I have a player in my current campaign who has been playing an evil character, while everybody else plays separately from him as they are all good aligned. Originally I was setting him up as a main antagonist, but now I'm thinking about having his character go through a change of heart.
He is okay with becoming good and helping out the good guys that have been ruining all of his evil plans (think Prince Zuko from Avatar) , but we are having a problem coming up with reasons for it.
So, with all of that said, does anybody have any cool ideas or plots that would involve an antagonist becoming a protagonist?
I will gladly share any other additional information that is needed.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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So, with all of that said, does anybody have any cool ideas or plots that would involve an antagonist becoming a protagonist?
I will gladly share any other additional information that is needed.
I think the best reason for a Heel-Face Turn is to either invalidate their motives for evil or to give them a strong motivation for something that draws them toward good (okay, those sounded really vague, so I'll try to elaborate).
To use your example (should probably spoiler that, though), here's how the "remove the motivations for evil" can go:
With his motivations to follow the Fire Nation gone, he was able to see what needed to be done and devote himself to good.
As for "adding motivations for good", here's another story that I'll put in a spoiler, even though everyone probably knows this one:
And keep in mind that neither of these example characters lost their potency or became goody-two-shoes. It's very important to remember that being good does not mean being soft.
"My mind has changed; my strength has not."
- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
So, with all of that said, does anybody have any cool ideas or plots that would involve an antagonist becoming a protagonist?
This is probably easier to do with an NPC villain, but you'll need to have the villain have a change of heart slowly to be believable. If a villain suddenly acts like Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes, the heroes will (rightly) suspect some sort of ruse.
I'd change the role of the villain from antagonist, to rival and/or foil, to ally. You see bad guys have a change of heart in fiction pretty often. Maybe they have a few shreds of conscience remaining, and see the result of their evil in a new light.
One path would be for the PCs to become a good influence on the bad guy: start out with an alliance of convenience against a common enemy, but then have the bad guy have second thought about betraying the heroes at the end. Initially, it's because the villain thinks the PCs could be useful in the future, but maybe he starts to become genuinely fond of them. Maybe the heroes are sufficiently noble that it starts to rub off, and the villain realizes that he likes being loved more than feared.
There are many paths to redemption.
--Hal
Thank you, your comments have been very helpful. I'll let you know how it plays out.
"My mind has changed; my strength has not."
- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
HARHARHAR- please, do tell where this comes from and if the book(s?hopefully) are as good, as this quote suggests?
PS: LOVE is the answer;)
Pity.
On the other hand my current character has recently changed from chaotic neutral to choatic good - i´ll remember that one.
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Pity.
On the other hand my current character has recently changed from chaotic neutral to choatic good- i´ll remember that one.
My Ranger in RotRL started as True Neutral but was something of a closet Chaotic Evil as this alignment fits what actions he would have committed if he had dared follow his impulses and ignore his fear of getting caught.
His sense of familial pride and his worship of Erastil, both of which were strengthened through events in the AP and additional modules, were leading him to become Lawful Neutral, as he is becoming far more responsible now that he is the man in charge.
Then, very recently, a disastrous fight with an immensely superior opponent led him to embark on a whole new turn for his life (and a completely unexpected one at that). He vowed to utterly eliminate this opponent the next time their paths will cross, and for this he requires the help of Erastil's church. To get it, he has decided to go all the way and pledge his life to Old Deadeye by becoming one of his Paladins.
That's right. This guy who started out as the perfect bully (a la Biff Tannen from Back to the future), interested in the "hero" job only for the glory and the girls, is becoming Lawful Good.
He will go through 1 level of soul-searching as a Lawful Neutral Paladin (ie, without any of the special powers) and will graduate to full Paladinhood (and Lawful Goodness) when his mentor (Paladin cohort taken with the Leadership feat, also not expected when I built him) will deem him worthy.
There are many ways to turn a benighted soul to the ways of Good. In my character's case, wounded pride did the trick.