Okay, so I've got a small party of newish players that just finished up a great introductory adventure together. The party currently consists of:
A Human Wizard (who managed to pick up an animated spellbook on this last adventure).
A Tabaxi Bard (who found an indestructible glass rod).
A Tabaxi Rogue (who fought an acidic grey ooze for an adamantine short sword).
Anyway, the party's Rogue was not as happy with her play-through as a Rogue and will likely switch the character over to a Monk for our next adventure and since these characters are basically level one anyway, and we will be fast-forwarding to level three for the next adventure, I figure just letting her convert to a Monk isn't that big a deal. I've come up with an interesting story element to cover her conversion, but I'm sort of at a crossroads on how to develop it.
Some quick World/Story info:
The world I am using is pretty much Forgotten Realms. (As far as large cities and major maps and landmarks are concerned.)
As such, all the stuff about the Tabaxi (human tribe) and the Eshowe (human tribe) and their civil war and resulting unleashing of the Eshowdow "Giant Shadow serpent" that destroyed the Chultian god Obtao's holy city of Mezro and other large swaths of Chult is also true history.
As such, several tribes of Tabaxi (cat people) left Chult for other shores, which is where my party's Tabaxi come in as they were raised in a small farming village somewhere far away from that history and are basically ignorant of it. (See here for their hometown and first adventure!)
Anyway, other important tidbit from the past, apparently the Realms goddess Shar ended up becoming one with the Eshowdow at some point? While we haven't quite made it to six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon yet, there are two important points I want to use to help square this circle. The reason my Rogue player wants to switch over to Monk is because she finds the Way of Shadows tradition very interesting. Also, there is apparently some sort of schism among the various moon worshipers where some believe that the sister goddesses Shar and Selune are, in fact, the same being. This is apparently known as the "Dark Moon Heresy."
Okay, so, now that that is all out there, I sort of want my Tabaxi player to have "found" something of a "lost manual" that chronicles the arts and forms of the Way of Shadows, which will, ostensibly, lead her to becoming a Monk, and then a full fledged practitioner of the Way of Shadows, and maybe even a devotee of Shar (as both the character and the player are somewhat ignorant of the Realms religions and it's not like they have a Cleric, Paladin, or other religious expert in the party to explain it to them. The only religion they ever really interacted with was the local temple of Waukeen.) So, inadvertently, she will be learning and following the teachings of the Dark Moon Heresy.
From there, I want to put together some sort of rival monk of a different tradition from either Chult or elsewhere that she crosses paths with and they fight occasionally. It could be as simple is grabbing the stat blocks for the two Githzerai monks from the Monster Manual and just re-skin the race to fit what I need (one is a CR 3 monster and the other is a CR 6) at each point they cross paths. But is there a better way? Is it worth building a real character for? And if so, what might be the best tradition to go rounds with a Shadow Monk?
It's not just a super cool short sword, it's an honor blade that only practitioners of the Way of Shadows wear. Anyone who's in the know that sees this blade will presume that the character either is a monk, an impostor, or a thief. They will accept, challenge, or accuse the character accordingly. As the Way of Shadows feels more "underground" as an organization/path waving this blade about in public is taboo.
So the NPC reaction should get your character questioning just what the blade is all about. Which gets you the breadcrumb to the storyline that leads to the class and tradition being available (mentors, etc. "If you are going to keep that blade you need to know how to honor it, and how to use it." etc.).
Which also sets up your rival monk of a different order as a foil. They see, or learn of the character with the Shadowblade in hand and challenge them for it. First offering to buy ("You do not honor or respect the blade you carry, let me buy it."), then to duel ("We fight for the blade as a matter of honor. Not to the death, but the first to fall loses.") and then escalating from there. It may even be that the rival monk isn't of a different order, but is of the Way of Shadows and does not feel the character deserves the blade or eventual access. So you've got a permanently hostile ninja-monk always trying to surprise and remove the offending character.
Could be fun! Unless the character sells the blade fast :D
I don't see her getting rid of the blade, but the previous adventure already sort of established that it was buried under a lake for hundreds of years and was probably owned by a cult of techno-alchemists who died trying to steal power from an inert automaton long before her village was even a thing. I think trying to involve the sword would stretch things just a little too much beyond the realm of plausibility.
EDIT: I was thinking of having the local Tabaxi matron giving her the "Book of Shadows" training manual as something of a going away present when the party decides to leave town and becoming real adventurers. She's pretty shifty....but I don't know.
EDIT EDIT: Also I want to look her square in the eyes and growl "Heretic!" at least once.....because that will be fun.
What did she not like about the rogue? I almost feel like the rogue should have been the MVP for the game and I'm not sure monk is all that different at low levels.
Level 1 Rogue was more or less boring for her since she was basically the groups only melee attacker and the other two had magic to play around with. It was hard for her to set up attacks with sneak attack and, looking ahead, the three subclass options weren't as exciting to her as just being a Shadow Monk with a Criminal background. I'm
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
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Okay, so I've got a small party of newish players that just finished up a great introductory adventure together. The party currently consists of:
Anyway, the party's Rogue was not as happy with her play-through as a Rogue and will likely switch the character over to a Monk for our next adventure and since these characters are basically level one anyway, and we will be fast-forwarding to level three for the next adventure, I figure just letting her convert to a Monk isn't that big a deal. I've come up with an interesting story element to cover her conversion, but I'm sort of at a crossroads on how to develop it.
Some quick World/Story info:
Okay, so, now that that is all out there, I sort of want my Tabaxi player to have "found" something of a "lost manual" that chronicles the arts and forms of the Way of Shadows, which will, ostensibly, lead her to becoming a Monk, and then a full fledged practitioner of the Way of Shadows, and maybe even a devotee of Shar (as both the character and the player are somewhat ignorant of the Realms religions and it's not like they have a Cleric, Paladin, or other religious expert in the party to explain it to them. The only religion they ever really interacted with was the local temple of Waukeen.) So, inadvertently, she will be learning and following the teachings of the Dark Moon Heresy.
From there, I want to put together some sort of rival monk of a different tradition from either Chult or elsewhere that she crosses paths with and they fight occasionally. It could be as simple is grabbing the stat blocks for the two Githzerai monks from the Monster Manual and just re-skin the race to fit what I need (one is a CR 3 monster and the other is a CR 6) at each point they cross paths. But is there a better way? Is it worth building a real character for? And if so, what might be the best tradition to go rounds with a Shadow Monk?
Use the adamantine short sword.
It's not just a super cool short sword, it's an honor blade that only practitioners of the Way of Shadows wear. Anyone who's in the know that sees this blade will presume that the character either is a monk, an impostor, or a thief. They will accept, challenge, or accuse the character accordingly. As the Way of Shadows feels more "underground" as an organization/path waving this blade about in public is taboo.
So the NPC reaction should get your character questioning just what the blade is all about. Which gets you the breadcrumb to the storyline that leads to the class and tradition being available (mentors, etc. "If you are going to keep that blade you need to know how to honor it, and how to use it." etc.).
Which also sets up your rival monk of a different order as a foil. They see, or learn of the character with the Shadowblade in hand and challenge them for it. First offering to buy ("You do not honor or respect the blade you carry, let me buy it."), then to duel ("We fight for the blade as a matter of honor. Not to the death, but the first to fall loses.") and then escalating from there. It may even be that the rival monk isn't of a different order, but is of the Way of Shadows and does not feel the character deserves the blade or eventual access. So you've got a permanently hostile ninja-monk always trying to surprise and remove the offending character.
Could be fun! Unless the character sells the blade fast :D
I don't see her getting rid of the blade, but the previous adventure already sort of established that it was buried under a lake for hundreds of years and was probably owned by a cult of techno-alchemists who died trying to steal power from an inert automaton long before her village was even a thing. I think trying to involve the sword would stretch things just a little too much beyond the realm of plausibility.
EDIT: I was thinking of having the local Tabaxi matron giving her the "Book of Shadows" training manual as something of a going away present when the party decides to leave town and becoming real adventurers. She's pretty shifty....but I don't know.
EDIT EDIT: Also I want to look her square in the eyes and growl "Heretic!" at least once.....because that will be fun.
What did she not like about the rogue? I almost feel like the rogue should have been the MVP for the game and I'm not sure monk is all that different at low levels.
Level 1 Rogue was more or less boring for her since she was basically the groups only melee attacker and the other two had magic to play around with. It was hard for her to set up attacks with sneak attack and, looking ahead, the three subclass options weren't as exciting to her as just being a Shadow Monk with a Criminal background. I'm