Hey all. I am thinking of setting up a game where the main bad guy is Great Cthulhu. The basis of the whole game is that the New gods and old gods battle in the heavens over the material plane. and on a worldly scale the gods pick champions to fight their agents on their home worlds.
Now this group is going to be relatively small due to the size of my friends pool, and possible interested players in my area and covid lockdown. So my idea is get Golorion's mightiest heroes together and get them to fight the forces or chaos and madness...
however i want to inject an evil DMPC into the mix that will function as possible light support and quest giver to lead the party in the right direction and towards their doom at the same time.
How would you play a character that devotes his life to the Sleeper, who is insane, and knowingly helps/sabotages a party at the same time?? How rational would his thought process be? How would he hide his intensions if probed by magic??
Well, they could be unknowingly leading the party to their doom... as a Sleeper Agent created by an Alchemist of at least 12th level, they aren't a bad guy until they have been activated.
They could also be a Vigilante, which can sport two different alignments depending on which costume they have on.
Maybe a Vigilante that is also a Sleeper Agent? Oh my...
They aren't actually insane, but they sometimes forget which name they are using... so they randomly change their voice and answer to a different name. The party just assumes they are crazy, since medical advancements have yet to catagorize or understand multiple personality disorders in this universe... not that they are actually suffering from such a disorder, they just can't keep track of their fake names.
The craziness grows on the party... they end up adoring this quirky, confused companion of theirs'. They never stop to question motives, they never think to magically probe for dubious intentions.
Then, you maximize Bluff so even if they think they catch you... you can lie your way out of it.
Well, they could be unknowingly leading the party to their doom... as a Sleeper Agent created by an Alchemist of at least 12th level, they aren't a bad guy until they have been activated.
The party just assumes they are crazy, since medical advancements have yet to catagorize or understand multiple personality disorders in this universe...
Then, you maximize Bluff so even if they think they catch you... you can lie your way out of it.
I have rules for multiple personalities... i was just trying to avoid that kind of aspect. I guess my main question is can an insane person have complete legitimate thought process and WANT to deceive people for an insane goal?
What sort of insane?
The scary kind where they are perfectly in control of themselves, just their goals are so far outside of the norm that they cannot possibly be sane? They have reasons, plans, goals... everything makes perfect sense, to them. Their goal just happens to be killing half of everyone, or whatever.
Or, like, they wear two left shoes and scream every time they see the color green because their brain is literally broken?
Either way, the Elder Mythos Cleric may have some of the elements you are looking for. The kind of insane where the party finds the person naked, scribbling wierd runes in the mud, chanting in a made up language...
I like option A... my idea is building an HP Lovecraft kind of character hell bent on releasing his master from his prison. He would help the party defeat Cthulhu's agents on the world and find an artifact would "strengthen the seal" but at the last second betray the party by setting Cthulhu free and offering himself to his master to achieve power...
As for classes i dont know how many people are joining but i had an idea for gestalt and mythic. i was thinking oracle and something else..
Cthulhu's worshippers are philosophers and artists.
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I love me some gestalt... can't help you with Mythic, though.
Mythic is madness.
Madness? THIS IS PATHFINDER!!!
*kicks man down hole*
The madness of Mythic may fit right in with this setting, though... Cthulhu, and all.
Oracle, huh? Scaled Fist UnMonk could top off your BAB and saves, but comes with that stupid alignment restriction that likely conflicts with a backstabbing Cthulhu zealot. Brawler doesn't have any such restrictions, but doesn't really reward you much for your towering Charisma. Maybe a Snakebite Striker Brawler, using all that Charisma to have a massive Bluff bonus to use all that feint nonsense.
Although, my personal favorite for gestalting Snakebite Striker is Eldritch Scrapper Sorcerer with the Envenomed/Serpentine Bloodline.
If you aren't trying to gestalt your way to full BAB, all good saves, and 9th level spells... then options open up significantly.
What Curse/Mystery are you thinking? Vanilla Oracle, or archetype?
Actually.. Vanilla Oracle. Curse: Aboleth Mystery: Heavens or Dark Tapestry. Then maybe Sorc with aberrant bloodline?
My own arbitrary gestalt rules don't permit mixing 9th level casters with other spellcasters... can't mix two 6/9 casting classes, either (unless one is using Alchemy, not actaul spells)... combining 4/9 casting classes with 6/9 spellcasters is highly encouraged, though. It is my attempt to coax well-rounded character creation...
When you can have an entire party of completely different full BAB, all good saves, 9th level casters... and someone shows up with 1/2 BAB, one good save, and a bunch of magic... it's like, cool, we all have 9th level spells, but a wet fart still kills you... where's the rest of your character? Lol.
That being said, Oracle and Sorcerer would have scary powerful magics, especially when you throw Mythic into the mix.
Like i said this is going to be a DMPC so the others will do the majority of the fighting and if they really need help with damage he would through a spell their way to level the playing field but other than that he would be a guide and consultant lol
if i wanted full or medium BAB i'd go bloodrager or magus at the very least.
With arcane and divine ability to debuff and the odd time willing to absolutely wreck the opposition i think it could be fun...
Whilst I understand the motivation, generally a DMPC is a bad idea. One that takes a leading role is even worse. You will find it extremely difficult to avoid metagaming with the PC. If the players need more characters, have them play two each instead.
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I think the DMPC is more of a plot device... just coaxing the party in the right direction.
As far as the Great Old Ones go... Hastur and Xhamon-Dor are the only ones I can find with fully fleshed out Obediences/boons. They have the Rapier and the Spear, as their respective weapons... if that matters to you. I like using Diverse Obedience to Hastur to pick up the 2nd Sentinel boon to become immune to confusion and insanity effects.
It helps counter the Elder Mythos Cleric's Unhinged Mind penalty... if you happen to be playing one. Hastur has a book, Preklikin’s Book of Cults, that adds a bonus to Will saves, which also helps counter the Elder Mythos Cleric's Unhinged Mind penalty. If I was going to gestalt an Elder Mythos Cleric of Hastur, I would probably go with a Swashbuckler, honestly... full BAB, all good saves, 9th level casting...
But this isn't about Elder Mythos Clerics or Swashbucklers. I apologize for the derail... Elder Mythos Cleric is my only experience dealing with Great Old Ones.
is this a DMPC or an NPC? there's a big difference. sounds like you really want an NPC.
However, look at book 4 of Carrion Crown AP and the Carrion Hill module, they are lightly Cthulu based.
Hey all. I am thinking of setting up a game where the main bad guy is Great Cthulhu. The basis of the whole game is that the New gods and old gods battle in the heavens over the material plane. and on a worldly scale the gods pick champions to fight their agents on their home worlds.
Now this group is going to be relatively small due to the size of my friends pool, and possible interested players in my area and covid lockdown. So my idea is get Golorion's mightiest heroes together and get them to fight the forces or chaos and madness...
however i want to inject an evil DMPC into the mix that will function as possible light support and quest giver to lead the party in the right direction and towards their doom at the same time.
How would you play a character that devotes his life to the Sleeper, who is insane, and knowingly helps/sabotages a party at the same time?? How rational would his thought process be? How would he hide his intensions if probed by magic??
I just want to say, you should be up front with your players about this, and hope they can separate player knowledge from character knowledge because this is the kinda thing that could potentially get to rage quit a campaign.
Mostly because it will either come across as a GM gotcha, where you hid everything so well that there isn't a clue that the players could have had to avoid going so far down a path to their own doom or it's so super obvious that the player characters should know not to engage with the crazy person and then your entire plot line is derailed.
For me as a player, I basically have to know the plot is on rails for us to unwittingly be helping our ultimate enemy or else I'm probably going to nope out as soon as things seem culty and weird or I'm going to be upset when you spring the gotcha and I feel like I had at no point a chance to know and prevent it.
I just want to say, you should be up front with your players about this, and hope they can separate player knowledge from character knowledge because this is the kinda thing that could potentially get to rage quit a campaign.
Mostly because it will either come across as a GM gotcha, where you hid everything so well that there isn't a clue that the players could have had to avoid going so far down a path to their own doom or it's so super obvious that the player characters should know not to engage with the crazy person and then your entire plot line is derailed.
For me as a player, I basically have to know the plot is on rails for us to unwittingly be helping our ultimate enemy or else I'm probably going to nope out as soon as things seem culty and weird or I'm going to be upset when you spring the gotcha and I feel like I had at no point a chance to know and prevent it.
I know my players. We've been friends for years. One of my players wanted to build a concept of her own in of my last games, so I know she'll be down for a twist and as for the other player. I'm sure he'll be down for the idea.
Plus if you are going to betray a character in game I tend to have a backup plan that will make the situation not impossible.
I'm still of the opinion, regardless of how well you think you know someone, that you put that information out there so they can react to it or process it whatever way is necessary.
I'm the kind of player that if you tell me "the general plot here is that your characters are going to helping this person, and ultimately it's going to be against your best interests" I'm going to say "that's cool, here's what I've got in mind for that".
I just like to know it's coming. Otherwise it just feels extremely frustrating.
It's kind of like how about half of horror movies you could stop about 5 minutes in and say "hey let's not do this dumb thing and avoid the inevitably weird crazy deadly obvious repercussions". But then there would be nothing to watch, and you wouldn't get to yell "no girl, don't go in there!"
I just like to know it's coming. Otherwise it just feels extremely frustrating.
That sounds like spoilers lol. But if that is how you have fun then all the power to you!
As for the DMPC portion of it. There are only 2 players and most of the decisions will be in their hands. I am only building him for a few reasons: 1) For support so they don't die. 2) Use him to lead them towards things i would need to progress the game. 3) Play using rules that I thought would rot on my shelf...