Rival Party Campaign Idea- Looking for Feedback / Advice

[MC Edgar Allan Floe]

Hi, I've been a lurker so for a while, finding pretty much all the info I needed by searching through old posts. However, I'm writing my first campaign (likely I'll be starting GMing in a month or two) so I'm looking forward to posting a little more often.

Anyways, my idea for a campaign is sort of a sandbox, but also features a rivalry with an NPC party that would compete with the party in completing quests. The rival party is led by a charismatic and well-connected but also arrogant and power-hungry LE Ifrit Sorcerer with the Elemental Fire bloodline. Due to his charisma and fire abilities, this sorcerer has attained a cult-like following among a small group of goblins who make up the rest of his party, one of whom is a cleric convinced that the sorcerer is a prophet of The Ravaging Hunter, goblin god of fire.

I'm hoping that I can get the party interested in this rivalry and use this to subtly direct the players towards the encounters I have prepared (by dropping hints of their rival party's activities) without giving the campaign too much of an "on rails" type feeling. I want the PCs to be able beat the rival party every now and then, but it should feel like a major achievement. And I definitely don't want them to be able to beat them so badly the rivals won't have a chance to flee and fight another day.

I want the rival party to level up roughly with the PCs, but should they maybe be a level or two ahead to keep the challenge up? Also, I'm probably going to let my PCs create their characters with 25 point buy. Should I create my rival group with the same? I have similar questions about gear: should I use the value for PCs of their level or NPCs?

I'd love to hear ideas on either flavor or balance. Thanks.

[Magicdealer]

I ran something like this in one of my campaigns, although it was a rival mercenary group. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

Keep the rival party two levels ahead of the apl, unless you're ready to have the party finish them off. When you're getting closer to that point, you can slowly let the party close the level gap between them.

When you want to provide situations where the party drives off the rival party, simply have the rival party worn down from some previous encounters. As in (Normally, you wouldn't be a threat! But that darn beholder...)

Give the rival party equal pc wealth. They'll need it in order to keep up. If you don't want that much money falling into the hands of your pcs, then arrange for one of the members to escape with the bodies of the others. Depending on your world, this might even provide an opportunity down the road to provide a flavorful revenge attack.

When building your rival party, either use the same point buy, or a higher point buy, to create them. You'll be putting them at risk against your players, who will be doing their level best to kill/poison/rob these enemies as much as possible. Being able to afford some extra points in con could be the line between escape and death.

[The 8th Dwarf]

It's not exactly what you want but if you have access to the Savage Tide AP there is an excellent rival NPC party called the Jade Falcons.

[MC Edgar Allan Floe]

Magicdealer- Thanks for the advice; that is exactly the info I was looking for in terms of how to build the party. How did your campaign like this go over with your players?

8th Dwarf- I'll see if I can find a copy. I have the time to create all original characters and the first few encounters, but I'm not above stealing some other good stuff and incorporating it in there too.

[The 8th Dwarf]

Jason Newbury wrote:

Magicdealer- Thanks for the advice; that is exactly the info I was looking for in terms of how to build the party. How did your campaign like this go over with your players?

8th Dwarf- I'll see if I can find a copy. I have the time to create all original characters and the first few encounters, but I'm not above stealing some other good stuff and incorporating it in there too.

The jade falcons start out working for the same employer... They are a few levels above the PCs and are arrogant and condescending, they get the praise and the glamourous jobs and rub the PCs noses in it. By the middle of the AP they become an example of the price of failure. My party hated them (except for the party Druid who ended up marrying one of them) .

[Magicdealer]

It went over really well, actually. My players were running pretty simple classes at the time. A fighter, a rogue who died and rerolled as a barbarian, a cleric, a druid, and a sometimes sorcerer.

The rival groups clashed about five times, twice leaving the players near death, twice with the rival group withdrawing and leaving the party entangled in some manner while they moved ahead to claim the prize.

In the final battle, both parties had some time to prep beforehand, which basically meant that no one was one-shotted in the first round of combat. The group party eventually won the final conflict by cornering and wearing their opponents down. Much glee was had by all.

Of course, this was inter-spliced between some pretty epic-level storytelling. Devastated world, mysterious artifacts, doomsday device, the classics.

[MC Edgar Allan Floe]

I think I'm going to use the set-up and characterization of the Jade Falcons, because it works better for what I wanted out of my rival party than the party I was building, who I'll just rewrite as another encounter. Depending on how my PCs react, the Jade Falcon-type rivals might make a turn into full-on antagonists (I'll be pushing them that way).

I think it's funny that one of your PCs ended up marrying a rival. Maybe it'd be fun to drop some hints that one of the rivals is more sympathetic, and give the PCs a chance to win them over. I'm thinking a Charisma check from the whole party upon first meeting their rivals, the winner of which will unknowingly (at least for the time being) become the object of infatuation by one of the rivals.

BTW, for those who have the Rival Guide (the preview of which might have planted this seed in my brain), does it feature any advice on how to set up a rival group-focused campaign? The impression I got from reviews was that most of the book was descriptions and stat blocks of pre-made groups meant to plug in to a campaign in progress, as well as some other feats, spells, etc. Still sounds worth picking up, but I'm just wondering how relevant it might be to this idea I've got.