Advice: Handling Laori

[This Side]

First time GM running CotCT, and my PCs are just getting to the point where they meet Laori. Assuming they choose not to fight her, I was wondering if anyone has any advice for how to handle her character moving forward.

Should I give her stat bloc to the PCs so they can play as her in the rest of the combat for this book? Should I run her as an NPC, but on the PCs side? She seems like a pretty powerful character, and I'm afraid adding her to the PCs party will make future encounters too easy

Thanks in advance!

[Skeld]

I'd recommend running her as an NPC, but remember that your players are the stars of the show and she shouldn't steal the spotlight from them.

-Skeld

[Kalindlara]

Carefully, because of the spikes. ^_^

Other than that, what Skeld said.

[Deadmanwalking]

Yeah, play her yourself, but on their side. And being crazily cheerful, because that's a thing.

As for her taking the spotlight, she can just swap out her spell selection for a more support-oriented set and buff everyone for a round or two before attacking. That makes sense tactically and works well mechanically, it's probably not her favorite fun-time activity, but she can suggest things for the PCs to do to make it up to her.

[Shroud]

She's a fun NPC to have around. In our game she ended up getting involved in a relationship with the Master Chemyst Alchemist's alter-ego (A hulking NE monstrosity). I played the conflict between her and the other Kuthite up to try to draw the party into some split loyalties, but in the end, they sided with her mostly because they didn't want to risk angering the Alter-Ego. Funny thing was, the alter-ego had a alignment changing event right before the campaign endgame and in his now NG alignment decided to rethink his association with her. It was good RP and fun drama.

[This Side]

Are future encounters sufficiently difficult that having Laori on their side won't make it too easy? The group is very heavy combat/light RP focused (as am I) so the group of 4 is fairly optimized, and they already haven't had too much trouble (at least until I fudge some rolls a bit)

[Deadmanwalking]

In my game, the Half-Elf CN Daring Champion Cavalier allowed himself to be seduced by her, and is attempting to gradually convert her to the worship of Calistria (his own deity). So far, he's managed to get her to LN, though not away from Zon-Kuthon, and has hopes she'll be N and switch over to Calistria before the game ends. He may even succeed.

[tbug]

She has a rivalry with Shadowcount Sial, so you could always either have her need to pop off to deal with her own affairs, ask the PCs for increased help in her dealings, or leave for a while when he gets involved. She has a bigger role to play in chapter five, so they'd see her again in any case.

You could also play up her fanatic worship of Zon-Kuthon enough that it might start impacting their diplomatic efforts in the role-playing encounters. They might see her as a part-time ally in that case rather than someone who was always there.

[roloz]

Personality-wise, I played her over-the-top, always eager to help, offering helpful suggestions on how to torture prisoners. Casting buffs before combat (and getting just a little bit feely on the touch spells, especially on the Dwarf Monk, a character very conscious of his personal space).

The hilarious part is that nobody is even sure that she's evil. All clerics of Zon-Kuthon have auras of Law and Evil, and I gave the party a gimme Knowledge: Religion roll to know this (and that LN is at least an option). The Paladin in our group has a very pragmatic view on working with Evil NPC's anyway (you kind of have to, in Korvosa). Nobody even said anything when she claimed the Scream paintings as her share of the loot.

Tactics-wise, he was very vanilla in combat. She'd defer to the PCs and do whatever they asked. I was going to have her get bored if they didn't tell her to do anything, and go in and use Aura of Destruction or channel negative energy or something. But the party is pretty powerful and fights don't tend to last long.