I’m about to begin running a Council of Thieves AP based game for just 2 PCs. I’ve decided to start them at 3rd level on the assumption that the APL to CR should work out. Half the PCs means double the XP, so they should stay around 2 levels ahead for the rest of the campaign. One PC is taking a familiar, and they’ll both have the option to get cohorts, so I’m not really worried that they’ll find the AP too difficult. What I am a little worried about is that they’ll find the AP irrelevant for their PCs.
One of the players is my girlfriend, and my girlfriend likes rats. Her family used to keep them as pets, and she really liked the cover of the 3.5 Complete Mage book with the albino mage who has white rats crawling on her shoulders. It was only a matter of time before she chose to play a rat based PC, and she selected ratfolk as her PC’s race. That in itself might have been OK, but when she announced this to the group the other player decided to play a ratfolk too so they could use the Swarming ability. Flanking brings to mind sneak attacking, and soon my girlfriend noticed that the Vivisectionist archetype for Alchemists not only has sneak attack but can be combined with the ratfolk specific Plague Bringer archetype. The other player thought the party should have a divine caster and noticed that the Cult Leader archetype of Warpriest gets sneak attack. This led to a decision that the other PC should be a Cult Leader of Ghlaunder. For some reason these PCs have listed alignments of Neutral and Chaotic Neutral instead of Crazy Evil, but it is a little tough for me to see how the disease obsessed servants of a CE deity will fit into the campaign.
Getting the PCs involved in the initial action doesn’t seem like it should be that tough. There could be some question about why the NPCs would choose to recruit such a weird pair, but maybe the idea that those who are different get oppressed in Cheliax would be enough, especially since the Cult Leader decided to take the tiefling trait (any familiar with Warhammer might recall the idea of horned rats). For their part the rats should probably enjoy the idea of subversion and rebellion, so I think things should work early on. I’m more worried about what happens later when it sounds like the PCs are supposed to become undercover vigilantes doing good deeds to inspire the community. At that point I wonder how the authorities could fail to notice that the hooded vigilantes with claws and “tail blades” are rat people. I also wonder how and why sneaky rat people devoted to spreading disease would help an oppressed city.
I haven’t read through the entire AP yet, but the part where the PCs take part in a play as actors and then attend a high society party seems like it could be tough to pull off. I suppose greater hats of disguise could help, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.
Cons
#1 - If you’re playing a ratfolk it might suck to be forced to play much of the campaign as a human or gnome instead (especially since they wouldn’t have claw and tail attacks)
#2 - I’m not sure whether which if any NPCs the PCs will be interacting with around that point have a way to easily see through the disguise. If so I guess that might be a problem depending on that NPC’s involvement in the plot and motivations.
Pros
#1 - Coming up with alter egos and going deep undercover as an alternate race might be sort of fun
#2 - Having “multiple personalities” could be an alternative to the “hoods and armbands” method the NPCs recommend.
If I decided that magical disguises are a good idea it would be easy enough to have an NPC supply them cheap or free. Assuming that magic hats or some other solution can cover most of the potential social problems of being ratfolk I’m still left with some concerns about motivation and the city’s reaction to the “heroes” though. How can I make it seem more reasonable that the Ghlaunder worshipping ratfolk want to help improve the city? Perhaps more importantly, why would the city fall in love with such despicable seeming figures, one of whom has a sentient tumor? I also wonder if anybody has insights into later parts of the AP which might pose a problem for us.
Another idea which just struck me is how cults of Ghlaunder are often pretty secretive and even masquerade as religions devoted to other deities real or imagined. I'm not sure if "tricking" the campaign's NPCs into Ghlaunder worship would work out well or just implode. I'm kind of imagining what a Ghlaunder cult masquerading as a cult of "the ghost of Aroden" might be like and can't quite put the pieces together yet. Of course whatever cult the PC is leading should probably be mostly the player's creation. Maybe I could offer some hints about how to fit in a little better though, possibly some ways to make it a little like the scary version of Masonry often implied in Jack the Ripper movies or the Sleepy Hollow TV show, an organization that seems harmless or even beneficial at the edges but gets more and more rotten and dangerous as your approach the secret core.
I think there's probably some way I could spin this to make the AP work for the PCs who the players want to play. Reading the rest of the AP will probably help, and I'm hoping some folks here will have ideas for me too. I can't imagine that some of that advice won't come with pretty bad spoilers in it, so I'll beg anybody who doesn't want to accidentally see some Council of Thieves secrets not to visit this thread again since hiding the entire thread with spoiler buttons seems impractical. I did consider posting this to the Council of Thieves forum, but I figured Advice probably gets way more traffic and there might be plenty of people who have already played CoT or don't plan to who might be able to offer some advice or ideas here.