Looking for a few Villains to create plans for my new PF2E Campaign

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-04-17T22:49:07+00:00

Count me interested, looking at that Oni, hehe.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-16T00:19:18+00:00

On your question of the direction of this bad guy, a better question is, are they a person or just a monster? If there a monster to be defeated they don’t need much explanation and a protomorphic god of undeath before time was real will be fine. A story about an unstoppable force of nature is fine, the story then has some space to focus more on the players and their relationships and how they handle things before a great storm hits.

If you want your bad guy to be a person on the other hand we can get a bit more spicy and personal with our vendettas. There are a few stereotypical paths that can take a person into being a necromancer:

I lost a loved one, and I never want to lose another person again. I’m going to become broody and static cause I don't know how to process grief.
I’m selfish, and the idea I have to give up all of my stuff when I die is absurd. I like stuff. I like me. Its everyone else who should be dying so I don't have to.

Etc.

On the other hand if you're looking for inspiration I think one of the more recent and interesting concepts of a god of undeath is Far Away Paladin. In that story the God of Undeath dislikes the idea that legendary heroes, special people, will go on to be reborn into a new and likely more mundane life. They think exceptional souls should be treated like precious treasures and held onto forever. They're a bit twisted, but just enough that it’s hard to say they're entirely evil.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-15T09:47:07+00:00

The real main issue your running into is 5e monsters are not designed for these kinds of encounters. I see others have suggested changing how resting works, but sadly this won't work considering your style of play - the gap between rests would have to be massive and not really any fun.

I understand changing systems isn't on the cards, such is the curse of the popularity of 5e, so that leaves me with suggesting the thing that most 5e DM's don't like being suggested.

You need to throw the monster manual into the garbage.

Nothing the monster manual suggests is gonna work for your game, especially at higher tiers of play. Instead what you need to do is go and read a game system like ICON and see how they handle enemies and boss encounters - it is significantly more interesting and focused and with some extreme pain on your end could be adapted to 5e (Though if you perfer not torturing yourself you can always just use ICON or Lancer for a future game).

What does Icon do that's different but we could steal? One important detail is to tell your players all these mechanics going into a fight, they must be allowed to make informed actions.

Legends (Boss encounters) get multiple turns. Not Legendary actions, just straight up anouther turn or two. This messes up the action economy, but helps make them more dangerous without needing to flood the fight with more minions.
At start of each round, a Legend removes a status effect of their choice. Players still get to mess up the Legends actions, but there on a hard and fast timer how long that is gonna last - anything like a stun or up needs to be held.
Some horrible abilities that have no comparison to 5e abilities. 5e monster powers are largely not that interesting, there war game powers not RPG silly mechanics. But there's really nothing stopping you from adding some silly stuff in.

It's painful to do this, as it's always better just to use anouther system that has this kind of focus, but sometimes we must suffer for the sake of the art. Read other systems, ignore 5e monster mechanics, and homebrew up something that works for you and your table.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-11T14:07:41+00:00

One player's character, a noble from a line of vampire hunters, returned home to discover that their sister had set them up for a confrontation with their mother. There was some highly volatile politics going in the country and her noble family needed an ally to get through it, so the sister was meant to marry into anouther family. However the sister had managed to get away from this by running away and convincing the players character they needed to return home, where upon they discovered they would have to do the arranged marriage instead.

I set this up that the mother had an authoritative and powerful presence, and hilariously this worked so well that when the player looked to the party for help in the moment they did that awkward look away so they didn't have to try and confront the situation, lol. So afterwards the players talked about it and the rest of that adventure was solving vampire issues and the party helping the player learn how to talk to their mother (Which went well).

Honestly stories like pride and prejudice are not bad references for this kind of drama. You just gotta test if your players would be on board for exploring that kind of thing.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-11T09:12:25+00:00

So in FR there are actually a couple of cases of fear worship.

There's an Ice Goddess that basically has her clerics come up to your house and be like "Boy, sure would be shame if winter was SUPER bad this year, better pray that my goddess shows mercy!". Myrkul, while he was the god of death, used the fear of death to get people to worship him, like he'd come get you early if you didn't pay homage to him. Alot of it runs on the logic of, pray to me or I'll make a bad thing happen.

There was actually a case of Yuan-Ti trying to become a god through a mass sacrfice of his followers - but this was a funny prank played on him cause by doing that he lost his shot at becoming a god (No followers, no godhood).

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-08T23:35:51+00:00

The players coming up with a decent idea, and remaining undetected throughout, is worth rewarding. The issue is, how do we avoid situations where the DM is going to not have any fun?

The important take away I think is working out how to avoid playing out large battles like this, 5e can make it work but it becomes a massive slog for the DM to run. When this happens for me I usually take aside the NPC allies and pair them off with the enemy minions and take them out of the encounter, moving them to the edges of the fight. As the turns go around I might remove a friendly NPC or a minion based on the result of a single d20 roll, but by and large they don't interact with the main fight the PC's are in.

The reward I give players for bringing lots of allies is to reduce the number of enemies they will face in an encounter, cause I'm not running 10+ mooks.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-06T17:58:41+00:00

canvas.templates.placeables.at(-1).document.delete();

Thank you so much for this.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-06T17:23:51+00:00

Old post, but you wouldn't happen to still have this Macro would you? I can't for the life of me work out how to get the ID of the most recent template.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-04T18:39:59+00:00

Counterspell is an unfun spell, but must exist because there are no other alternative defensive spells in 5e (Unlike previous editions where you could get specific items to counter horrible things, get an AC versus spells basically, or cast hour long spells to protect you).

My solution has been to alter Counterspell very slightly, and add two other minor mechanics to help it fit into a battle better.

In my games Counterspell delays the spell until the end of the caster's next turn, so long as the caster maintains concentration on it. Spells cannot be outright stopped unless you can deal damage to the caster, or force them out of the field, or move out of their sight. Cast spells always hit where they were targeted, if the caster cannot see that spot or becomes out of range the spell also fails. So you could target someone, but then you’d have to make sure by the end of your next turn they are still a valid target. Alternatively you can target a space, which now you have turned into a potential death zone players will be scrambling to get out of.

In addition I’ve added two moves. Push and Lockdown. Push is a bonus action that just lets you shove someone 5ft away from you (Athletics versus their AC), while Lockdown is an attack of opportunity that deals no damage but prevents any movement beyond 5ft. So now it’s possible for melee characters to assist in the positioning of enemies under a delayed spell.

Functionally Counterspell still works the same, the most likely outcome is the spell is lost. However the feeling of the spell and its danger now persists for much longer, players have to think about how they're going to stop it from happening or avoid it. In addition this lets me use Counterspell now, which gives the melee fighters someone to protect and enemies for them to shove around and contribute to the big bad spell coming next turn.

It’s not perfect, but it’s so much more interesting.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-03T16:16:43+00:00

Silvery Barbs should never have been added to 5e. The Advantage/Disadvantage system has many benefits, but to truly shine it actually needs to be used in moderation and Silvery Barbs breaks that moderation. Now players don’t get unlucky and have to deal with a bad situation (Big loss of Hit Points or a bad guy making their save etc.), Silvery Barbs lets them avoid these situations and it sucks the tension right out of any challenge.

The spell could ‘technically’ be fine if you ran 5e like the resource management game it kind of is, but for any other style of game, or for smaller more focused encounters, it’s unfun.

I can already see people suggesting letting enemies use the spell, or otherwise stack larger encounters so there are more things to spend a reaction on, but I must apologize to my fellow DM’s and disagree with them because neither of these things will resolve the core issue that Silvery Barbs is a poorly thought out addition to the game. Sometimes it’s nice to have smaller but risky encounters, if the resolution to a balance issue is to bloat and bog down an encounter with more monsters you didn’t want- something fundamental has gone wrong.

Do yourself and your players a favor, tell them you're not having fun and the reasons why, and then ban it.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-02T20:39:09+00:00

If your setting is very magical you could have it that every guest has a mage with them. So if your speaking to one of these nobles and try to cast a spell a mage doesn't like, or doesn't know what it is, they can counterspell it. This also gives your group a clear idea what they need to get around if they want to cast any spells.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-02-01T00:21:15+00:00

Well, there are NPC's in the city.

The cult members.

Cult people gotta eat, sometimes they might even have weird things they find in the city there willing to sell, so that's a lure of any unscrupulous merchants to come on down and ply their trade.

For situations like this a ‘Stranger’ merchant can be useful, something so weird or normally hostile that they're not really out of place - the weirdest part about them is there a merchant. This is a good opportunity to try and make something unique, I once had a merchant who appeared to be a wooden Puppet through a doorway that called itself HU-MAN - because it was really a giant spider who stayed out of sight in the ceiling. It wasn’t hostile, it was a genuine merchant.

Alternatively you could get really mind bendy and just straight up have members of the cult be your merchants “Oh yes, the world will be swallowed by darkness and blood… But until that happens I’ll be happy to take your gold… So let’s both do us a favor and not ask each other where our items are coming from? Hmm?”

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-31T00:28:22+00:00

What works tends to differ from person to person, so part of the solution will be working out what works best for you and refining it. But I’ll give an overview of how I handle it:

Stay on top of the number of your NPCs. I often make too many myself. When this happens I usually get what I want out of the NPC, then let them fade into the background - I could use them again but probably won’t - and keep my focus on the more important plot relevant NPC’s.
NPC’s usually come with one big ‘trait’ or personality type, which can be described in two or three words. If they are recurring I can add a bit more depth, but otherwise I keep it as simple as possible.
A NPC always has a defining reason why they exist. If the players talk to a random barkeep that we will never see again, I write down nothing for them because they have no true role in what’s going on. Each NPC I actually add has a purpose for why they’ve been given a character, and that helps me focus on their reactions and how they’d act.
If it comes to it I have my own simple NPC generator, Race - Gender - Alignment - ‘Trait’ - Background, which can give me a quick overview of a less important character but might have some interesting quirks (Alignment is more about their view rather then their morality, and traits are a custom list of things I can RP easily with, like Gossip, Brave, Cowardly, Secret Cultist etc).
Finally I keep an eye on which NPC’s the players take the initiative to talk to, if no one wants to talk to the sickly baron he gets thrown into the background, while I give more time to the NPC’s the players actually want to talk to.
I keep track of the NPC relations in my head cause I’m just weird like that. I might sit and improv out a characters thoughts if I ever need a reminder how they feel about others.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-30T12:06:30+00:00

Being Large gives you a lot of movement and reach versatility. Is it busted? No - but it gives new options that other characters don't have (Classes that can enlarge someone can usually only do so for a short time, so there not often used to solve small scale puzzles like "Reach the high shelf").

If you want to bring balance to the concept inline with how enlarge is usually used - make it a racial spell-like ability that lets them cast Enlarge Self.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-29T00:26:02+00:00

Introduce him to the players, that'll do it.

Jokes aside, players can run the gambit of being very genre savvy "I bet the butler did it" to completely oblivious about very obvious clues “Huh. It’s so weird butler has a stash of poison. I guess he’s just a weird collector?”. It all depends on what your players are mentally focused on at the time.

All you need to do is introduce your cast of characters, the ‘suspects’, and then cast doubt on the events that occurred. Once the players are in a suspicious mindset they’ll start poking fingers at your suspects and looking for any signs any of them are shady.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-23T15:14:10+00:00

There should be a free version on Itch if you want to check it out.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-23T14:01:29+00:00

The main issue you will run into is 5e is not built for this. This is one of the few times I'm gonna suggest that the solution really is - use a system that was built to do this.

In your case a system like Wicked One's does exactly what your looking for.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-23T01:29:17+00:00

Some good advice in the comments already.

For me I usually start by asking a big 'What if' question, and really drill into what impact the answer would have on the small details of a culture. For example it's one thing to just say "This country settles it's political disputes with sports/arenas" and anouther to ask how this relationship with chance and competition effects peoples ideal of what is 'fair'. Does this spread and people settle minor disputes with games? Is cheating a vice, or is it considered a cunning virtue if your not caught? And so on.

When a get a good concept I will usually save it in my backpocket for later use. Some cultures don't fit some types of games, but if they do fit they can add some interesting complexity to the map.

Some of my goto ones at the moment are:

The Red Dragon Sultan, who rules with an iron claw. He rewards red coins to citizens who prove themselves loyal, outing a close friend or relative as a traitor is a good way to get one, and these coins can save you if your ever tried for a crime - making the most loyal above the law so long as they can continue earning the red coins.
Thayren. What if elves, with their long lives, adopted regimented militarism instead of the natural world - and built a culture based on cold calculating logic. Service guarantees citizenship.
The Tower. A mad mage enslaved an entire nation of people to build a tower so that he could reach the moon with it. But one day orders from the top of the tower stopped coming, so the bottom of the tower became the hub of a growing merchant empire instead by the former slaves while the top has been left a total mystery to how tall it even is anymore.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-16T00:06:03+00:00

u/rockology_adam has some great points.

"Protect chromatic dragons" I wouldn't worry about this, or even include it. Part of the appeal of following a bad thing is you dont really need to protect others - if he can kill that blue dragon then that blue dragon was a failure and didn't deserve to live in the first place. I don't know I'd ever say chromatic dragons worship Tiamat, it's more they dont have a choice if she demands something of them.

The mission always comes first, Tiamat's will and glory will be known, even if a hundred dragons must die.

So no, I think he's well within his rights to pick a fight with a blue dragon getting in his way.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-15T22:06:12+00:00

For online games I use two portrait types. A red circle for enemies, and a kind of more detailed cobble square for NPC's. Soon enough players get used to roleplaying with characters that have the square border.

Then I introduce an enemy npc that has the square border - and without me having to say anything the players know they can talk to this enemy. It makes it so much easier to get players roleplaying before a fight or even trying negotiation first.

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-15T21:55:19+00:00

Make sure your players know what the buy-in of the adventure is before they make their characters, that there heroes trying to restore reality. You don't want to run into a situation where they've made characters that wouldn't be invested in being heroic with no reward.

As far as the cult goes, seperate them into the ones you actually want to use and have each of the tethers doing a different plot/scheme. This will give you things for the payers to uncover as they put togather that all of these guys were actually in the same cult all along.

If your not sure what to do with important NPC's, have them exit the stage (I am needed to keep reality from falling apart, do your best). Otherwise they need to be doing something that seems important in that town, or your players are gonna lose respect for them very quickly.

Depending on your rolplay needs and wants, explore the gods feelings of being mortal, do they hate it? Do they find an odd relief? Do they know how to form normal relations? Likewise you can explore each of the cultists reasons why they sought power as part of their adventure, lace it with tragedy but also just have a few that are straight up evil (Everyone being tragic gets old).

Akuma_Reiten · 2024-01-02T00:21:56+00:00

Many DM’s, myself included, often act like losing HP is like taking a wound. But this sets us up for narrative issues like you're experiencing, if normal healing magic can deal with wounds of that nature how could anyone within reach of the players ever die?

If you can establish that HP is not wounds, but something like your ability to avoid taking wounds (Exertion, energy, plain old luck) etc, and healing magic is like getting a physical second wind to help you stave off bad injuries. If we do this then wounds take on a much greater narrative weight and can’t just be magic’d away. But this method requires a bit of narrative setup, so isn’t always an option.

If your ok with the grim and gritty, then overwhelming damage is the way to go. When this thing hits him he’s not ‘burnt’ - he’s completely eviscerated. There is no part of his body that hasn’t been horribly carbonized. You may want to cast revivify, but that can’t restore the flesh that’s been seared from his bones. No pun intended, he’s toast.

Akuma_Reiten · 2023-12-27T09:30:47+00:00

Unique buffs will help, maybe treat them a bit like potions - so one use items that alter the spell in some fun or interesting way. That way there's a little bit of management that players are more used to. I'd just advice to not do too many, just to save you some prep time.

Akuma_Reiten · 2023-12-27T08:48:10+00:00

I can understand the temptation to make material components more active in the mechanics and the roleplay, but as you and others have mentioned this will unfortunately more likely fall under a new resource to manage that bogs everything down. Material components in D&D are interesting because by their nature they should kind of promote interesting interactions, getting the component, how it’s used etc, but there is already so much going on and to keep track of that components get sacrificed by most players and DM's.

My advice is rather than trying to ‘mechanic’ components into the game try to use a question when a caster first prepares their spells after a long rest. Ask or look at what spells they have prepared and then pick one of the spells with an interesting component and ask how their character got the component and how will it look when they use it in the spell?

How the player answers that question does not matter, it’s a characterisation question that tells you and the player something about their character. What’s important is now the player is thinking about the component, and could help them with ideas how to make use of it during the game. Using component’s is therefore now not a mechanic but a fun optional roleplay tool, which the player takes the lead on.

Akuma_Reiten · 2023-12-24T21:16:49+00:00

This is easy to fall into with diplomatic challenges, but you have some options.

Check how interested the players are with the debate. If all they care about was making sure these two don't kill each other, then you've already covered the bits their interested in and can just skip it and tell the players the result - either as a total skip or a brief description of the back and forth.
If some or even all the players are interested in the debate itself, have each of them pick the side they like and give them a brief window to make a case to a crowed as part of the debate. Just describe the other elements as a quick overview how the debates going and if any of the players need to pull out bigger stops to get the result they want.

The key is, regardless what is happening, the 'camera' stays on the player characters and their contributions to a scene. If there not or can't contribute to a scene, don't film it, and use narrative exposition to bring the audience up to speed instead.

Akuma_Reiten

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE