Evil DMs of GitP, lend me your aid

[Kelvarius]

Hello, everyone, I need some advice on what to do with one of my PCs.

I run a homebrew game which has been off and on for the past...10 or so years. We're about to get back into it with a new player, and this player wants the background of her character to have amnesia. Although I think it's a little lazy, she's normally a good roleplayer, so I'll allow it.

So my question is what sorts of evil things would you do with this?

The problem I'm having is that there's so many things I can do, but none of them truly feel epic enough. One idea was to go the KOTOR route and make her a big baddie (Not the BBEG, though) that got mind wiped and made into a good guy. A similar idea was to make her be a psychotic killer that has split personalities, and the good one took control for some reason at the point of amnesia, and at random times (When party splits up, of course), the killer personality could wake up and try to kill the others. On a more benevolent side, I also considered making her a famous hero that disappeared.

Here's what we do know:

When she "woke up," the only thing she knew was that she was a cleric of St Cuthbert.

She's LG.

She's lived for a few years since her amnesia happened, just wandering around.

She's about 25.

So, what advice would you give me?

Thank you.

[Florian]

An amusing variant would be that it is not amnesia at all, she is just a discarded clone of the BBEG.

[ColorBlindNinja]

It turns out she's the reincarnation of Dracula a major villain?

[Coventry]

Variant One:

Build a story arc about an artifact-level Rod of Wonder. Its use by all kinds of fools is responsible for random chaos all around the globe, and getting rid of it becomes one of the important goals of the lawful deities like St. Cuthbert.

The hitch, of course, is that the PC's very existence is due to a side effect of someone using that artifact. Destroying it ... requires an action by something or someone created by the artifact. But no one knows if destroying it risks undoing the very existence of character? Some NPC quest giver will figure out she can destroy it, but will tell her of the possible risk. What will she choose to do?

Variant Two:

Someone has gotten ahold of an artifact that can resurrect the dead, but that artifact carries a catch. When it resurrects someone, it maintains balance by resurrecting a second person of equal power but opposing philosophy at some random place far away from the site of the intended resurrection. The PC is one of the second people ... so her opposite exists, and probably needs to be dealt with. The trick is, the original was brought back on purpose ... by someone who has a support system in place. The PC only has the other party members. Years have passed, so the original may be far stronger.

Oh, and the side using the artifact knows about the side effect, so knows that ... somewhere ... there is an opposite. So they will be looking for someone. The fact that she has amnesia is because she wasn't actually resurrected - she was created specifically as a balance. The other side merely assumes they are looking for someone who had died and spontaneously came back to life.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Her evil twin from a future alternate timeline tried to merge with her, but she wasn't strong enough to do so and the shock erased her memories.

[Jowgen]

Spraying a soul shell with waters of the Styx gives permanent amnesia with no saving throw, literally washing the memories away. (FCII)

You can use this to build a multi-layered mystery story, which builds up to what her identity was before.

First she could get a lead to finding the obscure out of the way nobody Cleric who (e.g. via reincarnate) revived her. He turns out to not know anything, just having been paid to do it, but might provide a clue. Like, the one who paid knew her soul had been Styxed, with something suggesting that it might not have been an accident.

They track that guy down, but find out someone went out of their way to brutally torture-murder him. This line of thought might lead back to some cult. That secretly controls some government. Getting ever further down this rabbit hole, they find the killer, who clearly knows something but doesn't feel like talking and tries to make a run for it.

Eventually they get him to fess up, that in her last life she was killed specifically killed so that her soul could be Styxed and then brought back as a random adventurer released to the world. The murderer knows that it was a particular holy organisation whom the cult opposed that did all this, and was sent on a mission to find out what this holy organisation was trying to accomplish (hence the murder torture). The killer offers to help her get answers, if they let him live and join up. Moral quandary.

Eventually, she finds her way to the head of that holy organisation, who finally reveals that in her past life, she had hidden some McGuffin (like the Wand of Orcus) somewhere that she never wanted found. This holy leader claims to know exactly who she was, but doesn't wanna tell her until she regains her own memories, which can allegedly only be done by retrieving the McGuffin. Some contrived reason as to how she could accomplish this is presented and tied into why they just set her out into the world.

If she decided to ally with the killer, this is around when his sudden but inevitable betrayal would happen. The race for the McGuffin is on. I could keep going with this story but I won't.

[Kelvarius]

An amusing variant would be that it is not amnesia at all, she is just a discarded clone of the BBEG.

You're right. That is amusing. I chuckled.


It turns out she's the reincarnation of Dracula a major villain?

Possible. Might take some finagling, though.


Words.

I really like both both of those ideas. So many juicy implications.


Her evil twin from a future alternate timeline tried to merge with her, but she wasn't strong enough to do so and the shock erased her memories.

I also really like this idea, or some variation of it. Timey wimey stuff has been subtley important so far, though the PCs don't know what or why.


Spraying a soul shell with waters of the Styx gives permanent amnesia with no saving throw, literally washing the memories away. (FCII)

Nice, you really got into it, didn't you? I had no idea about that Styx thing. I'll have to look into that, this idea has a lot of potential.

[Crake]

You could always have the amnesia be something far more mundane, have it be the result of some kind of trauma, maybe she was a first level adventurer who's entire party got murdered before taking a nasty blow to the head, managing to run away, before passing out. Maybe she has a whole family waiting, worried about her back home, someone from her home village recognizes her and approaches her in a familiar manner, only to find the player confused and not recognizing them. If they decide to go back to their home village, they'd find a whole community relieved to see them alive, but not a single face among the crowd recognizes them. Maybe even let them have a child. You could maybe have this happen months, if not years into the game, to the point where the character has built a life of their own with their new personality and persona, which might be completely contrary to what they were like before, and what their town remembers them as.

Not every backstory needs to be some grand or twisted tie in to the plot, some people have humble beginnings.

[Particle_Man]

A lich planted their phylactery in (or *as*) the character's skull, and then mind-wiped the character (a cleric of St. Cuthbert that tried to destroy the lich and failed hard at it) so that she wouldn't know about it. This Cleric lost a lot of levels and most of her memories, but not her faith. It is the one thing she can cling to in an uncertain universe.

Due to *unforeseen circumstances* (attack by rivals, etc.) said character escaped the lich's control/purview/centuries long suspended animation/petrification/whatever, and is wandering around for a few years. The lich wants to regain control over the character, but doesn't want to be too obvious about it or other rival liches might wonder why this person is so important to the first lich.

Meanwhile, the character meets the party.

[Fizban]

Why do they want amnesia?

If they want to have no backstory, great, they have no backstory. They'll need to pick some sort of desire or goal or realization in order to have character motivation and actually be an adventurer, and it's their own fault if their lack of backstory means they have little to roleplay on any given subject. Ideally they should be doing something with this, like piecing together a new personality based on the rest of the happenings in the game.

If they want to come up with their backstory later, great, come up with it later. Still need interim motivation.

If they want you to integrate them into a future plot, great, there is almost certainly someone/thing/event/etc they can be connected to or replace in any module or existing plot idea.

If they want mechanically integrated amnesia, then they can be a Hellbred. Pretty sure anything else can be healed in some way, which means eventually they'll have to face the question of why the aren't bothering to get their memories back, or suddenly having them return as a side effect of another spell.

I would not make a point of having a whole big to-do about their amnesia unless the rest of the group is interested. If you want to write a mystery adventure about it, you'll want to read up on how to do those well, 'cause they're harder than most people realize.

[Feantar]

How evil do you want this? In miliBaernaloths.

Just interesting, plot-relevant, or outright vile?

In the first case, just write a background that connects her to the setting in useful ways - an acquaintance of some high ranking individuals. Nobles, Magi, bandit kings and whatnot. Write down possible interactions she'd had with them in the past, and try to make her character similar but not identical to what she is now, so it makes for an interesting story.

Plot relevant, the clone of the BBEG, or discarded cursed former lieutenant would fit (like Kas, but not stuck in a sword!).

Vile? Well, just go to your bathroom mirror at night, and repeat the following name three times. They can tell you more:
Red Fel
As for my side, for some reason the idea popped into my head that she isn't real. She's a story of a coming hero that has taken life of its own, and her lack of a past is so that the resultant thought-form doesn't just collapse on itself (Oh no! I'm not real! *implodes*). Essentially she's a shadow conjuration / simulacrum. But that feels... cliche? Convoluted? Don't do it.

[flappeercraft]

When the soul of the BBEG was created in the Bastion of Souls, there was a problem, some kind of issue caused some kind of twin soul with opposite characteristics from each other. The second soul is the PC, however since they are twin souls some things are felt by both. In a magic battle, the BBEG was hit by some memory erasal effect which spread over to the twin soul of the PC, however some contingency, ally or similar restored the memories to the BBEG but that did not restore those of the PC.

Hint at that both would die or the souls would merge should one die, supposedly the merging causing both of the experiences of each soul to be put together and hint at that it would cause whoever survives to get the abilities of the other. However this only would supposedly happen if the other twin soul is the killer. Then just have neither happen or if you're evil give the character a dual personality disorder, dealer's choice.

[Eldan]

1. She's not a cleric of St. Cuthbert, she actually is St. Cuthbert, who has reincarnated himself as a human without most of his power, in order to re-experience mortal life, because he fears he's getting out of touch. First hint: spells to contact her god get the cosmic equivalent of a waiting loop on a helpline.

2. She's sent back from an alternate future timeline where the players fail. Sadly, part of time travel in this universe is that you lose your memories in order to prevent a paradox.

[danielxcutter]

Hello, everyone, I need some advice on what to do with one of my PCs.

I run a homebrew game which has been off and on for the past...10 or so years. We're about to get back into it with a new player, and this player wants the background of her character to have amnesia. Although I think it's a little lazy, she's normally a good roleplayer, so I'll allow it.

So my question is what sorts of evil things would you do with this?

The problem I'm having is that there's so many things I can do, but none of them truly feel epic enough. One idea was to go the KOTOR route and make her a big baddie (Not the BBEG, though) that got mind wiped and made into a good guy. A similar idea was to make her be a psychotic killer that has split personalities, and the good one took control for some reason at the point of amnesia, and at random times (When party splits up, of course), the killer personality could wake up and try to kill the others. On a more benevolent side, I also considered making her a famous hero that disappeared.

Here's what we do know:

When she "woke up," the only thing she knew was that she was a cleric of St Cuthbert.

She's LG.

She's lived for a few years since her amnesia happened, just wandering around.

She's about 25.

So, what advice would you give me?

Thank you.

How much does this PC's amnesia influence her from the start? Is she living in a temple, remembering nothing of her past life besides her faith? Is she wandering the land, looking for a way to restore her memories? Or is she just going "F*** that, there are some cultists of Nerull who's faces I have to smash with my +1 axiomatic heavy mace" for the time being?

What level is she? How is the setting working? What about the other players - is there anything that can be leveraged to tie in?


I also really like this idea, or some variation of it. Timey wimey stuff has been subtlely important so far, though the PCs don't know what or why.


Nice, you really got into it, didn't you? I had no idea about that Styx thing. I'll have to look into that, this idea has a lot of potential.
oh btw i fixed a typo
Time stuff? Interesting... Psionics are one of - if not the - subsystems that deal with time-based abilities to a great deal(Time Hop, Temporal Acceleration, some of the Clairsentinence discipline powers work by glimpsing into the near future), you see. And what do you know, Sanctified Mind from Lords of Madness is a psionic class mostly, but can also advance divine spellcasting - and the fluff says it originates from the church of St. Cuthbert, on top of that. Mix in various psionic monsters - Mind Flayers come to mind, but there are plenty of others, too.

Perhaps have some important NPCs from her past recognize her. If she was always on the side of Law and/or Good, an angel or archon might recognize her, or at least comment she reminds them of someone. May I suggest Arcadian Avengers from MMV? Lawful Good Outsiders, emphasis on "Lawful". Which St. Cuthbert is - the plane he lives in is Arcadia, which is mostly Lawful with a slight affinity to Good as well, just like him(it's why he's LN but won't have LE worshippers).

If she hasn't, though... Devils or even Demons. Will your players believe them? Are they lying or not? What are they playing at?

Yes, there is much potential indeed... and I know just the person who can help even more. *rubs hands together evilly*

Red Fel, Red Fel, Red Fel.

[Torpin]

yesterday she was a statue in a temple of st cuthbert, today she was brought to life by a miracle spell.

[Red Fel]

Yes, there is much potential indeed... and I know just the person who can help even more. *rubs hands together evilly*

Red Fel, Red Fel, Red Fel.

Yo!


Hello, everyone, I need some advice on what to do with one of my PCs.

I run a homebrew game which has been off and on for the past...10 or so years. We're about to get back into it with a new player, and this player wants the background of her character to have amnesia. Although I think it's a little lazy, she's normally a good roleplayer, so I'll allow it.

So my question is what sorts of evil things would you do with this?

The problem I'm having is that there's so many things I can do, but none of them truly feel epic enough. One idea was to go the KOTOR route and make her a big baddie (Not the BBEG, though) that got mind wiped and made into a good guy. A similar idea was to make her be a psychotic killer that has split personalities, and the good one took control for some reason at the point of amnesia, and at random times (When party splits up, of course), the killer personality could wake up and try to kill the others. On a more benevolent side, I also considered making her a famous hero that disappeared.

Here's what we do know:

When she "woke up," the only thing she knew was that she was a cleric of St Cuthbert.

She's LG.

She's lived for a few years since her amnesia happened, just wandering around.

She's about 25.

So, what advice would you give me?

Thank you.

Well, Hellbred has been mentioned. I happen to agree with it. It's a great mechanically sound method of taking a character with a dark past and wiping the slate clean, but not entirely.

However, it doesn't quite hit the concept she's pursuing. Hellbred don't spring into being with a pre-existing identity (i.e. "Cleric of St. Cuthbert"), but with a lack of one. They know only that they're Hellbred, that they're Hells-bound, and that they are being given another chance. So unless you refluff her backstory - and since she's being lazy, I think you could, but that's me - it won't quite fit.

You say she's new, but a good RPer. How good? Because I have a really neat idea you might be able to sell her on, but it will take careful work from both of you. It's an adaptation of a concept I had once. Mine involved Hellbred and Dragonborn, and was therefore much cooler, but this may come in handy anyhow.

She awakens, believing herself to be a Cleric of St. Cuthbert. She's LG, she's adventuring, she's doing good in the name of her deity. A lot of it. She's earning the esteem of the clergy of St. Cuthbert, she's building a reputation for herself. For a long time, have her be just that - a stern but good person - in the party.

At some point, the Church of St. Cuthbert will send the party to retrieve a dangerous relic from some cultists of Vecna. The artifact's purpose may or may not be explained, but it has something to do with stealing divine blessings. The party needs to succeed at this and return the relic to the Church.

At a certain point, you need to orchestrate another run-in with some cultists of Vecna. The party needs to win. Among the loot, the party finds a simple silver ring inscribed with the symbol of St. Cuthbert. Naturally, it goes to her.

The ring is, in fact, a custom Ring of Mind Shielding, designed to protect her not only from regular divination but from her own patron's sight. Custom, in that it is also a phylactery of her memories. She is, in reality, a cultist of Vecna, who agreed to have her memories removed and sealed within a ring in order to infiltrate the Church of St. Cuthbert. You see, the relic the party retrieved earlier was crafted by the Cult of Vecna for the purpose of seizing divine power. It can only steal power that was willingly granted, and can only do so in a place suffused with the deity's blessing. The Cult specifically intended the party to retrieve the relic, both in order to get into the Church's good books and to ensure that it would be sealed away in the Church's vaults - the seat of St. Cuthbert's power.

After a few more encounters, the party manages to capture a cultist alive, and the cultist reveals that there is a plot to trigger a ritual in the vault of the Church, using the relic as a focus. Clearly, the party has to get there first and stop it.

When the party reaches the vault, however, the truth is revealed - the goal was to get this PC into the vault. The relic is now in the seat of St. Cuthbert's power, a place suffused with the deity's blessing. It is seized by the PC, who wields power willingly granted by St. Cuthbert. In front of everyone, she activates the relic.

What happens next is between you and the player. Maybe she achieves semi-apotheosis. Maybe she depowers a deity. Maybe she just retains her abilities as a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, despite being a worshiper of Vecna. Maybe she spares the party, maybe she rejoins them, maybe she becomes an NPC. Up to you.
That's my idea. Do as you like with it.

[danielxcutter]

yesterday she was a statue in a temple of st cuthbert, today she was brought to life by a miracle spell.

You're at the table? Hmm... how long was she a statue? Who used Miracle to turn her back and why? (And couldn't Break Enchantment be sufficient?)


Well, Hellbred has been mentioned. I happen to agree with it. It's a great mechanically sound method of taking a character with a dark past and wiping the slate clean, but not entirely.

However, it doesn't quite hit the concept she's pursuing. Hellbred don't spring into being with a pre-existing identity (i.e. "Cleric of St. Cuthbert"), but with a lack of one. They know only that they're Hellbred, that they're Hells-bound, and that they are being given another chance. So unless you refluff her backstory - and since she's being lazy, I think you could, but that's me - it won't quite fit.

You say she's new, but a good RPer. How good? Because I have a really neat idea you might be able to sell her on, but it will take careful work from both of you. It's an adaptation of a concept I had once. Mine involved Hellbred and Dragonborn, and was therefore much cooler, but this may come in handy anyhow.

She awakens, believing herself to be a Cleric of St. Cuthbert. She's LG, she's adventuring, she's doing good in the name of her deity. A lot of it. She's earning the esteem of the clergy of St. Cuthbert, she's building a reputation for herself. For a long time, have her be just that - a stern but good person - in the party.

At some point, the Church of St. Cuthbert will send the party to retrieve a dangerous relic from some cultists of Vecna. The artifact's purpose may or may not be explained, but it has something to do with stealing divine blessings. The party needs to succeed at this and return the relic to the Church.

At a certain point, you need to orchestrate another run-in with some cultists of Vecna. The party needs to win. Among the loot, the party finds a simple silver ring inscribed with the symbol of St. Cuthbert. Naturally, it goes to her.

The ring is, in fact, a custom Ring of Mind Shielding, designed to protect her not only from regular divination but from her own patron's sight. Custom, in that it is also a phylactery of her memories. She is, in reality, a cultist of Vecna, who agreed to have her memories removed and sealed within a ring in order to infiltrate the Church of St. Cuthbert. You see, the relic the party retrieved earlier was crafted by the Cult of Vecna for the purpose of seizing divine power. It can only steal power that was willingly granted, and can only do so in a place suffused with the deity's blessing. The Cult specifically intended the party to retrieve the relic, both in order to get into the Church's good books and to ensure that it would be sealed away in the Church's vaults - the seat of St. Cuthbert's power.

After a few more encounters, the party manages to capture a cultist alive, and the cultist reveals that there is a plot to trigger a ritual in the vault of the Church, using the relic as a focus. Clearly, the party has to get there first and stop it.

When the party reaches the vault, however, the truth is revealed - the goal was to get this PC into the vault. The relic is now in the seat of St. Cuthbert's power, a place suffused with the deity's blessing. It is seized by the PC, who wields power willingly granted by St. Cuthbert. In front of everyone, she activates the relic.

What happens next is between you and the player. Maybe she achieves semi-apotheosis. Maybe she depowers a deity. Maybe she just retains her abilities as a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, despite being a worshiper of Vecna. Maybe she spares the party, maybe she rejoins them, maybe she becomes an NPC. Up to you.
That's my idea. Do as you like with it.

This is the kind of stuff we call you for, O Great And Terrible One. :smallbiggrin:

[zlefin]

Hello, everyone, I need some advice on what to do with one of my PCs.

I run a homebrew game which has been off and on for the past...10 or so years. We're about to get back into it with a new player, and this player wants the background of her character to have amnesia. Although I think it's a little lazy, she's normally a good roleplayer, so I'll allow it.

So my question is what sorts of evil things would you do with this?

The problem I'm having is that there's so many things I can do, but none of them truly feel epic enough. One idea was to go the KOTOR route and make her a big baddie (Not the BBEG, though) that got mind wiped and made into a good guy. A similar idea was to make her be a psychotic killer that has split personalities, and the good one took control for some reason at the point of amnesia, and at random times (When party splits up, of course), the killer personality could wake up and try to kill the others. On a more benevolent side, I also considered making her a famous hero that disappeared.

Here's what we do know:

When she "woke up," the only thing she knew was that she was a cleric of St Cuthbert.

She's LG.

She's lived for a few years since her amnesia happened, just wandering around.

She's about 25.

So, what advice would you give me?

Thank you.

did the player request that you come up with the background of what happened before their amnesia? 'cuz otherwise it'd seem like it's up to the player what that background was.
did they request something epic/shocking?

why do you want to do something "evil" with it?

[Eldan]

Yo!



Well, Hellbred has been mentioned. I happen to agree with it. It's a great mechanically sound method of taking a character with a dark past and wiping the slate clean, but not entirely.

However, it doesn't quite hit the concept she's pursuing. Hellbred don't spring into being with a pre-existing identity (i.e. "Cleric of St. Cuthbert"), but with a lack of one. They know only that they're Hellbred, that they're Hells-bound, and that they are being given another chance. So unless you refluff her backstory - and since she's being lazy, I think you could, but that's me - it won't quite fit.

You say she's new, but a good RPer. How good? Because I have a really neat idea you might be able to sell her on, but it will take careful work from both of you. It's an adaptation of a concept I had once. Mine involved Hellbred and Dragonborn, and was therefore much cooler, but this may come in handy anyhow.

She awakens, believing herself to be a Cleric of St. Cuthbert. She's LG, she's adventuring, she's doing good in the name of her deity. A lot of it. She's earning the esteem of the clergy of St. Cuthbert, she's building a reputation for herself. For a long time, have her be just that - a stern but good person - in the party.

At some point, the Church of St. Cuthbert will send the party to retrieve a dangerous relic from some cultists of Vecna. The artifact's purpose may or may not be explained, but it has something to do with stealing divine blessings. The party needs to succeed at this and return the relic to the Church.

At a certain point, you need to orchestrate another run-in with some cultists of Vecna. The party needs to win. Among the loot, the party finds a simple silver ring inscribed with the symbol of St. Cuthbert. Naturally, it goes to her.

The ring is, in fact, a custom Ring of Mind Shielding, designed to protect her not only from regular divination but from her own patron's sight. Custom, in that it is also a phylactery of her memories. She is, in reality, a cultist of Vecna, who agreed to have her memories removed and sealed within a ring in order to infiltrate the Church of St. Cuthbert. You see, the relic the party retrieved earlier was crafted by the Cult of Vecna for the purpose of seizing divine power. It can only steal power that was willingly granted, and can only do so in a place suffused with the deity's blessing. The Cult specifically intended the party to retrieve the relic, both in order to get into the Church's good books and to ensure that it would be sealed away in the Church's vaults - the seat of St. Cuthbert's power.

After a few more encounters, the party manages to capture a cultist alive, and the cultist reveals that there is a plot to trigger a ritual in the vault of the Church, using the relic as a focus. Clearly, the party has to get there first and stop it.

When the party reaches the vault, however, the truth is revealed - the goal was to get this PC into the vault. The relic is now in the seat of St. Cuthbert's power, a place suffused with the deity's blessing. It is seized by the PC, who wields power willingly granted by St. Cuthbert. In front of everyone, she activates the relic.

What happens next is between you and the player. Maybe she achieves semi-apotheosis. Maybe she depowers a deity. Maybe she just retains her abilities as a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, despite being a worshiper of Vecna. Maybe she spares the party, maybe she rejoins them, maybe she becomes an NPC. Up to you.
That's my idea. Do as you like with it.

Hah! I had a similar plot once, except that it was with an NPC, not the PCs themselves.

Is that an established thing Vecna cultists do that I forgot I knew, or did we just think along similar lines?

[danielxcutter]

Hah! I had a similar plot once, except that it was with an NPC, not the PCs themselves.

Is that an established thing Vecna cultists do that I forgot I knew, or did we just think along similar lines?

I've never heard of Vecna-worshipers doing that either, so it's more likely that great minds think alike. :smallamused:

[Eldan]

Of course, I also added in that in my world, Vecna is a secret god. He's worshipped by a literal mystery cult and they do their best to erase his name from history (Honestly, he came out quite different from the actual Greyhawk Vecna, other than his name.)

[ericgrau]

She was trying to solve whatever your plot is and is the only one who knew how. Then got amnesia. NPCs recognize her and while they don't know her solution, they know of it. Eventually the party is spending its time tracking what she did, Hangover style, to save the _. Except unlike the movie she is with the party. Ends with finding NPC(s) who knows enough to enact her plan, with the party's help, or some such.

[Red Fel]

Hah! I had a similar plot once, except that it was with an NPC, not the PCs themselves.

Is that an established thing Vecna cultists do that I forgot I knew, or did we just think along similar lines?

Probably just thought along the same lines.

Fact is, Vecna is a god of secrets. So it stands to reason that if any Evil deity is running a deep-cover forget-your-own-memories mission, Vecna is your go-to.

I mean, I could have gone for Nerull or something, but Vecna just feels right for this kind of mission, you know?

[Eldan]

Good point.

Shame really that most of Vecna's offiical appearances (or his cult) seemed more focused on "mwahahaha, unlimited magical power" than his secret aspect.

My plot was that the PCs found out about the existence of an unknown God Of Secrets coincidentally. They were exploring an old ruin and found the true name of a powerful vestige on an ancient tablet. A priest of Vecna then stole the tablet from them (and tried to steal their memories of it, but bungled it, so the quest could exist), because the cult makes sure that no one except them knows of certain powerful ancient magics. (I admit that I stole the whole concept from the Venatori and the Oblivion War in Dresden Files).

Later on, they found out about a secret temple complex of Vecna, where a vessel was kept that contained the stolen memories of thousands of people. The priests had special oracles who dove into that vessel and tried to extract useful information from it. The party went out of their way to destroy the vessel and free those memories, because one of their friends had been brainwashed and way trying to find his family again that he could no longer remember clearly.

At which point it turned out that said friend was actually a priest of Vecna, who had erased his own memories in order to befriend the party, which contained a powerful cleric themselves who would have seen through such a lie, in order to sabotage them. It also suddenly activated a few dozen sleeper agents in powerful political positions too early, setting up the plot for a lot of the later campaign.

[Crichton]

For something slightly less epic and intimidating, perhaps the amnesia really is just the result of trauma or some other entirely mundane event, but everywhere she goes, people look askance at her, because she physically resembles someone (BBEG or such?) they all know and fear, so she's constantly getting mistaken for someone she's not.

[ColorBlindNinja]

The amnesiatic PC is told by the BBEG that she is a copy of famous hero that he created for his own nefarious purposes. He's lying, she is that famous hero.

[Torpin]

You're at the table? Hmm... how long was she a statue? Who used Miracle to turn her back and why? (And couldn't Break Enchantment be sufficient?)
since she was first sculpted
the miracle didnt bring her back to life, it brought her to life.
break enchantment doesnt bring things to life, it breaks enchantment.

[Segev]

She's a simulacrum that got caught in the backblast of an awaken spell. She gained self-awareness, but only retained the barest bones of her borrowed identity (cleric of St. Cuthbert), as those aren't this new person's.


She's actually a pseudonatural human, but doesn't remember any of her time in the Far Realm before being extruded into reality with the "cleric of St. Cuthbert" template and nothing else that "fit" in reality. Use the Complete Arcane template if it's just for fluff. If you're willing to make her stupidly powerful, use the Epic template and don't tell her.


She had been an adventuress who fell in love with a prince, and was retiring from the clergy to marry him. A greater doppelganger stole her memories of everything except being a cleric (because she couldn't make use of those, and would use the excuse of retirement to cover any gaps) so thoroughly that the doppelganger doesn't need a refresh and she's lost them permanently. The doppelganger is enjoying a life of wealth, privilege, and power as the prince's wife.

[ColorBlindNinja]

She's a simulacrum that got caught in the backblast of an awaken spell. She gained self-awareness

Actually, aren't Simulacrum of sapient beings already self aware?

[Segev]

Actually, aren't Simulacrum of sapient beings already self aware?

Technically, it isn't specified. It would not be unreasonable to assume they are, but I tend not to, because the notion that an illusion spell is creating an actual mind seems a bit overpowered. Also, I like the notion that there aren't ethical dilemmas in using simulacra however the caster wants to: they're spell effects, not people. So unless told otherwise by a DM, I always assume a simulacrum is a philosophical zombie: unless otherwise ordered by the creator, it acts exactly as the original would have (to a degree of detection given by the Disguise check, at least), but there is no "there" there. It's not a person, just a really good simulation of one, which by fiat does not have self-awareness.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Technically, it isn't specified. It would not be unreasonable to assume they are, but I tend not to, because the notion that an illusion spell is creating an actual mind seems a bit overpowered. Also, I like the notion that there aren't ethical dilemmas in using simulacra however the caster wants to: they're spell effects, not people. So unless told otherwise by a DM, I always assume a simulacrum is a philosophical zombie: unless otherwise ordered by the creator, it acts exactly as the original would have (to a degree of detection given by the Disguise check, at least), but there is no "there" there. It's not a person, just a really good simulation of one, which by fiat does not have self-awareness.

Fair enough, the spell itself is pretty ambiguous, as far as I can tell.

[Kelvarius]

Wow, there are a lot of great responses, thank you, too many for me to respond to all of them, so I'll focus on answering questions that were asked.


Why do they want amnesia?

Mostly because she doesn't want to be bothered with making it herself. She's got a lot on her plate right. She will be able to play, she just doesn't want to have to think up a story.


How evil do you want this? In miliBaernaloths.

Just interesting, plot-relevant, or outright vile?

Yes.


How much does this PC's amnesia influence her from the start? Is she living in a temple, remembering nothing of her past life besides her faith? Is she wandering the land, looking for a way to restore her memories? Or is she just going "F*** that, there are some cultists of Nerull who's faces I have to smash with my +1 axiomatic heavy mace" for the time being?

What level is she? How is the setting working? What about the other players - is there anything that can be leveraged to tie in?

It's sort of a combination of wandering the land looking for a cure and face smashing. What little she has come up with is after waking up, she went to the church hoping someone would recognize her, but they didn't. So now she's out in the world.

Starting at level 2. The setting is a fairly average fantasy world, for the most part, though a bit on the low magic side. Though it wasn't the intent, it does help with stopping the whole magical cure idea. One part of the world has a swarm of undead, of which the main BBEG is the leader of. His focus right now is destabilizing the other kingdoms so they don't unite against him.

As for other players, most of them came from pretty isolated lives from society for one reason or another. The one exception had such an unremarkable life that the only reason he's adventuring is because his dad disappeared.


You're at the table? Hmm... how long was she a statue?

He's not at the table. Just tossing out an idea.


Yo!

I always imagine you as Tony Wonder from Arrested Development. You read threads, just waiting for the magic words to post.

Also, amazing idea. She's a great roleplayer, just new to tabletop. She comes from things like MMO RPing and Play by Post stories. That sort of thing.


did the player request that you come up with the background of what happened before their amnesia?

why do you want to do something "evil" with it?

She told me that it was all up to me.

And because it's fun.

[DeTess]

If I understand correctly, she's a new character being added to an existing party, right?

Something that might be interesting (and which I totally didn't just rip out of an old Bioware game) is to have her be a former powerful villain that has been brainwashed/amnesia'd 'good'. One of the twists would be that everyone else in the party knows this, and has basically been drafted to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't slide back towards evil (with some compelling reason given as to why she wasn't just killed). This can then be played for both drama (her encountering signs that she might not have been as upright in the past) and humor (entire fawlty towers plots (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FawltyTowersPlot) in which the players try to prevent her from coming into contact with something from her past in an escalating gambit roulettes of ridiculousness) depending on the situation.

[TheCount]

Well, it sounds interesting:D
Let me try my hand with it...

hm... its a bit hard to get the words right...

She has entirelly normal and mundane amnesia.

She become a cleric because she woke up, after losing her memories, among the initates of St. Cuthbert, and clerics/nuns etc being of a lawfull good diety, they calmed her down, explained that it isnt permament and that she can stay with them until her memories come back.
She did.
She enjoyed it and wanted to repay them for thier kindness, but also explore the world she has no memories of, so she become a wandering cleric to spread the word.

(this is where she joins the party)

Then, people started running from her.
First, a treader saw her, gone whiter than fresh snow, jumped on thier carrige and left town at maximum speed in no time, merchandise on display (and not on the carige) left behind.

Then some more, whenever she travelled to (inser cardinal direction), the more people fleeing the further she went.

At last, she arrived to a city in [far off (insert cardinal direction) country], by one way or other (from going there willingly to random teleport), in disguise, due to the first few dozens of farmers/serfs prostrating themselves and remaining silent no matter what she did, she entered the city.

There, she heard the rumors and tales of the ruling family of (insert name and rank of import) and thier missing daughter.
As well as the sightings of her and that nobody dared to bring her back for fear of thier life, because the family was know for being fair but ruthless, even before she went missing and been even more so, especially with imposters and human trafickers alike.

Well, it got longer than i though....

Another take (and the original idea behind the wall of text) is that she is the daughter of an evil (pair of) ruler(s), with a frightening resemblance of her mother.
She ended up becoming a cleric of St. Cuthbert after getting too drunk in a party at the docks and passing out on a ship by accident after a bet with her friends.... in clerical gnow of, (you guessed it!) St. Cuthbert!!!

[danielxcutter]

It's sort of a combination of wandering the land looking for a cure and face smashing. What little she has come up with is after waking up, she went to the church hoping someone would recognize her, but they didn't. So now she's out in the world.

So, she has memories of the basics(walking, money, that stuff), and the knowledge of a typical 2nd-level Cleric? Which isn't much, but it's still something.


Starting at level 2. The setting is a fairly average fantasy world, for the most part, though a bit on the low magic side. Though it wasn't the intent, it does help with stopping the whole magical cure idea. One part of the world has a swarm of undead, of which the main BBEG is the leader of. His focus right now is destabilizing the other kingdoms so they don't unite against him.

That is... low. So "low magic" means "not many high-level characters" then?


As for other players, most of them came from pretty isolated lives from society for one reason or another. The one exception had such an unremarkable life that the only reason he's adventuring is because his dad disappeared.

Well, that guy's dad might be related to her predicament somehow, though it depends if it'll work for that player and whatnot. Can't be the former apprentice of the archmage responsible for this if you're a fighter, eh?

Actually, could we get a general run-down on the other players?

[JoshuaZ]

Spraying a soul shell with waters of the Styx gives permanent amnesia with no saving throw, literally washing the memories away. (FCII)

You can use this to build a multi-layered mystery story, which builds up to what her identity was before.

First she could get a lead to finding the obscure out of the way nobody Cleric who (e.g. via reincarnate) revived her. He turns out to not know anything, just having been paid to do it, but might provide a clue. Like, the one who paid knew her soul had been Styxed, with something suggesting that it might not have been an accident.

They track that guy down, but find out someone went out of their way to brutally torture-murder him. This line of thought might lead back to some cult. That secretly controls some government. Getting ever further down this rabbit hole, they find the killer, who clearly knows something but doesn't feel like talking and tries to make a run for it.

Eventually they get him to fess up, that in her last life she was killed specifically killed so that her soul could be Styxed and then brought back as a random adventurer released to the world. The murderer knows that it was a particular holy organisation whom the cult opposed that did all this, and was sent on a mission to find out what this holy organisation was trying to accomplish (hence the murder torture). The killer offers to help her get answers, if they let him live and join up. Moral quandary.

Eventually, she finds her way to the head of that holy organisation, who finally reveals that in her past life, she had hidden some McGuffin (like the Wand of Orcus) somewhere that she never wanted found. This holy leader claims to know exactly who she was, but doesn't wanna tell her until she regains her own memories, which can allegedly only be done by retrieving the McGuffin. Some contrived reason as to how she could accomplish this is presented and tied into why they just set her out into the world.

If she decided to ally with the killer, this is around when his sudden but inevitable betrayal would happen. The race for the McGuffin is on. I could keep going with this story but I won't.

I like this idea but I think a fun variant would be that she deliberately had herself killed and Styxxed to keep anyone from finding the artifact because it is just that dangerous. So the BBEG actually wants her to have her memory restored.

[Selion]

He could have a sorcerer in a magic jar buried in his body, possessing him occasionally to his twisted aims and erasing his memories anytime he needs so.

[zlefin]

ok, if they asked for it; here's my idea of what happened before their amnesia:
nothing. absolutely nothing.
they literally did not exist beforehand. they spontaneously came into existence as a fully formed adult. any attempt to find their past will fail, because they simply do not have one. as such, they acutally don't have amnesia, because no memories were lost.
not even epic magic or the gods know why or how they appeared. (and they're rather concerned about the fact that a soul spontaneously came into existence out of nowhere, especially St Cuthbert, who now has that person as a follower somehow). The gods aren't mentioning their concerns and are keeping quiet about the matter.

[Kelvarius]

If I understand correctly, she's a new character being added to an existing party, right?

That is correct. She and the monk both. See below.


So, she has memories of the basics(walking, money, that stuff), and the knowledge of a typical 2nd-level Cleric? Which isn't much, but it's still something.


That is... low. So "low magic" means "not many high-level characters" then?


Well, that guy's dad might be related to her predicament somehow, though it depends if it'll work for that player and whatnot. Can't be the former apprentice of the archmage responsible for this if you're a fighter, eh?

Actually, could we get a general run-down on the other players?

Yes. It's not a full on amnesia to the point of being crippled with things like "How do words?"

Low magic; there's not a lot of (Tier 1-2) magic users in general. They aren't necessarily endangered levels or anything, but they're just not a prolific bunch in this world. And what ones there are, typically don't reach end game levels. There are exceptions, of course, but for the average citizen, magic just isn't a dominant part of society.

As for the party:

Let me preface with the fact that this is not an optimized group in any way, nor does anyone have a desire to do so.

Sorceress/Favored Soul with plans to go Mystic Theurge: One of the two original members. For world reasons, being a Sorceress/Favored Soul is bad mojo. Spontaneous casting is considered, more or less, evil. Dangerous and untrustworthy is probably the best way to put it. Basically they're feared with extreme prejudice and they tend to be hunted down by the world's wizards. To get around this, she pretends to be a wizard/cleric. They're also extremely rare, maybe a handful per generation. When her abilities first surfaced as a child, she accidentally killed her mother. Stories like that are not uncommon for sorcerers, part of why they're so reviled. For this reason, she ran away and was taken in by an elf hermit wizard in the very last stages of life. She didn't know it, but the elf was actually the last survivor from an ancient civilization that got wiped out and forgotten. And if all goes according to plan, it will be by her because before he died, he gave her a staff that was actually an artifact that can control time which he was safekeeping to prevent abuse. He knew it was the cause of his people's destruction, so he kept it hidden. As I said in one of my prior posts, timey wimey stuff has been subtly happening, and this is why. This is also what the BBEG is ultimately after.

NPC Cleric of Pelor: The other original member. The player has since moved on, and since the character is pretty important to the sorceress, I've inherited it. Not much going on with him. His mom died in childbirth with him, and his dad blames him for it, so they don't get along great. His dad is also one of the most important people within the Church of Pelor; in real world terms, his dad would be like a Preferati of the Catholic Church, though in the game world there are five instead of just the one.

Fighter: In my world, one of the kingdoms went full Hamlet. King's brother wanted the throne, killed everyone to get it. He had a son which now holds the throne. He also had a bastard son. That's this guy. The Usurper King found out about him years later and was going to have him killed. He escaped. A small group of Elven paladins dedicated to Corellon saved him and trained him. But he didn't have their faith, so the training didn't exactly stick. So he left and joined a merc group until he joined the party. If all goes according to plan, he will be converting to a paladin (Using Pathfinder version for obvious reasons) soon. Not rerolling or multiclassing, but actually changing. Story reasons. I have plans for him to find...is there a category of magic item that's not as powerful as an artifact, but stronger than a normal magic item? Because he's going to find a sword that will act as his Holy Avenger, and will be the start of his conversion.

(Pathfinder) Monk: One of the two new additions, His father was the greatest merchant/trader in the land until the day he disappeared. The character got bullied and got into fights over it, so he was sent to a monastery to learn to control his anger. Now that his training is complete, he wants to go find out what happened to his dad.

And finally, the aforementioned Cleric of St Cuthbert.

With the exception of the monk, all the players are excellent role players. The monk tries his best, but he's still very new and self conscious about it, and just generally not the creative type.

[danielxcutter]

Yes. It's not a full on amnesia to the point of being crippled with things like "How do words?"
So she woke up, went to the church to see if any of her fellow worshipers knew anything, and got nothing? Makes sense.


Low magic; there's not a lot of (Tier 1-2) magic users in general. They aren't necessarily endangered levels or anything, but they're just not a prolific bunch in this world. And what ones there are, typically don't reach end game levels. There are exceptions, of course, but for the average citizen, magic just isn't a dominant part of society.

How rare would you say casters, and especially high-level casters are? It sounds like this setting is closer to Eberron than traditional Greyhawk or Faerun; in the latter two it's said you "can't chuck a Fireball without hitting an ethereal invisible epic spellcaster". How high-level are you aiming for the PCs to get eventually, and how high-level will their foes be?


As for the party:

Let me preface with the fact that this is not an optimized group in any way, nor does anyone have a desire to do so.

Sorceress/Favored Soul with plans to go Mystic Theurge: One of the two original members. For world reasons, being a Sorceress/Favored Soul is bad mojo. Spontaneous casting is considered, more or less, evil. Dangerous and untrustworthy is probably the best way to put it. Basically they're feared with extreme prejudice and they tend to be hunted down by the world's wizards. To get around this, she pretends to be a wizard/cleric. They're also extremely rare, maybe a handful per generation. When her abilities first surfaced as a child, she accidentally killed her mother. Stories like that are not uncommon for sorcerers, part of why they're so reviled. For this reason, she ran away and was taken in by an elf hermit wizard in the very last stages of life. She didn't know it, but the elf was actually the last survivor from an ancient civilization that got wiped out and forgotten. And if all goes according to plan, it will be by her because before he died, he gave her a staff that was actually an artifact that can control time which he was safekeeping to prevent abuse. He knew it was the cause of his people's destruction, so he kept it hidden. As I said in one of my prior posts, timey wimey stuff has been subtly happening, and this is why. This is also what the BBEG is ultimately after.

NPC Cleric of Pelor: The other original member. The player has since moved on, and since the character is pretty important to the sorceress, I've inherited it. Not much going on with him. His mom died in childbirth with him, and his dad blames him for it, so they don't get along great. His dad is also one of the most important people within the Church of Pelor; in real world terms, his dad would be like a Preferati of the Catholic Church, though in the game world there are five instead of just the one.

Fighter: In my world, one of the kingdoms went full Hamlet. King's brother wanted the throne, killed everyone to get it. He had a son which now holds the throne. He also had a bastard son. That's this guy. The Usurper King found out about him years later and was going to have him killed. He escaped. A small group of Elven paladins dedicated to Corellon saved him and trained him. But he didn't have their faith, so the training didn't exactly stick. So he left and joined a merc group until he joined the party. If all goes according to plan, he will be converting to a paladin (Using Pathfinder version for obvious reasons) soon. Not rerolling or multiclassing, but actually changing. Story reasons. I have plans for him to find...is there a category of magic item that's not as powerful as an artifact, but stronger than a normal magic item? Because he's going to find a sword that will act as his Holy Avenger, and will be the start of his conversion.

(Pathfinder) Monk: One of the two new additions, His father was the greatest merchant/trader in the land until the day he disappeared. The character got bullied and got into fights over it, so he was sent to a monastery to learn to control his anger. Now that his training is complete, he wants to go find out what happened to his dad.

And finally, the aforementioned Cleric of St Cuthbert.

With the exception of the monk, all the players are excellent role players. The monk tries his best, but he's still very new and self conscious about it, and just generally not the creative type.

Let's see... well, there's a good deal of background stuff to use. *cracks knuckles*

Spontaneous casting is taboo? Even Favored Souls? Those are literally chosen directly by their god...

Anyways, her mentor's given her a staff that's secretly an artifact with time powers, which will cause the downfall of said mentor's civilization but technically hasn't yet? And the BBEG is trying to take it?

Well, that alone has oodles of potential, obviously. As for tying that into our amnesic Cleric of St. Cuthbert, perhaps she is a victim or perhaps byproduct of messing around with time. Perhaps she shouldn't have existed in this timeline(at least not how she is); a temporal "glitch" so to speak. Perhaps her lost memories are related to the staff, either to empower, use, or destroy it.

Speaking of which, a few questions.

One, who is the theurge's god? Who granted her Favored Soul spells?

Two, how high-level is her mentor, and do you have a rough idea of what kind of build he might have?

Third, how directly related is the BBEG to the fallen civilization, aside from planning to cause it, and how powerful is he?


How exactly is he important to the theurge? Is he important related to this ancient conspiracy, or is this just personal?

Even if he's not on good terms with his father, if both are Clerics of Pelor then they should both be Good-aligned, which means the party may get help from the church, either in direct support, or in secret knowledge related to the plot. If the BBEG is using the undead hordes, that naturally means the Pelorites will absolutely oppose him, and he's probably going to anticipate that.

Also, how powerful is this guy's dad? Is his position based on his divine magic, or just his qualities related to religious leadership?

I don't know about PF, but eventually his build is going to get totally revamped into a Paladin, right? Just checking. And as a Paladin of Corellon, or some other god?

How evil do you want to make the Usurper King? On the one hand, nobody's going to blink if he's working with the BBEG for personal gain. On the other hand though, who says he has to? Perhaps the undead are too vile for even his tastes. Perhaps it was actually one of his retainers who tried to had the bastard son killed, or perhaps the king felt he had to and may change his mind after being helped by the party. Perhaps he'd rather risk getting losing his crown to the paladins rather than risk it to help with world domination.

And either way, the political mess has plenty of potential to be entangled with our amnesic cleric.

His dad disappeared? He wants to know how and why? Well, that's fairly simple; maybe the BBEG's responsible! Even if that's not the case, who knows? A great trader and merchant might have heard something about a certain mysterious Cuthbertite, eh?

[noob]

Technically, it isn't specified. It would not be unreasonable to assume they are, but I tend not to, because the notion that an illusion spell is creating an actual mind seems a bit overpowered. Also, I like the notion that there aren't ethical dilemmas in using simulacra however the caster wants to: they're spell effects, not people. So unless told otherwise by a DM, I always assume a simulacrum is a philosophical zombie: unless otherwise ordered by the creator, it acts exactly as the original would have (to a degree of detection given by the Disguise check, at least), but there is no "there" there. It's not a person, just a really good simulation of one, which by fiat does not have self-awareness.

What I think is that a simulacrum is said to be a copy of the creature and to have the abilities appropriate for a creature of half the hit dice of the copied creature.
Self awareness is probably an ability and it would be appropriate for a creature with an int value to have it.
Do you randomly pick creatures in the monster manual and decide "that creature with an int score superior to 3 is in fact a philosophical zombie" Unless you do that why would you have the simulacrum which have an int score like the other creatures not have self awareness.

Also why not have the adventurer be a non simulacrum copy of a simulacrum like for example a dysfunctional alter ego of a simulacrum?
Since the no progression is a part of the simulacrum spell maybe an alter ego of a simulacrum can progress.

[Stryyke]

The player wakes up with no memories. Throughout the course of the adventure, she tries multiple ways to get her memories back, piecing bits and pieces together. It turns out that the man/woman she loves made a bargain with BBEG to grant the player immortality. But the price was that the player won't remember the lover, or anything about her own past. Only upon meeting and falling in love with her ex-lover will the player unlock what has happened.

Then, have the power granted by BBEG start to overcome the goodness in her. She can only get rid of the evil within her if she kills her ex-lover, and the BBEG. But if she does that, the toll the darkness has already taken will be too substantial for her to survive.

[Fizban]

Low magic; there's not a lot of (Tier 1-2) magic users in general. They aren't necessarily endangered levels or anything, but they're just not a prolific bunch in this world. And what ones there are, typically don't reach end game levels. There are exceptions, of course, but for the average citizen, magic just isn't a dominant part of society.

How rare would you say casters, and especially high-level casters are? It sounds like this setting is closer to Eberron than traditional Greyhawk or Faerun; in the latter two it's said you "can't chuck a Fireball without hitting an ethereal invisible epic spellcaster". How high-level are you aiming for the PCs to get eventually, and how high-level will their foes be?
Don't forget to take a look at the city generation rules in the DMG- they actually agree with this sentiment far more than some people give them credit. There really aren't enough casters to spam magic all over the place even if there were spells that would make a difference, just enough top level guys to service the PCs and make it too dangerous for monsters the PCs can fight to follow them back to town. Even in a city with a magical power center, all that means is that the snooty nobles are magicians instead of fencers. The default setting is already under the assumption that magic is not a dominant part of society, aside from recognizing that magic=power and PCs ought to be able to get magical goods and services they need. It takes a DM decision to fill the world with magic trains or airships or portals.

And if you don't like what it assigns to metropolis cities, you can either have the campaign not go to any, or just kick the whole table down a tier so the maximum is "large city" at 25,000+ pop and "thorps" don't even have guaranteed rosters. That'd cap magic items at 40k and casters at only a few of each class at 10-15, max. And you can just axe or swap out whatever classes you want of course, no rolled sorcerers if that's taboo, no rolled druids if you think that's silly for a city, replace with whatever classes you want, or don't.

[Segev]

What I think is that a simulacrum is said to be a copy of the creature and to have the abilities appropriate for a creature of half the hit dice of the copied creature.
Self awareness is probably an ability and it would be appropriate for a creature with an int value to have it.
Do you randomly pick creatures in the monster manual and decide "that creature with an int score superior to 3 is in fact a philosophical zombie" Unless you do that why would you have the simulacrum which have an int score like the other creatures not have self awareness.

Also why not have the adventurer be a non simulacrum copy of a simulacrum like for example a dysfunctional alter ego of a simulacrum?
Since the no progression is a part of the simulacrum spell maybe an alter ego of a simulacrum can progress.

Drifting off-topic, here. Brief answer: I only do this with simulacra because it makes them fit the niche I want them to fit in D&D.

[druid91]

One thing that might be interesting, just tell them that they have a tattoo of St Cuthberts holy symbol on their hand. However, it's unusually ornate, and will occasionally, with no reason given, disappear.

Have it so that people who are otherwise combative or hostile are suddenly extremely helpful, if they see that tattoo, but never really explain why. Maybe they all have some sort of weird phrase/prayer they say.

Only in addition to this help, maybe strange people come to her with requests. Small things. "Leave a dagger beneath the pillow of your in room as you leave town." "If you see a man with three fingers on his left hand, tell him that morning rises in the east."

[Stelio Kontos]

The BBEG has implanted a Very Important Secret within the mind of the cleric (because, after all, that's the last place anyone would look), to be retrieved later; the amnesia afterwards was an unfortunate side effect. He wants her to get her memories -- well, at least that important one -- back just as much as she does, and will be very interested in bringing her (but not her companions) back alive. The BBEG's other enemies (BBEG's tend to have a lot of those) will discover, if they haven't already, that she's the carrier of the secret -- but not what it is.

That should result in some unusual tactics that your players may eventually start to wonder about... like, why are the BBEG's minions, and other people going out of their way to not kill specifically her? Is she perhaps a spy?

[Particle_Man]

If it is timey-wimey, give them the Merlin ability to know the future but not the past, because they are living backwards? Not sure how to implement that though.