I've been playing D&D 5e for about 2 1/2 years and am finally going to be running a campaign of my own creation for my playergroup once we finish up the CoS module that my friend is DMing. We are fairly close to just going to try to kill Strahd so I have about a month to pin this down and was looking for some input from more experienced DMs than myself.
The campaign i have created revolves around resurrecting the long dead Deamon King Asayzel by slaughtering the 7 Heroes of Light that long ago slayed Asayzel, in a nutshell. In the first session i plan on having the party investigate the caverns below the starting village to discover the Demon King's still pristine corpse. There will be a little skirmish with some cultists from the Church of Sol, lackeys sent by one of the Heroes to guard/investigate the corpse. Once the PCs dispatch this encounter I plan on having the DK corpse dissolve into basically soul shards and either forcefully possess the PCs (Forced Will) or ask the PCs if they would like the power of the DK and let them decide yes/no (Free Will).
There is argument for both sides, I did put a lot of work into the feat "Favor of the Demon King" which is pretty BA and lvls up each time the PCs kill a Hero of Light, it gets pretty ridiculous. Of course the players dont know this so i would feel bad if i gave them a choice and they decline only to complain later because the PCs that accepted enjoy the feat a bunch. However it is a Demon King so pacts/plans made with it don't always go down the smoothest, there may be a twist at the end once the Demon King has powered up enough and i dont want the PCs to feel that i backed them into that particular ending/situation.
Given the fact that if you dont accept the possession then there would be little to no reason to even continue with the campaign I'm leaning more towards forcing it but again wanted to hear thoughts from more exp. DMs than myself.
If there’s really no reason to play in the game if they decline the power, then sure, make it a possession thing. But make sure your players know that’s what they’re signing up for out of character. You don’t need to go into too much detail, just something like “the premise is that you all come into this kind of dark power and wrestling with that is one of the plot’s major tensions.” That much does not need to be a surprise, and “Ah, so this is that part!” is a much better reaction from your players than “I don’t want this, I quit.”
It looks like Baldur’s Gate III is using a similar idea with the mind flayer tadpole your party all have in their heads. But that’s something every prospective player knows going in.
I would just make sure that the players know what type of game they are signing up for. You don't even have to force this on them, have the shard whisper to them in times of great distress. Play it up like the Dark Side, when they fail a roll or get hit with massive damage have the shard whisper to them tempting them with it's aid. Its a great opportunity for some engaging RP.
They all requested an evil campaign so i don't think any of them would be surprised or even necessarily opposed to possession by a demon spirit for the promise of more power. If i do go free then ill just need to think about a backup if all of them dont accept.
Maybe think of it as those trickster spirits in ToA -- you have to make a wisdom save to avoid being possessed, or you can be possessed willingly, as they give pretty powerful boosts. In ToA, they gave boosts, ranging from "turn invisible at will" to "attune to 1 more magic item". Of course, each one came with a drawback, but for you it should be along the lines of "blah blah alignment blah blah slowly changes blah blah chaotic evil"
Hey everyone,
I've been playing D&D 5e for about 2 1/2 years and am finally going to be running a campaign of my own creation for my playergroup once we finish up the CoS module that my friend is DMing. We are fairly close to just going to try to kill Strahd so I have about a month to pin this down and was looking for some input from more experienced DMs than myself.
The campaign i have created revolves around resurrecting the long dead Deamon King Asayzel by slaughtering the 7 Heroes of Light that long ago slayed Asayzel, in a nutshell. In the first session i plan on having the party investigate the caverns below the starting village to discover the Demon King's still pristine corpse. There will be a little skirmish with some cultists from the Church of Sol, lackeys sent by one of the Heroes to guard/investigate the corpse. Once the PCs dispatch this encounter I plan on having the DK corpse dissolve into basically soul shards and either forcefully possess the PCs (Forced Will) or ask the PCs if they would like the power of the DK and let them decide yes/no (Free Will).
There is argument for both sides, I did put a lot of work into the feat "Favor of the Demon King" which is pretty BA and lvls up each time the PCs kill a Hero of Light, it gets pretty ridiculous. Of course the players dont know this so i would feel bad if i gave them a choice and they decline only to complain later because the PCs that accepted enjoy the feat a bunch. However it is a Demon King so pacts/plans made with it don't always go down the smoothest, there may be a twist at the end once the Demon King has powered up enough and i dont want the PCs to feel that i backed them into that particular ending/situation.
Given the fact that if you dont accept the possession then there would be little to no reason to even continue with the campaign I'm leaning more towards forcing it but again wanted to hear thoughts from more exp. DMs than myself.
If there’s really no reason to play in the game if they decline the power, then sure, make it a possession thing. But make sure your players know that’s what they’re signing up for out of character. You don’t need to go into too much detail, just something like “the premise is that you all come into this kind of dark power and wrestling with that is one of the plot’s major tensions.” That much does not need to be a surprise, and “Ah, so this is that part!” is a much better reaction from your players than “I don’t want this, I quit.”
It looks like Baldur’s Gate III is using a similar idea with the mind flayer tadpole your party all have in their heads. But that’s something every prospective player knows going in.
I would just make sure that the players know what type of game they are signing up for. You don't even have to force this on them, have the shard whisper to them in times of great distress. Play it up like the Dark Side, when they fail a roll or get hit with massive damage have the shard whisper to them tempting them with it's aid. Its a great opportunity for some engaging RP.
They all requested an evil campaign so i don't think any of them would be surprised or even necessarily opposed to possession by a demon spirit for the promise of more power. If i do go free then ill just need to think about a backup if all of them dont accept.
Maybe think of it as those trickster spirits in ToA -- you have to make a wisdom save to avoid being possessed, or you can be possessed willingly, as they give pretty powerful boosts. In ToA, they gave boosts, ranging from "turn invisible at will" to "attune to 1 more magic item". Of course, each one came with a drawback, but for you it should be along the lines of "blah blah alignment blah blah slowly changes blah blah chaotic evil"
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