I'm designing an evil campaign for my players, and while I'm writing most of the sub-quests it seems like I'm doing the same reward scheme over and over. For example, I'm planning to have a tribal feud between some grippli and lizardfolk. Depending on who they help, the other tribe will give them an item/gold. That's basically what it is for every sub-quest in my campaign and I'm just trying to make it a little more snazzy.
Any suggestions on what else to add as quest rewards? Or possibly other ways to structure the sub-quests to allow more diversity in rewards? Thanks all.
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In online games, quest rewards include faction with the individuals giving the quests. There's not really a 'faction' concept in the game, but it's easy enough to say that the quest-givers have access to certain resources (darkwood trees, a deposit of adamatine ore) or skilled craftsmen, or certain unusual recipes (a way to make 'dragonhide' armor out of wyvern or drake-skin, a form of alchemical fire that does acid damage, or cold damage, or electrical damage), and that someone who does the appropriate quests for them can gain cheaper access to items made of the materials they have access to, or are able to craft.
Sufficient quests done to impress them could lead to them not just crafting said items for the questers, but even inducting them into the clan / tribe / fraternity and teaching them the secret crafting procedures in question.
Similarly, the grippli high shaman might know a special prayer to his deity that he'll teach the PC cleric who earns his favor (making it a perfect place to introduce a spell from the Spell Compendium or some 3rd party source, such as Lesser Vigor or whatever, that isn't 'core' and wouldn't normally be available).
Other non-core items, like those Adventurer's Armory whetstones that give +1 damage on the first hit to a weapon sharpened with them, could only be available from the lizardfolk, as the stones are actually speciial gallstones that form only in the stomachs of the older members of their community (a big secret they'll never tell the PCs, since they know too well that some people would run around cutting them open to find the stones!), could be reserved and made available only to those who earn the favor of the lizardfolk.
Non-core uses of skills, non-core feats, non-core spells, non-core mundane items or weapons or armor types or applications of pre-existing items (such as alchemical Power Components) could all be introduced as quest rewards, rather than just be handed out 'for free' at the end of the game. It's a great way to limit the new options you add to the game, and to ration them out piece by piece, rather than saying 'everything in the APG is up for grabs!'
10% cheaper access to goods from the quest-givers and their people, and / or the ability to sell recovered goods to them at a higher rate of return (60%, instead of 50%) could be a decent reward.
At a high level of favor/faction, members of the quest-givers community might offer service, as henchmen, hoping to learn new skills and increase their own power and fortunes by travelling with and assisting the 'heroes.' As long as these hopefuls don't all end up 'mysteriously' dying, new recruits may replace them, and while they'll never be as useful as actual Cohorts or anything, they can still watch the horses or prepare the camp for the night or carry the loot or stand watch or whatever. Even if they never do anything in a fight other than scream and run, and they refuse to 'check for traps,' flunkies can still be fun to have, and even occasionally useful, as conveniences, if not cannon fodder.
Members of a group may have information that they will only share with those who have earned their favor. The grippli might know of some crumbling ruins in a dank part of the swamp that they know never to approach, and someone who earns their favor might be told of the strange creatures that lurk there, leading them to a new adventure site, where treasure and danger await. The lizardfolk might have distant memories handed down from their eldest ancestors of a black dragon that once ruled them. It's been centuries, but the story includes many strange references that may be landmarks, which could be deciphered to figure out where this black dragon laired... Is it still alive? Was it's lair picked clean a century ago? Or does untold riches lie undiscovered, guarded only by moldering bones and a secret buried in an ancient lizardfolk legend?
It would help to know the individual motivations of the PCs.
For example, if one of them wanted to join the Hellknights, then some of the quests could be focused on meeting the requirements for that organization.
Well we haven't gotten far enough yet to really flesh out the motivations of each individual character (unfortunately). But definitely the good aligned characters will be trying to simply get the quest done and maybe do some good along the way, while the evil aligned characters will probably just want to spread evil in the name of crixalis.
Overall great comments that have really spurred me to do more with this campaign, thanks guys!