D&D 5E Good-Aligned Antagonists

[Fauchard1520]

So I was flipping through the monster manual, thinking to myself that there are some pretty cool good-aligned monsters out there....

Comic for illustrative purposes.

But how the crap do you ever use them? Assuming you aren't running an evil campaign and that your PCs are the typical bunch of good-leaning heroes, how do you justify throwing a coatl or a guardian naga at them? Are they just there as potential allies?

 

[Nagol]

Good creatures can have potentially opposing goals.

Take, for example, a lost artefact used in ancient times for ill.

One good creature may want to recover it so it can be destroyed. A second creature may want it never found as there is risk in it being used again as it was previously. A third may be convinced the evil it caused is the result of the user and wants to recover it for use.

All three are absolutely convinced of their positions. A fourth announces the possibility of the artefact being but a few days away. Now there is conflict.

 

[Tony Vargas]

From the early days of the 1e DMG, it's been stated that 'Good' aligned creatures can certainly still come into conflict. Actually making that happen credibly, often involves over-sharing motivations with the PCs, which makes it trivially easy for them to clear up whatever conflict or mis-understanding is behind it (if they want to). So, if you want to bother with it, I'd suggest setting up the conflict, but not being at all forthcoming with it, so getting to the bottom of things becomes an alternate path to resolving the encounter, which the players may or may not care to explore (at least the option is open, and, either way, you get to use the interesting antagonist).

 

[iserith]

I had a guardian naga and a unicorn as antagonists in my last campaign. The naga was tasked with guarding a doorway to the last level of the dungeon which ultimately led to the lair of a shadow dragon trapped on another plane. The short version is the dragon was essentially despoiling the land around the dungeon as it tried to push its way back into the world. The best solution was to confront the dragon before things got worse.

Well, the guardian naga disagreed. It had a mandate to prevent that door from opening and it wasn't budging, even if it could understand the PCs' point of view. It had also established a fey pact with the unicorn, once the guardian of the despoiled forest around the dungeon. If the naga was attacked, the unicorn was required by the Seelie Court to intervene. The unicorn warned them of such when they met him outside the dungeon. It agreed with the PCs that all the problems in the forest and surrounding lands were due to the trapped dragon, but it was bound by the fey pact to protect the naga if necessary.

So while they were both good-aligned creatures, they were effectively opposed to the PCs' goals. Ultimately, the characters ended up attacking the naga as time was running out. The unicorn was summoned to help, however reluctantly. The cleric banished the unicorn with a spell and they piled on the naga. When the spell ended and the unicorn returned, the naga was dead and its pact essentially resolved so there were no further hostilities - good thinking on the part of the PCs.

 

[aco175]

I could be as simple as "My king ordered me to guard this bridge." A good knight won't go against his king and is now opposed to the PCs. It has more of a chance to resolve w/o combat.

 

[akr71]

The couatl or guardian naga could be guarding an artifact and take exception to the adventurers trying to take it for themselves. Even if they have been tasked with retrieving in, or have a similarly justifiable reason for trying to take it, the guardian could be charged with preventing anyone from taking it. I would likely use a unicorn in a similar way. An angel would be a little harder to work in, but as long as the adventurers were doing something counter to the its ideals or its patron's agenda, then I would be open to using one.

 

[ccs]

The pcs (or even the actual players!) Might not even know what the creature is, let alone that it's of good alignment.
Ex:
In the closing days of 3.5 I ran an adventure where the PCS ended up allying with a tribe of bullywugs. Most of the players were (relitively) new so I don't think they realized that bullywugs are evil. Viscous yes, evil no.
So they ally with the bullywugs. In order to cement the alliance, the bullywugs want the pcs to go to an ancient ruin deeper in the swamp & kill or drive off the Pan Lung - so that they can return to thier ancestral home. They agree.
Now I KNOW that none of the players, even the more veteran ones, knew what a Pan Lung was. (It's a good Chinese Water Dragon & WAY above the pay grade of the party....)
So off they go into the ruins. They cause some destruction, they kill some of the Pans minions, & the Pan even tries to reason with them a few times in her human(oid) form.
Alas. It came down to hostilities. The party going full out, the Pan, now in her true form, pulling punches against these poor saps who fell for a bullywugs sob story.
Of course she won.
After she won she even helped the party double-cross the bullywugs.

But this is how a good aligned party came to trading blows with a good aligned water dragon.

 

[texastoast]

It strikes me that most of the examples proffered here are really about lawful-aligned antagonists. If it is a matter of "I have orders that I'm loyal to and I don't care if they conflict with your goals," that's lawful. I don't know if that's an important distinction for the purposes of this thread, but I thought it bears mentioning.

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[jasper]

And the dust settles.
guardian naga " he out! "
Coach Couatl storms off the bench " he was in! you four eye legless freak!"
Also storming off the bench, Coach Peter Parker the Purple Paladin of Pittsburg, " He was out, you speaker with forked tongue".
Guardian Naga " he was out! And that final! "
Coach Couatl " he was in! you four eye legless freak!" Kicking dust on the naga's sneakers.
Guardian Naga, " your out of here!"
And that was the beginning of the end of adventure league pew wee baseball tourney.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Also some creatures explecialy the ones with long life spans, like Dragons, Fey and angels might have a very diferent outlook on life.
They might have plans with very long time spans, and thse might come into conflica with goals og shorter lived races.