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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6126206" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I figured I could post something slightly different in this repository for Epic tier play.  There is overlap here with the ongoing Paladin thread, but I'm not particularly interested in dipping my toe in those turbulent waters any more than I have already (on this board and others), so I'll frame it for this thread as it will likely have the most utility here.For my current 4e game we decided to do something interesting to open the Epic tier of play.  A friend was going to be spending a few weeks in town so we decided to take good advantage of it.  This (unfortunately) happened to correspond with roughly the same period of time when one of the 3 players in my group would be unavailable.  What we did was create the backstory, which emerged in play, of the main Epic tier antagonist; about 6 sessions...maybe 25ish hours (yes, it felt like high school).  This antagonist is a Paladin and will remain so awhile longer. He is something of a combination of Eddard Stark, Jesse James and Stannis Baratheon; a propensity for cold, terse, distance...but just, honorable and unflinchingly committed to his (in part perceived and in part true) duty, with an instinct/intuition so uncanny that it seems almost supernatural.  The adventure was the playing out of his vestigial metamorphosis from knightly protector and crusader to enforcer to something deeply malignant; from philosophically idealistic to almost entirely utilitarian.  The evolution of his philosophical strain was premised entirely upon the real world requirements of his ethos in an inhospitable land...sort of the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood; a great sacrifice of the internal innocence of a true believer because, as a front-line combatant, you don't have the luxury of standing on the sidelines and surveying the hard decisions...you live them...in real time (means vs ends etc).  A "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" story.The game had the 3 PCs:* A Lazylord/Princess-build squire and scribe who served as chronicler for the Paladin's ascension to the throne.  The character was a complete non-combatant whose Leader-aspect was a metagame construct.  He had tons of Knowledge Skills/Powers.* The Paladin's Celestial Steed; A Silver Dragon with At-Will Alter Self (mostly staying in the form of a silver-haired, female Eladrin).  This character used the Companion Rules.  Like the Lazylord, tons of Knowledge Skills.* The Paladin who would serve as major foil for the PCs in the ongoing game.  I will break this character out in greater detail in terms of the primary abilities that were leveraged in this game.  He had 3 Distinctions/Beliefs that thematically guided our play:- "I let the scourge into my homeland...I will drive it out." - "The sick, the sullied and the down-trodden shall not carry their burden alone.  I will take on their miseries and protect them from the vile inequities of the world." - "Station is a vessel for the advancement of justice, benevolence, and mercy.  Solely do I understand this.  It is manifest destiny that I rule."Background Cultist (Streetwise trained).  His family were extremely upper crust and his parents were demon-worshipers.  This was commonplace amongst the bourgeois and royals.  The power behind the throne was Abyssal in origin.  He grew up an acolyte of the same twisted faith.Theme (Knight Hospitaler).  His parents were willing sacrifices to a demon lord; consumed during one of the order's sacrificial rituals.  The boy beheld this through the spaces between the floor-boards from a crawl space.  Reviled, he attempted to flee but was caught and summarily killed...but it didn't take.  Arisen again as a Revenant, he fled his homeland, ending up on a "Boy's Ranch" far away, ultimately being plucked from there by an order of roving healers.  The primary feature (beyond the healing elements) of the Theme that affected play was: You can request food and lodging for yourself and your traveling companions from any temple affiliated with your hospitaler order, or from any noble household. Your request for hospitality will be honored in all but the most unusual circumstances.  This came into play twice in the short game.Paragon Path (Demonslayer).  By this point, the Paladin had many years abroad in campaigns against demonic incursions.  The primary feature of this Paragon Path that came into play was Demonslayer's Presence: Any demon that starts its turn adjacent to you takes damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. While any demon is adjacent to you, it can’t shift.  Mechanically, in effect, we treated this feature as a "Detect Demon" ability.  In a Sanitarium Skill Challenge, the Paladin player would use this ability on a patient, an orderly, or the medical superintendent.  On a success, the player would get to determine if the target was in fact possessed/shapeshifted and results would ensue in accord with that.  If you were using this in a sim game for objective task resolution (outside of the framework of a non-combat, conflict resolution system), you would have the demon make a Bluff check with the DC being the passive Insight check of the Paladin and the GM would narrate the (likely binary) results. Epic Destiny (Legendary Sovereign) Given his resurrected state, he eventually came to understand that his Divinely-compelled destiny was to expose, confront and destroy the demonic power behind the throne of his homeland; and ultimately claim it for the greater good.  To that end, with the game being setup primarily as investigation/interviews/interrogations/parlays, the following two features (coupled with all of the other Charisma and skill enhancing features) came into play in a big way.  Homeland: With the DM’s approval, choose a realm you are destined to rule. You are regarded as a great hero in that land. You gain a +4 bonus to any Charisma-based skill checks you make within that land. You have property or estates there sufficient to provide for your ordinary needs, including the resources to maintain a household and a small force of loyal retainers.  Legendary Presence: Your Charisma score increases by 2.This game was probably 3:1 non-combat conflict resolution to combat resolution.  The thrust of the game was that the Paladin was now leading his holy order of Hospitaler/Demonslaying Knights on a mission to purge the land of its demonic heritage.  The overarching, macro-mechanical framework of this was an Extended Skill Challenge to "Uncover the Demonic Power Behind the Throne" 8:3.  Each of these successes or failures was a micro Skill Challenge which included the investigation of Sanitariums set up throughout the region.  Success or failure would propel the macro Skill Challenge and the narrative forward toward their ultimate conclusions.  Not all Sanitariums were corrupt.  There were a few legitimate, benevolent enterprises at work.  Success on these Skill Challenges meant the players were given narrative rights to frame the results of the Sanitarium investigation (corrupt or legitimate and where that took the story).  Failure (there were two), opened the rendering up to my take.  Yes...Shrodinger's Sanatariums.  Investigative, interrogation and parlays were carried out via mundane means  and many uses of Divine Rituals to bind and command demons, remove their presence from the afflicted, discern lies, hallow a temple, or place a Mark of Justice (a goodly curse) on a creature (command by proxy).  The following Skills, Feats, Channel Divinity, Powers and Rituals were all brought to bear in the resolution of these challenges: Skills - Athletics, Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Intimidate, Nature, Religion, Streetwise.Feats - Skill Mastery (Insight), Power of Justice (+ 2 feat bonus Insight and At-Will bonus), Knightly Bearing (+2 feat bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate), A few Skill Trainings and Multi-class Fighter.Powers - Several healing effects and saving throw effects that included sacrificing Healing Surges (including LoH), Astral Speech (Daily:  Divine + 4 power bonus to Diplomacy for the duration of a Skill Challenge, Gift of Life (Daily:  Restore a creature to life by sacrificing your life force), Channel Divinity - Divine Fate (Encounter:  you or ally rerolls failed skill, ability check, or saving throw), Call Celestial Steed (Silver Dragon Companion; Player Character with a full suite of actions and autonomy, etc).Rituals - Discern Lies, Hallowed Temple (Demons and undead cannot cross the temple’s threshold), Mark of Justice (the afformentioned permanent commanding curse that deblitates the afflicted if the forbidden action/behavior is undertaken), Remove Affliction (used to lift possession), Magic Circle and Adjure (to bind and command or banish a demon; a Skill Challenge unto itself).So we played this out and created the setting chronology and the backstory, disposition, and forward trajectory of the primary antagonist (the Reborn Paladin) in the Epic tier of play for our regular campaign.  Each minor Skill Challenge investigation of a sanitorium and its orderlies accrued a success or failure in that greater challenge.  Ultimate failure or success of that Skill Challenge was going to have ramifications for the Paladin and his modus operandi with respect to his ethos.  The PCs accrued only two failures, ultimately revealing and defeating the Archdemon behind the throne, thus purging the demonic influence and claiming the throne for the Paladin.  However, like any good victory it was a Pyrrhic one as the two accrued losses severely affected the soon-to-be antagonist.  One loss ended in the fiery destruction of one of the sanatariums, extinguishing hundreds of innocent lives and letting loose a contingent of demons that pillaged the countryside until they were tracked down and slain.  The second loss resulted in the death of the wealthy philanthropist who spent his fortune on the construction, maintanence and running of legitimate, benevolent sanitariums and orphanages across the nation.  The loss of his life, his fortune and his mission was a grave blow to the Paladin.  He won the power of his home nation and defeated the demonic scourge, but the scope of the losses to be endured and the disturbing depth of the demonic subversion of society changed him from a man of ends more toward a man of means, ultimately leading to the character's place as primary antagonist for the PCs to battle.  He became a suspicious, insular autocrat;  deeply untrusting such that he would never put any subordinates in a positions of power to affect important ends where lnnocent lives or justice might be at stake.  He became ruthless in his pursuit of justice and the protection of the meek; seizing lands, titles and fortunes from the nobility in order to rebuild the lost sanitariums, hospitals and orphanages.  His borderline supernatural intuition led to witch hunts when he suspected demonic possession as the root cause of behaviors and a series of imperial campaigns against neighboring nations when it became clear to him that the scourge that he had routed in his own nation had infected his neighbors...and his insight was so keen, so divinely inspired, that he was never wrong...or so the stories catalogued.Our game will uncover the true source of his power.All told:1)  If folks are interested, I would highly recommend such an endeavor.  It has ensconsed the players collective interest in setting like never before; and they are invested in their foe like never before.  And it was fun!2)  I can make a case for this guy maintaining his Paladin-hood, Lawful Good alignment and status as (an extremely effective) Exarch/Champion to his God's Domains almost up until the very end.  I would not punish a player for this extreme evolution such that he loses his powers.  He hasn't lost his Divine powers in my game.  Its made for an extremely interesting antagonist and the game could just as well be played from his perspective as a protagonist. Ultimately, it will be revealed that the powers of his Divinations are Abyssal in nature and that he has hordes of Abyssal agents either under his thrall or "on the take"...all of this is for the greater good of his ethos.  His demonic apotheosis will culminate and his descension will lead to the loss of his Divine powers and the gain of "greater" Abyssal powers as a demon lord.3)  Having been told so many times recently that 4e is a platform built almost exclusively for resolution in the theatre of combat, I was shocked to have 25 + hours of meaningful, primarily non-combat, conflict resolution and how well equipped the characters were to affect those ends via their build decisions interfacing with the game mechanics.</blockquote>

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