So I am a newer DM and have begun to run my first large scale campaign for some newer players. Collectively the players in my campaign have about 20hrs of D&D experience and have just overall enjoyed most of what I have thrown in front of them. However, I want to start incorporating elements from their backstories into the overall arc of the campaign. One player in particular has some cool ideas and I want to run with them. He is a Tiefling warlock who's otherworldly patron is 'the fiend'; he also plans to shift towards the chaotic neutral alignment style for his personality. Now here's the kicker, he wants his character to slowly be overcome with the ambition of becoming all powerful. Wants to slowly make it his characters goal to become as strong as possible, regardless of who it could harm and at what cost. Now obviously, this is thinking in the long term and he plans on doing this once and if we cross the lvl 10 mark. I am wondering if any of you wonderful people would have any creative ideas on how this could be carried out. I have a few but laawwdd knows some creative inspiration never hurts.
p.s. the campaign setting is that of Matt Mercer's Exandria. Couple of the players list to Critrole (myself included) so it made sense as a starting base.
Thanks in advance for any help or cool idea! Cheers!!
So you already mention a liking to Matt Mercer and Critical Role. If you have started listening to the second campaign, you could maybe take a page from how he interacts with the warlock of that party. For other readers, without spoiling too much, the Warlock in that party is semi-regularly communed with by his Patron through things like dreams and such.
With your situation, you could have your player be contacted by "The Fiend" one night while sleeping. The Fiend may spark the player's desire to become all powerful. The Fiend can keep coming to the player in visions, encouraging that player in different ways on how to become more powerful, maybe even granting more power, say in the form of a boon or magic item. To keep this as a mystery to the other members, you could also follow Matt Mercer's direction and have the other players leave the room while The Fiend contacts this player.
There are so many different ideas too. Being brief for a few others: Maybe after the player kills an enemy he is taken by an adrenaline that he enjoys and wants to keep that feeling going, and the stronger the enemy he downs, the better the rush. Maybe he finds a cursed weapon that promises more power and strength the more blood it sheds. Maybe they're jealous of the power another player has been developing and will do anything to be better than them.
Again, so many options, I'm sure a ton of people will post on this thread giving other awesome ideas. Have fun!
I worry that this might (almost certainly will) lead to conflict with the rest of the party. If everyone else signs up for such shenanigans then full steam ahead. If you feel that this might upset others, on the other hand, then might I suggest talking to the player and asking them to consider a slight modification to their character's ethos. The fiend demands power. The Warlock searches for it everywhere. They find it in spells, in magic objects and artifacts, in political influence, and in destructive skills and abilities. But most of all the Warlock discovers that power lies in the party of adventurers, bonded in trust and common loyalty. The Warlock aims now to gain all power possible to the party and never let any member of it be weakened. Sometimes they use very chaotic neutral immoral methods, and that could be a source of internal role play conflict for the group, but it shouldn't result in complete party collapse because the Warlock would eventually give up on a particularly unsavory goal if it risked breaking up the party (since the party's collective power is more important).
I am currently on ep84 of campaign one, so unfortunately I have not gotten to the second campaign yet. But that idea of the patron communing with the Warlock is really interesting, I think I may just have to do something along those lines. Luckily this would be easy to keep secret as we are in different cities, so we are going to be using discord and I have set up secret channels.
I also really enjoy the idea of the rush of the kill, and constantly wanting to take down the next bigger and badder enemy, that could also be a really interesting wrinkle to add. I'll have to talk to the player more and as we move through the campaign and see where he wishes to go with the character as they develop.
I had also thought about the potential for infighting in the campaign, but we do have the advantage of knowing each other for a couple decades, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find that this player was interesting in being a 'heel' as the campaign progressed into higher levels. But knowing that player well enough, I can see him also really enjoying the idea of a progression in character development that would at first find him wanting power at all costs, only to realize that he finds more power in the collective effort of the party. This is something I will for sure have to keep in mind and try and work in opportunities for him to discover this as we go through adventures.
Your players ideas of gaining power could lead them into murder hobo territory. My recommendation is to give them clear direction to avoid them interpreting killing everyone as gaining power. Similar to highlander I'd have a other patrons to "the fiend" dotted about the world. Each time the warlock kills one he absorbs more power from the fiend as it's no longer being shared amongst others. You can make the act of killing other patrons ethically questionable though their own motives. Perhaps one patron has actually made a pact in order to keep their village safe from orc attacks. Another could have signed a pact for wealth having grown up poor. Another could just be looking to gain power like your PC. Just give them specific targets to avoid random killings.
The Critical Role Campaign 2 advice here on the thread is good. Try to catch up. :D
I see the danger of "more powerful" can turn him into a "murder hobo", so perhaps try to find ways to power without a death toll to everyone else? - The fiend has characteristics of mischief, so spreading disorder and chaos could be something the fiend will reward. That could be manipulating the vote for mayor in a big city, erasing the tax records. - Enlightenment and knowledge is an enemy of chaos, so how about burning books and maps? - Perhaps the fiend wants to get the upper hand in a rivalry with another fiendish lord? Destroying cult items of worshippers might look like a good deed, but only feeds the fiend - What about the character discovering that the Fiend wants to devour the Warlock to feed his eternal hunger (much like witch first feeds Hänsel & Gretel to later eat their delicious bodies)
I frequently use dreams in my campaign to telegraph upcoming events and give clues. I write them down on 3x5 index cards and hand them out to the players during a long rest. it's up to them to discuss or not discuss their dreams with the other players. The players get VERY excited when I pull out "dream cards". (that's when a lot of their backstories come to life)
Very important dreams with patrons or gods are roleplayed live with all the players at the table. If your players are bad about metagaming then that won't work for your warlock, but if they will go along with it, it could make for some interesting "at the table" experiences for everyone.
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So I am a newer DM and have begun to run my first large scale campaign for some newer players. Collectively the players in my campaign have about 20hrs of D&D experience and have just overall enjoyed most of what I have thrown in front of them. However, I want to start incorporating elements from their backstories into the overall arc of the campaign. One player in particular has some cool ideas and I want to run with them. He is a Tiefling warlock who's otherworldly patron is 'the fiend'; he also plans to shift towards the chaotic neutral alignment style for his personality. Now here's the kicker, he wants his character to slowly be overcome with the ambition of becoming all powerful. Wants to slowly make it his characters goal to become as strong as possible, regardless of who it could harm and at what cost. Now obviously, this is thinking in the long term and he plans on doing this once and if we cross the lvl 10 mark. I am wondering if any of you wonderful people would have any creative ideas on how this could be carried out. I have a few but laawwdd knows some creative inspiration never hurts.
p.s. the campaign setting is that of Matt Mercer's Exandria. Couple of the players list to Critrole (myself included) so it made sense as a starting base.
Thanks in advance for any help or cool idea! Cheers!!
Hello!
So you already mention a liking to Matt Mercer and Critical Role. If you have started listening to the second campaign, you could maybe take a page from how he interacts with the warlock of that party. For other readers, without spoiling too much, the Warlock in that party is semi-regularly communed with by his Patron through things like dreams and such.
With your situation, you could have your player be contacted by "The Fiend" one night while sleeping. The Fiend may spark the player's desire to become all powerful. The Fiend can keep coming to the player in visions, encouraging that player in different ways on how to become more powerful, maybe even granting more power, say in the form of a boon or magic item. To keep this as a mystery to the other members, you could also follow Matt Mercer's direction and have the other players leave the room while The Fiend contacts this player.
There are so many different ideas too. Being brief for a few others: Maybe after the player kills an enemy he is taken by an adrenaline that he enjoys and wants to keep that feeling going, and the stronger the enemy he downs, the better the rush. Maybe he finds a cursed weapon that promises more power and strength the more blood it sheds. Maybe they're jealous of the power another player has been developing and will do anything to be better than them.
Again, so many options, I'm sure a ton of people will post on this thread giving other awesome ideas. Have fun!
I worry that this might (almost certainly will) lead to conflict with the rest of the party. If everyone else signs up for such shenanigans then full steam ahead. If you feel that this might upset others, on the other hand, then might I suggest talking to the player and asking them to consider a slight modification to their character's ethos. The fiend demands power. The Warlock searches for it everywhere. They find it in spells, in magic objects and artifacts, in political influence, and in destructive skills and abilities. But most of all the Warlock discovers that power lies in the party of adventurers, bonded in trust and common loyalty. The Warlock aims now to gain all power possible to the party and never let any member of it be weakened. Sometimes they use very chaotic neutral immoral methods, and that could be a source of internal role play conflict for the group, but it shouldn't result in complete party collapse because the Warlock would eventually give up on a particularly unsavory goal if it risked breaking up the party (since the party's collective power is more important).
Hello!
I am currently on ep84 of campaign one, so unfortunately I have not gotten to the second campaign yet. But that idea of the patron communing with the Warlock is really interesting, I think I may just have to do something along those lines. Luckily this would be easy to keep secret as we are in different cities, so we are going to be using discord and I have set up secret channels.
I also really enjoy the idea of the rush of the kill, and constantly wanting to take down the next bigger and badder enemy, that could also be a really interesting wrinkle to add. I'll have to talk to the player more and as we move through the campaign and see where he wishes to go with the character as they develop.
I had also thought about the potential for infighting in the campaign, but we do have the advantage of knowing each other for a couple decades, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find that this player was interesting in being a 'heel' as the campaign progressed into higher levels. But knowing that player well enough, I can see him also really enjoying the idea of a progression in character development that would at first find him wanting power at all costs, only to realize that he finds more power in the collective effort of the party. This is something I will for sure have to keep in mind and try and work in opportunities for him to discover this as we go through adventures.
Thanks for all the great ideas,
Cheers!
Your players ideas of gaining power could lead them into murder hobo territory. My recommendation is to give them clear direction to avoid them interpreting killing everyone as gaining power. Similar to highlander I'd have a other patrons to "the fiend" dotted about the world. Each time the warlock kills one he absorbs more power from the fiend as it's no longer being shared amongst others. You can make the act of killing other patrons ethically questionable though their own motives. Perhaps one patron has actually made a pact in order to keep their village safe from orc attacks. Another could have signed a pact for wealth having grown up poor. Another could just be looking to gain power like your PC. Just give them specific targets to avoid random killings.
The Critical Role Campaign 2 advice here on the thread is good. Try to catch up. :D
I see the danger of "more powerful" can turn him into a "murder hobo", so perhaps try to find ways to power without a death toll to everyone else?
- The fiend has characteristics of mischief, so spreading disorder and chaos could be something the fiend will reward. That could be manipulating the vote for mayor in a big city, erasing the tax records.
- Enlightenment and knowledge is an enemy of chaos, so how about burning books and maps?
- Perhaps the fiend wants to get the upper hand in a rivalry with another fiendish lord? Destroying cult items of worshippers might look like a good deed, but only feeds the fiend
- What about the character discovering that the Fiend wants to devour the Warlock to feed his eternal hunger (much like witch first feeds Hänsel & Gretel to later eat their delicious bodies)
I frequently use dreams in my campaign to telegraph upcoming events and give clues. I write them down on 3x5 index cards and hand them out to the players during a long rest. it's up to them to discuss or not discuss their dreams with the other players. The players get VERY excited when I pull out "dream cards". (that's when a lot of their backstories come to life)
Very important dreams with patrons or gods are roleplayed live with all the players at the table. If your players are bad about metagaming then that won't work for your warlock, but if they will go along with it, it could make for some interesting "at the table" experiences for everyone.