I'm DMing SCAP for a party that's just gotten to the Lucky Monkey in Ch. 3, and we're about to lose the player running the party wizard for a few months as he goes abroad. The party and I are worried about them having only a bard for that period as arcane support, so we're talking about working up a new wizard or sorcerer PC whom the other players will take turns controlling in the absence of the missing player. I'm thinking this might be an opportunity to introduce an arcane character who might be significant later but who otherwise doesn't show up in the early chapters. There are a few options from the Cagewrights -- Rhiavadi, Fetor, Louvel, and the fastidious one whose name I can't remember off the top of my head. I can't see Rhiavadi working (she's an aloof noble, after all), but I could imagine Fetor or Louvel getting assigned by the other Cagewrights to keep tabs on the adventurers, and it might appeal to them to help wipe out the Ebon Triad members now they're done with them. They might also want to make sure that Splintershield is recovered from Bhal-Hamatugn. I would of course only tell the players running the character a little bit about personality and give them the character sheet (reduced in power to keep them in line with the party), but not fill them in on the character's real story. There is the worry, of course, that my players would get this wizard killed, but I imagine I could engineer the character's return under most circumstances. Anyway, I'm wondering if any of you other devious DM's out there have any clever ideas for how I could make use of this opportunity.
Other possibilities: Xokek the shadar-kai espionage specialist for the CW, and Finch, halfling sorcerer for the Last Laugh and friend of Jil. I'm actually seeing some interesting possibilities with these two.
I'll be honest, why don't they just run the other PC's wizard until he gets back, with a "get out of death free" card from you if they kill him absentmindedly?
If not, I would say Fetor would be my favorite of the choices you presented. I've considered something... similar... in my own game.
Yeah, I've offered them that option, but I don't think the player wants to let them do that, adn I'm not going to force him. Besides, it's a well-known problem that this campaign doesn't do a good job introducing the cast of bad guys to the players before they're meeting them to kill them, and this would give me the chance to give them a very close look at one of them, anyway.
I think it's a good idea to introduce some of the villains early. It'll be fun when some of them escape the places I plan on introducing them, although it will frighten my players a bit (I hope).
As for placing someone in the party with the PC's, someone (on another recent thread) gave Fetor a split personality. One helpful to the PC's, and another very dark. I can't remember who did that, but it was very cool, and fits in with the BBEG of the campaign's dominion.
Yeah, I saw that thread too, and thought it might be useful. I've developed at least one other light/dark good/evil split element for the campaign already, and am always looking for other ways to play that up. Fetor's looking better all the time, although I may change his race since the players seem to want to play something out of the usual run of PC's. Maybe I can dig up or create a race that tends to have a split personality.
If you have the Dragon Compendium or the appropriate dragon magazine (can't recall which one), but a pair of Dvati might be just what you need for Fetor :)
I understand the odd race mix. I currently have a Goliath Druid, a half-drow Alchemist/Oracle(not the one from the AP), and a Poison Dusk lizardfolk rogue in the game I'm running. The other four players chose some easier to deal with things... a human cleric, a pair of human fighters (one might be half-elf), and a human druid/cleric.
That, and I play with a variant of sanity rules. Lots of fun there.
Yes, I do have the Dragon Compendium, and I do remember that race now that you mention it, though I had forgotten it until you did. I'll have to check that out! Thanks for jogging my memory!
I was thinking that they might find Xokek the Shadar-Kai kind of interesting as well, but Fetor is a more interesting villain overall. I'm leaning strongly toward him now.
So, curiosity abounds, what did you decide for your Wizard, or has a decision been made. There's lots out there... so I'm always curious to see what others do in this regard.
Well, let's see. I checked out the dvati in the Dragon Compendium, and it's really interesting, but I'm not sure how well it would work out in practice. I'm especially worried since I have to make sure a character like Fetor doesn't get permanently snuffed, and having one character split into two persons, each of whom gets half the total character hit points, seems to me kind of iffy in that regard. The compendium also has evil dvati being extremely rare, though of course I'd be free to ignore that. I'm thinking about maybe trying to work Fetor into the earlier story in some other way, maybe as others have by tying him into the Academy in some way and giving the PCs a reason to seek him out. So now I'm leaning toward Xokek the shadar-kai eldritch warrior. He's really not introduced in any way at all until the PCs suddenly meet him in Ch. 11 when it's time to kill him, so this gives him a place in the story. Vhalantru could notice that the party is hurting for some arcane power and hook them up with Xokek as a way of spying on the party and learning about their tactics. (He's supposed to be the Cagewrights' spy anyway!) I'd level him down to just wizard levels, and with his ECL let him be slightly ahead of the party level, which hopefully will make him a little more likely to survive. And if they Detect Evil on him, he can tell them that the taint of Shadow makes him show up as evil. The players are clearly looking for something kind of exotic to play, and I think the shadar-kai will apppeal to them. And he'll probably only be on board for the Kopru ruins part of Ch. 3 and maybe for Ch. 4; I'd be surprised if my missing players aren't back by the time they head into Ch. 5.