seeding potential new PCs into the adventure


Reign of Winter


So I have a party of 4 who are making good progress on book 1 (about to encounter the lodge which I expect will be our full session though I'll be prepared for more) and as part of the lodge setup I'm rebuilding Ten-Penny and Lady Argentee Malassene as fully built PC's (complete with PC level wealth for Ten-Penny and still determining items for Lady Argentee given her prisoner status - however I might make some of the magically concealed items.

Of course the players may take actions that preclude the potential use of these characters as NPCs or future PCs but I'm trying to build them to be potential flavorful hooks into the rest of the story - as well as potential replacements/gap fillers for the current party (4 players but we may have a 5th player join us occasionally)

Ten-Penny I rebuilt as an unchained rogue and reflavored her a bit as a whip specialist with a background of having been a failed shaman's apprentice - and a worshiper of Ng (one of the Eldest) though I might downplay that - haven't decided. I could see a PC Ten-Penny going full unchained rogue - or I've tried to build her to offer the opportunity to multieclass effectively if a player wanted to do that

For Lady Argentee i have gone a very different route - the actual Noble Scion class from the bestiary seemed a poor fit (martial almost cavalier type build but with NPC classes) - instead I rebuilt her as an Oracle with the Noble Scion feat. I am seriously considering making her a changeling and building her as natural weapon using oracle (with the Hunger curse - she would have a bit and two claw attacks). Still working out the details and how to build her - I think in any case I'm going to make her a good addition to the party if they choose to invite her to join them.


Note that beefing up Ten-Penny could bite you if the PCs decide to attack her. One, she'll be a tougher encounter. Two, giving her PC wealth means a nice bonanza for the PCs if they defeat and loot her.

In the opposite direction, be ready for the PCs talking their way past her... and then completely ignoring your carefully designed NPC! (I've had that happen, and man is it annoying.)

cheers,

Doug M.


Sure - thankfully that didn't happen - but I had a plan in that case

(for one GM "fiat" of exactly which items they would have found - a few that had a minimal impact on her in a combat situation but will play a role for her as an NPC/future PC just wouldn't have been there if the party had been in a murder hobo mode) but as well I can also adjust future loot.

I'm also seeding a bunch of scaling magic items into the game (many of them here in the lodge and early in the adventure) which will grow with the party and help, I hope, them be a bit less focused on looting every possible valuable and more on the overall story (and already they are increasingly focusing on the story over every minor iota of potential loot so this is starting to work the way I intended it)

I did beef her (and Rohkar and the Lady) up to PC levels (so in this case heroic 20 pt stat buy and traits) and in the case of Ten Penny PC level gear (Rohkar already had way over WBL gear so no adjustment there) - in the case of Lady Argentea I haven't yet decided what I will do with her loot wise - I may give her a couple of items but also likely access to her family wealth at least in terms of getting herself gear for adventuring if she goes with the party - as seems likely. If she and Ten-Penny do join the party as NPCs I'll probably run them in a streamlined fashion until we have a guest player or need a new PC.

But yes, even though technically nothing I did to Ten Penny would have changed her CR (or technically that of Lady Argentea though in the book as written she should have been considered lower CR for being wounded and lacking gear - but also clearly not intended as combat encounter..) Ten Penny would have been a very rough opponent as I built her - albeit on that likely focused on non-lethal damage unless pressed.

(but a whip master with sneak attacks, high stealth and access to at least limited invisibility would give many parties a hard time)

And I am fine if the PCs go ahead on their own - my secondary plan is for NPCs that I take the time to rebuild as potential PCs to be available if the need arises in the future - I'm seeding them with hooks I can use for the future - and am setting up their ties to longer term plot even if they aren't in place at the key mantle moment of book one (my version of the mantle won't be limited to just the PCs present in that moment - I'm seeding already some hints that many people across space (and perhaps time) are being called and tested in some manner - with the thought that if we need future PCs there will be a way to incorporate them and that they will have gotten the mantle on their own in some manner - and their meeting up with the rest of the PCs will have been as a result of that.

With Lady Argentea the twist I did last night was to show her having just recently (while a captive) come into her changeling nature - as well as her oracle curse and abilities (mechanically treating her as having been basically retrained from her multiple NPC levels into Oracle levels - though I'm using her as a 3rd level character vs her 4th level NPC class in the module.

I'll manage their levels if they stay as NPCs or if they join as PCs - I don't tend to have different levels of PCs in the same party so over time I'll have them match the party in level. If they do join as NPCs for an extended time I'll probably slow the party advancement slightly - I've been tracking XP in the most general of ways - but going to level the party as I think it fits the story vs only if the math is perfect.


Just a few questions about your choices.

1) Why rebuild Lady Argentea as a changling oracle? How are you working that into the story?

2) And are you aware that in book two there's an encounter with a doppleganger who's copying Lady Argentea? The witch that controls the Pale Tower intends to replace Lady Argentea with this creature & infiltrate Taldor nobility.


Indeed I am aware of that encounter and I plan to keep it (showing the ore-change lady Argentea and if she is with the party I anticipate it will be a fun encounter.

The reason to rebuild her is a few things:

1) I wanted her to be ready for a player to pick up and use (we may have a 5th player who may join us occasionally but likely can’t make every session) and I generally don’t like players playing NPC classes (for their own sakes as those classes are generally weaker) but more specifically as she was actually written her class is basically an NPC class version of a cavalier (however all of her equipment is missing) and my party already has a cavalier (cavalier/cleric but still)

2) I want to seed a potential tie to the third book (the hags in that book will be connected to her in some manner) (in any case a changeling in the party will make book 3’s plot resonate) and I will probably also seed in a tie elsewhere to what happened to the girl who would have been Lady Argentea (as a changeling is swapped for a human baby I plan on having the party encounter a girl somewhere who is the same exact age and Lady Argentea - but whose life has been very different. I may make that woman/girl be the bard captured in the tower in whitethrone for example (giving the part yet another reason to try to rescue her)

I’m still looking for more ways to echo books 4 and 5 and link them more to the early books. I’ve already given an early hint and echo via a shared dream I had the party experience (which is how I’m slowly introducing the riders of Baba Yaga and also introducing the idea that the party while special aren’t the only people with some connections to the fey and Baba Yaga.

I’m probably also going to be playing up the complex relationship of Baba Yaga with the fey - making it also a continuing part of the plot and another set of both potential allies and potential enemies to the party and Baba Yaga. ie she draws from the ranks of the fey for many of her servants so clearly has strong ties to the First World. But equally the AP has elements of the first world struggling to gain Baba Yaga’s power for themselves. (I may flavor this as partially a power struggle between camps of the fey - mostly evil factions and may also have the good factions of the fey torn between letting the evil ones fight amongst themselves but also recognizing the risks to the world and to innocents if Queen Elvanna conquers Golarion.

Mechanically as well I built her using the Spirit Guide archetype of Oracle so she will have a lot of flavor and mechanically be very flexible (I gave her the lore mystery) this will give her a lot of room to fit into the party as needed. The party is also a caster heavy party which I am fine with so she may also serve as a natural weapon fighter if the party needs someone on the front lines. But we will see how the party evolves.

Even if she doesn’t join the party (seems likely that they will ask her to however) when they do encounter a changeling in the future it will now have more resonance at least that’s my hope.

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