Castle) on a bard framework for the 5th player.

The 6th player chose to build his own character from scratch. He ended up with an elf wizard (should have just taken the pre-made character, but he wanted to learn the character creation process, so...) and picked the Hermit background.

Here's the information I have on his background and character backstory: as an hermit, he was protecting some relic (no detail on what the relic is). As part of studying the relic and his isolated meditation, he came to realize there was "some evil that only him can deal with". This became his motivation to leave his isolation: he needs to acquire power in order to be able to deal with this evil.

Now, for each other character, I've been able to link their background and backstory with the actual adventure. This is mostly accomplished via the use of the "personal quest" assigned to each pre-made character: this allowed me to feed information about the Redbrands to the halfling rogue, for example; the dwarf cleric is Gundren Rockseeker's cousin, so I gave him information on all three Rockseeker brothers; the noble fighter wants to bring civilization to Phandalin, so I gave him information on the social structure and political power in the village (info on the mayor, and a bit on the Miner's Exchange), etc.

But with that hermit, I'm a bit stuck as to how I could link his background to the actual adventure.

I asked the player what he had in mind for this "evil only he can defeat"; whether he wanted something truly epic or something within his short-term reach (I explained to him that the adventure only takes characters up to level 5, so it's difficult to have something really epic in that level range). He indicated he wanted something epic, even if the odds of the group making it to levels 10+ are really small (right now, I'm motivated to DM for them for as long as it takes, but really, will such a group hold together and enjoy the game for two years of play every two weeks?).

I do not yet know what the plan will be after LMoP: I could segue into any of the existing official campaigns (most of them can easily be tweaked for characters starting at level 4-5), or I could try using some of the stuff in Tales of the Yawning Portal (Hidden Temple of Tamoachan is for level 5 characters, and the map found in Wave Echo Cave could lead to that adventure easily enough), or I could just develop some homebrew stuff (the group has already forced me to expend on the happenings in Neverwinter and with the Mintarn Mercenaries). I don't want to discuss any of this with the group at this point because it's way too far, in my mind; it's already enough work for me to plan and try to foreshadow around the events from LMoP.

So, here's what I need assistance with:
- What is that hermit's relic (and why would he have it)?
- What is that evil only he can defeat?
- How do I use components from Lost Mine of Phandelver to someone establish a link between the relic and that long-term evil?

I was thinking of maybe trying to give the hermit player some vague prophecy-style book as his relic; probably something older than 500 years old (written before the fall of the Phandelver's Pact).

I was thinking of possibly using the roll of years to make it so that the evil in question would happen somewhere in the next year (current date is Flamerule 8, 1491 DR; I'm fine with switching the timeline on any of the existing campaign modules as needed); this would have justified the player leaving isolation: he realized time was coming soon and he needed to accumulate power in the next year in order to face that evil.

I was hoping to maybe give very shadowy-style prophecy that could possible apply to multiple BBEG from any of the campaigns, so that I would not be locked so soon into what campaign I would follow later on.

And finally, I was thinking of trying to use Lathander as a possible trigger (linked to the unfinished work still lying in the Wave Echo Cave as the last item ordered from the Forge of Spells) to prompt the adventurer forward.

I thought of maybe linking the evil to the "Black Spider" (something along the line of "the black spider is but the first step that this evil will take in the world") or to Mormensk the Wraith, but on the other side, I'd rather keep the Mine itself secret as long as possible without giving any PC advanced knowledge of what is to be found there.

Anyway, enough with the wall of text. Please provide ideas and inspiration, if you have any! (I need something within the next 48 hours; our next session is in 1 week, and I want to send the player this information as soon as possible).

[Unoriginal]

You should tell him "I'm sorry, this backstory doesn't fit the module, I don't think I could do satisfactory changes in two days, and the Hermit background is more about discovering an information than being the one person who can beat the actual BBEG."

Because so far the sole "evil only the wizard can defeat" is his own pride at thinking he's a chosen one.


As a DM, my advice is to not have one PC become the "main character" because their background is too crucial to the plot. If you make the changes your player want, he'll become the center of the narrative and you'll have to bend over backward to keep him alive. Or the other PCs will have to, after being reduced to sidekicks because their background is too generic.

[SiCK_Boy]

Not exactly the kind of "creative" help I was looking for, but thanks for raising these concerns anyway.

I won't raise the issue of the backstory not fitting the module with the player; at most, I will simply tell him that whatever "evil" he intends to confront later on, it won't be part of this adventure (in fact, I already told him that much, to a certain extent). He can still use this adventure as a means to gain more power (and he'll also be helping out his fellow adventurers who do have a personal stake in the adventure, such as the folk hero who dreams of ridding Thundertree of the dragon).

Regarding the "evil only I can defeat" (with emphasis on the "only I" portion), I've already thought about the point you raise and how it would make the wizard the sole protagonist or grant him some kind of "chosen one" status. One has to remember that the hermit came to this conclusion on his own; he could very well be disillusioned about his own capacity or "chosen" status (I've given thought about actually granting him some sort of chosen one status, but have not taken action or a final decision yet on this). I think whatever evil I end up determining as this character's opponent, chances are that it will be some kind of evil that only "they" (the adventuring party) could defeat; at most, if appropriate, I could find a way to grant some sort of advantage to the wizard in such ultimate fight, but it is so far down the line that there is no point in thinking about it for now (it would be influenced by multiple variables across the course of the campaign, including chosen spells, other character's abilities, etc.).

Just to be clear, this is not a case of a player wanting to take center stage at the other player's expense. The guy simply looked through the Hermit background, picked option 7 as his reason for being an hermit (I was the caretaker of an ancient ruin or relic.) and option 6 as his bond (My isolation gave me great insight into a great evil that only I can destroy.)

We already played a full session where there was just no information for him, besides the initial plot hook into the adventure, while every other player already had a specific "player goal", and he didn't raise it as a problem.

I could let things stand as they are, not worry about this character's background, and just let the player come up with something eventually (or not). But I feel like, since they are mostly new players, I can have a bit more involvement in their character's creation; furthermore, I like how these player's goals force me to integrate components in the adventure beyond the basic encounter/fights. And I'd like to provide something at least as interesting to the wizard player as what the others have.

[opaopajr]

I echo Unoriginal's concerns. :smallannoyed:

If you must continue as such, I recommend this: Mitigate this through the unreliability of prophecy to your setting favor. And cleary communicate that this PC background "does not play well with others," including you the GM w/ regards to your setting management. This establishes that as much as you enjoy working with your players in developing backgrounds, shooting for the moon on their lonesome is not a fruitful initial bid.

And with that, I will give you a useful tip to actualize this narrative in part.

Take some old CCG cards, namely items/artifact cards. I recommend common to uncommon ones to include in your wuickly decided pile. Shuffle them and draw one.

Do the same with creature/minion/personality cards. Next define a spread with card slots, such as "antagonist, ally, complicator." Then, after shuffling this NPC pile, draw a spread filling those slots.

Look at the drawn cards and let your mind open to rationalize connections.

Finally find threads within this woven interconnection and attach these tidbits within your LMOP adventure as you see fit.

[Unoriginal]

Not exactly the kind of "creative" help I was looking for, but thanks for raising these concerns anyway.

I won't raise the issue of the backstory not fitting the module with the player; at most, I will simply tell him that whatever "evil" he intends to confront later on, it won't be part of this adventure (in fact, I already told him that much, to a certain extent). He can still use this adventure as a means to gain more power (and he'll also be helping out his fellow adventurers who do have a personal stake in the adventure, such as the folk hero who dreams of ridding Thundertree of the dragon).

Regarding the "evil only I can defeat" (with emphasis on the "only I" portion), I've already thought about the point you raise and how it would make the wizard the sole protagonist or grant him some kind of "chosen one" status. One has to remember that the hermit came to this conclusion on his own; he could very well be disillusioned about his own capacity or "chosen" status (I've given thought about actually granting him some sort of chosen one status, but have not taken action or a final decision yet on this). I think whatever evil I end up determining as this character's opponent, chances are that it will be some kind of evil that only "they" (the adventuring party) could defeat; at most, if appropriate, I could find a way to grant some sort of advantage to the wizard in such ultimate fight, but it is so far down the line that there is no point in thinking about it for now (it would be influenced by multiple variables across the course of the campaign, including chosen spells, other character's abilities, etc.).

Just to be clear, this is not a case of a player wanting to take center stage at the other player's expense. The guy simply looked through the Hermit background, picked option 7 as his reason for being an hermit (I was the caretaker of an ancient ruin or relic.) and option 6 as his bond (My isolation gave me great insight into a great evil that only I can destroy.)

We already played a full session where there was just no information for him, besides the initial plot hook into the adventure, while every other player already had a specific "player goal", and he didn't raise it as a problem.

I could let things stand as they are, not worry about this character's background, and just let the player come up with something eventually (or not). But I feel like, since they are mostly new players, I can have a bit more involvement in their character's creation; furthermore, I like how these player's goals force me to integrate components in the adventure beyond the basic encounter/fights. And I'd like to provide something at least as interesting to the wizard player as what the others have.

In that case, it seems I was too harsh in my assumption.

Something you could do is have this "ancient evil" be an ally of the module's BBEG, and during the boss fight, you add a minion of said "ancient evil" that can be recognized as such.

As for what the ancient evil is, I'd suggest you make one up rather than use the ones already in the lore.

Maybe something like that could help you:

-Take a list of animals (ex: the "animal" category on wikipedia), and select one randomly.

-Take a list of adjectives, and select one randomly

-Combine the two (ex: Magnificent Spider)

-Keep doing that until you have something that inspires you to base an evil creature on it.


Otherwise, opaopajr's suggestion is pretty great. You could also just check the Magic or YuGiOh wiki and take random cards

[Callin]

Using talk to text so this is going to sound really weird and read really weird but in the final dungeon there is either a spectre or a Spectator I think those what they're called have him have the ability to fight one of them The Relic can either be a lost Memento of the Spectre or The Spectator is guarding the actual magic and Forge thing have it be a tool from that

[Theodoxus]

Using talk to text so this is going to sound really weird and read really weird but in the final dungeon there is either a spectre or a Spectator I think those what they're called have him have the ability to fight one of them The Relic can either be a lost Memento of the Spectre or The Spectator is guarding the actual magic and Forge thing have it be a tool from that

I second this. I was going to suggest pretty much this. Have the hermit be in possession of a mcguffin that activated when the Rockseeker brothers entered Wave Echo Cave. This set off the 'prophecy' which might or might not be true - but the mcguffin is legit, regardless of how the character interprets it.

I suggest a trinket - perhaps a ring with a gem stone that suddenly started to glow. You could even have it glow brighter as it gets closer to the lost mine, but I'd make it a really high perception DC to determine it's glowing just slightly ever brighter once they get to Phandalin. (Basically, without a 25 or better on the perception check, the wizard will be convinced that whatever he's looking for, it's somewhere in Phandalin.)

This sets up the player to be the 'tracker' without making him the center of attention - if the player/character misinterprets his own importance, well, that'll just come out in the roleplay anyway.

[Callin]

Yea that was really badly written from talk to text. Now that I got the time I am going to expand upon what I wrote.

The Forge of Spells is guarded by a Spectator. Let the artifact be a tool from there. Have him gain the vision of the great evil by mentioning a sphere with multiple eyes. If ya want to have a lead up to it.

Wizards Quarters is guarded by Mormesk the Wraith. A memento is the artifact and the vision could be Mormesk as he was in life slowly changing into the Wraith.


The vision starts with the Character standing outside of a Cave Enterance. Slowly rising in levels is the sounds of Crashing Waves with a slight echo to them. (Forge of spells version add in sounds of a Hammer Striking an Anvil and magical spells going off with each swing of the hammer). Slowly coming out the cave you see a man (Or shadow of a Sphere with multiple eye stalks) who violently morphs into his wraith from with a great Sense of Dead emanating from it. (Same sense of Dread from the Spectator)