Help my terrorize a player

[yennico]

Be careful, terrorization of a player can frustrate the player.
If the PC never can get his hands on the villain, the villain always escapes or can not be defeated the player will get frustrated.

Use several villains to harrass the player. If the PC defeats the first villain he will be happy. After some time the second villain (more powerful) will starts his terrorization against the PC.


Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[Cyclops]

If the player is low level (2), then have the wizard killed of a similar level. BUT, the wiz's dad is rich, and a resurection was bought and paid for. The newly risen wiz knows who did him in and wants revenge. The family may or may not be with him in this.

I would do a few subtle things like let the risen wiz be seen in a marketplace. He looks up and makes eye contact with the PC. He smiles, and mouths, "I'll be seeing you!" and then he disapears into the crowd.

Revenge. First of all, the PC has friends. So the Wiz may hire some 1st level thugs to assault the PC's-just to see what they are capable of. If there is a law that requires swords to be peace bonded in the city, well some one will inform the constables that weapons were bared.

Next, the wiz may harrass other PCs with thugs. Beat up the party thief. "Its not healthy to hang around (PC name)."

Make this an adventure. Let the PCs track the villain down to his lair where he has an Ogre and a few orcs waiting and let them kill him. After all, daddy can always raise the dear wiz again. This could be a good recurring villain. Kill him all you want, he'll come back. You'll find the PCs become quite inventive in their body disposal efforts to frustrate your raises (but thats where "Contingency" spells come in!).

I agree with prev posters, that you shouldn't frustrate the PC. this should be fun. Let the PCs discover the family business, and put a franchise in every city. Mysterious midnight fires will plague the company. Two can play at this game.

 

[Arc]

Watch out, because if the player is also a ratbastard, you could be getting in a whole lot of trouble.

Having a personal enemy or vendetta can be a great excuse for an off plot rampage, and it might be hard to start the party back on track if they're facing death threats from a side source. Say the player realizes that there's an enemy after him. He researches, finds out the source, and suddenly has his own crusade that could take many sessions. As was said before, don't let this take precedence over other players, else things could get nasty.

 

[Castlin]

The wizard died... but his familiar didn't.

Familiars are pretty smart. Even a low-level wizard's familiar has an Int of 6 or more, which is animal cunning combined with some simple reasoning. The master's death turned it mean and vengeful. It might not be able to kill its master's murderer, but it could sure torment him.

Physical torment is easy. The creature is probably very small, so it is easy to make off with the character's smaller, yet vital, supplies, such as healing potions. Depending on the familiar and the setting, it can be very difficult to track; which of the ravens in the town common stole the magic ring?

Psychological torment would be more difficult, but more interesting. The character sees the familiar everywhere he goes, staring at him, but it retreats when he draws near (into the wall, flies away, whatever). That's all it ever does, stare and retreat. But its always there. This results in fun when the PC starts tearing apart the inn walls screaming "THE RAT IS STARING AT ME AGAIN! AAH! THE RAT!"

In a long-running campaign, the familiar could become sort of an "anti-familiar" for the PC. The friendly bond it shared with its master has been severed by the PC, and it is now linked to him in an intimical fashion. It could gain new powers as the PC levels, just like it would have progressed with its former master. It gets tougher, smarter, and meaner, keeping track with the PC. Its presence could be disruptive the character, giving a -2 to Spot and Listen? Perhaps some kind of template is in order.

Note that none of these ideas would work very well with a toad.

 

[ZSutherland]

I agree with Demiurge about the frame jobs, but since the characters are only 2nd level (and therefore still subject to sleep spells), assuming the character in question isn't an elf, find ways to isolate him and cast sleep on him. Then the wizard casts change self and gallavants about being an arse in the guise of the PC. He might even hang out with the other PCs for a bit. At first, just make him do things that are rude and get people angry at him, then slowly ramp up to crimes. The reason for the sleep business is that if you don't tip your hand too early, the character (and maybe even the player) won't know if he's having blackouts or what...

Make him leave the room while you do this if the other PCs witness the wizard in disguise, and explain to them what they see. Tell them he looks a bit off and dazed, like he's not quite himself. Don't let them in on the gag either. See how that goes.

Z