So I'm working on my adventure and I'm trying to figure out what I want for a BBEG. The party will be trying to figure out what's causing a bubonic plague outbreak. The increase in rodent activity is caused by a drought. The rodents are eating the crops which is causing a loss of food. People are starving and sick. I'm looking for a BBEG for the party to face off against who is CR 2 or 3. I want it tied to the drought and rats somehow and I also need it tied to the larger story arc.
I'm going to run a campaign similar to one I ran 20 years ago in a world called Generia. Almost all the NPCs will have stats of 10. They will be generic. The entire world is very generic. People all look very similar, language is all very similar (I plan on having only a few languages to choose from). The world has mostly been cut off from the gods by a set of artifacts (coincidentally, one for each character). Once they find all the artifacts, they will be able to bring them to a specific location and get things back to normal.
There aren't many adventurers because everyone lives a very generic life. The party is not entirely unique but they rare.
Anyway, any suggestions on a BBEG?
How about a ratcatcher who started drumming up business by breeding and releasing rats? No grand, overarching plot, just a selfish desire to aggrandize himself that has spun out of control (although business IS good). Any class could work, but ranger or rogue might work best.
Blight hex witch? A level 4 witch is CR 3, and can blight a 80ft diameter area each night when nobody is looking. A few bad spots in a field is pretty devastating since most feudal style societies are pretty tight on food production vs consumption.
Or how about the fields are normally patrolled by rat hunting dogs, but a local tribe of goblins have killed/captured most of the dogs. Party must confront the goblin tribe and rescue the puppies. BBEG is a typical goblin king.
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4 horsemen.
Ratfolk Alchemist with the Plague Bringer Archetype.
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Thinking outside the box, a Little Bad Evil Guy.
Awakened sewer rat with a level or two in druid. Awakened by passing druid for use as a spy and then promptly forgotten about. Proclaimed himself God-King of the Rats. Started killing the townsfolk's cats in his spare time so his brood could be safer. Is thoughtlessly using some kind of mcguffin to stave off the winter and the rains so the rats aren't killed by flooding.
Thinking outside the box, a Little Bad Evil Guy.
Awakened sewer rat with a level or two in druid. Awakened by passing druid for use as a spy and then promptly forgotten about. Proclaimed himself God-King of the Rats. Started killing the townsfolk's cats in his spare time so his brood could be safer. Is thoughtlessly using some kind of mcguffin to stave off the winter and the rains so the rats aren't killed by flooding.
This! But have the rat awakened by contact with someone who was researching of one of the artifacts and it's lair one of this "mad scientist's" earlier journals speculating on the similarity of things and how the artifact seems to be able to change that.
If you make it a dire rat (for better starting stats) and give it lvl 4 as a druid it would even be able to wildshape into a more effective combat form and summon rat swarms :).
How about a sentient rat swarm? It's a freakishly ginormous rat swarm that has the ability to break into smaller rat swarms (that are running through the town, spreading plague and eating crops).
It's not actively trying to harm people though, it's just doing what rats do because sentience doesn't mean you actually UNDERSTAND anything new about the world right off the bat. All it knows right now is that it derives pleasure from eating and it can now gain that pleasure a thousand times over because it feels that sense of satisfaction every time one of the rats in the swarm eats something.
Well, wererats are right in the CR range. It has the obvious mystery element of "who is the criminal?" and the fort save to prevent catching the curse would be killer on a party with generic stats. Unless you lowered the CR due to their stats, it would be a 50/50 bet even if their class gave a good fort save at that level. And I'm certain that they do not have any magic other than cantrips on their side, do they?
Mechanically, the wererat could accomplish manipulation of the mice with its Lycanthropic Empathy. For reasons why? Well, since they are Lawful evil, you could have it use the plague to manipulate the populous. You can tie it into an overarching plot by having the creature serve someone or something that is against the return of the gods. Attempting to convince people to destroy or otherwise remove one of the artifacts could provide amply room to work with.
I really like the idea of the sentient rat swarm and I'm trying to combine it with the awakened concept as well. My only real concern is a level 1 to 2 party defeating it/them. I'm also really liking the wererat and Kimera's idea. I think I'm going to combine them all into one (hopefully) awesome adventure.
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Maybe waive the whole "Can't be damaged by weapons" thing and just make it so the swarm is resistant to slashing weapons and immune to piercing weapons?
Seems like taking out a big club and going to town would work just fine on a rat swarm.
Or if you want a goofy segment, make a custom boot item with spikes on them and tell the party it's "Rat Swarm Stomping Day".
a low level wererat druid wanting revenge against the local population for some reason could work.
Rynjin, as awesome as that would be, I'm inviting someone new to the game and she hasn't played in a while. I'm going to skip the silly for this first session.
This is going to be a strange way for me to run a campaign. This first adventure the characters have no race, class, feats, skill, or abilities. They will be building them as they go. By the end of the first adventure they should have chosen their classes and started using their race points. I think there will be some ways for them to choose abilities that will be able to deal with the swarms. In addition, taking out the swarm controllers could be enough to disband the swarms then they can work on how to deal with the disease, famine, and drought.
Seems like a lot for a low level adventure but I'm thinking that my players can handle it.
I think you want a plague zombie lord. Add a few plague zombie dire rats as his mooks and you're good to go.
Oh, I remember you mentioned that a while back. What system did you eventually go with for determining stats/class and stuff?
Maybe waive the whole "Can't be damaged by weapons" thing and just make it so the swarm is resistant to slashing weapons and immune to piercing weapons?
Seems like taking out a big club and going to town would work just fine on a rat swarm.
Or if you want a goofy segment, make a custom boot item with spikes on them and tell the party it's "Rat Swarm Stomping Day".
Rat swarms do take damage from weapons, so the players won't need anything special to kill it. (A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage.)
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Oh, I remember you mentioned that a while back. What system did you eventually go with for determining stats/class and stuff?
This is the basics of what I'm doing. I'm still working on details, like how to get them to determine classes (it will partly depend on how they spend skill points)
*They are formless humanoids with stats of 10
*There will be tests for each attribute and they will have 30d6 to determine their abilities. They must roll 3-6d6 and keep the 3 highest results for their score. Scores must be determined by level 2.
*They will have 10 racial points to determine their race but they don’t need to spend them all at once and can spend those points at any time up to and including 20th level.
*They all start with 2 skill points to be spent when they want to make something a class skill. Additional skill points can be gained through Intelligence, by choosing a class, or through racial abilities.
They will make Ability checks at certain points (they can make them at other points as well, but I want to make sure there are at least 6 points where they must be made):
*Strength check (or any Strength-based skill check) to get to the area with the large area of rodents
*Dexterity check (or any Dexterity-based skill check) to get to the area with the large area of rodents
*Constitution check or any Fortitude save to avoid contracting the plague.
*Intelligence check (or any Intelligence-based skill check) will determine that the crops are lower because of rodent activity.
*Wisdom check (or any Wisdom-based skill check) will help determine that this is a disease and not a curse and may actually name the disease.
*Charisma check (or any Charisma-based skill check) will help determine contacts in the town.
There are also 5 times when skill checks will be required and of course the Fortitude saving throw just to make sure that there are other times when ability checks will be needed.
Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis)
I also plan on giving them a bonus feat, based on role playing, each level. It will be one of my choosing from a list of feats that they don't have access to (I have spent a lot of money on some 3PP stuff that I would love to see in play).
Since they are more than mortals, I don't think this will be a problem. I will make adjustments to encounters and treasure to make sure that they are balanced.
Rat swarms do take damage from weapons, so the players won't need anything special to kill it. (A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage.)
Thanks for the reminder! I don't use swarms often. I should have looked up the rules for them. I'm not as worried now.
I want to play in this game. It sounds fun.
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Rat swarms do take damage from weapons, so the players won't need anything special to kill it. (A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage.)
Ah. I thought it was Tiny or Diminutive that was immune to weapons, my mistake.
Still, I think the "Blunt does full damage" thing is still a valid solution to DR troubles at low levels with "No Class" characters.
Oh, I remember you mentioned that a while back. What system did you eventually go with for determining stats/class and stuff?This is the basics of what I'm doing. I'm still working on details, like how to get them to determine classes (it will partly depend on how they spend skill points)
*They are formless humanoids with stats of 10
*There will be tests for each attribute and they will have 30d6 to determine their abilities. They must roll 3-6d6 and keep the 3 highest results for their score. Scores must be determined by level 2.
*They will have 10 racial points to determine their race but they don’t need to spend them all at once and can spend those points at any time up to and including 20th level.
*They all start with 2 skill points to be spent when they want to make something a class skill. Additional skill points can be gained through Intelligence, by choosing a class, or through racial abilities.They will make Ability checks at certain points (they can make them at other points as well, but I want to make sure there are at least 6 points where they must be made):
*Strength check (or any Strength-based skill check) to get to the area with the large area of rodents
*Dexterity check (or any Dexterity-based skill check) to get to the area with the large area of rodents
*Constitution check or any Fortitude save to avoid contracting the plague.
*Intelligence check (or any Intelligence-based skill check) will determine that the crops are lower because of rodent activity.
*Wisdom check (or any Wisdom-based skill check) will help determine that this is a disease and not a curse and may actually name the disease.
*Charisma check (or any Charisma-based skill check) will help determine contacts in the town.There are also 5 times when skill checks will be required and of course the Fortitude saving throw just to make sure that there are other times when ability checks will be needed.
Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int),...
That is genuinely interesting. I maybe have to nab this.
Torches aren't a bad answer to the swarm issue either. They deal a decent amount of fire damage.
To those who think the game sounds like it's going to be fun, I certainly hope so. I'm worried about it. I've never tried anything like this before. I want the campaign to be truly memorable.