Idea's for Rival party.

MonsterEnvy · Apr 19, 2019

Reposting from another site. I am running Dungeon of the Mad Mage and wanted to slot in a custom plot involving an rival party and was interested in hearing ideas from others.

I have a few things I already know I am going to use so I might as well list them.

*Rival party is evil aligned, but only two of them really give off the vibe.

*They have a cool name for the group that I have not thought of. I also only have a name for one of them.

*The membership consists of a Blackguard, Conjurer, Warlock of the Fiend, Assassin, War Priest and Eldritch Knight (kinda). These are the NPC monster stat blocks not the actual classes.

* The Blackguard is one of the two that gives off the evil vibe, and unlike the rest will start fairly hostile to the Heroes party. He was defeated and forced into the group by the leader the Eldritch Knight Gallus. As he has no love for his party he tends to leave and go off on his own frequently. During one of these moments I intend for him to attack the Heroes to try and steal their stuff.
The Blackguard has a portable hole that he keeps two Wights in, said Wights are warriors that swore their souls to him and promised to protect him with their lives, and their bond has kept them attached to him even after death. The Blackguard can't be hurt while the Wights are alive and close to him. (Being in the portable hole does not count as close to him.) And even if slain they rise the next night good as new as long as their master is still alive.

* The Warlock of the fiend is the other then gives off the evil vibe. Her patron is the party leader and she is the only one aware of his true nature.

* No ideas for the Assassin.

* No ideas for the Conjurer.

* No ideas for the War Priest.

* Gallus the Eldritch Knight. Not actually an Eldritch Knight, he is actually a powerful Pit Fiend taking on a human disguise. He acts and seems pleasant and reasonable. But he has big plans in the Dungeon and decided appearing as yet another adventurer would cause Halaster and the other powers of the Dungeon to underestimate him and allow him more freedom to move. As a result he does not want to blow his cover, and views other parties as rivals and dangers, particularly Paladins, and so wants to eliminate them.
Gallus being a pit fiend is holding back massively to avoid giving himself away. Passing himself off as an eldritch knight to explain his magic and great strength. Because he wants to avoid giving himself away, he acts amiably towards other parties encountered in Undermountain and despite his parties strength he also cautious about directly attacking other parties, because if any of their members escaped they could warn others about them, and in turn make things harder. So he plots to kill any parties he encounters while minimizing his involvement.

Anyway I wanted to check for ideas on expanding the stuff above. Also some names, names are cool.

iserith · Apr 19, 2019

I always use the same rival adventurers in my games - the iconic characters from D&D 3.Xe. Tordek, Lidda, Jozan, and Mialee (plus the others like Soveliss, Krusk, etc. as needed). No matter the campaign, if there are rival adventurers, it's them. It's kind of a running gag. They call themselves "The Icons" and they are all the worst sorts of jerks you can imagine. The players love to hate them and do terribly cruel things to them. I add little inside D&D 3.Xe jokes into their stat blocks like the Use Rope skill (which equates to some kind of grappling or restraining attack).

That may not be exactly what you're looking for as you already have some specifics in mind, but perhaps it will give you some ideas on which to build.

Satyrn · Apr 19, 2019

iserith said:
I always use the same rival adventurers in my games - the iconic characters from D&D 3.Xe. Tordek, Lidda, Jozan, and Mialee (plus the others like Soveliss, Krusk, etc. as needed). No matter the campaign, if there are rival adventurers, it's them. It's kind of a running gag. They call themselves "The Icons" and they are all the worst sorts of jerks you can imagine. The players love to hate them and do terribly cruel things to them. I add little inside D&D 3.Xe jokes into their stat blocks like the Use Rope skill (which equates to some kind of grappling or restraining attack).

That may not be exactly what you're looking for as you already have some specifics in mind, but perhaps it will give you some ideas on which to build.

*Yoink*

(Thank you to the OP. I hope you can get something out if this thread too)

MonsterEnvy · Apr 19, 2019

Glad someone got an idea, though yeah using the Iconic's won't work for me, as I am not familiar with them and already have some plans.

The Black Ferret · Apr 19, 2019

For the War Priest, I am reminded of the Record of Lodoss War anime. The priest of the Goddess of War went with the villain side because their leader was charismatic and promised of deeds worthy of the Goddess' favor. The priest wasn't even evil, but devout to the tenets of the Goddess. Perhaps the priest just sees something in the Blackguard or the Eldritch Knight which called to them.

MonsterEnvy · Apr 19, 2019

The Black Ferret said:
For the War Priest, I am reminded of the Record of Lodoss War anime. The priest of the Goddess of War went with the villain side because their leader was charismatic and promised of deeds worthy of the Goddess' favor. The priest wasn't even evil, but devout to the tenets of the Goddess. Perhaps the priest just sees something in the Blackguard or the Eldritch Knight which called to them.

That can work for me. Being loyal to Gallus. (The Blackguard is largely looked down on by the rest of the group.)

Quartz · Apr 20, 2019

There's an adventure in one of the very old Dungeon Magazines where the PCs meet up with an evil-led adventuring party, and one of their tasks is to persuade the neutral members of the party to defect. It might have been called 'The Orb of Law' or something similar. If you want Neutral members of the party, I agree with [MENTION=6935532]The Black Ferret[/MENTION] and just have them seduced by Gallus' charisma.

Legatus Legionis · Apr 20, 2019

MonsterEnvy · Apr 20, 2019

Legatus_Legionis said:
Have you done this story with another group before?

Using details, names, etc. about what that other group did, and place them within your current game.

Making your players worried as there is a second group (NPCs) out there.

I always like how, in games I have done, where the group was expecting to get ambushed at a certain place, only to find out the ambush already happened, and the group finds the aftermath of it. Knowing they are one step behind, making them hurry up, etc.. oh what fun.

And then, when I allow the players to get ahead of the other group, and they realize "why was the other group not here..." and the doubt they took a wrong turn, expect an ambush of their own, etc.

While this stuff is cool, I think you're misunderstanding what I want help with.

TaranTheWanderer · Apr 20, 2019

I think you should make sure the pit fiend is subject to a permanent Nysul’s Maguc Aura. It is low level and will disguise him from detect evil. You could put in some hints to his true nature: why did the party’s holy water turn to blood? Why did all those flowers just suddenly wilt and die? Given that Pit Fiends are some of the most powerful evil entities, his presence will leave traces. So even if he doesn’t detect evil, the places he’s visited might still have a lingering aura.

What is your party make-up? Make one of the rival group annoyingly similar to one of the more arrogant PCs. And make that rival just slightly better at certain things. Maybe he hears rumours of how the rival impressed a tavern full of people with his singing voice or won an archery challenge.

Idea's for Rival party.

MonsterEnvy

Legend

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

Satyrn

First Post

MonsterEnvy

Legend

The Black Ferret

Explorer

MonsterEnvy

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Quartz

Hero

Legatus Legionis

< BWAH HA Ha ha >

MonsterEnvy

Legend

TaranTheWanderer

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