Campaign Idea

[Ferrix]

Okay, so I was puttering around on the talking the talk boards, looking into the upcoming Epic vs. Demigod Smackdown and someone mentions the paragon template. So, I then go do dishes (of course). Whilst doing dishes I come up with this idea for a campaign:

# of Characters 4 to 5, starting lvl 1

The characters, unknowingly, are the chosen paragons of their race for a great evil that will befall the world (this needs some work), however... the idea for the characters is the part that struck me as interesting...

spread out the abilities of the paragon template over 20 levels and as the characters level up they gain the corresponding abilities (as discreetly as possible). basically the easiest way to be discreet would be to have a copy of each character and then modify it with the abilities of the paragon of that level and play accordingly.

play through until about level 15 or so, only dropping the rarest of hints of the impending evil (maybe even throw in a major clue at level 1 that they'll forget by lvl 15 just to be 'evil'), and then start plunging them into the thicker plot. around 20th level they discover that they are paragons (they'll probably have suspected something is up for a while with their characters performing abnormally well) and then plunge them into an epic maelstrom of a campaign.

so, that's how far i've gotten so far, need to find a way to spread the paragon template effectively over 20 levels (and do so to have the most subtle impact as possible) and then calculate the effective increase in ECL (which shouldn't be as hard).

so, how's that for an overarching backstory? suggestions? comments?

 

[Neil Aitken]

Sounds intriguing.

You might want to look at the Heroic Paths in Fantasy Flight's Midnight setting. Every PC has a Heroic Path which gives them bonuses and/or abilities as they level up. Very similiar actually to taking the paragon and dividing it out over the 20 levels. Midnight features around 20 different Heroic Paths, so there's a lot of interesting class/race/path combos you can arrive at.

 

[Taloras]

My current DM is using the Heroic Paths from the Midnight setting....except that hes not just using one path for each character. He got the background for each character, then selected 3 Paths. At each level, he tells us what each ability for that level is. We then select one. My half sea elf cleric has the Seaborn Path, the Elemental Born: Water path, and the Faithful Path. Currently, im going all for the Elemental Born: Water path, because it fits the character best. The abilities are quite useful, and he put in a +1 ECL for it. I like it so far.