Hello Pathfinder community!
This thread contains spoilers for the Burnt Offerings quest module.
I've been DMing a group of 6 for several months and have never actually "played" the game. I have a great deal of fun playing hybrid melee/magic monsters and fighting against my party, due to the diversity of the combat.
I came to the conclusion that I could release some creative energy and that desire to play by making a rival team. This team would occasionally harass the party, be one step ahead of them in a quest, have a few brawls, or maybe even team up for a special, desperate end-of-a-quest encounter.
I've already created two NPCs that have interacted with the party and made them quite unhappy (a few lucky rolls in a bar fight coupled with some dwarvish insults). We're going through Rise of the Runelords now and I'm thinking of taking various NPCs from it and adding them to the group.
If I ever played the game, I would make a Paladin or a Necromancer. I was thinking of building character sheets for these characters and adding them into the plot. Obviously, I have to be ready to have these NPCs die despite the work I put into them.
Has anyone ever done this before? I ask this for both creating a team of rivals and trying to play through the game rather than being in it. I enjoy being a DM a lot, but having never actually played myself gets me curious.
Thank you for any tips or advice you have!
Without getting too in-depth, I'll just say that what you're wanting to do is not uncommon, but keep in mind it is VERY difficult to do well. You don't want the players to feel like they're not as important as someone else, and it's difficult to convincingly pull off recurring baddies in D&D- either the PCs win and the bad guys get killed (because of how difficult it is to subdue someone without killing them), or the reverse- the bad guys win and the players get killed. It's possible to do it without the bad guys or the players getting killed (by taking whoever prisoner or knocking them unconscious and leaving them), but it almost always reeks of deus ex machina.
I say don't do it. You'll wind up getting too attached to the NPCs to want to see them killed, and wind up handwaving too much for the players not to get frustrated or suspicious.
Thank you for all of your input.
I agree that one of the stickiest parts involve death of either the NPCs or the players. I'm hoping that actual combat doesn't happen too often, aside from one or two set pieces.
For example, fighting in a burning temple would put a time limit on the fight. Either they all have to escape from the collapsing ceiling, or some members fall through a collapsing floor. It can be any scenario where the battle has to end prematurely. The sky is the limit here(patrolling guards interrupt the battle; a bigger, more dangerous enemy brings the vendetta to a halt, etc).
When it comes to reoccurring enemies, I think every campaign should have at least one. I don't like the idea of what I call "bowling pin enemies". A bowling pin gets set up and knocked down, only to set up another pin and immediately knock that down too. Many quests introduce a big bad guy, build a little back story for the duration of the adventure, and then he gets killed off. Then we move onward to the next bad guy in the next section of the quest!
Team Rocket is a great example of a reoccurring enemy. However, they're not very threatening and become a bit of a pain most of the time.
The rival is a classic and ancient gaming practice, ala Gary Oaked.
Regardless without knowing to much about the party my advice with harrasing PC spell casters are Counter-spelling Bards, Not enough GM's counter-spell these days and by far it is one of the most annoying tactics a rival group can bring to the table.
Another fun adversary is reputation, no one will want to associate themselves with "X" in the great city of "Y", this is where the Charlatan Rogue Archetype comes into its element, the spreading a rumors can be a wondrous thing and they dont even have to be immediately bad for the party, example would be creating a rumor that they are war Heroes or some such, then having the townsfolk find out this is a lie after they have been treating them with such respect and generosity, people of all walks of life dont like being made a fool of.
Next, the fem-fatal, I mean this in the highest respects by the way ladies, but as literature and film have lead us to believe and they may be right a women's greatest weapon his her sex appeal, rogues, spies and brigands of all walks do well at their job because men think them helpless eye candy, have this particular women approach the parties play boy and ask him about his up coming adventures, he talks on and on about their next raid, she of course is using the ancient art of Fanology or Fan-Language [Awesome stuff, Google it.] to sign this to her party members, she leaves abruptly, they leave and clear out the dungeon before the PC's, the player has no one to blame but himself.
Other then these few examples of mischief Id have to agree with UltimaGabe, the Rival is hard to pull off, but rewarding when done right, as a final note I might recommend jumping over to Roleplayingtips.com they have many GM articles on a lot of subjects, defiantly a resource worth having, perhaps you can find something there.