Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rystil Arden" data-source="post: 2097441" data-attributes="member: 29014">Interesting perspectives!  Doug, I would say that Dhistan is not adversarial to the players, but is adversarial to their characters.  Additionally, he is not adversarial to the DM (as you mentioned), but he is adversarial to my NPCs (like his poor sister, and also the enemy NPCs).This is precisely Dhistan's view.I'll clarify a bit more to keep it interesting:  Dhistan never really crushes main goals of the players.  The Frenzied Berserker's character swore to protect the barbarians because he felt bad that the drow were killing them and it was his fault (the FB had claimed to be the Uthgar, the god of these barbarians and then slain an Aspect of Lolth, not realising that this would entail vengeance against them).  The player of the FB didn't really care so much, but he mentioned out of character that his character would kill Dhistan's character when he found out.  Dhistan always finds a good reason to join in on the party's adventures (like I said, he doesn't ruin my plots, although sometimes his evil causes sidetracks), though not for the same reasons.  He tends to build grudges against the party's enemies (if not camaraderie with their allies), which helps.  Additionally, the players discovered the source of the all the world's magic and an empire (the Vandolians) who want to gain control of it.  Dhistan's view is, "I know what would happen if I got that power, and it certainly isn't safe for any NPC to have it, so I will fight to seal it up with the other PCs but try to see if I can take control at the last minute in a well-timed and thematically appropriate betrayal."  When I told him that complete control leaves the possessor vulnerable to having the control wrested, he then decided that the power needed to be sealed up (like the other PCs wanted) and asked me what it would take to safely seal the power away but still give himself some slight link to it to give him an edge.  I told him he would need to decipher the runes of an ancient mage (DC 80 Decipher Script check) and make a DC 100 Spellcraft check to create a ritual.  Instead of complaining that "that's impossible," (and it nearly is since he is level 21), he has one epic level feat right now, and he took it in Epic Skill Focus [Decipher Script].  He is looking for a marshal (Minis Handbook) for the Int-skill aura and an epic Loremaster he can hire to aid him, plus a squadron of loyal bards to continually sing up Inspire Competence...I absolutely agree.  Its very easy for this to happen.</blockquote>

Verification