BBEG and his plot to die.

[Moon-Lancer]

Ok. I had this idea but i was unsure of how to execute it and make it seem believable. I wanted to make a bbeg that would be immortal (ether just to time or true imortality. He would live forever.

At first he would be good, and a protector of the lands, but over time is immortality would weigh heavily. Why not take his own life? well here is the trick, i wanted to make it so that if he kills himself or directly orders someone to kill himself, he would go to hell or some plane of torture etc... I also thought an artifact could solve this problem. That maybe he just couldnt die in general

What i want

I want him to set up a long chain of events to create circumstances that would create heroes willing to dispatch him. In order to do this must suffering must occur.

It would only be until the end of the campaign that the pcs figure out its their friend or strongest allie that is the one behind the evil itself.

My problem

I really like this idea, but i cant quit get it to work... I need for their to be some way that if you distance yourself from a chain of events that you are no longer participating but still somehow creating this chain of events so you know the outcome.

In other words, at what point are you not committing suicide? How many steps from a chain of events must occur before its not suicide? Many people die through unfortunate choices, but how indirect can a willfull want to die be something other then suicide?

I had a an idea that their could be an artifact that could destroy him but he could not use it on himself, nore could he order someone to use it on him. But if he created a chain of events were someone would willingly use this artifact on him then it would free him.

Why do this?

well i liked the idea of having the bbeg be someone that no one suspected without being suspected because he is the one no one suspected.

It would also put the pcs in a position were in order to kill him, they are committing an act that he desperately wishes to them to commit.

I dont know what the pcs will do honestly. It could go ether way. They could do what he wants, or they could leave him to his eternal pain.


Any thoughts and ideas to make this bbeg work? whats a good way to structure a campaign were the bbeg is only seen through events he has put into motion, but only actually seen untill the very end?

 

[Nifft]

Can he modify his own memories / personality / whatever? If so, he can turn himself into someone who needs killin' -- without, at the moment of his death, being someone who wants to die.

He will, of course, keep a hidden diary prior to this memory modification.

"Then one day, the kind but sad king was gone, and in his place was an evil conquerer!"

Cheers, -- N

 

[Moon-Lancer]

thanks. So you mean something like the movie momento?

im willing to let this bbeg have the power to do anything that makes him function as described above. I want to see the look on the players faces when they realize that for the entire campaign they have been doing what he expected them to do.

Its sort of a commentary about free will.

I was thinking about the last fight, and Even thought he wishes to die, He still has to fight them, with his full power or he might seem like committing suicide. I dont want it to be suicide by cop though.

I have two views

1 he can die, but if he dies under his own hand, he goes someplace he would rather not. I was thinking about the last fight, and even though he wishes to die, He still has to fight them, with his full power or he might seem like committing suicide. I don't want it to be suicide by cop though.

2 He cant die, and an artifact needs to be used to kill him. He cant use the artifact on himself and can't directly order anyone to use it on him. thats why he needs to distance himself from his executioner. Whats nice about this scenario, is the bbeg in his guise as helping them, tell them they need x artifact to defeat the great evil when he in fact is the great evil.

I really want to creat a two face. the first is the ancent who helps the adventures through thick or thin, and the second face is the great evil that threatens the world. They are one in the same but the great evil will only be directly seen in the last session or second to last session.

I guess it will be like sarumon in lotr only much more involveing and the ruse carried untill the end.

What would you do if you knew it was the bbeg plans to have you kill him?

 

[Peni Griffin]

What if, in the course of his long life, he's come to expect people to be passive grumblers who would rather curse the darkness than light a match? So his behavior is geared toward creating a situation that can go on indefinitely, until the Heroes come along to say: This is wrong, and work to fix it.

If he's both LN and skilled at lying to himself, like most human beings, he can even convince himself a) that what he's doing, to which the PCs object (manipulating history or whatever), is benign and necessary and b) that everything he does for the PCs is really deceiving them "for the greater good" and everything he does against the PCs is really striving to protect his position.

I hope you realize that this is a heckuva hard plot to execute. It could crash or it could be sublime. Who would greatly win, must greatly dare. Good luck!

 

[Moon-Lancer]

thanks. that little bit really helps me fill out the parts I was alittle unsure of.

Not only is he removing the cursed affliction of living, he is still thinks he is doing good! i love it.

I also made a big edit to my prev post. I tend to edit alot...

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I do realize its a hard bbeg to pull off and it may flop, I wanted to make a bbeg that is't pure evil, just horribly misguided. I think i might have to learn to lie as much as the bbeg to pull him off

 

[Unkabear]

Make the BBEG to believe that to create hero's worth surviving him (passing on his immortality or just as the beginning of a line of guardians) he has to create a situation that would cause such hero's to leave their chosen paths of life to begin down one that will inspire them and the world into greatness.

Perhaps the BBEG might understand that his constant interference has caused the world to slip into indifference and thus evil. Perhaps his very actions of protection has caused a greater evil of apathy. So...to bring good back to the world he must place himself into a position of evil or opposition.

To bring good back into the world he must become evil.

 

[GSHamster]

The classic example of this is to take a good protector and push him into extremes, imposing upon free will in order to create the greatest good.

For example, perhaps the protector decides that the best way to keep evil in check would be to cast a massive mind control spell on the entire populace, keeping them in check. Perhaps this spell causes damage to a few people, but it's a case of breaking a few eggs to make an omlet.

Or magical experimentation, breeding passivity into the human race, leaving them unwilling to commit crimes, but unable to defend themselves.

Maybe she develops a temporal spell to determine if a person will commit a serious crime later in life. If the result is yes, the person is executed before they have a chance to commit the crime.

Basically, take the phrase "The end justifies the means", and take it to the extremes.

 

[Merkuri]

Hmm, perhaps in his original quest to protect people he ended up becoming more and more tyrranical, taking away his people's freedoms in exchange for security. It started out as something small, like making people get licenses to own weapons, but kept moving more and more towards a police state, like mandatory curfews or wizards on every street corner reading people's thoughts for a hint of inappropriate behavior. One day he wakes up and realizes that he's made everyone miserable in an effort to keep them happy, but at this point it's gone too far. All of the buerocracy and protections he's put in place are now beyond his control.

There's one weak spot, however. There's a sentient eldritch machine that controls and powers his whole government/military/protection network/whathaveyou. Since he is immortal, the best way he could think of to protect the machine was to tie it into his own life force. If he dies, the machine is destroyed and the whole thing falls to pieces, freeing the nation again. The rub is that the machine is so cloesly tied to him that it can read his thoughts and even control him if it desires. Normally it doesn't care what he does, but if it detects any hint that he's planning on killing himself it will take away his free will and make him into a meat puppet to protect itself. He's learned to hide some things from the machine, though, and he's very carefully trying to manipulate events to end in his own death, but he cannot seem like he wants to die and for all intents and purposes has to be the BBEG that everyone thinks he is, or the machine will lock him up in his own brain for eternity.

At the very end of the campaign, as the party gets ready to face off against the BBEG, they realize that the friend and informer that got them here in the first place was the BBEG himself. As they face off against him, they see in his eyes that he wants to die. Just as they are about to strike the final blow the machine realizes what's happening and takes over, and suddenly they are fighing the REAL bad guy, but they have to take down their friend to end it for good.

You know, I kinda like that. I think I might use it in my own campaign some day.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Some possibilities:

* He deliberately wants to destroy the world and knowingly take innocent lives because he plans to disperse his godly essence and bond with the world causing it to reform but in a measurably better and less evil state. He is not doing this out of some heavy handed form of justice and sincerely mourns those who will die by his actions.

* He is a god of suffering, sort of like Illmater in the Forgotten Realms. However he feels the pain of all those who suffer. Over thousands of years, he's had enough. He is setting events in motion to create heroes powerful enough to kill him. The PCs are not alone in this. When he dies, his slayer will be the new god of suffering ... whether that person wants the job or not. The PCs will have to decide if they want to do it or take the chance of some other, malevolent villain doing the job.