|
As the Joker is to Batman, Moriarty is to Holmes, so too are Pathfinders and their personal rivals locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, cloak and dagger, destined to cross paths many a time, but until the time comes, never settle their scores. My Methodology to building these rivals is a matter of alignment, reputation, and affinities between the pathfinder and his rival, and vise versa.
Generally, rivals are normally opposed to the character in alignment, though some are on the same axis or are even of the same alignment. Then reputation, normally it is the same as the protagonist, though their circles might differ(batman being the Dark Knight, while the Joker is the Clown Prince of Crime). As a general rule, they share the same level, as any fight between the 2 should be challenging, as both are evenly matched. Then the final Important element being affinities. Affinities are the feelings that both share for one another. They don't have to match, but they can(so the joker might Hold an awe/respect for batman, but Batman holds the joker in disgust). these might have mechanical elements, like if you hold somebody in dread(like John Val John does with Inspector Javier) and as such suffers penalties to engage directly with such foes.
Any thought, or ideas on this, or even just your own experiences with rivals in the past.
|
|
Like Holmes and moriarty, both could be considered investigators, but moriarty is mastermind, who engages in shadow warfare with the detective, Holmes cannot touch moriarty physically without risking the mastermind pulling a card that puts the people he cares about in danger. So Holmes instead targets the plans of moriarty, limiting the risks to his freinds before he turns to using physical force.
As you say, it is difficult to not simply have the players kill the guy when they first meet him. It's good to build up the rivalry before the combat, like a note left behind at a place that they have been(like if a gentleman theif rival to an investigator, left a note behind after they arrived at the inn he was at stating 'I am going to try and steal x from y at this time. Try and catch me, if you are still sore after last time'), the player then gets a chance to build up the rivals past with the character, then play of that. If the character remembers killing him, then he might have some explaining to do bring the rest of the party onto the same page.
Resurrecting a character is not really that hard, especially if you have some one else go through the area after, resurrect the guy, and then recruit him to do something specific. If it is an identity, have the mantle pass on to someone else, maybe a copy cat killer or a relative of the original out for revenge. It's not impossible to assume that the rival did not also have family, freinds, associates that could follow in his footsteps.
As for the mechanical benefit, it is more for things like 'hates the guy'(rage), or 'is afraid of the guy'(shaken). As for the rest, it could just be flavour.
The problem with this is that Batman is a solo protagonist who picks up some cohorts, while a Pathfinder character is in a party with three or more other people who have their own stories to tell. You can do the arch-nemesis thing to some extent, but you need to be careful balancing it so that the party doesn't turn into a story about the MC and three buddies of his.