SO I have made an NPC party that includes a Tiefling. This party is basically roaming around the world doing pretty much what my players are doing (being adventurers) and I plan to have the two parties cross paths pretty often throughout the campaign and sometimes help, sometimes hinder each other.
The Tiefling from the NPC adventuring party wants to free Tiamat from her prison but I am struggling to come up with a good reason as to why he would want to this.
Initially, I though that he would want to free Tiamat so that he could bring her back and use her to unite all the Chromatic Dragons in the world under her name/banner and use that army of dragons to lay waste to the human world as punishment for the way humans have treated him and others of his kind. The problem is - this idea is too much like an idea that the BBEG would have and I don't actually want him to be the BBEG of this campaign. Or any campaign for that matter and I am struggling to come up with story ideas about why a Tiefling would want to break Tiamat out of prison and what he would want to do afterwards if he was ever successful.
Obviously I don't expect you guys to write me a whole story or anything but if you have any ideas about why he might want to do this and you wouldn't mind sharing them with me, I would be eternally grateful.
Maybe he’s so convinced he (or someone he wants to see glorified) could also beat Tiamat, making them legendary. He just doesn’t think what few lives are lost before the victory outweigh the glory to be won. It would probably require he not advertise that he intends to help free T, but he could boast around the campfire, “I hope she does get free. There are heroes on this plane that are underestimated. It’d serve her right to get humbled and reminded of that every so often.”
Perhaps he's had a vision that an invasion is coming from the Far Realm, and believes that only the power of the Chromatic Dragons can stand against the threat from the Far Realm, and to unite them he needs Tiamat.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Might your Tiefling despise himself, and greatly admire dragons & dragonborn? Perhaps if he proves himself to Tiamat she might reward him, transforming him into one of the creatures he admires so much.
Maybe your Tiefling is actually a descendant of Tiamat, and has some sort of connection with the dragon goddess. Through dreams and psychic influence she has convinced the tiefling that her freedom is necessary to prevent some sort of calamity.
Is the tiefling chaotic? Some people just like to watch the world burn.
You beat me to it. I agree completely, a chaotic NPC could have a ridiculous reason. Heck, Tiamat could be whispering into his ear promising him great power if he frees her.
I would give him a legendary artifact, a harness of dragon control. And it requires gems of the color of dragon you plan on controlling infused with the breath of the dragon type you hope to control. He could be spending the whole time trying to infuse all 5 colors of gems with the plan of harnessing Tiamat to use her to fight something else. Delusions of grandeur, of course, and the harness won't work. The big baddie could be influencing him to do this as 'doing his dirty work.' You just need a threat credible enough that releasing Tiamat seems reasonable. And yes, make him Chaotic. Because seriously, who releases Tiamat? He could be driving his compatriots to take up dragon hunting so he can try and get hit by the breath weapon while holding the gem to infuse it. (Volunteering to be the bait). The harness could grant resistance to dragon breath, so he just needs to make his save. I'd make him be doing this behind his party's back. Because they "just wouldn't understand."
That's the things I wanted him to seem credible and personable on the outside while being a high functioning sociopath.
So literally he is highly intelligent and charming and capable of drawing people into his web of lies, deceit. He is extreemly narcissistic and lacking in empathy or the ability to understand the emotional needs of others as he sees them as just another way to improve his image or alleviate his boredom.
So taking that into account, I think you guys are right - he is chaotic. Chaotic Neutral perhaps, as he doesn't do anything out of hatred or malace, rather because it serves his purposes at the time.
And for some reason, he is fixated on Tiamat and breaking her out of her prison.
I am thinking this Tiefling maybe hears voices, whispers in his head (perhaps even from Tiamat herself) that has slowly twisted his mind.
Being so intelligent and charasmatic though, he is able to appear "normal" while harbouring these dark thoughts about freeing Tiamat and watching the world burn.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A good-ish (a very big -ish) reason to want to break Tiamat out of the Hells could be that maybe Asmodeus stole her captured divine essence to power the pact which made almost all tieflings be reborn in his image. By freeing Tiamat you could end that pact and break the hellish bloodline free from Asmodeus. Granted, you'd also damn the prime material plane to a tyranny of dragons, but omelettes and eggs.
A good-ish (a very big -ish) reason to want to break Tiamat out of the Hells could be that maybe Asmodeus stole her captured divine essence to power the pact which made almost all tieflings be reborn in his image. By freeing Tiamat you could end that pact and break the hellish bloodline free from Asmodeus. Granted, you'd also damn the prime material plane to a tyranny of dragons, but omelettes and eggs.
The hellish bloodline pact is actually already broken, it's just its effects weren't reversed. But non-asmodeus tieflings have started to appear again, that's why there are so many tiefling subraces.
I know, I've read all of Erin M. Evans' books, but I'm working on the assumption that not everyone has and/or are playing their own version of the realms where what's in the books are not necessarily relevant.
Good people do things to benefit others and sometimes themselves, evil people do things to benefit themselves and sometimes others. The difference is minute, but I think it all boils down to that.
A good person could want to do something inherently evil for a number of reasons; thinking he can vanquish that evil (in case of freeing Tiamat) or in order to channel that evil into something good. Maybe he wants to end the Blood War by sending Tiamat down the ranks of the demon armies. Perhaps he's misguided, thinking that by freeing Tiamat she will grant him boons he can use for freeing a nation or the entire Tiefling race from the grasp of another evil entity. Perhaps he's struck a deal with Asmodeus himself that if he proves to be capable of this, he would be granted a wish he intends to use for something similar.
All in all, I think that freeing Tiamat in itself can never be done for "good". Even an advocate of chaos that believes that imprisonment by its very nature is the epitomy of evil and thus even evil creatures must be allower to roam free I don't believe is "good". However, if its a "tool" for another plan, that might change this a bit. Being compelled to do so is an interesting option as well, but there can always be a "bigger picture" in order to make things more interesting.
Hi Guys,
SO I have made an NPC party that includes a Tiefling. This party is basically roaming around the world doing pretty much what my players are doing (being adventurers) and I plan to have the two parties cross paths pretty often throughout the campaign and sometimes help, sometimes hinder each other.
The Tiefling from the NPC adventuring party wants to free Tiamat from her prison but I am struggling to come up with a good reason as to why he would want to this.
Initially, I though that he would want to free Tiamat so that he could bring her back and use her to unite all the Chromatic Dragons in the world under her name/banner and use that army of dragons to lay waste to the human world as punishment for the way humans have treated him and others of his kind. The problem is - this idea is too much like an idea that the BBEG would have and I don't actually want him to be the BBEG of this campaign. Or any campaign for that matter and I am struggling to come up with story ideas about why a Tiefling would want to break Tiamat out of prison and what he would want to do afterwards if he was ever successful.
Obviously I don't expect you guys to write me a whole story or anything but if you have any ideas about why he might want to do this and you wouldn't mind sharing them with me, I would be eternally grateful.
Cheers
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
To me that seems hard because the objective of releasing Tiamat would, to me, make them a villain.
maybe through religious or misconceptual reasons?
Could be tricked into wanting to do it, like thinking it will reduce the agresiveness of chromatic dragons.
Maybe the tiefling has a personal grudge against hell and wants to free tiamet out of spite.
Maybe he’s so convinced he (or someone he wants to see glorified) could also beat Tiamat, making them legendary. He just doesn’t think what few lives are lost before the victory outweigh the glory to be won. It would probably require he not advertise that he intends to help free T, but he could boast around the campfire, “I hope she does get free. There are heroes on this plane that are underestimated. It’d serve her right to get humbled and reminded of that every so often.”
Perhaps he's had a vision that an invasion is coming from the Far Realm, and believes that only the power of the Chromatic Dragons can stand against the threat from the Far Realm, and to unite them he needs Tiamat.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Is the tiefling chaotic? Some people just like to watch the world burn.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Might your Tiefling despise himself, and greatly admire dragons & dragonborn? Perhaps if he proves himself to Tiamat she might reward him, transforming him into one of the creatures he admires so much.
Maybe your Tiefling is actually a descendant of Tiamat, and has some sort of connection with the dragon goddess. Through dreams and psychic influence she has convinced the tiefling that her freedom is necessary to prevent some sort of calamity.
You beat me to it. I agree completely, a chaotic NPC could have a ridiculous reason. Heck, Tiamat could be whispering into his ear promising him great power if he frees her.
Professional computer geek
I would give him a legendary artifact, a harness of dragon control. And it requires gems of the color of dragon you plan on controlling infused with the breath of the dragon type you hope to control. He could be spending the whole time trying to infuse all 5 colors of gems with the plan of harnessing Tiamat to use her to fight something else. Delusions of grandeur, of course, and the harness won't work. The big baddie could be influencing him to do this as 'doing his dirty work.' You just need a threat credible enough that releasing Tiamat seems reasonable. And yes, make him Chaotic. Because seriously, who releases Tiamat? He could be driving his compatriots to take up dragon hunting so he can try and get hit by the breath weapon while holding the gem to infuse it. (Volunteering to be the bait). The harness could grant resistance to dragon breath, so he just needs to make his save. I'd make him be doing this behind his party's back. Because they "just wouldn't understand."
That's the things I wanted him to seem credible and personable on the outside while being a high functioning sociopath.
So literally he is highly intelligent and charming and capable of drawing people into his web of lies, deceit. He is extreemly narcissistic and lacking in empathy or the ability to understand the emotional needs of others as he sees them as just another way to improve his image or alleviate his boredom.
So taking that into account, I think you guys are right - he is chaotic. Chaotic Neutral perhaps, as he doesn't do anything out of hatred or malace, rather because it serves his purposes at the time.
And for some reason, he is fixated on Tiamat and breaking her out of her prison.
I am thinking this Tiefling maybe hears voices, whispers in his head (perhaps even from Tiamat herself) that has slowly twisted his mind.
Being so intelligent and charasmatic though, he is able to appear "normal" while harbouring these dark thoughts about freeing Tiamat and watching the world burn.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A good-ish (a very big -ish) reason to want to break Tiamat out of the Hells could be that maybe Asmodeus stole her captured divine essence to power the pact which made almost all tieflings be reborn in his image. By freeing Tiamat you could end that pact and break the hellish bloodline free from Asmodeus. Granted, you'd also damn the prime material plane to a tyranny of dragons, but omelettes and eggs.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
The hellish bloodline pact is actually already broken, it's just its effects weren't reversed. But non-asmodeus tieflings have started to appear again, that's why there are so many tiefling subraces.
I know, I've read all of Erin M. Evans' books, but I'm working on the assumption that not everyone has and/or are playing their own version of the realms where what's in the books are not necessarily relevant.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
Good people do things to benefit others and sometimes themselves, evil people do things to benefit themselves and sometimes others. The difference is minute, but I think it all boils down to that.
A good person could want to do something inherently evil for a number of reasons; thinking he can vanquish that evil (in case of freeing Tiamat) or in order to channel that evil into something good. Maybe he wants to end the Blood War by sending Tiamat down the ranks of the demon armies. Perhaps he's misguided, thinking that by freeing Tiamat she will grant him boons he can use for freeing a nation or the entire Tiefling race from the grasp of another evil entity. Perhaps he's struck a deal with Asmodeus himself that if he proves to be capable of this, he would be granted a wish he intends to use for something similar.
All in all, I think that freeing Tiamat in itself can never be done for "good". Even an advocate of chaos that believes that imprisonment by its very nature is the epitomy of evil and thus even evil creatures must be allower to roam free I don't believe is "good". However, if its a "tool" for another plan, that might change this a bit. Being compelled to do so is an interesting option as well, but there can always be a "bigger picture" in order to make things more interesting.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
I probably should add that I am talking about freeing Tiamat in her "mother of dragons" avatar form. As a God, her actual existence is incorporeal.
She could technically take any form she chooses but the most common known form and the one I am refering to is her dragon form.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.