Hi, I'm new to the site, and I'm building my first campaign as a DM, and I am hoping you guys could help me flesh out this character a bit. I'm hoping to base this character around the following story, for the moment, we'll name the character Tim.
Tim lived in a happy little quiet village in the mountains that we shall call Home.
He was abandoned as a baby in the mountains and found by a villager, and brought back to Home, where he was raised communally by the entire village.
Tim was raised to be an honorable and faithful(religion?) lad.
Tim thought of the entire village as his family, and loved them as such.
One day, a group of men in expensive suits came through the town, explaining that they were from an organization called the "Protector's Guild"(I could use a better name, but I need the structure of a guild here.) These men demanded that several citizens volunteer to accompany them as "recruits", threatening that the village would otherwise have no guaranteed safety, and anything could happen.
The villagers were outraged and attempted to force the men out of the village. The men responded with violence, both magical and physical, killing several villagers. They promised that the entire village would suffer for this outrage and left, heading south out of the mountains.
Several days later, an army of several dozen men, in similar suits arrived in the village, and began forcing everyone out of their homes, assembling the entire village in the village center.
Tim managed to hide from the men in an attic, when they came to his home. But once the immediate danger had passed, he watched the town center from a window and witnessed what happened next.
A Tiefling patrolled the village center, and began ordering his men to execute the villagers, all of whom immediately did so.(None of them were decapitated.)
The Tiefling then ordered his men to march out of the village, once again heading south.
Once Tim thought the village was clear of murderers, he ran into the village center to look for survivors, falling to his knees in the middle of the slaughter, only to find the Tiefling waiting there for him, twirling a small dagger through his fingers.
The Tiefling grinned a fang filled mouth at Tim, before turning south and walking briskly out of the village, his long barbed tail bouncing giddily and his expensive black shoes splashing lightly through the puddles of blood, as he twirled his dagger.
Tim wept in the center of the bloodbath for days, unable to make any decision as to what he should do next. His body eventually weakened to the point that he could no longer move, only stare at the bodies that surrounded him
A mysterious elf(race optional, may be changed) wandered into the village, and approached Tim. He told Tim, "This does not have to be their fate." Dropping a brown sack with a heavy thud, the elf left the village without another word.
Tim, suddenly filled with purpose, grabbed the sack and tore through it, it turned out to be surprisingly larger than it looked. Inside were dozens of books on magic, but the most interesting to Tim was a series of books on Necromancy.
Tim immediately knew what he would do...
He would bring them back.
After carefully burying the entire village in the town center, honoring each and every one of them with markers, made from whatever he could find, Tim dove into the books.
He learned everything he could, but many of the books terrified him, suggesting a horrible and malicious style of magic that his family would NEVER approve of.
He was a good boy, and learned from even better people, he would find a way to bring them back, without becoming a monster.
THE CAMPAIGN
Tim is now an adult, mid 20s-early 30s.
He has raised the entire village as undead(various types, mostly zombies.) who still treat him as the young man they raised, he is still their communal son.
The town functions as it did before, with a few changes, nobody eats anymore except for Tim, who runs a small farm, just large enough to feed himself, with the help of his undead family.
Tim is still Lawful Good, he raises these villagers out of love, and does not command them to do anything they do not wish.
The village has decided as a group that vengeance does not matter to them, as long as they can remain safe. Some of them have suggested that Tim travel east, into the forests where there were rumors that another powerful mage lives, who may be able to teach him how to create new, and powerful undead, to guard the village. (I'm thinking Flesh Golems, or something else that is not inherently super evil.)
Tim would be a Grave-Bound White Necromancer, so he would have a companion to keep him company, I cant decide what kind of companion would be best. (Not picking a vampire, I can't find a way to keep him good, with a vampire at his side.)
Anyway, any comments, advice or suggestions are welcome, I want to have this character function as party support and healing, showing up roughly 1-3 of the way through a longer campaign.
I'm also trying to give the players the choice to decide whether to join the Protector's Guild (Who make themselves look like a lawful good organization, publicly), and wipe out this town of "undead monsters and their necromancer master" or to assist Tim and the people of his village in publicly exposing the guild for what they've done, possibly destroying the guild and the mysterious masters that run it behind closed doors.
I know it's a wall of text, I'm sorry. :(
Make him constantly at odds with his undead creations who have turned evil( as undead do)
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Keep in mind that undead-creating necromancy spells cast by a white necromancer of 4th level or higher no longer have the evil descriptor.
Also, when a 4th level or higher white necromancer raises undead, they are not necessarily evil - mindless undead resulting from white necromancy are of neutral alignment while the alignment of intelligent undead raised by a white necromancer exactly matches the white necromancer’s alignment.
It seems like a ghost would be best. Maybe his surrogate fathers spirit. Undead don't HAVE to be evil.
Good start, even if Tim makes me think of a fireball throwing wizard from Monty Python ;). As for back story, as GM, remember, if you want a whole town of non evil thinking undead villagers, do it, cause rules are there to help, not ruin good story first of all. Next, I think you are on a decent start. I would suggest that Tim face ethical challenges from time to time when one of his raised foster family does something more normal undeadish (zombie little girl just can't control herself and eats a traveler, or a something else like a puppy for example.) Puts the PC's in an interesting place, and gives you the GM lots of plot, and makes Tim's predicament seem very real to the players.
Also you could call the guild the "Guild of Watchful Guardians" which sounds benevolent, but is neutral enough to imply the possibility of corruption or veiled motives.
I think setting the PC's up to face down Tim and his "village of the damned" would be a very good hook. The PC's think its going to be the normal destroy undead minions kill black robed skull masked guy sort of quest, but when they get there, well family love is family love, even if your family is sort of living impaired, most players are going to have an ethical and moral quandary about what they should do, unless they are just murderhobo's to the core.
To flesh out Tim's personality and quirks, I would RP Tim's interactions with his foster family always as if they are still alive (except for eating.) To Tim they are the same people he knows and loves, and thus is very likely to forget how they appear to others. You could also very much play up the "questions his decisions" if PC's seriously and intelligently challenged some of Tim's arguments or beliefs.
Also having lived around undead for a while, I would RP Tim as a somewhat socially awkward, as even non evil thinking undead are not the best of company for a young man to have, at least, exclusively.
Over all though I think you have a really strong start, heck, I would like to be a player in this one, I am totally intrigued!
Good suggestion Kazaan, plenty o' good story in there!