First of all, our game mostly follow the rules, but our house rule is that interesting narrative overrides RAW.
I've got a player playing a new, level 1 character. It's an 11 year old human who is super poor and has made a pact with a devil - he must seek wealth and power in exchange for certain powers (warlock, pact of the chain). He doesn't know she's a devil - he calls her his fairy godmother. She's been recruiting street kids.
His fairy godmother gave him a talking crow as a pet... albeit a bit of a weird pet given it's abilities. It appears as a crow, but is actually an imp and will reveal itself to be an imp at level 3 (his familiar).
From now to level 3, we've decided that I'm going to play the imp as an NPC.
We've decided that the imp is supposed to report on his progress to the devil he made a pact with, and occasionally act as a conduit for the devil to communicate with the boy.
The boy isn't inherently evil. The imp (being lawful evil) is bound by its devilish superior to serve the boy no matter how he acts. So I'm trying to come up with some interesting ideas on how to play the imp.
Have the imp act as the typical shoulder devil when letting the "fairy godmother" speak with the boy, being a negative influence, encouraging evil, etc., you could alternatively have the "fairy godmother" turn out to be a hag instead, especially since there is a fey patron as well(annis hag being the most fitting)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Giant flaming rocks filled with tarrasques fall, everyone dies.
The imp is lawful evil, and fiendishly loyal, but slowly it can switch allegiances from the patron to the boy. It then acts as a go between, trying to shield the kid from the worst of the patron's evil whims, pretending to the patron that goals have been achieved when they haven't, lying to the child about what the patron wants it to do and skirting the rules as much as is possible to avoid breaking the pact. As things advance it is completely on the kids side and under his control in battle, but you can continue to speak for it like an NPC. Maybe the imp can help to rig up some trap against the patron, to ensnare it but continue to draw its power to free the kid from the influence of the fiend. All this time though, the imp remains evil (just working to benefit the kid) so sometimes the methods it uses are completely foul, and the kid would not be happy if he knew. This can be a source of minor drama and conflict.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
First of all, our game mostly follow the rules, but our house rule is that interesting narrative overrides RAW.
I've got a player playing a new, level 1 character. It's an 11 year old human who is super poor and has made a pact with a devil - he must seek wealth and power in exchange for certain powers (warlock, pact of the chain). He doesn't know she's a devil - he calls her his fairy godmother. She's been recruiting street kids.
His fairy godmother gave him a talking crow as a pet... albeit a bit of a weird pet given it's abilities. It appears as a crow, but is actually an imp and will reveal itself to be an imp at level 3 (his familiar).
From now to level 3, we've decided that I'm going to play the imp as an NPC.
We've decided that the imp is supposed to report on his progress to the devil he made a pact with, and occasionally act as a conduit for the devil to communicate with the boy.
The boy isn't inherently evil. The imp (being lawful evil) is bound by its devilish superior to serve the boy no matter how he acts. So I'm trying to come up with some interesting ideas on how to play the imp.
Thoughts?
Have the imp act as the typical shoulder devil when letting the "fairy godmother" speak with the boy, being a negative influence, encouraging evil, etc., you could alternatively have the "fairy godmother" turn out to be a hag instead, especially since there is a fey patron as well(annis hag being the most fitting)
Giant flaming rocks filled with tarrasques fall, everyone dies.
The imp is lawful evil, and fiendishly loyal, but slowly it can switch allegiances from the patron to the boy. It then acts as a go between, trying to shield the kid from the worst of the patron's evil whims, pretending to the patron that goals have been achieved when they haven't, lying to the child about what the patron wants it to do and skirting the rules as much as is possible to avoid breaking the pact. As things advance it is completely on the kids side and under his control in battle, but you can continue to speak for it like an NPC. Maybe the imp can help to rig up some trap against the patron, to ensnare it but continue to draw its power to free the kid from the influence of the fiend. All this time though, the imp remains evil (just working to benefit the kid) so sometimes the methods it uses are completely foul, and the kid would not be happy if he knew. This can be a source of minor drama and conflict.