Hey all, next session i'm going to be revealing a strong necromancer to my group. They have never met him before, but his influence has been felt. They have no idea that they are going to run into him, but when they do, he is going to unleash an undead uprising on varisia. His main goal is to free Tar baphon from the gallowspire, and he plans on having an army of undead ready for him when he's free.
With that being said i do not know how to make this character relatively devious, and evil (besides his intentions). Also im still deciding on if i want him to be the main necromancer in charge or just a scion who starts it all off. I would like anyones input on how to make this necromancer interesting, and hopefully even memorable. (Btw my players are level 4-5 so this is really just starting to kick off the main story arc)
You can introduce him as a "friendly" NPC, and he can send the PC's on quest to help him, but they won't know they are helping him do bad things. He may even speak of himself as "that evil bad guy that has to be stopped" that has to be stopped. Later have the big reveal, and then if you want, the won't even be the guy in charge, but I think having him be the guy in charge will be enough, and the fact that he used the PC's will make them want to kill him even more.
I don't know what level you intend to end this at, but having some rules legal method of stopping divination spells so they dont find out too soon..
Thanks for the input. I like that approach on it, and i actually wish that was still an option at this point. The way i have it set up is that the party has come to hold an artifact that greatly enhances arcane ability. They are eventually going to make it to this hidden chamber, where i had planned the necromancer to to be, and he would take the artifact by force (they are not strong enough to fight him right now) and reveal that the artifact merely a piece to this colossal magical conduit. (im using the cyphergate for this) He would proceed to use it to start this big apocalypse, yadayada.
Well since he is to strong for them, have him be an arrogant jerk. Toying around with them just when he could kill them. He can be the type of person that really enjoys belittling people.
As an example if he drops someone to negatives he might even take an action to heal them. After a few rounds of demonstrating his superiority he just leaves after telling them how weak they are.
Just be wary of any lucky rolls.
Right right. He could definitely be the arrogant prick that you described. Thanks for feedback!
|
You could have him/her as a book-ish person who's uncomfortable with the living. All the stories and histories he/she has read have been about long dead people, so they decided to go dig up their bones and have a talk with their "hero".
Talking with your "hero" as a child is nice, but when that person turns out to just be a puppet who's strings you control, maybe he/she get a god complex and see everyone as puppets you can control. Once everyone is dead, so why not release the super powerful evil on the world to kill everyone...and now he/she is back to their comfortable place.
Yes, it's a bit convoluted but if you wanted typical there are a thousand standard "I hate everything" type of characters.
I think wraith's idea of a friend turned enemy is fantastic. No clues, no hints; one big reveal and your players will sacrifice anything to kill him/her.