Help me RP this BBEG [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help me RP this BBEG [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
trentiane
01-18-04, 08:42 AM The players will soon encounter the classic evil bard: charismatic, loved by everyone, and purely evil. (they don't know that until the ultimate betrayal):smirk:

His main goal is to awaken a powerful vampire lord in order to attain a vampire's immortality and cast off his human side (its a long story). Anyways, in order to do so, he needs a group of easily-duped adventurers to carry out his missions. However, knowing beforehand that the PCs will try to oppose him once they find out his true intentions, he needs to find a way to mislead them and hold off their attempts to figure out his real intentions. I'm thinking that he will do this by gathering like-minded individuals as "bodyguards" against the PCs while they are away or better yet, hiring the PCs to rescue their future enemies from the authorities.

To get to the point:

How should I play this person? What kind of things should I do to make the PCs trust and like him? (Detect Evil/Alignment doesn't work on him as he has an amulet of mind-shielding)

How should he explain the "bodyguards?"

How should he go about fulfilling his true agenda while duping the PCs into accomplishing his goals for him?

Thanks for your time and have a wonderful day!
Malavus
01-19-04, 11:19 PM First, I would have to question why this BBEG would need anyone to wake the vampire lord up for him? If he is just going to join the vamp when he wakes up, then why does he just not go and wake him up personally? I will assume for some reason that is either impossible or undesirable.

Barring that, there are a couple different ways to get the PC to unwittingly do the bidding of this charismatic Bard. This BBEG would have acces to many, MANY emotion effecting spells and abilities, and would be very effective at persuasion. The bard could spin a tale about the growing evil in the area that the Vampire Lord sleeps in, and say that it is rumored that some ancient evil is stirring there. He would emplore the PCs to find out what is stirring and put a stop to it before things get worse. He could offer all sorts of information based on Bardic lore concerning the surroundings, and help the characters in many ways. Also, there is the possibility that the Bard could use his rogueish talents to take something/someone from the party and blame it on the Vampire Lord, thereby sending the party after him.

As far as bodyguards go, they will probably be unnecessary. One the characters have awakened the Vampire Lord, it should be easy enough for the Bard to stay under the radar until he can arrange a meeting with the Vamp and attain his immortality. Then he could come back, fully revealing himself as the BBEG and in league with the Vamp Lord. And now the PCs will have to deal with them both.

One other thing. I would caution against the use of devices that make detection spells fail. In my experience it just makes players paranoid of the person in question. I favor items that give a FALSE alignment reading instead. :)
PhaedrusXY
01-20-04, 04:26 AM Originally posted by Malavus
One other thing. I would caution against the use of devices that make detection spells fail. In my experience it just makes players paranoid of the person in question. I favor items that give a FALSE alignment reading instead. :) Umm... I'd say aiming a Detect Evil at an Evil person with an Amulet of Nondetection would give the same result as aiming a Detect Evil at a Good aligned person... nothing. Now Know Alignment on the other hand, that is a totally different story. But most people don't use that, they use Detect Evil.

As far as the bard convincing the PCs of things, he shouldn't have much of a problem given what I'm sure will be his massive social skills. Just get all the PCs bonuses for Sense Motive before the games start, and roll them in secret, so they can't metagame when you say "make a Sense Motive check".
TranquilDarkness
01-20-04, 07:20 AM You could play this bard with everything you've got on the characters as metagame info; with his good social skills the bard seems to 'guess' and recognize the reactions in the PC's and he knows exactly what to say to motivate them, each and every one, to do what he wants them to do. Which is not necessarily what he tells them they should do.

The less of their actions that seem to originate directly from him, the less reason they have to distrust him if things get 'wierd'.

As for the bodyguards; only use charismatic or skilled people that can stand-in as other performers. Possibly a travelling group, or a gypsy family. Keep obvious weaponry down to a minimum. You could for example give him a pretty young female fighter/rogue bodyguard, and a handsome sorcerer.
Of course, depending on the dangers of travel in your campaign he could actually need bodyguards; then you can simply go for a little muscle. (but don't let muscle keep out the crowds)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
trentiane 01-18-04, 08:42 AM	The players will soon encounter the classic evil bard: charismatic, loved by everyone, and purely evil. (they don't know that until the ultimate betrayal):smirk: His main goal is to awaken a powerful vampire lord in order to attain a vampire's immortality and cast off his human side (its a long story). Anyways, in order to do so, he needs a group of easily-duped adventurers to carry out his missions. However, knowing beforehand that the PCs will try to oppose him once they find out his true intentions, he needs to find a way to mislead them and hold off their attempts to figure out his real intentions. I'm thinking that he will do this by gathering like-minded individuals as "bodyguards" against the PCs while they are away or better yet, hiring the PCs to rescue their future enemies from the authorities. To get to the point: How should I play this person? What kind of things should I do to make the PCs trust and like him? (Detect Evil/Alignment doesn't work on him as he has an amulet of mind-shielding) How should he explain the "bodyguards?" How should he go about fulfilling his true agenda while duping the PCs into accomplishing his goals for him? Thanks for your time and have a wonderful day!
Malavus 01-19-04, 11:19 PM	First, I would have to question why this BBEG would need anyone to wake the vampire lord up for him? If he is just going to join the vamp when he wakes up, then why does he just not go and wake him up personally? I will assume for some reason that is either impossible or undesirable. Barring that, there are a couple different ways to get the PC to unwittingly do the bidding of this charismatic Bard. This BBEG would have acces to many, MANY emotion effecting spells and abilities, and would be very effective at persuasion. The bard could spin a tale about the growing evil in the area that the Vampire Lord sleeps in, and say that it is rumored that some ancient evil is stirring there. He would emplore the PCs to find out what is stirring and put a stop to it before things get worse. He could offer all sorts of information based on Bardic lore concerning the surroundings, and help the characters in many ways. Also, there is the possibility that the Bard could use his rogueish talents to take something/someone from the party and blame it on the Vampire Lord, thereby sending the party after him. As far as bodyguards go, they will probably be unnecessary. One the characters have awakened the Vampire Lord, it should be easy enough for the Bard to stay under the radar until he can arrange a meeting with the Vamp and attain his immortality. Then he could come back, fully revealing himself as the BBEG and in league with the Vamp Lord. And now the PCs will have to deal with them both. One other thing. I would caution against the use of devices that make detection spells fail. In my experience it just makes players paranoid of the person in question. I favor items that give a FALSE alignment reading instead. :)
PhaedrusXY 01-20-04, 04:26 AM	Originally posted by Malavus One other thing. I would caution against the use of devices that make detection spells fail. In my experience it just makes players paranoid of the person in question. I favor items that give a FALSE alignment reading instead. :) Umm... I'd say aiming a Detect Evil at an Evil person with an Amulet of Nondetection would give the same result as aiming a Detect Evil at a Good aligned person... nothing. Now Know Alignment on the other hand, that is a totally different story. But most people don't use that, they use Detect Evil. As far as the bard convincing the PCs of things, he shouldn't have much of a problem given what I'm sure will be his massive social skills. Just get all the PCs bonuses for Sense Motive before the games start, and roll them in secret, so they can't metagame when you say "make a Sense Motive check".
TranquilDarkness 01-20-04, 07:20 AM	You could play this bard with everything you've got on the characters as metagame info; with his good social skills the bard seems to 'guess' and recognize the reactions in the PC's and he knows exactly what to say to motivate them, each and every one, to do what he wants them to do. Which is not necessarily what he tells them they should do. The less of their actions that seem to originate directly from him, the less reason they have to distrust him if things get 'wierd'. As for the bodyguards; only use charismatic or skilled people that can stand-in as other performers. Possibly a travelling group, or a gypsy family. Keep obvious weaponry down to a minimum. You could for example give him a pretty young female fighter/rogue bodyguard, and a handsome sorcerer. Of course, depending on the dangers of travel in your campaign he could actually need bodyguards; then you can simply go for a little muscle. (but don't let muscle keep out the crowds)