D&D 5E Need advice on how to reward 1 character but not whole party.

[covenant123]

Hello, Im quite new to DnD and to being a Dm but I've just DM'd a short campaign with my friends and we're going to go into another with the same characters in the same world.

The problem is that in the last campaign all the players except for one were trying to stop a devil from gaining power in the world. They all failed because unknown to them one of them had a backstory where he'd made a deal with this devil and he managed to ruin the final battle so that the devil won. The characters managed to flee and didnt even realise that one of them had ruined the whole thing because he was invisible.

So essentially in this new campaign they are going to be sailing away from the island they were on in the first campaign which is being burned and ravaged by devil spawn having failed. The problem I have is that one of them didnt fail! so I feel he needs some sort of reward for having succeeded with his devil pact...the issue is I don't want to make him more powerful than the other characters for the sake of fairness.

Any ideas what kind of thing I could do?

thanks a lot

 

[vpuigdoller]

I would have removed him of the group and make him an npc duke working for the devil or at least on friendly terms. But If you want him to keep playing as that char, give him a blessing or a boon that he could only use Ir activate a finite number of times. Maybe something akin the lucky feat but once he uses it for the third time he cant use it anymore. Is a nice reward and has a finite number of uses.

 

[Gilladian]

Give him some really nice reward, but make it so that every time he uses it, it becomes more obviously evil-looking, makes him become more evil-appearing, makes him DO more vile things, etc... so that if he wants to keep his secret, he has to NOT use his reward. Do the other PLAYERS know what he did, or are they as in the dark as their characters?

If they don't know:
Discuss with the player what may happen when the rest of the PCs discover his secret. Either offer him a way to redeem himself, or secretly acknowledge that at the point of reveal, he will have to become an NPC. And let the player create a new PC that you can introduce, and run as an NPC that they meet and become familiar with, so that during the reveal, the player can swap over to the new PC. This way, it is clear to everyone that you're not letting him "get to be" the villain.

 

[hastur_nz]

If you're new to D&D, I don't recommend you reward a player for being the jerk that is screwing over the rest of the players. Unless you have ALL agreed up-front that this is something you might all enjoy.

But yeah, if your players don't mind a bit of friendly 'player vs player' action, the suggestions above are good ones. I've personally run a few campaigns where at least one PC ends up a 'bad guy', but we are veterans and it gets stale if over-done; the best one was in Curse of Strahd, where a PC gave in to temptations, but as soon as he actually followed through and double-crossed the PC's, after the first fight he became an evil NPC for me to play, and the player took a new PC.

 

[Quickleaf]

Hello, Im quite new to DnD and to being a Dm but I've just DM'd a short campaign with my friends and we're going to go into another with the same characters in the same world.

Welcome to ENWorld covenant Great to hear you're trying your hand at DMing. The (gaming) world needs more good DMs.

The problem is that in the last campaign all the players except for one were trying to stop a devil from gaining power in the world. They all failed because unknown to them one of them had a backstory where he'd made a deal with this devil and he managed to ruin the final battle so that the devil won. The characters managed to flee and didnt even realise that one of them had ruined the whole thing because he was invisible.

So essentially in this new campaign they are going to be sailing away from the island they were on in the first campaign which is being burned and ravaged by devil spawn having failed. The problem I have is that one of them didnt fail! so I feel he needs some sort of reward for having succeeded with his devil pact...the issue is I don't want to make him more powerful than the other characters for the sake of fairness.

Any ideas what kind of thing I could do?

thanks a lot

So...you had one of the players running a PC who took on a covertly adversarial role to the rest of the party, sabotaging their efforts so that the devil villain would win?

Generally speaking, "deals with the devil" *never* turn out in your favor. But you're saying you want to give him some reward for fulfilling his end of whatever their bargain was?

Why not give him an imp "familiar" who can double as the devil's eyes & ears?

 

[covenant123]

Give him some really nice reward, but make it so that every time he uses it, it becomes more obviously evil-looking, makes him become more evil-appearing, makes him DO more vile things, etc... so that if he wants to keep his secret, he has to NOT use his reward. Do the other PLAYERS know what he did, or are they as in the dark as their characters?

If they don't know:
Discuss with the player what may happen when the rest of the PCs discover his secret. Either offer him a way to redeem himself, or secretly acknowledge that at the point of reveal, he will have to become an NPC. And let the player create a new PC that you can introduce, and run as an NPC that they meet and become familiar with, so that during the reveal, the player can swap over to the new PC. This way, it is clear to everyone that you're not letting him "get to be" the villain.

i really like this! it allows for the reward to feel worthy of what he did but also at the same time means that he has to be careful with it. The second part I also like and I`ll talk to the player and see what he thinks, thanks a lot man!

 

[covenant123]

thanks mate! I`m about to do a degree in video game design so I thought that learning to DM is a great way to practise world building etc and so far its been really fulfilling!

Imp familiar is a good idea, I could use it as a plot mover as well, cheers

 

[covenant123]

If you're new to D&D, I don't recommend you reward a player for being the jerk that is screwing over the rest of the players. Unless you have ALL agreed up-front that this is something you might all enjoy.

But yeah, if your players don't mind a bit of friendly 'player vs player' action, the suggestions above are good ones. I've personally run a few campaigns where at least one PC ends up a 'bad guy', but we are veterans and it gets stale if over-done; the best one was in Curse of Strahd, where a PC gave in to temptations, but as soon as he actually followed through and double-crossed the PC's, after the first fight he became an evil NPC for me to play, and the player took a new PC.

Well the player was generally speaking on the side of the other players for 90% of the campaign. The thing was I`d totally forgotten that his character's backstory involved a pact with a devil so in the last session when the big reveal was that the 'bad guy' was in fact trying to summon a devil he took me to one side and asked if it was okay for this devil to be involved in his pact. I thought it was too cool an idea to be missed. Luckily the other players, who had no idea, enjoyed the twist more than felt annoyed but their characters still dont know which might be tricky as im worried a few of them might meta game a bit albeit subconsciously

 

[Daniel Van Patten]

A plot of land with a dark and gloomy castle, staffed by lesser devilish minions. When the party returns to that land, they will be greeted at the docks with a resounding "Welcome home, master!"

Then the entire party can move forward with a large social advantage and be tempted by great evils in that land, or he can become an NPC if he plans to use his servants to betray the party further.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Not exactly behavior I'd reward in most games.