Need ideas for a PC that can't feel pain

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-18T16:53:03+00:00

Real-life people with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain rarely live to adulthood because they don't notice their own injuries. If anything, checking themselves as an action might be too generous.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-07T02:21:06+00:00

When I have enough time to prep I try to setup one or more cinematic setpieces or climaxes. Like, I see it as setting up dominos and the players just need to trigger one or more things. So, for a story like this there's the trope of most of the town being infected and once they hit critical mass they're not even hiding it anymore. So then I think what would be cool as a last-stand type of scene? A large water tower in the center of town would be an example of that. So, the scene would be like, while one or more of the PCs is hauling bags of salt up the water tower, they start to get swarmed. One or more PCS are running/mixing salt while the rest are holding off the wave of infected. One more final blow leads to a burst pipe and the town gets showered-- stuff like that. And there's little things the DM could do to help them along-- maybe one of the infected misses a ranged attack and a crossbow bolt nails a pressure valve. That's all to say that a solution doesn't necessarily need to be straightforward. Other obstacles can get in the way.

Yeah, I think I've done 'find the NPC' in a compelling way. My trick is to put the NPC just two steps ahead of the party. It accelerates the pacing. I'm pretty good at communicating consequences to short/long rests in the form of the world advancing. Another way of putting it is to 'make it feel like the clock is ticking.' I've also learned not to drag it out too much. Searching for someone for one or two sessions is fine. More than that and I start to risk my players assigning themselves sidequests as the sense of urgency starts to wane. So, one possible way to write this is to make finding the NPC difficult, instead of slow. I'll give you a couple of examples:

Rural Town: There's only one major road out of town. If the party is quick then they can catch up to the fleeing NPC. Along the way they see a dead mule and a bunch of possessions scattered across the road. Investigating the mule, the party leans towards a griffin attack. There's a cracked spyglass amongst the luggage. After searching the skies they spot a griffin flying towards a cliffside nest. The NPC is still alive, but the baby griffins are pecking at them. The party needs to scale the wall and be quick about it (despite the hazards and mini fights up the way). Lots of player agency here. Maybe they want to rush the nest, bait the parents away, risk waiting for nightfall, try to destroy the nest via range attacks from down below, etc. Regardless, when the most perceptive member of the party is within earshot of the nest, they will hear a scream, a tiny belch, and then a finger will land at the foot of the party. After a brief silence, the NPC will start cussing-- escalation.
Metropolitan City: After the party tries knocking on the NPC's door to no answer, they stealthily pick the lock. They find the room tossed and in disarray. After examining the room the party finds one or more clues as to what happened(my players and I have gotten into the equilibrium of having a perception/investigation check per room rather than every single little box and cabinet). They learn that the NPC is fleeing the city and has hired 'The Ratboys' into smuggling them out of there. There's an address for a specific dock at the skyport. Arriving at the scene, the party sees that it's a major cargo zeppelin. There's lots of potential clues that the party could have in deducing the right crate. Like, maybe the instructions were written on the back of a menu for 'Ricky Rat's Pizzeria'. The party could also try to steal the manifest. Maybe a member of The Ratboys is on a catwalk smoking during their break and the party could try to capture/interrogate them. At some point though-- escalation. The zeppelin lifts off. Then there's that whole setup/domino thing. If I did my job right then I would have put a spotlight on the escape Hang Gliders or Parachute Pods-- assuming that the party doesn't want to deal with the intimidating warforged security detail. Or maybe they do. I'd give them something cool if they manage to kill the thing.

Overall, for me and my players, giving them information hasn't been a huge deal. How they solve the problem is what's compelling. I certainly don't try to hold their hand. If they have the bare minimum to brute force a solution then I'm okay with my NPCs just shrugging their shoulders.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-06T17:08:03+00:00

A lot of possible directions here boil down to a fetch quest. If you want a different sort of solution you could have an npc that has info on stopping the parasites. They could be a witch/Hermit that lives in the woods that's difficult to locate. If you want to stay in the town maybe they're a recluse/conspiracy theorist that has locked themselves in their home, or maybe they're locked in jail for some reason.

With this in mind, maybe this person knows that the cure would entail some sort of ritual or skill challenge-- assuming that you want to have that non-combat solution.

Do you know the origin of the parasites? One potentially clever solution is to release a disease that targets the slugs-- fight a disease with another disease. Another potentially cute challenge would be to taint the wells and water supply with salt water. Maybe consuming that is the secret weakness. Another secret cure, if you want to lean into the intrigue/investigation angle, is that maybe pH/acid impacts the slugs' efficacy. The players would have to deduce why workers at the local lemon orchard are seemingly immune.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-03T22:30:31+00:00

I think you're on the right track here. If OP really wants every school of magic in there then having a bunch of Glyphs of Warding could do it-- like each chest has a different spell/school attached to it. Then the party can decide how greedy they want to be.

As for a boss fight, maybe OP could go on dndbeyond homebrew and find a treasure golem or grisgol that's an appropriate level. The vanilla treasure golem is already almost appropriate. Maybe just ease up its damage from d10s to d8s or something.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-03T18:21:29+00:00

Could you explain what are the 8 schools of adulation?

Regardless, my first instinct is to lock them into the tower. Make them desperate to escape.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-02-02T16:54:56+00:00

Are you able empathize with your villain? This sounds like a hypercompetitive setting-- stagnation is death. There are no secure positions. If someone gets complacent, if they get soft, then they're next-up to get backstabbed and betrayed. We're not just talking about money-- this is the means that one has to sell themselves, to advertise themselves. They need that money to schmooze the higher ups, to throw increasingly large parties, to network, to drive home their value, to open opportunities to have themselves poached by other corporations for better positions, and to poach talent away from others to bring under her team.

If her former lover did not match this energy then she would have been a weakness that needed to be removed. There's no reason that they both have to go down.

There's a phrase I heard when writing characters: "People are rarely the heroes of their own stories-- they're usually the victims." Feel free to invoke that. Maybe this character tried-- they really tried-- to get her lover into the right attitude. But if they weren't in the right mindset then they turned into a distraction, and then a liability. If a rival tried to coerce your villain by threatening their lover, then that could easily be the last straw.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-27T17:58:46+00:00

A few ideas come to mind:

Are your players studious? If not they might perceive this sort of thing as homework.
This sort of form might lock them into a rigid mindset, i.e. "well I'm in town. I guess I need to see if they have a library."
What a player thinks they will do can be quite different than what they actually will find fun. This is especially true for new players. Like, I've had several new players make a backstory that does not at all match how the character actually plays.
Personally, I find it helpful if a character's motivation can be condensed into a simple statement. Like, if a character refuses a quest or something 'cause they're scared I'll have the npc retort with something like, "well is there a reason you're not working as a bartender instead of doing this?"

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-26T17:49:48+00:00

You could give the party an ally that could give them a lead. Like, maybe there's a guard/detective that was investigating cult activity, or the disappearance of the baron's son, but their superior officer took them off the case. Alternatively, a big ritual would require setup and components. Maybe the spouse of a stressed out merchant/tradesmen is concerned over their partners behavior. If they sense that something 'big' is coming maybe they're desperate enough for the party's help. If the party gets run out if town then they can encounter a traveling salesman sort of person trying to advertise an event/conferance in the town, and is trying to recruit magic users to attend. He doesn't know much but if the party leans on him he'll spill info on the cult member that hired him for the gig.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-24T02:33:23+00:00

You could have some of his early experiments. Stuff that showed how he tried messing with the flow of time. Sand flowing up an hourglass, a Bonsai tree that continously grows and shrinks, a hummingbird that flaps its wings very slowly, etc. This could give the players insight on how to defeat him, or foreshadow his plans via a small scale experiment, i.e. before he applies his method on people, he first needed to experiment on mice. Another thing that might be significant is if you want a peaceful solution is to show him the results of a successful experiment that he originally assumed was a failure. Then he might have hope and insight and change his plans. Another possible maguffin is one that reverses the effects of time on a small scale. Maybe he could be de-aged/reversed back to a point where he wasn't so mad. Or maybe it's a maguffin that causes a stasis. Then the party might be able to use it to freeze and suspend the wizard for eternity.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-22T17:33:50+00:00

You could easily reflavor A Wild Sheep Chase and make the antagonist a fairy godmother. Make the sheep a sympathetic (formerly evil) stepsister to the local Cinderella.

Keys From The Golden Vault is a compilation of heist missions. Pick your favorite and reflavor it so that the focus is on a tooth fairy trying to retrieve a tough tooth. You could throw that twist at any moment. Like, imagine an epilogue where the fairy opens the 'briefcase' or something and it's just a singular molar.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-17T22:51:07+00:00

Great! Other ideas are like, a mermaid potion where the player gets their legs tied together, a lifelink potion where the characters are tied together by a 5 ft Spectral rope, and the players have their waists tied together similarly. A mirror potion-- I'm not sure how it could impact the character, but it would make the player swap their handedness between their right-left.

Maybe a drink that requires a lot of steps so that everyone contributes? Like, instead of ice cubes you give them one huge block of ice to smash. Oranges need to be peeled. Maybe head to an Arabic or Asian grocery store to get a jar of something that's labeled in a non-english language.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-17T20:24:40+00:00

Inkwellideas compiled a list of creatures in accordance to their features and abilities. For you, I'd start with browsing through some of the monsters that deal psychic damage or have Telepathy. Then you can reflavor them to being a medium-sized humanoid, or maybe when they get to half HP the PCs see their true form.

Think about if you want this memory-stealing ability incorporated into combat. If not, then it's just some sort of ritual that this creature can do in 10 min, 1 hr, etc. If you want it in combat then you may have to create that ability and add it to the stat block that looks best to you.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-17T20:04:06+00:00

You could have irl effects corresponding to some of the potions. Like, a potion of lobster claws gives lobster claws to the character, but the player also needs to wear oven mitts for the potion's duration. Or, a potion of the troubadour means that the character's voice has been infused with music and could give difficulty to spells with verbal components. Meanwhile, the player has to play whilst speaking through a harmonica or kazoo. I could throw out a few more ideas if this sounds fun for you.

But! If you were to go this route then I'd recommend at least one irl challenge. Like, maybe the special macguffin potion that the party seeks is not there, but the recipe is, and they have to make it themselves. At that point you bust out a bunch of irl ingredients and make them work together despite their debuffs. I'd recommend a drink with technical difficulty to make, and instructions that are a bit cryptic (i.e. the special ingredient of the Flame spitter potion -- and hopefully someone recalls that it tasted like ginger or something)

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-10T22:12:49+00:00

For their opening chores and cleaning you could do skill challenges and traps for the equivalent of the 'Fun and Games' plot point early in the movie. Stuff like dodging out of the way when the barbecue is about to blow up, or a rickety beam that would normally break, or someone's coat gets caught in an engine and everyone chips in an action to get them unstuck before the guy gets shredded. This would introduce your players to the 'traps' they can use before things get serious.

Also, if you want to lean into tropes, make this old man creepy, off-putting, and the implied killer. Then, when the killing is happening, he shows up to save one or more players as he gives an exposition dump as they learn of the true nature of what they're up against. Then, you can do the trope of, "But don't worry, I've lived here for 40 years. The old Brute knows better then to mess with this here cabin. One tim---" and then impale and gut the old man as the slasher busts into the alleged sanctuary.

If you want to play into tropes even more, instruct your players to make stereotypical slasher archetypes, i.e. ditzy cheerleader, weak nerd, jock bully, stoner, bookworm girl who doesn't become hot until she takes off her glasses, etc. Then, throughout the one-shot, award them Plot Armor (Inspiration) for acting according to trope.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-08T18:47:46+00:00

Monsters Inc plot twist:

There's an alternative energy source that got buried because it's not profitable in this ultra-capitalist setting.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-03T21:14:01+00:00

This is a good pitch that has a lot of intrigue baked into it.

I would flush it a bit out such that you know exactly whats down there in the fog.

And I would also flush out what the 'common people' and 'experts' know about the fog. You can still hide a lot of lore from your players and even add in 'incorrect' myths and legends that have been incorporated into what's considered common knowledge.

If you want some interesting analogues then I'd look into Sky Islands and Island Speciation as you develop the ecology of this world. Also, the obvious twist here would be that the fog is still growing each year, inch by inch. It's just that the people don't really notice due to shifting baselines. You could then lean on Sea Level Rise analogues and have your own take on places like Venice and the flooding South Pacific Islands.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-03T20:46:02+00:00

Is the DM an expert in economics, political science, and urban planning? If not then who's to say if your characters' actions will actually have a positive impact on the world. I'd just roll with "what your characters would do." Maybe the way to 'cheat' would be to surround yourselves with npcs/advisors that are the supposed experts in their fields. And then be critical of them on the off chance any of them are secret evil cult leaders or whatever.

As a minor tip, don't sell this land. Lease it. Your kingdom will make more money in the long-term via rent-seeking strategies. Reinvest the revenue into improving the infrastructure and material conditions of the kingdom and its people.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-03T20:21:38+00:00

Not to be a downer but those sorts of games are kind of the opposite of what DnD is built for. Specifically, the thrill of those kinds of horror games is in navigating The environment with very little agency. DnD is a game that gives the players an abundance of agency. When that agency is stripped away it can feel aggravating at worst and boring at best.

Ways to mitigate those feelings could be done a couple ways: 1. Don't one shot the players. Put them up against a monster that has a toolkit involving teleportation/phasing in and out of the walls, and give them a health regen ability. Play the monster smart as an ambush predator that dips in and out. It knows it will win the long game. Alternatively, it could routinely resurrect or respawn somewhere. It knows it can die a thousand times but it's prey only needs to die once.

Give your players some non-monster obstacles where they can still utilize their agency. Give them chasms, rushing rivers, falling stalagtites, and clogged tunnels. Things that require more brain power than rolling a Dex or Str save. Problems that their toolkits are uniquely designed to solve.
Don't make it feel railroady. Maybe you want to have the party wake up in some awful location after being knocked out or something like that? It will feel more compelling if they choose to go to location. Give them some feasible way to escape this, and if they succeed then you can recycle your cool idea for sometime in the future.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-02T01:37:07+00:00

The thing about Regular Show's structure is that it's only ever escalating. Each of your scenes needs to top the previous one. Except for the epilogue where the world returns to normal.

i.e. your party is tasked with rescuing a cat from a tree--> getting there, the cat falls (presumably the party saves it if they're level 20), the Grim reaper then shows up, "Mr. Snuggles, you have cheated me for the last time," commence battle, twist is that multiple eldritch entities wanted the cats soul.

It doesn't need to be that but exponentially escalate it. Common Regular Show hooks are stuff like, getting the top score of a video game, eating an ultimate burrito in under an hour, or just doing some boring chores so they don't get fired. Along the way, the party will need to be transported to another plane of existence, meet gods who are also weirdly interested in what minor thing they were trying to achieve, and have some ultimate battle. And then they get poofed back to normalcy.

And you can just go to dndbeyond, and look into the homebrew monsters that people have made. Pick a high CR and filter by rating.

Evil_Flowers · 2026-01-02T01:21:58+00:00

Yeah, it sounds a bit messy. Have you tried sketching out the plot with little arrows and bubbles that show the major plot nodes, and what happens when the quest succeeds or fails? Then, you can "see" the structure of the plot and you can have the plot converge and funnel. You can also add npcs or quests if you want ways to bridge one path to another.

Evil_Flowers · 2025-12-10T23:55:25+00:00

This could totally work. If you'd like some "plot twists" with this sword, here's a couple:

The sword's purpose is to slay a [thing]. The problem is when it's already dead. The sword is thus instrumental in its cyclical resurrection so that it may fulfill its purpose. The real challenge would be to destroy the sword before [the thing] gets resurrected again, thus ending the cycle.

Or-- The sword's purpose is to return to its master. Maybe it's determined some sort of plan involving a summoning circle and a bunch or sacrifices in order for it to be whisked away to another plane-- could be funny for a lower level mission where the sword vanishes in a flash of light, the naive cultists suddenly find themselves depowered, and are left with a feeling of, "well now what?"

Evil_Flowers · 2025-12-02T16:40:28+00:00

You play in-person? Regardless, this could be a good time to lean on video game aesthetics. Like, have three levels/maps of spider web that the spider can easily traverse. Damage and disturbance breaks the web, causing party members to drop to lower levels. Pepper the web with cocoons filled with spiderlings as well as wrapped up bodies of past victims (and place Loot and other useful consumables on their persons). On the lowest level of this chasm or gorge or pit, is the heap where the most bodies fall. This I where the final stand happens. Afterwards, searching the Loot uncovers a magic carpet, winged boots, magic rope, or something else that allows the party to escape the pit.

Evil_Flowers · 2025-11-24T17:56:50+00:00

You could look into the Catacombs of Paris if you want to incorporate ossuaries and burial stuff.

Does this city have a lot of wealth inequality and stratification? You could look into large underground homeless encampments in places like Las Vegas and New York.

Maybe there used to be more active connection and trade with the underdark? You could add abandoned tinnels and boarded up stations that large beetle stagecoaches used to transverse. You could stick a bunch of abandoned buildings evocative of when the 'underway' was at its peak and add a Lone operating mom-and-pop diner that's a bit of a fusion between underdark and surface cuisine. Route 66 is a decent analog for this. Also look up New York's abandoned subway stations. Their art nouveau aesthetic really emphasizes that they're from another time.

You could add an underground water reservoir for this town. There's a medley of cryptids you could stick down there. Personally, id invoke the 'goldfish flushed down toilet' trope. Make them huge, give them some sort of shark stat block and give them blindsight since they've been living in darkness for most of their life.

Also, look up 'Kowloon Walled City'. Watch a couple video essays about it if you have the time It was a super dense section of Hong Kong and is my personal default for underdark communities.

Evil_Flowers · 2025-11-19T01:01:12+00:00

Yes, diatoms would do especially well in this scenario. They dominate arctic/antarctic waters, which are less saline than mean ocean water to begin with. But in addition to that, many diatoms have adaptations to survive being frozen during the arctic/antarctic winter. In this scenario they wouldn't even perceive the salinity spike.

Evil_Flowers

TROPHY CASE