I've come to a cross roads with the GM character I've been running. Basically the heavy strength based monk started outshining the other melee based player characters around level 8 to 9 and at the top of level 10, I need to get rid of him. I never meant for the GM character to be anything more than a support character and a tool to help move plots along.
Well, I'm going to get rid of him and replace him with an archer. That will fill a ranged combat role that is somewhat missing in the party. The problem is, getting him to go away in a plausible manner.
He's lawful good, might as well be a paladin in attitude. He's an oread. He's had doubts recently as he's catching himself edging towards neutrality. The party has recently, after many months of travel, come to a new city where many of them plan on staying. They've been asked to go investigate an unholy area that seems to have devils of different sorts moving around in it. They were told they could use some lent flying carpets to get there in minimal time, (around 24 hours continual flight).
Character's mother is the big priestess who asked the group to do this. Character has a huge martial arts tome that he planned on using to start up a monk temple in this newly declared capitol.
So, what would be a good in character reason or way to remove said monk from the group?
Have them go on a quest that goes against his morales such as only way to get info is through torcher or some such thing.
His mother has a special mission for him that he must do alone.
Do it in such a way that the character can return in the future. Weave it into the longterm plot somehow. Once you start thinking of how this might happen, I'm sure you'll start to overflow with ideas.
He has to redeem himself because of something he did by going to a monastery.
Yes, a gandalf!
|
In 2nd Ed, druids had to go on a quest to become a really high lvl (17+?). There could only be on high druid per region, so the aspireing druid had to take the other druids place.
Maybe to become the leader of a monk order your monk has to go on a pilgrimage, or a isolation type thing. The temple is recalling him to fill a teaching vacancy type situation.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
You are replacing a monk who is marginalizing the party's melee with an archer?
I think you should reconsider that decision, my friend.
If your character's mother is an important figure and the main driving force behind the campaign you could martyr him against an attack on her life.
|
I would have him just leave, with a story about a solo quest to beat up the Grand Master of Flowers to gain his next monk level or garner entry into some Prestige Class that doesn't exist or something.
The problem I see with a 'Gandalf' scenario is that I have almost never, in twenty years of gaming, seen a party flee when one of them is dropping and 'attempts to hold them off.' Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, the encounter ends with a total party kill, an improbable victory over amazing odds (and the NPC frustratingly still alive) or, in the occasional case where one PC *does* flee and everybody else stays to save their friend and dies anyway, hard feelings among the group because they resent the dude who ran away (blaming him for the deaths of all of their characters, because he didn't stay to help).
Plus, if the whole point of writing the guy offstage is that he's overshadowing people, giving him a heroic sendoff, when any other PC that dies is likely to just eat an unlucky scythe crit to the face or botch a save vs. a save or die or something completely unheroic like that, kinda defeats the point. PCs die like chumps *all the time.* Having the GMPC die a 'very special episode' death is only going to make it look like PCs and GMPCs play by different rules.
Don't have him 'just disappear' or something, *especially* under mysterious or suspicious circumstances (such as leaving behind signs of violence or a ninja attack in his inn room), as that can all-too-often lead to the party spending the next month ignoring the adventure, while they pursue the great mystery of GMPCs disappearance, mistaking it for a plot hook, and brushing off falling anvils, clue-by-fours and arrow-riddled messengers dropping at their feet, clutching the summary to the next adventure hook in their deathgrip.
Yes Set is probably right and DDrake's post should be the way to go. Plenty of room for plot hooks for as long as the party's around (or even far away with modern day communi... I mean magic).
Well, there are ways to do it without giving the Players the option of staying. Maybe the monk collapses a tunnel behind him or something. Set is right, though, if you intend to use this particular tactic. There's no guarantee that your party won't over-commit to the fight that was supposed to claim the Monk. I'd suggest coming up with a scenario that isolates the Monk if this is the method of choice.
This was the case with Gandalf. They didn't flee until the balrog was already falling down an endless chasm. They weren't given the option of fighting to the bitter end -- as far as they knew, both the creature and their wizard friend were both as good as gone.
You could also rip the Gandalf scene out of the books verbatim, and just pretend you have no idea what your players are talking about when they start ridiculing you for ripping it off. Sure, it would "bad DMing," but it would make me laugh. Giving me small nuggets of humor is infinitely more important than your group's sense of immersion, right?
I always assumed he was talking to his Familiar, which was a fly named Flighty McFly.
I think I'll go with the doppleganger idea. Hook it into a larger plot and use it as a way to introduce further adventure. We'd just see how long it takes the party to figure it out.
What I didn't mention in my post is that there's a definite sense of haste about the mission needing to be completed. We're talking end of the world type haste.
I'll just use the "doppleganger" as one of the race of half-devil hobbits that are trying to get blighted area going. If they don't figure it out in time, their first encounter in that area might involve a fireball in the back.
After the mission, the group would probably pursue finding him and possibly routing out any of the other devilish types in the town they thought was free of them.
That way I can bring in the new gmpc right away as an assistant or expert for this situation.
Incidentally, I was thinking about the archer because that's a huge party weakness and while people tend to be specialized, the monk had started to be a better melee fighter than the fighter or barbarian, which is where they should really be the best.
|
Well, the problem with the archer is that you again risk a character that will make the melee feel less effective. Mainly, archers get full attacks far more often, and can do comparable or better damage. Plus having more attacks than the meleers via manyshot/rapid shot can add to the feeling of inferiority.
"Yes, got my second attack! +6/+1!"
"Congrats! I'm firing +4/+4/+4/-1!"
"... I hate you."
How did this happened?
|
Come on, I know you can tell the difference between Middle Earth and Dying Earth. Spell preparation isn't a thing that happens in any other settings that aren't actually based on the D&D IP. Gandalf's a cross-blooded sage/celestial sorceror. He doesn't have a familiar. (This, incidentally, explains why his BAB is so high for a caster with such a small spell selection)
Hah.
Naw, Gandalf didn't appear to do much because he'd signed the same "non-interference" agreement most of the higher powers did (except for those occasions when he could break it all out against another outsider, like the balrog...)-- his BAB (and everything else on him) was so high because he was a really powerful good outsider allying himself with the party.
A rider comes up on the party caked in mud and sweat. He asks which one is the monk. He vaults off the horse and drops to one knee.
"Your (mother/town/monastary/wife/child) sent me. We need you. Please come immediately."
Now you can reintroduce him at a later time.
The sorcerous pretender worked great. The party was halfway to the blighted area on a 10x10 carpet with the archer, the gnome bard and the dwarven fighter. The bard realized that something was wrong with the monk and used bluff and sense motive and roleplayed a way to figure out something was very wrong with the monk. Thinking he's under the influence of a charm spell, he secretly looked at the monk with true sight and saw it was a tiefling halfling polymorphed.
The gnome was able to get all the inuendo and clear message to the dwarf, in song, that this wasn't the monk they knew without the archer or the monk realizing it. The dwarf smelled and realized there was a smell of make up coming from the monk and grappled him. The sorcerer used his anklets of translocation to teleport behind the carpet and used the dragon breath spell to hurt everyone on the carpet... Que semi epic battle with large summoned demons and a confused archer and lots of holy water.
It went over rather well, with the party going back to the city and interrogating the sorcerer, investigating the city, leading a mob (the whole party are heros of the community), finding the murderous assistants, getting the monk raised. In the end, the monk gets to tell the party of the heavenly temple he went to and the god who told him it was okay to leave and that the god would be coming down to earth in the city. Now the monk leave's the party to try to replicate that temple.
A serious question you should ask yourself is this:
Does the group NEED a DMPC? If not, don't introduce one. You have enough to do, and it doesn't help. It generally only causes problems.
monks are rather powerful and, more importantly, very complicated so there 'go' often lasts longer than any other players
if an npc/gmpc was hogging so much limelight id be narked too
id love to know how a doppelganger is going take down the monk
id just have him leave and celebrate how fast the game speeds up!!!
Yes, why not try to NOT run a DMPC for a while, see how that goes?
You are replacing a monk who is marginalizing the party's melee with an archer?
I think you should reconsider that decision, my friend.
I second this concern. Archers can be quite brutal.