D&D 5E Need advice on how to reward 1 character but not whole party.

[Soul Stigma]

Just my two cents but you may want to approach this in a meta game way.

It seems to me that rewards are due all around, as the players whose PCs "failed" are also good sports who are going along with the story. From that standpoint, rewarding the character with the backstory is not giving the other players their due for being good sports.

Something to think about, anyway.

 

[Oofta]

The problem, as others have pointed out, is that you are setting up a PVP situation which is generally something to be avoided. One of the advantages of D&D for many people is that it's a cooperative game. Take that away and (in my experience) it tends to spiral out of control.

Personally, I have a hard-and-fast rule of no Evil PCs and this action is pushing him towards that evil alignment and he would have to do something to absolve his guilt. However, I always establish that at the start of the game and I wouldn't just turn a player's PC into an NPC without warning or at least giving them a chance to seek absolution.

Having said that making a deal with a devil rarely works out in favor of the person making the deal. A few options of "blessings" off the top of my head.

Blessed with Luck: The PC gets advantage on skill checks, attacks and so on every once in a while. When this happens, everyone else in the party has disadvantage until the start of the PC's next turn. Gradually increase this "luck" ability so that the PC is incredibly lucky but everyone else around him has horrible luck.

Great Wealth: Similar to Blessed with Luck, the PC always has gold, while gold disappears from PCs and NPCs alike.

Advisor: Someone else mentioned this, but give the PC an invisible imp that gives them advice. The advice will technically be correct, but will frequently be tactics that hurt the most innocent people or endanger other members of the party. If the PC takes the advice and acts on it, they slowly come under the control of the imp more and more until they are dominated.

Black Blade: give the PC a magical weapon of their choice. The weapon absorbs the souls of the people it slays. Absorb enough souls and you get a special ability/attack. Using souls this way corrupts the soul user, slowly turning them into a fiend.

So basically, curses that are also advantageous at least in the short term.

In all cases, getting rid of the "blessing" requires some kind of atonement or minor quest.

 

[Glomb175]

I've just rewarded my players with one piece of enchanted weapon/armour each. But they were all cursed as well which was fun for me.

Each session if someone role plays their character well or does something cool and inventive or just saves the day then I reward inspiration.That's why it's there

Sent from my HTC 10 using EN World mobile app

 

[covenant123]

Just my two cents but you may want to approach this in a meta game way.

It seems to me that rewards are due all around, as the players whose PCs "failed" are also good sports who are going along with the story. From that standpoint, rewarding the character with the backstory is not giving the other players their due for being good sports.

Something to think about, anyway.

thats actually a really good point

 

[covenant123]

The problem, as others have pointed out, is that you are setting up a PVP situation which is generally something to be avoided. One of the advantages of D&D for many people is that it's a cooperative game. Take that away and (in my experience) it tends to spiral out of control.

Personally, I have a hard-and-fast rule of no Evil PCs and this action is pushing him towards that evil alignment and he would have to do something to absolve his guilt. However, I always establish that at the start of the game and I wouldn't just turn a player's PC into an NPC without warning or at least giving them a chance to seek absolution.

Having said that making a deal with a devil rarely works out in favor of the person making the deal. A few options of "blessings" off the top of my head.

Blessed with Luck: The PC gets advantage on skill checks, attacks and so on every once in a while. When this happens, everyone else in the party has disadvantage until the start of the PC's next turn. Gradually increase this "luck" ability so that the PC is incredibly lucky but everyone else around him has horrible luck.

Great Wealth: Similar to Blessed with Luck, the PC always has gold, while gold disappears from PCs and NPCs alike.

Advisor: Someone else mentioned this, but give the PC an invisible imp that gives them advice. The advice will technically be correct, but will frequently be tactics that hurt the most innocent people or endanger other members of the party. If the PC takes the advice and acts on it, they slowly come under the control of the imp more and more until they are dominated.

Black Blade: give the PC a magical weapon of their choice. The weapon absorbs the souls of the people it slays. Absorb enough souls and you get a special ability/attack. Using souls this way corrupts the soul user, slowly turning them into a fiend.

So basically, curses that are also advantageous at least in the short term.

In all cases, getting rid of the "blessing" requires some kind of atonement or minor quest.

These are all brilliant I think you're totally right blessings but with a twist is whats needed, thanks a lot. I also see your point about avoiding pvp which a few other people have mentioned as well, I think I'll speak to the player and see how he feels then maybe either offer him a way to absolve himself or turn him into an npc. Both ways I think I can use the above ideas to help implement, for example if he chooses to destroy the black blade he could earn absolution but if he uses it a lot he could eventually become an npc. Something like that.

 

[covenant123]

The problem, as others have pointed out, is that you are setting up a PVP situation which is generally something to be avoided. One of the advantages of D&D for many people is that it's a cooperative game. Take that away and (in my experience) it tends to spiral out of control.

Personally, I have a hard-and-fast rule of no Evil PCs and this action is pushing him towards that evil alignment and he would have to do something to absolve his guilt. However, I always establish that at the start of the game and I wouldn't just turn a player's PC into an NPC without warning or at least giving them a chance to seek absolution.

Having said that making a deal with a devil rarely works out in favor of the person making the deal. A few options of "blessings" off the top of my head.

Blessed with Luck: The PC gets advantage on skill checks, attacks and so on every once in a while. When this happens, everyone else in the party has disadvantage until the start of the PC's next turn. Gradually increase this "luck" ability so that the PC is incredibly lucky but everyone else around him has horrible luck.

Great Wealth: Similar to Blessed with Luck, the PC always has gold, while gold disappears from PCs and NPCs alike.

Advisor: Someone else mentioned this, but give the PC an invisible imp that gives them advice. The advice will technically be correct, but will frequently be tactics that hurt the most innocent people or endanger other members of the party. If the PC takes the advice and acts on it, they slowly come under the control of the imp more and more until they are dominated.

Black Blade: give the PC a magical weapon of their choice. The weapon absorbs the souls of the people it slays. Absorb enough souls and you get a special ability/attack. Using souls this way corrupts the soul user, slowly turning them into a fiend.

So basically, curses that are also advantageous at least in the short term.

In all cases, getting rid of the "blessing" requires some kind of atonement or minor quest.

These are all brilliant I think you're totally right blessings but with a twist is whats needed, thanks a lot. I also see your point about avoiding pvp which a few other people have mentioned as well, I think I'll speak to the player and see how he feels then maybe either offer him a way to absolve himself or turn him into an npc. Both ways I think I can use the above ideas to help implement, for example if he chooses to destroy the black blade he could earn absolution but if he uses it a lot he could eventually become an npc. Something like that.

 

[jgsugden]

You don't need to reward the PC. The Devil does.

What does the fiend do? Come for the PC and take him to Hell to become a low level devil as a 'reward'.

 

[Oofta]

You don't need to reward the PC. The Devil does.

What does the fiend do? Come for the PC and take him to Hell to become a low level devil as a 'reward'.

That would be one hell of a plot twist.

 

[jayoungr]

It seems to me that rewards are due all around, as the players whose PCs "failed" are also good sports who are going along with the story. From that standpoint, rewarding the character with the backstory is not giving the other players their due for being good sports.

Seems like this would be an excellent opportunity to give the other players Inspiration, if nothing else.

 

[Silver Moon]

How do you give uneven rewards and possibly punish one? Do it just like in the movies, have a huge ceremony and give big shiny medals to the humans, but don't give one to the wookie!