So its as the title says im very much considering making one of my players immortal. heres the basic idea, the player is a hobgoblin fighter who through his backstory was adopted and raised by nobility making him more of a valorous knight than just a goblin brute. As a consequence of his upbringing he very much enjoys fine arts and loves to paint. In this HIGH fantasy game im running i've given many players unique items or companions to compliment their playstyle or story, I want to introduce a quest where this player stumbles across The Grey Portrait a magical artifact that appears as a blank painting canvas after a week in the possession of the player the players character appears on the portrait, all damage and aging affects the portrait instead of the player however if the portrait is destroyed or leaves the possession of the player all damage and aging incurred is instantaneously put on the player character. I really like this idea but could use some input because i dont want this player to become bored. and ya i realize this is basically making a character a non magical lich with the portrait being a phylactery.
So in battle they take no damage? Surely then they will just try and tank everything for the party.
I know you've added the weakness of destroying stealing the painting, but would be hard to explain how/why a random mob would know this.
Could do it that they still take damage and fall unconscious but after X hours everything is transferred back to the painting and they come to life, but that doesn't really seem much of a benefit.
Maybe they have X number of usages per short rest that they can transfer damage to the painting as a conscious choice?
I think this would work if you give the portrait a fixed amount of hp and no way of naturally regenerating it (but allowing it possibly to be repaired. The idea would be, the painting can take some damage for you, preventing you from dying, but if it takes too much and is destroyed, you get hit with all that damage and you probably die too. I would probably make it so the player can turn on and off the damage transfer ability and healing the painting is nearly impossible or at least very difficult (a simple Cure Wounds would not work, nor would a long rest). The idea would be, you could use this painting in an extreme case (boss fight, for instance) to take some of the damage for you, but you couldn't let it take too much or you would die from the wounds. In this way the painting would act like temporary hit points, which after you lose them, don't come back. Except instead of only lasting minutes or an hour, the painting acts like a pool of temp hp which can be turned on and off until fully expended. The painting would become increasingly ripped, stained, etc, as it takes damage to let the player know it is close to being destroyed.
I see nothing wrong with running something like this, because the decision on when and how much to use the painting is a tactical one. He wouldn't use it for an orc battle or something, because it only has so many hp left and that's wasting it for no reason. He'd break it out as an "oh crap!" button for when things are in trouble and he's down to 3 hp... the painting would give him "all his hp back again" (at least as long as it's not destroyed), but again, if it takes too much, that'll kill him.
I think if you run it like that, it'll be OK. But if you just let the painting infinitely take damage, that won't work. He'll just keep it in a vault somewhere and no one will ever realistically be able to destroy it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Yeah, if I were the player, I’d store my portrait of Dorian grey in a private demi plane somewhere and lose the key. The risk of death is (part of) what gives the game tension and makes it fun. Without it, this character can just go solo the tarrasque and know that he’ll eventually outlast it.
Now, doing this for an NPC, that could work. Where it becomes almost like a re-skinned lich phylactory, that could be fun. Force the players to find the portrait before they can hope to beat the bad guy.
Well, you know the player better than I do, but I imagine its unavoidable that they'd get bored with this arrangement.
Maybe wait until he gets bored and then pull the rug out from under him?
Or you could really lean into the Dorian Gray thing, and once he gets bored and starts being careless, he notices the portrait becoming uglier and if the guy really IS a valorous knight, he realizes the insidious moral trap involved and has to give up the portrait's protection? That's a pretty sophisticated story though and I wouldn't try it with just any player.
I've got an NPC who is immortal but can still get ill, poisoned, diseased, age, die form old age, die form injuries in battle etc, just when they die they automatically reincarnate (albeit in the nine hells). So you could have the player attune to the portrait and feel no effects but whenever they take an injury the painting shows it, if they die their body disappears and a clone of them pops out of the paiting with all their memories up to and including the way they died or you could give them some limited regeneration ability like a troll. The painting continues to show the ongoing damage and deaths they take so every time they see it it reminds them of painful times/memories and the canvas the painting is on gets more and more worn and damaged with each reincarnation.
As DM give it some changes or a number of uses but keep it hidden from the player, they should hopefully still piece it together that the painting is degrading so there is a limited number of times they will get brought back to life but they shouldn't have a definite number of uses in mind.
You could also put in a warlock patron who speaks to the playe after each use urging them to die more often.
Depending on how lethal your comabt is you culd also give them a vulnerability to slashing and fire damage to reflect their connection to the paiting.
So its as the title says im very much considering making one of my players immortal. heres the basic idea, the player is a hobgoblin fighter who through his backstory was adopted and raised by nobility making him more of a valorous knight than just a goblin brute. As a consequence of his upbringing he very much enjoys fine arts and loves to paint. In this HIGH fantasy game im running i've given many players unique items or companions to compliment their playstyle or story, I want to introduce a quest where this player stumbles across The Grey Portrait a magical artifact that appears as a blank painting canvas after a week in the possession of the player the players character appears on the portrait, all damage and aging affects the portrait instead of the player however if the portrait is destroyed or leaves the possession of the player all damage and aging incurred is instantaneously put on the player character. I really like this idea but could use some input because i dont want this player to become bored. and ya i realize this is basically making a character a non magical lich with the portrait being a phylactery.
Thanks in advance for any input or advice
Your Buddy
Jack
So in battle they take no damage? Surely then they will just try and tank everything for the party.
I know you've added the weakness of destroying stealing the painting, but would be hard to explain how/why a random mob would know this.
Could do it that they still take damage and fall unconscious but after X hours everything is transferred back to the painting and they come to life, but that doesn't really seem much of a benefit.
Maybe they have X number of usages per short rest that they can transfer damage to the painting as a conscious choice?
All posts come with the caveat that I don't know what I'm talking about.
I think this would work if you give the portrait a fixed amount of hp and no way of naturally regenerating it (but allowing it possibly to be repaired. The idea would be, the painting can take some damage for you, preventing you from dying, but if it takes too much and is destroyed, you get hit with all that damage and you probably die too. I would probably make it so the player can turn on and off the damage transfer ability and healing the painting is nearly impossible or at least very difficult (a simple Cure Wounds would not work, nor would a long rest). The idea would be, you could use this painting in an extreme case (boss fight, for instance) to take some of the damage for you, but you couldn't let it take too much or you would die from the wounds. In this way the painting would act like temporary hit points, which after you lose them, don't come back. Except instead of only lasting minutes or an hour, the painting acts like a pool of temp hp which can be turned on and off until fully expended. The painting would become increasingly ripped, stained, etc, as it takes damage to let the player know it is close to being destroyed.
I see nothing wrong with running something like this, because the decision on when and how much to use the painting is a tactical one. He wouldn't use it for an orc battle or something, because it only has so many hp left and that's wasting it for no reason. He'd break it out as an "oh crap!" button for when things are in trouble and he's down to 3 hp... the painting would give him "all his hp back again" (at least as long as it's not destroyed), but again, if it takes too much, that'll kill him.
I think if you run it like that, it'll be OK. But if you just let the painting infinitely take damage, that won't work. He'll just keep it in a vault somewhere and no one will ever realistically be able to destroy it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Take a look at Strahd and his Heart of Sorrow (bottom of the page, beneath the stats).
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/strahd-von-zarovich
I prefer to call what you describe invulnerable rather than immortal.
It is a bad idea, will quickly cease to be fun.
Yeah, if I were the player, I’d store my portrait of Dorian grey in a private demi plane somewhere and lose the key.
The risk of death is (part of) what gives the game tension and makes it fun. Without it, this character can just go solo the tarrasque and know that he’ll eventually outlast it.
Now, doing this for an NPC, that could work. Where it becomes almost like a re-skinned lich phylactory, that could be fun. Force the players to find the portrait before they can hope to beat the bad guy.
Well, you know the player better than I do, but I imagine its unavoidable that they'd get bored with this arrangement.
Maybe wait until he gets bored and then pull the rug out from under him?
Or you could really lean into the Dorian Gray thing, and once he gets bored and starts being careless, he notices the portrait becoming uglier and if the guy really IS a valorous knight, he realizes the insidious moral trap involved and has to give up the portrait's protection? That's a pretty sophisticated story though and I wouldn't try it with just any player.
You could go down a limited immortality route.
I've got an NPC who is immortal but can still get ill, poisoned, diseased, age, die form old age, die form injuries in battle etc, just when they die they automatically reincarnate (albeit in the nine hells). So you could have the player attune to the portrait and feel no effects but whenever they take an injury the painting shows it, if they die their body disappears and a clone of them pops out of the paiting with all their memories up to and including the way they died or you could give them some limited regeneration ability like a troll. The painting continues to show the ongoing damage and deaths they take so every time they see it it reminds them of painful times/memories and the canvas the painting is on gets more and more worn and damaged with each reincarnation.
As DM give it some changes or a number of uses but keep it hidden from the player, they should hopefully still piece it together that the painting is degrading so there is a limited number of times they will get brought back to life but they shouldn't have a definite number of uses in mind.
You could also put in a warlock patron who speaks to the playe after each use urging them to die more often.
Depending on how lethal your comabt is you culd also give them a vulnerability to slashing and fire damage to reflect their connection to the paiting.