Evil Campaign

[Lord_Thokk]

I realized something...all he campaigns that I run ae all high and mighty. They always invole the pursuit of money and nobiity, but never do they seek personal gain over the anguish of others. I have decided to let my PC's be whatever they want, with no class/racial barriers. Not only are they simply overpowered, but the took as many templates as they saw fit, and created monsters the likes of which have never before been seen . The characters have 10 character levels, and are as follows:

A Tattooed Monk 4/ Half-Dragon Troll Monster of Legend

A Sorcerer 10/ Half-Feind Human Shade Death Knight

A Paladin 5/ Blackguard 5/ Human Spell-Stitched Vampire


Now, these guys ae set in the FR campaign setting, and the "quest" begins in the Sea of Fallen Stars. There is an active volcano on one of the islands, and this is guarded by a small village of no more than 200. Now the city has a priest, along with his apprentices, but he is an effective 14 level cleric. His only job on the island is, when the time comes (the rebirth of the dragon PC) he is to ressurect the Paladon that was rained from his birth to hunt this animal. Now, before, the Paladin has almost effortlessly killed the dragin PC, but this time he will have help. The two bags-o-bones will show up in the knick of time to help out the dragon and win his friendship....or alliance. Now, behind the Undead, they have a fewarmies. The Sorcerer has a vast army of collected undead, no eal assortment, but any that will join him, numbering at about 130,000. Now he Vampire has not nearly as many troops, but he has 10 trained legions of 200, 15 level Anti-Paladins. Now the Dragin has what would be the equivalent to a Diciples of the Purple Dragons guild, but are devoted to the evil PC, and are numbering as 500 hill giants. Now they want to eventually conquer the land of Ferun, but I am afraid that they will have little to no trouble with this and I have come up with a few ideas to slow hem, or at least make it interesting.

1) Make Good Guys with no class/racial boundaries to combat the PC's
2)Make an Inter-Planar Society based on balancing the multiverse, and must stop the PC's at all costs
3)....this is where you come in

I have come up with few ideas and i need your help. Thanks much.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Lord Thokk,

The FR setting has more than enough interested parties to contest these monsters already. But if you really want to you could create a party of six first level core characters, have them advance at the speed of a normal party of adventurers that game ten hours a week, let the evil PC's hear rumors of them in distant places as they gain levels and eventually have them start unknowingly work against your PC's interests. The PC's, realizing that these adventurers are the equivalent of "Good PC's" will bend every effort toward destroying them, not paying anywhere near enough attention to messrs Blackstaff, Elminster and the Harpers....

 

[BlackMoria]

The Red Wizards, the Zhentarium and several other evil power groups can field their own armies and likewise have significant number of high level characters in their ranks.

Since these groups have designs on their own brand of world domination, they are not going to sit still and allow this new group to come along and take over the world. Nor are they willing to share power - hence the many Zhentarium - Red Wizard clashes.

The forces of good can field significant forces - both in armies and high level heroes.

In short, this group of yours is not going to succeed at world domination....but they can have fun trying until they are killed.

Between the various power groups like the Twisted Rune, the Kraken Society, the Rundeen, the Knights of the Shield, the Iron Throne, the Zhentarium, the Red Wizards, the Harpers to name a few - not to mention the various 'Chosen', your group is probably dead meat.

 

[Robbert Raets]

I agree with the above posts, I highly doubt your PC's could take on any major power group, let alone epic-level NPC's....

 

[Lord_Thokk]

In these respects, you are correct, but I have "forgotten" a few crucial details. I have tried to satck the odds in their favor, so I have given them a few advantages. First off, combined, the Undead PC's have control of the entire coast of the Sea of Swords. Not by force, of course, but they are the ones who all the major trading ports and any other city for that matter have to answer to. The have slyly woven a web of deciet and left a murderous trail leading back and forth to the various leader of the Sword Coast. Now, they have destroyed the ring of murder and deception (which thy had set up, betraying a few of their old compatriots) and now have been given the leadership of almost all the major ports. Ahhhhhh, let me not forget that they all have the psionic template, so major majic users such as Elminster and the Red Wizards will not be able to detect their disguises. So, with this under control, they have successfully managed to "breed" an army. They also have contacts within a society of ethreal warriors (mostly dopplegangers that have assumed the identities of major warriors from the past) and most many underground fighting troups. Also, at the control of the Vampire are his hoarde of spawn, which will not do well in a fight against clerics, but are a vicious force to be reckoned with (I have yet to decide how many he will have with him, cause those are a lot of mouths to feed) So with this in mind, and traitors within the Harpers and Red Wizards, the rest of the world will fall.....but my original question remains.....what next?

 

[LuYangShih]

If you're going to stack the deck as much as it seems in their favor, and have rendered the VAST assemblage of other Heroes and Villians present in the Forgotten Realms toothless, why bother doing anything but saying "You win. Next campaign."?

If, on the other hand, you haven't already thrown up your hands and handed them the Realms... If you want effective blockades to the domination of Faerun, just take what's already there and use it intelligently and effeciently. No disguise is impenetrable, and no secret unknowable. High level Rogues could easily discern the identity of your villians, as well as their numerous contacts and alliances.

And then actions can be taken to eliminate these impetous fools who dare threaten to disrupt the power structures of practically every major power in the Realms. I wouldn't be surprised if even Avatars intervened if these PCs threatened even of the major churches in Faerun. If you really are having trouble, and they seem too much for anything, just modify the many NPCs and enemies they'll face to something that can take them down.

But with intelligent tactics and reasonable assumptions, given the godlike status of certain individuals and powers within the Realms, this group will likely be, as BlackMoria said, dead meat within a few months. I'd expect Larloch alone could destroy all three of them.

 

[Lord_Thokk]

Now, I'm not debating the point of the destruction of the PC's.....eventually, but the campaign isnt solely based on the conquest of the realms. The majority os based on the conquest and DOMINATION of the realm. Not only do the have to take it by force or what not, but they must hold it. The also need to take control of the other lands such as Ferun, on other continents and places. You seem to have gotten the wrong i dea, or i didnt explain it well

 

[BlackMoria]

You let them 'have' the entire Sword Coast under their sway.

So what has the Host Tower of the Arcane (Luskan), the Lord's Alliance (Waterdeep-Baldur's Gate), the Kraken Society, the Knights of the Shield (Amn), the Sy-Pasha of Calimshan and the Twisted Rune doing about this? Or have your rendered this point moot.

I don't care how sly these guys are - they are setting up a monopoly even if noone knows their real intent or identities. They have broken the status quo and all the Sword Coast powers I have outlined above will do something about it.

So, in essence, you stacked the deck to the party's benefit, and now you asking how they can be slowed down? As Shakespeare has said "Me thinks you doth protest too much."

Your mistake was in allowing this group to gain this power. You can't gather the forces the party has without someone noticing - a fact you discounted. So the party was going to have trouble from the word 'go'.

I agree with LuYangShih. Tell them they 'win' and then ctrl-alt-delete the campaign and start anew.

 

[s/LaSH]

Oh, there's always a bigger fish. Especially in the Realms. If the drow don't decide they're a threat, you can always throw in legions of githyanki or maybe an angered demon lord or two. The world's likely to get ruined in the process, but hey, that's par for the course I guess.

And then there are dragons... dragons that have slept for a thousand years and would very much like to find someone to call them 'papa' in a high-pitched voice. And there's always a bigger dragon if you've got the right books (or imagination)...

Sure, it's epic. But hey, they've got rules for that.