I'm a pretty inexperienced DM and I've been planning a new campaign and I would like to make a big bag that the majority of the campaign would revolve around be somewhat like Ra's al Ghul. Head of a league, like that of the league of assassins, much older than "humanly" possible and yet still as capable as ever, maybe even using Lazarus pit, all the good stuff, but I'm not too sure how I should go about creating the character him self. I'd love any input, thank you.
All depends on what how your campaign is structured really. With this "league" thing, it sounds like you might want to go with a classic Bioware structure. I'm talking about Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins. Excuse this, but let me suggest a basic structure along with some ideas about the villain.
1. You have an Initial Adventure/Dungeon to get the taste of adventure wet. This isn't something too hard, but you get the players from level 1 to 2 here. You probably won't have a lot of important story stuff here.
2. Introduce an enclosed hub of Adventure, might be were the characters got hired for the original Adventure/Dungeon from. Not too large, village or outpost or such. Maybe a home town? You have a few quests here, three or so Dungeons. These should have some allusions to this league. Perhaps the villain is an ancient Vampire Lord, the league is their Family/Estate, and they're sending some minions around looking for something important, perhaps clues to finding some long lost keys/artifacts (get to that in a bit).
3. Something Bad happens to the original hub. Vampire Lord gets tired of characters interfering, but doesn't know who they are specifically, or is convinced that the townsfolk know too much. Fight a Boss. Vampire Lord makes contact with the Party after Boss fight using shadows or bats and their voice. Vampire Lord now knows about the Party. Characters get blamed and thrown out, seek revenge, seek help from local lord, whatever makes the most sense to go to next hub. First hub, dungeons, and quests get them to about level 5.
4. Characters Travel to Secondary Hub, have a couple of interesting meetings along the way. Maybe an Assassination Attempt by the Vampire Lord at an Inn, Some Roleplaying Opportunities, a Dungeon before leaving. Perhaps enough to reach level 6 or 7.
5. Characters Reach Secondary Hub, maybe a Keep, Castle Town, or City. Merchants, Inns, Maybe get their own place. Find information out about the Vampire Lord or his Family/Estate while Researching, Asking around, what ever makes the most sense. Clues or whatever that Players recovered turn out are necessary to find 3 long lost keys/artifacts that unlock the Vampire Lord's Estate's Vault, or maybe grant great power, or whatever you want. Regardless these 3 things are in 3 different areas that are roughly equidistant to the Secondary Hub. Maybe some skirmishes happen here and there, a Quest or two, Some Roleplaying Opportunities. Reach level 7 or 8 before leaving to first area.
6. The Three Areas each have say... two or three dungeons for the storyline and maybe one or two unrelated Quests. Final Dungeon has a Lieutenant of the Vampire Lord and one of the keys/artifacts. Final Dungeons may need additional or higher level monsters and loot based on the order the party chooses to go in. After the defeat of each Lieutenant, Vampire Lord makes contact with the party, getting to know more and more about them as time goes on. Each Area should give about 3 Levels. At the end of this sequence the Party should be around level 16 or 17.
7. Something Bad happens to or at the Seconday Hub! Maybe the Vampire Lord was distracting the characters to prepare an Attack on the Secondary Hub or Kidnap someone close to them. Boss Fight, maybe the same one from the Original Hub (the "Dragon" to the Villain so to speak)! The Vampire Lord let them collect the keys/artifacts for them and is now demanding a trade or baiting the Party to attack their Stronghold. Characters gain information to find stronghold. Party gets a lot of experience for this point. Maybe enough for 1 more level.
8. It's as personal as possible hopefully, Attack the Stronghold! Longest Dungeon in the Game. Might require multiple sessions or even in game days. Get the Players to Level 20, use the keys/artifacts, defeat the Vampire Lord, and claim the reward!
If he's older than humanly possible, I'm thinking he's not human. Maybe some other race like Elf or even Dragon. There's some pretty nasty dragons out there. Give him some sort of Polymorph magical item and there you go. He's a never aging human looking black dragon that has actually infiltrated this group and turning them to his own nefarious purposes. Use some ancient black dragon stats and tweak to suit. He has an amulet of polymorph that is bound to him so it can't be removed, it's attuned, doesn't require concentration. Hell you could even go all harry potter with it and make it a horcrux. Fun times.
As far as the league/order goes, work out hierarchy and purpose. Give the hierarchy cool names based on the name of the order and their purpose, and that becomes rank. If they're assassins, maybe something like... Sneak, Shadow, Alchemist (for poisoners) etc....
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm a pretty inexperienced DM and I've been planning a new campaign and I would like to make a big bag that the majority of the campaign would revolve around be somewhat like Ra's al Ghul. Head of a league, like that of the league of assassins, much older than "humanly" possible and yet still as capable as ever, maybe even using Lazarus pit, all the good stuff, but I'm not too sure how I should go about creating the character him self. I'd love any input, thank you.
All depends on what how your campaign is structured really. With this "league" thing, it sounds like you might want to go with a classic Bioware structure. I'm talking about Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins. Excuse this, but let me suggest a basic structure along with some ideas about the villain.
1. You have an Initial Adventure/Dungeon to get the taste of adventure wet. This isn't something too hard, but you get the players from level 1 to 2 here. You probably won't have a lot of important story stuff here.
2. Introduce an enclosed hub of Adventure, might be were the characters got hired for the original Adventure/Dungeon from. Not too large, village or outpost or such. Maybe a home town? You have a few quests here, three or so Dungeons. These should have some allusions to this league. Perhaps the villain is an ancient Vampire Lord, the league is their Family/Estate, and they're sending some minions around looking for something important, perhaps clues to finding some long lost keys/artifacts (get to that in a bit).
3. Something Bad happens to the original hub. Vampire Lord gets tired of characters interfering, but doesn't know who they are specifically, or is convinced that the townsfolk know too much. Fight a Boss. Vampire Lord makes contact with the Party after Boss fight using shadows or bats and their voice. Vampire Lord now knows about the Party. Characters get blamed and thrown out, seek revenge, seek help from local lord, whatever makes the most sense to go to next hub. First hub, dungeons, and quests get them to about level 5.
4. Characters Travel to Secondary Hub, have a couple of interesting meetings along the way. Maybe an Assassination Attempt by the Vampire Lord at an Inn, Some Roleplaying Opportunities, a Dungeon before leaving. Perhaps enough to reach level 6 or 7.
5. Characters Reach Secondary Hub, maybe a Keep, Castle Town, or City. Merchants, Inns, Maybe get their own place. Find information out about the Vampire Lord or his Family/Estate while Researching, Asking around, what ever makes the most sense. Clues or whatever that Players recovered turn out are necessary to find 3 long lost keys/artifacts that unlock the Vampire Lord's Estate's Vault, or maybe grant great power, or whatever you want. Regardless these 3 things are in 3 different areas that are roughly equidistant to the Secondary Hub. Maybe some skirmishes happen here and there, a Quest or two, Some Roleplaying Opportunities. Reach level 7 or 8 before leaving to first area.
6. The Three Areas each have say... two or three dungeons for the storyline and maybe one or two unrelated Quests. Final Dungeon has a Lieutenant of the Vampire Lord and one of the keys/artifacts. Final Dungeons may need additional or higher level monsters and loot based on the order the party chooses to go in. After the defeat of each Lieutenant, Vampire Lord makes contact with the party, getting to know more and more about them as time goes on. Each Area should give about 3 Levels. At the end of this sequence the Party should be around level 16 or 17.
7. Something Bad happens to or at the Seconday Hub! Maybe the Vampire Lord was distracting the characters to prepare an Attack on the Secondary Hub or Kidnap someone close to them. Boss Fight, maybe the same one from the Original Hub (the "Dragon" to the Villain so to speak)! The Vampire Lord let them collect the keys/artifacts for them and is now demanding a trade or baiting the Party to attack their Stronghold. Characters gain information to find stronghold. Party gets a lot of experience for this point. Maybe enough for 1 more level.
8. It's as personal as possible hopefully, Attack the Stronghold! Longest Dungeon in the Game. Might require multiple sessions or even in game days. Get the Players to Level 20, use the keys/artifacts, defeat the Vampire Lord, and claim the reward!
This was great help, I really appreciate and like all the new ideas!
If he's older than humanly possible, I'm thinking he's not human. Maybe some other race like Elf or even Dragon. There's some pretty nasty dragons out there. Give him some sort of Polymorph magical item and there you go. He's a never aging human looking black dragon that has actually infiltrated this group and turning them to his own nefarious purposes. Use some ancient black dragon stats and tweak to suit. He has an amulet of polymorph that is bound to him so it can't be removed, it's attuned, doesn't require concentration. Hell you could even go all harry potter with it and make it a horcrux. Fun times.
As far as the league/order goes, work out hierarchy and purpose. Give the hierarchy cool names based on the name of the order and their purpose, and that becomes rank. If they're assassins, maybe something like... Sneak, Shadow, Alchemist (for poisoners) etc....