[Eberron] Challenges for 13th level 'Anti-Heroes'?

[Reynard]

First of all, if you are reading this and shouldn't be -- you know who you are -- begone.













Anyway. I have a sort of strange situation where a 13th level party is going to be finding a new home in Eberron. these guys are, at best, anti-heroes. I don't want to necessarily set them up as villains, so I don't want to use all the "god guys" as "bad guys" or vice versa.

I am thinking of using Blood of Vol/Emerald Claw and the Lord of Blades as enemies. One problem though is that in Eberron as written, a 13th level party is going to wipe the floor with the standard Eberron baddies (for the most part).

Does anyone have suggestion regarding opposition for a low-high (?) level party in Eberron? What organizations and NPCs make good villains? WHat kind of trouble can you run into with PCs of that level in the setting, if any?

Oh yeah -- dragons and giants are right out as 'campaign' enemies, given how the PCs ended up in Eberron in the first place.

 

[Staffan]

I think the major high-level baddies in Eberron are the Lords of Dust and the Inspired. You could also have some involvement by aberration cultists who have managed to free a couple of daelkyr.

 

[Henry]

Don't forget that a party of neutral to evil protagonists would have the same enemies as a Good party... Emerald Claw, Vol, Lords of Dust, Daelkyr and the Cults, the Inspired, etc. None of them want these interlopers encroaching on their turf, and in fact might see this gang of power players as the perfect pawns for some maneuvers of their own.

The PCs are clued in on a particularly juicy treasure lightly guarded by a Sharn Noble... but the treasure is actually all that keeps a nasty aberration from crossing over from Xoriat when the next sunset occurs.

The Lords of Dust engage the PCs by hiring them anonymously to kill an obnoxious crusader. However, the holier-than thou crusader plans to reveal that one of the Magistrates in Aundair is secretly a demon -- and no one knows that said "demon" is really a rakshasa in disguise about to murder the Queen and send the nation into chaos!

Then, when you leave those clues that make things click into place, the players will both feel like chumps for playing along, and feel admiration that you got them to take the poisoned candy voluntarily!

 

[Klaus]

Take a cue from Conan, an anti-hero (before going king), whose main foe was Toth-Amon.

Vol is Eberron's Toth-Amon.

 

[Glyfair]

I think the major high-level baddies in Eberron are the Lords of Dust and the Inspired. You could also have some involvement by aberration cultists who have managed to free a couple of daelkyr.

Yup, those and the Daelkyr.

 

[Belmont20xx]

There's nothing wrong with using the Lord of Blades or the Emerald Claw as enemies, you just need to level them appropriately. It makes a certain amount of sense for The LoB to level as the PCs do, he hasn't been sitting around doing nothing in the Mournlands while the PCs got to 13th level, has he?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Villains in Eberron are supposed to gain levels along with PCs, though not necessarily at the same rate. By the time the PCs reach 20th-level, the Lord of Blades might be anywhere from 20th to 32nd level!

When the PCs are 13th level, putting the Lord of Blades anywhere from 13th to 20th level sounds reasonable.

 

[Reynard]

There's nothing wrong with using the Lord of Blades or the Emerald Claw as enemies, you just need to level them appropriately. It makes a certain amount of sense for The LoB to level as the PCs do, he hasn't been sitting around doing nothing in the Mournlands while the PCs got to 13th level, has he?

Well, technically, yeah, because the PCs have just arrived in Eberron. the details are messy, but ultimately amount to "We don't like the campaign, but we still like our characters. Let's play them in Eberron!"

So, what we have is a handful of 13th level evil PCs (not kill-rape-pillage evil, but whatever-we-want-how-we-want-it evil) suddenly finding themselves in Eberron. rather than amping p everything in the ECS, I am looking for credible threats that already exist. I think Vol will do nicely, and at the very least the Emerald Claw makes for good mooks. I have since lost the Dungeon mag in which they statted out the Lord of Blades. How tough was he?

 

[Nightfall]

My advice, Daeklyr make excellent antagionist, ESPECIALLY if you combine Githyanki as a possible foil to them.

Lords of Dust, another good option.

One further might be have the Far Realm invade Xoriat and thus more chaos begins.

 

[Anti-Sean]

In addition to the suggestions above, you may also want to consider The Chamber. Who knows about the PCs arrival in Eberron? Perhaps the dragons of Argonessen see the Prophecy revealing itself through them, and the members of the Chamber seek to actively guide them in a particular directon...or to stop them. They aren't necessarily good or evil, and their inscrutable ways and the vagaries of Prophecy give you a lot of leeway in how you choose to use them. The example Chamber member listed in the ECS is a CR 14 LN Silver Dragon, which seems about right, given the current party level. The great thing about all of these groups is that you can use any number of them at the same time, all of their grand, overarching plots entangled within one another!