PC Sacrifice

[Appleseeth]

Akaiku, the reason I originally came up with this idea was because I know I'd have pretty fond memories of a PC I made that gave up his life in this sort of manner, but maybe that's just the actor in me. It just seems so storybook to me, and kinda lame if I have some random NPC they just met give up their life, like there is no weight to the moment.

I guess that's really what I'm looking for, some way to add weight to the climax/epilogue of the Heroic tier. Anyone have some other ideas for me maybe, following the context I set up earlier?

 

[Zimri]

As I recall the "Shackled City Adventure path" had a heroic sacrifice component. Except you didn't know it but you came out the other end with a "template". You threw yourself into a pillar of fire to stop the "bbeg" in occipitus. You thought you would die but ended up controlling occipitus your character lost an eye permanently and it turned into a smoking hole. You gained a few feats or powers (sorry it's been a while).

My thought would be to do something like that. Have the players and characters believe they are sacrificing the character, have the avatar vanish and the old character showed up "altered" in some manner. maybe remove a magic item slot permanently but add something equivalent to that slot that grows in strength to remain "competitive" with equivalent level loot.

 

[Appleseeth]

Thanks for the idea Zimri. I think I'm ready to start writing the final encounters of the tier now. I think I will test my PCs to see exactly how heroic and selfless they truly are, but give them a nice surprise like you suggested, if not I'll have something else happen. It'll be a lot of work I think to set the tone of the moment just right, since my group is a bunch of jokesters.