I currently working on my first self written chronicle, with the focus being on the BBEG Half-Orc who is the child of an Empress, unfortunately concieved in an Orc raid.
His mother forced him to train in the ways of the Dawnflower to "pay pennance for his blood," and always resented him, never accepting him as her son. And his entire life he has been forced to apologise for being Half-Orc, something that he never asked to be.
While his Grandfather accepted him as family compeatly. His Grandfather, The Emperor at the time, knowing that his people would not accept him as their lord, groomed him to become an adviser to his younger sister.
After his grandfather died, and his mother gained the throne. She quietly banished him from the kingdom, not being able to deal with seeing him anymore. On his own he began to resent his mother, as well as his sister, who is now next in line to the throne, which should be his right as firstborn.
The character has captured warriors from the kingdom fight in an Orc built, dingy coliseum to plan against the tactics of the royal guard.
I can easily show compassion between matches to the fighters, offering to have his cleric heal them. He could even validate making others fight by claiming that "even Sarenrae had to work with Asmodeus to seal Rovagug, sometimes some evil is nessasary to achieve the greater good."
I already concidered him having a good aligned Half-Orc Cleric as a hench for him, who followed him to uplift half-orcs from segregation. So I figure making the Big Bad himself non-evil wouldn't be a strech
I would probably make him Lawful Neutral, would this be acceptable for a character who is a Dervish of Dawn Bard? The main reason for this is that I don't want to waste feats on Dervish Dance for his build. I think him using Sarenrae's fighting style is important for flavor.
The end chapter will involve a full on invasion of the city, can I do this without disrupting the teachings of Sarenrae?
Hi Diminuendo,
I find the synopsis of your adventure interesting. I did spend some time looking around the PRD for the values that Sarenrae holds to no avail. I think that you may use your raiders as you wish. Some who follow the teachings of a religion miss the point. Think of the inquisition or witch trials or Catholic/prodestant. I'm not a historical expert on religeous wars, I just know that they have and do exist. You could say that the Half-orcs follow Sarenrae in a slightly different way than the people of the city they were exiled from. They must bring the true way to follow Sarenrae to the masses and claim power. Gl and hf
-KZ
"Compassion and peace are her greatest virtues, and if enemies of the faith can be redeemed, they should be. Yet there are those who have no interest in redemption, who glory in slaughter and death. From the remorseless evil of the undead and fiends to the cruelties born in the hearts of mortals, Sarenrae's doctrines preach swift justice delivered by the scimitar's edge. To this end, she expects her faithful to be skilled at swordplay, both as a form of martial art promoting centering of mind and body, and so that when they do enter battle, their foes do not suffer any longer than necessary."
From http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Sarenrae
I think try to reflect this little blurb while you're playing and you should be fine.
Sure war is usually pretty "anything goes" but Sarenrae is pretty clear about offering a chance at redemption. Mercy is a BIG focus, even on the lost causes. I'm sure a mortal could certainly fail to uphold these ideals, but if it's all in the name of Sarenrae she or her servants might take issue.
Love the idea of the BBEG though! I hope the party sides with him in the end :P Our gm is great for injecting moments of moral ambiguity, I think he just worships chaos and loves watching us lose our sense of morality in this fantasy world he created.
BBNG FTW!
I just want to say that I love games that operate in a somewhat murkier moral area like this. I find that if the BBEG is clearly evil and despicable to the core, and has already done things that make him/her irredeemable, then so many decisions are already made for the PCs. A game like that is essentially telling them what to think right out of the gate, and that's boring. It's at least a missed opportunity to keep the players thinking about the consequences of their actions, which can sometimes highlight the differences between their own alignments, religions, and world views.
And even if you make him evil, evil is somewhat relative. Evil characters can still be very moral in a lot of ways, or at least parallel moral behaviour for other reasons. His reasons may be justifiable or at least sympathetic, even if his methods occasionally aren't. That sort of thing.
Likewise, Neutral characters can still occasionally do evil things without themselves being actually evil; a lot of that has to do with how guilty they feel afterwards, or whether they realize the true repercussions of their actions.
And I like the idea of him having good-aligned associates who have their own reasons for supporting him. They need not necessarily condone all of his actions, even. Perhaps they think he can be redeemed or that he's simply deserving of pity.
You have a few nice options here. You could go with LN or LE if you want him to be somewhat or fully misguided. You can also have him be full blown LG in opposition to different LG. You don't have to make either side unsympathetic or wrong. Simply have both sides be somewhat but not totally in the right. The players go in assuming that it is good vs evil when in fact it is good vs good with no middle ground. Sarenrae would be one unhappy deity in this scenario.
Thanks guys for the repsponse
Hi Diminuendo,
I find the synopsis of your adventure interesting. I did spend some time looking around the PRD for the values that Sarenrae holds to no avail. I think that you may use your raiders as you wish. Some who follow the teachings of a religion miss the point. Think of the inquisition or witch trials or Catholic/prodestant. I'm not a historical expert on religeous wars, I just know that they have and do exist. You could say that the Half-orcs follow Sarenrae in a slightly different way than the people of the city they were exiled from. They must bring the true way to follow Sarenrae to the masses and claim power. Gl and hf
-KZ
There are no alignment restrictions for the bard class, or the dervish dancer archtype, so you are safe there. I do agree with Kahn on the religious aspect remember what war stands for. W.A.R.- We Are Right. That is how both sides always see it.
Thats what I was going for!
Now for the terrable part, which I'm not sure is possible, but if it is I want to make it happen; I want the Half-Orc to fight the party one on 3-4 for the final boss battle.
I also want him to be a Dervish at Dawn Bard 1/Dervish at Dawn Fighter 11.
...Yeah guys I know...
I think I can figure out a way to make it work though;
for starters, he will be 3 levels higher than the PCs
his build will be focused in making up for his lack of action econnomy, I'm thinking high dex with Combat Patrol and Reach, this will also allow the character to move out of the way of threatening attackers.
I will also have feats like Divert Harm to redirect damage to other players.
If I could figure out how to make Rayshield work with Dervish Dance that would be great too, to help the characters longevity.
I will also make it a story point that he is stockpiling magical items for his invasion. From this I will also be making a custom cursed item; A cursed pair of Rings of Friendshield, which, because of their curse have a pernament "master" and "slave" configuration. Half of the damage made to the "master" gets transfered to the "slave" whether the slave wishes to recieve it or not. The slave ring cannot be removed unless either wearer dies, or remove curse is cast.
The final boss battle will involve the BBNG wielding a 10 Ring BroadSword with this "master" ring, with the "slave" on his sister. This means the start of the boss battle will be about disarming him, so that his sister wont die. He has 12HD, his sister might have two.
If this isn't enough then I might have his cleric come over and cast Raise Dead on the BBNGs corpse after he has been downed.
All of this is to play to a fighters advantage; sustainability. I plan to have this be the final battle of the chronical, and whilest I intend for the PCs to win, I intend there to be casualtys.
Thoughts?
You have a few nice options here. You could go with LN or LE if you want him to be somewhat or fully misguided. You can also have him be full blown LG in opposition to different LG. You don't have to make either side unsympathetic or wrong. Simply have both sides be somewhat but not totally in the right. The players go in assuming that it is good vs evil when in fact it is good vs good with no middle ground. Sarenrae would be one unhappy deity in this scenario.
I personally want to play him as a over-zelous extremeist
I dont think its nessacarily evil to have a grouge against your rapists and rape baby. It is racisim, but that happens in pathfinder all the time.
Now for the terrable part, which I'm not sure is possible, but if it is I want to make it happen; I want the Half-Orc to fight the party one on 3-4 for the final boss battle.
I also want him to be a Dervish at Dawn Bard 1/Dervish at Dawn Fighter 11.
...Yeah guys I know...
I think I can figure out a way to make it work though;
Eek. As long as you're prepared for a potentially very anticlimactic fight, I guess go for it. It does depend on the party, though. I've seen solo BBEG fights end in the first round before, and I was once in a situation where I deliberately messed around with buffs and went easy on the BBEG so as not to end things immediately. Some classes (in my case it was a witch) excel at disabling individual targets.
There's also the matter that the PCs sometimes don't feel that great about winning the day because they ganged up on a single dude. Even if they're out of their league, it somehow always feels like they're taking only 20-25% of the glory.
I love the ring idea, though. It puts them in a pretty difficult spot if they know about it and their principal method of dispatching foes is raw damage. Just be prepared in case they don't think of disarming him and instead just go for a lot of save-or-suck spells.
I know, does anyone have an idea on how to make this work? I plan to dump strength and charisma (his social skill will run off int or wis) to keep his saves high. I think I will be ditching dervish dance so that I have access to ray shield and missile shield. That will give me resistance to one AoE spell, one ray Spell and one arrow(lol) every turn