EVIL PC CLERIC OF NORGORBER


Rise of the Runelords


Hello guys good day,

I’m looking for some advice with one of my players, he’s going to play ROTRL with an evil Norgober Cleric, and I´m cool with it, but i need some ideas on how to place him in the story taking in consideration the role of other clerics and cultist of Norgorber as villains the party will be facing.
His background states he was a former apprentice of a late Norgorber Cleric assassinated not long ago by a fellow cleric. His final assignment included finding a legendary artifact of Norgorber.

The easiest thing to do is guiding this PC into being the one that carry the TRUE intents of Norgorber against the Cultist and Clerics involved with the Runewells, but I’m looking for something more original.
Any Ideas on how to connect this guy or fitting him with the story and his party?

Thanks!

Grand Lodge

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Here is the advice I have: Don't. This adventure path, quite a bit more than others, does not loan itself to evil PCs, especially those that worship Norgorber or Lamashtu. Recommend they save the character concept for another time, and look into running Carrion Crown or Skull & Shackles after you're done with Rise of the Runelords.


Ms. Pleiades, thank you for your comments. I don´t want to truncate my player options, and i see how important is Norgober and Lamashtu followers to the story.

Can you recommend another evil deity for him to choose?

Thanks


What does the PC intend to gain from the particular deity? Depending upon what that is, options should become clearer.


Actually, Norgorber is workable in the AP due to the nature of his worship.

First, I HIGHLY recomend reading his articles in Skull and Shackles and Inner Sea Gods. There you will find details on how Norgorber's worship is limited to one of his four aspects, while ignoring his others.

Talk it out with your player. Figure out which aspect the character worships.
The Gray Master, Blackfingers, and the Reaper of Reputation will play out much more nicely than Father Skinsaws, as those are the ones present in the AP, and each can work with the player's chosen background.

If the Gray Master is their choice, then the tie in is easy. What mortal source would have a greater cache of treasure than that of the Runelord of Greed?

For the Reaper of Reputation, the Runelords know many magical secrets and wield powers unlike any mortal spell caster. Those secrets must be collected.

Blackfingers is a little trickier...


How important is it to your PC that the god/dess be evil? Clerics can be within a step of their god's alignment, so depending on the type of evil the PC wants to be - LE, NE, CE - s/he could pick a god/dess that isn't necessarily also evil.

Using the Pathfinder wiki, I see two of the gods worshipped in Sandpoint may have a flavor of evil cleric - Abadar may have LE clerics and Gozreh may have NE. I would think clerics of either deity would get along relatively fine in this AP, and be able to form some sort of lasting connection to Sandpoint, which is really important for the flow of the story.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Evil PCs are not well-suited to this campaign, especially evil Clerics.

It's incumbent on the player to supply a character that's appropriate to the adventure, just as it's incumbent on the GM to let the player know what is/isn't appropriate and why.

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

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As far as evil deities that aren't likely to cause conflicts of interest in the AP while still being neutral evil: Anogetz(rage against the Ancient Thassilonian machine), Arlachramas (lots of sentient/sapient creatures that could earn the moniker of less-than-human, and is pretty antithetical to Lamashtu), Hastrikhal (Let me burn the enemies!).

Go ahead and browse some of the others.

Shadow Lodge

If his character concept really requires an evil deity, I would recommend Asmodius. He is at least lawful so he can get along with the other players without too much trouble, and many of the people of Sandpoint are of Chelish decent, so he fits in from that regards. Asmodius is also known for having worked against truly destructive evils which would likely include a reborn Runelords, as they would likely disrupt his influence and power through out Cheliax and Korvosa.

That gives the PC good cause to side with the heroes even if he is of an evil alignment.


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I would not allow an evil PC cleric in Runelords. This campaign really requires that the PCs be heroes, and assumes heroic action on their part.

That said, if you want to do a whole lot of work, there's an article in Wayfinder #7 called "Heirs of Thassilon" that presents how to run "Rise of the Runelords" as a Way-of-the-Wicked-style evil campaign. If you have players with their hearts set on running evil PCs, let them be villains who want to claim the power of the Runelords for themselves!


Thank you guys for all this information. Let me do some research and find the way to incorporate all the information you jist passed down.

With deeper information on Norgober and the Way of the Wiked addition I believe I can make it work out.

i´ll keep you posted.

Thanks for the imput and have a great weekend.

Good rolls good times.

Mario Rocket.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

I would suggest Asmodeus, as that type of back stabbing from the character's back story works.

As a devil associated power there's plenty of decent Lawful powered actions that would work well against the (heavily) Chaotic Evil and demon opponents throughout Rise.

You could also convince him to at least start as Lawful Neutral, and as evil deities go in Golarion, Asmodeus is at least somewhat socially acceptable.


An alternative: let him being Norgorber fpllower, and change the skinsaw cult.

Un my game, Chopper, Nualia, the Skinsaw and The Scribbler are all of them related to Shax, Demon Lord of Líes and Murder.


I´m reading Shax and its actualy a great idea. Thanks Gustavo!


There's a one-shot adventure, Dawn of the Scarlet Sun, which happen in Magnimar and involve a cult of murderers that worship Shax. It can be easily placed right before or after the battle with Xanesha, changing a few things to make it more related with Skinsaw's cult


Excelent Gustavo, I´m positive ïll include this section too.

Thanks!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Be careful with that one, though, Mario. The baddy in that one is a bit brutal. Just make sure your PCs can deal with her considerable defenses.


A cleric of Norgorber works just fine, if he's motivated by the desire to find out secrets -- there are lots of them in this adventure -- or amass wealth -- there are a lot of greedy enemies. Maybe "find out secrets" especially.

What you don't want is someone who will run away in time of danger, or backstab the other party members. The PC needs to be willing to dive in and do stuff.


Actually the player who´s playing the evil cleric usually does not play evil characters as good as we would like him to do so. He usually is the kind of player who´s easy going and a follower type. I believe he made this character after watching certain movie or reading too much Cthulhu mythos, which he is very fond of.

I´m really not worried about the party failing or dying vs heavy encounters we have a veteran battle oriented party. For this first part of the game i had to pump up the encounters, goblins on steroids and raging barbarians for the first part of burnt offerings and Skeleton warriors and skeletal sorcerers for the late father burial profanation.

This is a very interesting party.

We have:
All Level 2
16, 16,14,14,12,12 ( that´s the usual stats we use, we always play homebrew amterial but as I´m new to DMing in running RoTRL)

gnome sorcerer ( Controller)
Human Harbinger ( Heavy hitter, good Defense)
Human Warder ( Heavy hitter, better Defense)
human cleric of Norgorber ( need to coach this guy)
Human Stalker (Heavy hitter ok defense)
Human Rogue ( multi Harpy Musk user, every now and then TWF flank buddy)

It’s getting interesting, i need to modify every encounter and make it more challenging lots of no light environments and lots of sticky silence rocks will help the encounters. Booby traps and lots of cover and difficult terrain. I’ll keep you posted on how this goes, but replacing Norgorber with Shax minions and flavor make lots of sense to me ATM.

Good day friends!

Grand Lodge

Mario_Rocket wrote:

Actually the player who´s playing the evil cleric usually does not play evil characters as good as we would like him to do so. He usually is the kind of player who´s easy going and a follower type. I believe he made this character after watching certain movie or reading too much Cthulhu mythos, which he is very fond of.

Then why not just have him worship Cthulhu?


Mangenorn wrote:
Mario_Rocket wrote:

Actually the player who´s playing the evil cleric usually does not play evil characters as good as we would like him to do so. He usually is the kind of player who´s easy going and a follower type. I believe he made this character after watching certain movie or reading too much Cthulhu mythos, which he is very fond of.

Then why not just have him worship Cthulhu?

That would be very cool, but he chose Norgorber. We have not reached the point in which PCs need to identify Norgorber´s doings , symbols or anything, so as per Gustavo´s suggestion, I´m using Shax in place of Norgorber.


It's fine to have a cleric of Norberger as a PC in a good campaign, even a Skinsaw. That's what good role play is all about. With the right backstory and enough secrecy, the group can be used as cover and protection for said cleric to advance in power. Posing as something else fits in the deities portfolio. Murder, chaos, and mayhem abound in a campaign. Keeping it a secret from the other players may be a challenge, but isn't that part of the fun?


Bizaak wrote:
It's fine to have a cleric of Norberger as a PC in a good campaign, even a Skinsaw. That's what good role play is all about. With the right backstory and enough secrecy, the group can be used as cover and protection for said cleric to advance in power. Posing as something else fits in the deities portfolio. Murder, chaos, and mayhem abound in a campaign. Keeping it a secret from the other players may be a challenge, but isn't that part of the fun?

Are you a necromancer? This thread is 4 years old

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