Michael F's page

Half of my group are married dads with at least 2 kids a piece. One guy is divorced, remarried, with a new(ish) toddler. No one seems to be interested in their characters picking up a "D&D girlfriend".

But I still mess with them a little bit. One of my friends made a big deal about how big the ears were on the picture of Shelelu. So I transferred the big ears comment to his dwarven character. Whenever Shelelu deals with the party, she acts like she knows the dwarf has a crush on her becuase of the size of her ears.

I think I'm the only one who thinks it's funny. "Huge tracts of land" or "Huge ears". Close enough right?

But how about if the Skinsaw man breaks her out (or a bunch of Ghouls) and she goes back to Magnimar to hook up with her buddies before the group gets that far.

I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense for Nualia's associates or "allies" to attempt to break her out of jail if the PCs dump her there. There's a number of reasonable scenarios where Nualia's "buddies" could bring sufficient force to bear so that they could overpower or bypass the defenses at the Sandpoint Garrsion, spring her during transport to Magnimar or even bust her out of jail in Magnimar.

My primary concern is for the morale of the players. If the players "do the right thing" and show some mercy, it can be very frustrating for the bad guy to get away anyway. It's like the game world isn't holding up it's end of the bargain and the players got punished for good roleplaying (assumes a good aligned group, of course).

That sort of thing always annoyed me as a player, but I suppose some groups handle it without complaint if that's what they expect. "Off to jail with you, we'll see you soon after you ineveitably escape."

So if the jails can't hold the bad guys, the players may become more likely to kill than negotiate with or capture NPCs and Villains. I don't want my players to be saying (either in game or metagame) "If we capture this guy, we will have to fight him again, so should we bother?"

In this Adventure Path, many of the NPCs "fight to the death", especially in the later books as the CRs go up and the big ticket monsters show up. But there are still a few NPCs sprinkled around who the party should talk to. But if they're attitudes have hardened, they may miss the cues.

My secondary concern about a "Free Nualia" is just for the continuity of the campaign. If she gets away, you might get a bit of enemy overload. If your players are doing well, you could probably throw her into another fight somewhere without blowing up the CR. I can also see where there would be potential for Nualia to be an interesting recurring villain. Every time the PCs meet her, she could have a new demonic appendage and keep popping out baby monsters. But I think she would end up becoming somewhat of a distraction from the main adventure path.

Sorry for the long post, I was on a roll ;^)

I gotta say, as a DM, I would be reluctant to use the "whoops, she got out of jail!" excuse.

I admit that Nualia could be an interesting recurring villain, but in a way, the plot sort of passes her by. Slotting her into Skinsaw wouldn't be too difficult, but I think it would get progressively harder to find a place for her in later adventures.

However, Nualia's potentially divided loyalty could be interersting,

As a DM, if you show the players that the "authorities" are not capable of holding onto dangerous captives, you almost force them into a "take no prisoners" attitude. Which can be a pain if the plot calls for a sketchy NPC to ally with or provide information to the PCs.

"We'd really like to allow you to live, but every disagreeable NPC with more than two character levels has come back to haunt us multiple times. So we're going to have to kill you. I'm sure you understand, no hard feelings...STAB HACK CHOP."

I guess it depends on the group of players. Some people have more tolerance for the whole "the bad guy got away AGAIN" trope. If it's something that everyone involved expects from the campaign, then it's not really a problem.

There are some major problem with going too heavy on the townsfolk giving the PCs a hard time. For every townsperson who gives them a dirty look, more should say "meh, always knew she was a slut". Probably should limit the number of stores that the PCs have trouble at. Otherwise, the town could be in for some trouble for two reasons:

1. If the majority of the town dislikes the PCs, it becomes a stretch for Sheriff Hemlock to leave them "in charge". And if he does anyway, the PCs might be up for some payback.

2. "We don't need no water, let the mutha f#*ker burn!" If the PCs are unpopular and can't even buy stuff in the shops, they'll probably want to leave the town as soon as possible and look for adventure elsewhere. What's their motivation for saving the town? (Besides loot and XP). If they get pissed and leave too soon, then they've really "jumped the rails" and it will be hard to get them back on the path.

95% of the time, fire's a lazy solution to D&D adventrues.

That is so true. I still can't get over the DM who came on the boards and asked what he should do now that he had let his PCs burn Thistletop to the ground.

Seems like a waste of money to buy an adventure and then let the PCs torch dozens of encounters with a few flaming arrows.

It's just not cricket!

The Nualia backstory is one of the reasons I'm requiring that at least some of my party be native to Sandpoint with ranks of local knowledge. There's just too many hooks and tidbits lying around for natives to pick up on. I don't want to rely on too many lucky gather info checks or talkitive NPCs to pass the information on.

Anyway, Nualia's whole story is supposed to come out in her notes and journals that are left behind after she's defeated. That's a bit cheesy, but it works.

You could always have some of the back story come out as monologue during the battle. Especially if you have PCs native to Sandpoint.

"You! You never liked me! You made my childhood hell!" etc.

If you really want to spice things up, one of the PCs could be related to (or just acquainted with) the guy who knocked her up, who she killed. Ooo! Awkward.

What if the PCs seduce her and finally convince her not to purge her 'taint'? What? A horndog can hope, can't he?

Dude, you're nuts. I'm afraid the DC on that "Diplomacy" check would be very very high.

Her current boyfriend, Tsuto, isn't thrilled with the whole thing, and he has Diplomacy +8. But he only has 10 Charisma, maybe she's hoping to trade up...

But still, I just don't think it's possible. She's damaged goods. It would probably take A LOT of magic to set her right, just talking isn't going to cut it. A little charm person, maybe dominate person, remove curse, heal, geas? etc.

After all that, she's not even the same NPC. She's still a hot half-angel, but you couldn't even use the same artwork for her anymore if they got rid of the demon hand.

If you want the PCs to acquire an inconvenient girlfriend, I think Lyrie the wizard is a much better choice. It's a stretch, but workable:

Picture, if you will:

The PCs defeat Lyrie, knock her out, and take her prisoner. Even though she tries to fight to the death because the killed Tsuto. Who wasn't really her boyfriend anyway. She is dejected and forlorn, but the PCs are kind to her during questioning (like I said, it's a stretch). Then the whole Stockholm Sydrome thing kicks in, and she falls for one of the PCs.

So they probably have to take her to jail, but maybe she pines for the PC and asks him to visit her. Maybe she gets out, because they don't know about the murders in Magnimar, and the only other thing she did was toast a few goblins. So she gets out of jail and tries to turn over a new leaf and pursue a relationship with a good aligned hero. And she'll probably want her new boyfriend to get her wand and spellbook back from the party's arcane caster. Because you KNOW the PC won't pass up that loot!

So you wind up with a PC who has a Chaotic Evil girlfriend. And let's face it, in real life, we've all seen that before, right?

Okay, I've got one.