I've ben thinking of doing a campaign where the players are tricked into working for a Chaotic Evil entity but a bit stumped on what the creature in question would want them to do that wouldn't kill my party. As I'm working with a level range of 3-5 and the creature in question (the SRD character Baba Yaga) has a CR of 30. And secondly how to I decide rewards for my party afterwards? As I don't imagine saying that the creature in question doesn't give them anything but XP would go down very well.
You could have them kill a lesser Hag? If the players kill them, they could loot her hideout and find some magic items you find appropriate, like a Wand of Polymorph or Bag of Holding
I don't see how that would work either as a Creature with a CR of 30 is not going to allow them to loot her hideout,and right now,as i have her designed,she could wipe the floor with the whole party with no trouble whatsoever. I did have a idea that she tricked them into slaying a good creature that she had True Polymorphed into something else but still deciding what loot I should give them and why she gives any loot in the first place is something I'm struggling over.
A good campaign we played in college had us gathering items for an mysterious wizard, who turned out to be evil. Each item had a new quest and set of side quests. Eventually, once we gathered everything, we realized that he was creating a dracolich, and we had to stop him. It was fun, and we had no idea that we were helping an evil wizard. We were rewarded with loot, gold and other things. I also got a kickass sword and a ship for killing one of my fellow party members. I dunno if this is helpful, but maybe it will even give you some ideas.
Hmmm. Not sure about Baba Yaga, but it makes sense if the group's "patron" is some kind of devil in disguise. The devil's reward would simply be slowly corrupting the souls of a powerful party of adventurers. And the devil wouldn't hesitate to give out magic items as rewards, especially if they occasionally slip in some lightly cursed items.
A CR 30 like Baba Yaga probably has a lot of schemes cooking at any given time, and so she would farm out the smaller ones to other people, like the party. Like the Hag another person suggested, or really anything: a goblin tribe encroaching on her territory, a nobleman who has some trinket she wants. She might even have interests that align with the party’s, like that goblin tribe is also bothering their town so everyone wants to stop them, the nobleman is corrupt and should be brought down anyway.
As for treasure, just give it based on whatever they would expect from the challenge they face. If for example, beating the goblins would normally give them 100gp and a potion, have them find 50 in the goblin caves, and Baba Yaga pays them the other 50 and the potion. It gives the sense of them being paid for the work, but doesn’t give them more resources than would be level appropriate.
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I've ben thinking of doing a campaign where the players are tricked into working for a Chaotic Evil entity but a bit stumped on what the creature in question would want them to do that wouldn't kill my party. As I'm working with a level range of 3-5 and the creature in question (the SRD character Baba Yaga) has a CR of 30. And secondly how to I decide rewards for my party afterwards? As I don't imagine saying that the creature in question doesn't give them anything but XP would go down very well.
You could have them kill a lesser Hag? If the players kill them, they could loot her hideout and find some magic items you find appropriate, like a Wand of Polymorph or Bag of Holding
I don't see how that would work either as a Creature with a CR of 30 is not going to allow them to loot her hideout,and right now,as i have her designed,she could wipe the floor with the whole party with no trouble whatsoever. I did have a idea that she tricked them into slaying a good creature that she had True Polymorphed into something else but still deciding what loot I should give them and why she gives any loot in the first place is something I'm struggling over.
I thought you needed quests Baba Yaga could give them; Killing a hag that challenged her authority is a quest she'd consider beneath her
A good campaign we played in college had us gathering items for an mysterious wizard, who turned out to be evil. Each item had a new quest and set of side quests. Eventually, once we gathered everything, we realized that he was creating a dracolich, and we had to stop him. It was fun, and we had no idea that we were helping an evil wizard. We were rewarded with loot, gold and other things. I also got a kickass sword and a ship for killing one of my fellow party members. I dunno if this is helpful, but maybe it will even give you some ideas.
Hmmm. Not sure about Baba Yaga, but it makes sense if the group's "patron" is some kind of devil in disguise. The devil's reward would simply be slowly corrupting the souls of a powerful party of adventurers. And the devil wouldn't hesitate to give out magic items as rewards, especially if they occasionally slip in some lightly cursed items.
A CR 30 like Baba Yaga probably has a lot of schemes cooking at any given time, and so she would farm out the smaller ones to other people, like the party. Like the Hag another person suggested, or really anything: a goblin tribe encroaching on her territory, a nobleman who has some trinket she wants. She might even have interests that align with the party’s, like that goblin tribe is also bothering their town so everyone wants to stop them, the nobleman is corrupt and should be brought down anyway.
As for treasure, just give it based on whatever they would expect from the challenge they face. If for example, beating the goblins would normally give them 100gp and a potion, have them find 50 in the goblin caves, and Baba Yaga pays them the other 50 and the potion. It gives the sense of them being paid for the work, but doesn’t give them more resources than would be level appropriate.