How do you have a mentor travel with a group of PC's and NOT steal their spotlight?

[magnusmalkus]

I'd like to have the characters escort their mentor thru an adventure but I don't want to use the mentor much because he's powerful enough to make the adventure NOT a challenge for the PC's.

I want to avoid the cliche situation where the mentor feels the need to 'keep a low profile'... it's a pointless alibi because they all adventuring thru unknown territory, noone knows these people anyway.

The situation is that the PC's are recruited by their mentor, a guild wizard, to explore an unknown area. The mentor has a mission to explore but cant, or doesnt want to, do it alone.

So how do you send a more powerful NPC along with the PC's but not use them so as to make the adventure a breeze?

 

[Monkey Boy]

Looking at the PC game Baldurs Gate (not an ideal example given its a PC game) you could try:

kill the mentor to show how deadly the world is and that nothing can be taken for granted. Either that or seperate the party from them very early on perhaps the wizard set off a trap and his rescue then becomes integral to the PC's success. DMPC's should not steal the spotlight from the real hero's the PC's.

Good luck

 

[IceFractal]

Maybe they need to seek out an item/person/place, which is magically hidden. The mentor has a spell that can find it, but he has to keep constant concentration to maintain it, and thus can't help in a fight.

Conversely, maybe someone is trying to scry on them and the anti-scrying spell requires constant concentration.

 

[Stalker0]

Have the mentor hold back, to "test" the PCs in a real situation. He can then critique their techniques after the combat

Or you could bump up the CR of some of the things they might fight. For example, if the mentor is a fighter, he could tank against a scary thing and let the party try some ranged combat. If he's a cleric, the party might get to play with a cool buff they've never had access to, etc.

 

[Blue Sky]

Why does every one who's higher level have to be as good at combat as the pc's are. Maybe their mentor can talk the talk (ie, give them advice), but just doesn't have the "chutzpah" to blast like he used to. If he freezes up for a minute or two, that's long enough for the players to take out pretty much anything.

Or, if the frail old man routine doesn't cut it, maybe he asked them to come along, so they could get some real experiences with "the real world", while he's still around to provide a safety net. He doesn't get involved because then, they won't learn anything.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Cripple him. He could be sick, under a curse, under a geas or be poisoned. He's physically (or perhaps magically) unable to use his abilities at their full strength and he needs the adventurers to do what he would normally do for himself.

 

[Graf]

This is a great question. It happens semi-frequently, it’s very difficult to address and historically is a bit point of contention among players.
I agree that it’s silly to make it so the mentor is “here, but not doing anything”. Why have them along in the story at all?

Best answer is just to “play it straight”.

In other words: The mentor has hired/asked the PCs for help. He’s not doing that because he’s lonely. He’s worried about something, maybe it’s an ambush, maybe its needing guards at night, whatever.
Make the mentor’s concerns justified; create situations where multiple participants are useful, where the party’s skills are useful to the mentor, etc.

Maybe a big troll attacks the group; the mentor steps out to fight it, and a bunch of orcs slip out from behind to try to steal the horses.
Maybe they get to the abandoned fort but are being chased by orcs. The mentor stands in the doorway holding off the orcs while the party quickly searches the fort for a way to lower the drawbridge.
Maybe the mentor needs eight hours of sleep to prepare a specific spell, but there is noise beyond the fire light.

Powerful DM NPCs are obnoxious and boring, but a well crafted, but flawed NPC who is traveling with the party can be a interesting way to change up the dynamic. A lower level party can’t handle a pack of trolls, but it’s OK for them to have a seriously panicky three round fight while they’re waiting for the mentor to get his skinny butt out of the tend with the fireball wand.

The easiest way to keep the spotlight on the players is to de-emphasize the mentor. Don’t roll dice, just give quick concise decisions of who’s doing what. “The sly troll manages to under the mentor’s ax and slash his leg. But a vicious blow to the head drives it back. They seem very evenly matched. You see another orc coming out of the woods on the far side of the wagon. What do you do?”

 

[Dei]

Cripple him. He could be sick, under a curse, under a geas or be poisoned. He's physically (or perhaps magically) unable to use his abilities at their full strength and he needs the adventurers to do what he would normally do for himself.

I think this could work quite well. You could even use it as an adventuring plot hook. Maybe he's been posioned with some exotic substance, the only cure for which is rumoured to lay deep in these "unknown territories". Or if you go the cursed route, the mentor can use his abilities/insight/edit to taste to track down the source of the curse but because he's so severely weakened by it he needs the PCs on hand to deal with whatever it was that cursed him.

 

[Merkuri]

You could send something else along in place of the mentor that communicates for him. When I read in the Eberron Campaign Setting about the expeditious messenger homunculus I thought it would be a nifty way for an artificer patron to remain in contact with the party at all times without actually being there. By RAW the conversation ability of the homunculus is limited to a mile, but I was thinking of making up some excuse (perhaps due to excelent construction, or that this is a special homunculus that's actually closer to an artifact than a regular construct) to let it work at any distance. I just thought it would be cool.

 

[The_Universe]

If the NPC in question is really a mentor, and not an employer, you could just make him a total bastard. He's there to give advice - to teach; not to coddle the PCs he evidently intends to train. He'll defend himself, and may even provide advice when things are going poorly, but the only way to really teach the PCs is to let them sink or swim on their own.

If he's actually an employer, than this works doubly well. Foolish PCs who embark on a task too dangerous for them are obviously subpar employees, anyway. Let them suffer the consequences of their actions, with no intervention from the man or woman who hired them.

This kind of character MIGHT drag the PC's bodies to the nearest temple for resurrection if things go horribly awry, but only to preserve any investment already made in the party, not because of any emotional attachment.

As the PCs gain levels, the relationship might evolve, but it seems like it would explain the "unhelpful mentor" fairly well.