D&D 5E Mines of Phandelver - Need Help With a BBEG Brainstorm

[DrNiklus]

Is it possible for the Black Spider to be a Dread Pirate Roberts type, who was once a specific person but is now a role that gets passed down over time?

My idea was that one in my party mentioned a backstory friendship with a previous dwarf character he played. I was curious if Gundren Rockseeker could actually be this backstory dwarf - which was an easy tweak. But then what if this dwarf was originally captured by the Black Spider, but actually BECAME the Black Spider, akin to how Wesley became the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Just need to know if this is too far into left field to be achievable without railroading these poor bastards.

 

[Eltab]

The Black Spider as an alternate identity? That can work, but it should originate independently of the PCs' background. Provide them with a mystery to uncover: if the Black Spider is a dwarf, how come he has an elf's lifespan?

 

[robus]

The Black Spider is woefully under powered. Increase the HP and give him some legendary actions. He was a great disappointment when I ran him as spec’d.

 

[Smackpixi]

Yes. Do it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I've run the campaign twice and both times I radically changed the Black Spider as he is a pretty generic villain without any terribly specific motive (he's seeking powerful ancient magic because of course he is) or much explanation of how he was able to cobble together the support of drow, goblins, dopplegangers, and the redbrands. If you change things it won't break anything, as nothing about him is intricately integrated into the module (which is the joy of this module, it's just developed enough that it's not demanding of the DM, but sketchy enough that DMs can get as creative as they want with it). I made him a doppleganger in one campaign and a deathlock of Ghaunadaur in the other. It broke nothing.

 

[Smackpixi]

Making Black Spider a Drider seems the easiest coolest way to make tougher.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Making Black Spider a Drider seems the easiest coolest way to make tougher.

Yup! Taking a guy from a CR2 humanoid to a CR6 monstrosity ought to do that!

 

[Bill Zebub]

The Black Spider is woefully under powered. Increase the HP and give him some legendary actions. He was a great disappointment when I ran him as spec’d.

Post a stat bloc?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

My idea was that one in my party mentioned a backstory friendship with a previous dwarf character he played. I was curious if Gundren Rockseeker could actually be this backstory dwarf - which was an easy tweak. But then what if this dwarf was originally captured by the Black Spider, but actually BECAME the Black Spider, akin to how Wesley became the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Just need to know if this is too far into left field to be achievable without railroading these poor bastards.

Okay, looking back over this I don't think I really answered the question. I think it would be very cool if some character from the PCs background or a prior campaign turned out to be the Black Spider, but I think making the same character also Gundren Rockseeker is probably going to require more rewriting than it's worth (if that's what you're proposing). You have to come up with why he would have hired these adventurers to escort a cart to a store in the town, or hook them in differently. Gundren does have a couple of missing brothers, so if you played with the time frame of the brothers arriving you could possibly make one of them the Black Spider without having to completely reinvent the opening of the module.

I'm not sure how having such a twist would "railroad" the players, unless you are strongly foreshadowing it but not allowing them to act on figuring it out, or putting them in contact with someone who is secretly the Black Spider and not letting them defeat them before the big showdown. But as long as you just have the Black Spider (whomever they are be in the mines from the time they arrive in the region it doesn't really require any railroading to have them be whomever you want them to be. Now if the plan is to have a person who is both the Black Spider and Gundren and have them similarly be rescued (or rather "rescued") from the Goblin castle and travel with the group that may require too much railroading to make it work.

 

[GuyBoy]

I'm running Phandelver for my grandkids (aged 12 and 9) with my wife doing sterling duty as a dwarf cleric. They're loving it and have just killed the green dragon to great delight!
They got interested due to Stranger Things and, with the new series imminent, I'm thinking of tying the Black Spider to Vecna somehow, so they can both defeat Vecna's machinations themselves and watch Eleven and Co do the same.