Campaign idea - reviews, suggestions, etc.

[wowy319]

So, I was working on putting together a campaign, and I figured I might need suggestions on certain aspects of it. The following is what I have for ideas so far:

Setting: A nation where arcane casters are heavily discriminated against. Arcane casting is viewed as "unnatural," and while not forbidden, is heavily regulated. Arcane casters (even bards) must carry a pass with them at all times, and face a lot of prejudice. Divine casters, on the other hand, are not as regulated (their only restricted spells are evil ones). Mystic theurges and geomancers are actually hunted down and killed, as they are viewed as the worst kinds of heretics.

Campaign hook: Years ago, a mystic theurge had gained immense spellcasting prowess. He wore a mask to cover his identity, but eventually, he was found out and hunted down. Eventually, they wore down his defenses and killed him, but before he died, he swore that one day the nation would suffer destruction for the injustice done to arcanists.

about 100 or so years later, a female archivist (heroes of horror), found his mask. She felt a strange urge to put it on, and when she did, became posessed by the spirit of the mystic theurge from the past. She gains his power, and while under the control of the spirit, prepares to destroy the nation completely.

The party, for whatever reasons they have, go after the woman to try and save her/kill her/join her.


That's what I have so far. Questions/comments/suggestions?

[Voyager_I]

How, exactly, is the Theurge going to go about destroying the world, and how do you expect the players to interact with her and ultimately stop her? If they just have to go out and kill a CR-appropriate bad guy before it smashes the Generic Capital City, it's not going to be much of a quest.

Define you bad guy's personality, resources, and goals. "Revenge", "Powerful", and "Revenge" are a start, but they aren't an engaging character by any means.

Also, try fleshing out the world a bit more. Once again, "People are superstitious" is a starting point, not a completed world.

There's a lot of potential, but that's partially because there's not much there.

[wowy319]

I understand. These were simply concepts, not the campaign itself. I wanted ideas of how I could flesh out this concept. For instance, I would like some help as to how I could make the setting work and stuff.

[Voyager_I]

You can get lots of help here, but you've got to give us a foundation to build off.

To start with, what's the expected power level of the campaign? What level will you start the PC's at, and about what level do you expect the bad guy to be?

[Thane of Fife]

Well, this is just me, but here's something which I think could work:

1. Introduce the PCs to the woman before her possession. If you expect the PCs to consider rescuing her, they're more likely to do it if they knew her beforehand (unless they hated her, which is always a possibility). Having her act as an employer early on could accomplish this fairly easily.

2. At some point, the PCs come in and see that now she's wearing the mask. Rather than attack them, or what have you, she continues to employ them, but now towards the Mask's ends. First and foremost is creating an escape plan.

3. Gradually, the PCs (hopefully) realize that she's acting kind of differently. If they don't, then someone else can inquire if they agree with that opinion, hopefully arousing some suspicion.

4. PCs research mask, or confront it, or something. Hopefully learning that it's evil. It (and the woman) presumably escape.

5. Onto traditional evil-doing. Perhaps working against the discriminatory government or populace through possession, etc. Tales of Symphonia has some intrigung ideas on how this sort of thing could work.

Note, I'm presuming you're running a campaign which will span numerous levels, here. I could be wrong in that assumption.

[wowy319]

Yeah, I was gonna have them start at ECL 6, so I can have some more advanced encounters earlier on. Thank you very much for the suggestions for progression. That is definitely what I am looking for. as for the Big Bad guy (girl)'s level, she's going to be level 24 when the PCs fight her, and they'll have some nice items to help them out with the fight.

[Istari]

You also might want to have the mystic theurge not be evil just have him want revenge for being killed.

[Eighth_Seraph]

You realize, of course, that your BBEG would have 21st level Divine and Arcane spellcasting abilities? Along with, presumably, epic spellcasting? If you're familiar enough with epic power levels to do that, then go for it. Remember that what constitutes "Immense Spellcasting prowess" is determined by the power level of the setting.

In terms of story, I agree with the noble gentleman from Fife in that Tales of Symphonia has some great storyline ideas. Specifically, you could have the woman (could we give her a name, please) be a regular employer with actual reasons to hire the PCs at first, then continue to hire the PCs after she acquires the masks. Eventually, PCs could discover that some of the missions that she's sent them on have only served to place her in a position where she can begin a methodical genocide of, well, everyone. Then the PCs would have to get over their mistake and begin righting the wrong they unwittingly committed.

Just an idea; but it could serve as a rough outline if you like it.

[Voyager_I]

Epic Theurge is epic fail. It gets alternating progression, which kinda eliminates the entire purpose of the class. Also, you can't start taking Theurge levels past 10 until Epic levels, so one of the casting classes will probably be stronger than the other.

[wowy319]

The woman's name is Argeriana. As for her level, she is Archivist 5/Wizard 5/ Mystic Theurge 14. That way, she has 17th level casting in both divine/arcane, which leads to 9th level spells on both ends. In the campaign setting, that kind of power (epic level) is all but unheard of. In this campaign, I want epic level to be something, well, epic. It should be terrifying for the PCs to have to face.

I like the idea of Argeriana being a steady employer of them, eventually using them to grow stronger. I think that's what I'll go for. Now all I need is to check the plot of ToS.

[Farmer42]

If your PCs decide to side with her, you could have them on a mission when she gets found out. Then you have a race to beat the authorities to her, and help protect her. Have their knowledge of her activities highly limited to what she has them doing, so they have to actively search for her, without ringing any alarms.

[Worira]

Hmm. The nation she wants to destroy kind of seem like jerks, actually. If I were a PC, I'd probably just let her.

Also, epic levels are utterly broken. The system just can't handle them.

EDIT: bah, demi-ninja'd