Setting things streight. DM in seach of guidence

[GreyICE]

Oh, I'm not going to punished him for playing a rouge. He's doing a great job and has gotten away with a lot. I just need a way to understand how things may go awry.

Give your player some warning if you're going to screw him over for stealing something. That being said, here's a few ideas for positive reinforcement:

Give him a Good Reputation: The changling might have all of the skills, etc., but he still needs a reputation. Fences will screw him over or refuse to deal with him, people who don't know him will turn him in, etc. If the changling pulls off a good heist or two, make sure his character gets some in world notoriety. A little bit of a rep going around. Changing faces means losing that rep. I mean what's the fun of being a cross between James Bond and Robin Hood if everyone just ignores you?

Contacts/Love interest/etc: Again, changing your face means losing all of that. Try and pull the player into the character.

Gods: Even the chaotic good deities will frown on this if he stole from people who needed what he stole, and lawful good are frowning on it no matter what. Does the character need help from a god/priesthood? Well, some atonement is now in order!

All good items are magic anyway: Breaking into a Wizard's study comes with consequences. Curses, etc. Other than that, you're REALLY going to have trouble breaking the wealth limits for a even a moderate level character by stealing a handful of trinkets worth 10-200 GP. So why not let the character get away with it?


Hitting the character with the "magic can do anything" stick is just kinda rude. Yes it can we all know that.

 

[Randomthoughts]

As a DM what might some counters that I can through his way to keep him in check?

Pretty good ideas so far. I usually GM games, but I've always wanted to play a Rogue Changling so I find this thread very interesting! I'm not too familiar with 3.X, so forgive me of any mistakes.

Anyway, I think the key is to find the right sweet spot between the changling's hijinx and the "counters" that law enforcement, marks, etc. will employ to prevent or catch the PC. IOW, maintaining that "cat-and-mouse" tension that would encourage the PC to at least be "smart" when executing his schemes.

Magic is one obvious counter (as others have mentioned). But here are two more "low-tech" options, based on basic security principles of authentication (i.e., discerning that the person is who he says he is):

1. What he knows: There are a couple things I could think of. The first is that appropriate NPCs will ask the PC for the correct "password". So guards at a checkpoint will ask what the password is. Now, I'm assuming the PC will disguise himself as another guard, or perhaps as the superior, and have an obscene Bluff score.

But if the PC doesn't give the password, there should at least be a penalty (or increase the DC). The guard might delay him, or ask for a superior. Even if the guard let's him in, he might report this to a superior or get suspicious later. Note also that while the city guard might let the PC into the city, the personal guard to the king will be reasonably more suspicious and not let the PC into the king's keep without the right password.

The second way that individual knowledge can come into play is "personal knowledge" that either the NPC knows or the PC should know. So, if the PC disguises himself as an actual NPC guard he had waylaid, the NPC guard may ask the PC a question like, "yeah how was gambling last night?" The PCs response could cause the guard to become more suspicous. Another example where the PC disguises himself as a high ranking official, the Baron could ask him the simple question of "how is your daughter?" The daughter could have recently been married, or in fact was deathly ill. The PC of course doesn't know that!

Another example could be a hand signal. Say a member of the local spy organization "flashes" a hand signal to the PC. The PC will not know what the proper response is (and will probably flash the same sign back, which could be the worst response to make....).

2. What you possess: There might be highly secure places that require you to have something in your possession, like a ring or amulet or tattoo. Those items don't have to be magical (though for higher security areas, they might be). It could be a simple signet ring that the PC would have to show.

For the tattoo, depending on how the changling abilities are defined, he may not have duplicated the mark (perhaps its only to the extent of what he has seen).

Ok, enough for now. Hope that helps!

 

[Superj3nius]

Maybe have a someone swear a vendetta on him, never actually do anything but maybe have someone begin to get the changeling's sent, so to speak. Kind of like in television shows when the protagonist begin to get clues on the antagonist. And Have this npc sort of hunt the changeling and as he steals more to the point that it annoys you, have the hunter gain more clues and thus alert the community? This making stealing more difficult but not for an arbitrary reason. Maybe even have the hunter publicly threaten the anonymous thieves. This way the character could hunt the hunter, or even work to throw the hunter off their trail.
but as others have mentioned before the goal is not to punish the player. When I played a campaign as a sorcerer I would assist our rouge in some thefts and eventually the dm set us up with a heist session.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Speak with Dead, Scrying, Commune, Contact Other Plane, and Planar Binding/Ally all immediately leap to mind.

If he murders someone, his victim can still tell tales unless he starts taking elaborate precautions about this.

A powerful diviner, most likely on retainer to the nobility, will be able to offer magical aid in locating the culprit. Depending on how well connected the cities are, they could even set up check points for changelings.

Lastly, magical aid from beyond. Inevitables, angels, archons, and much more can be called upon to hunt down a mass murderer and thief.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Unless this guy can change his clothes really fast...

Set up a sting operation. Now you're in the driver's seat. Even if the PC escapes, they'll know this could happen again. They feel invincible. Don't let them.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Lots of good ideas up-thread, but I wanted to poke in to say a couple of things:

1> avoid using 'its magic' when mundane means are available.
2> ditch your modern concepts of anonymous trading
3> follow the gold, not the person
3> ditch your modern concepts of law enforcement

recommendations:
Base the response on the value, location, and owner of the items stolen. In small towns, everyone knows everyone. Its pretty obvious that the 'new guys' will be at fault.. .or at least assumed to be at fault anyway. The local sheriff has the right to drop 'suspects' into the gaol until the issue is resolved.

In larger towns, thieves guilds can be territorial, the town guards more involved.. but you should be able to get away with minor thefts. Larger thefts may result in a bounty hunter getting on the groups tail.

Play into it. He is giving you a series of wonderful plot hooks. Have an item he steals be a beacon to an evil demon and the good wizard had it stored in an iron-sheathed safe. Taking it out gives the demon a way to get back into the material plane and wreak havok.

Have an item provide evidence that the local baron is also a changling who had replaced the real baron a few years back. How does the thief own up to stealing the barons stuff while revealing that the baron is not the real baron?

Have an item be tied to a local legend, and recognized by locals and bards alike.

Have the guard use a consultant, similar to Sherlock Holmes in the TV show 'elementary' who is a changling and adept at recognizing changlings by their mannerisms instead of their faces.

No matter what you do, I recommend embracing the character choice and adding content to the world to encourage the players choices in plots.


ps. These thoughts are from a long time player of Thief characters. No, not 'Rogue'... silly political correctness. Thief's steal, connive, and profit.

 

[Unwise]

In my campaign, Changelings are a fairly persecuted people. They are blamed for all sorts of things. I would have the townsfolk start deciding that crimes are being committed by Changelings and start witch hunts for them. These crimes need not be the actual ones that the character is committing.

The other thing I include is that Changelings are very very good at sensing each other. These two things combined lead to some interesting circumstances. Changelings themselves punish those who bring down unwanted attention on their people. They are a people in hiding, if some petty criminal brings down problems on them, they will kill to protect themselves and their families.

 

[Greenfield]

I'll second what UnWise just said. If the PC becomes abusive of his gift in "civilized" areas, he's going to provoke a reaction.

While they might not be able to identify who committed the crime, they can follow tracks. Dogs can follow scent. Someone might see him change.

Other changelings might take offense to the trouble he's bringing down on them.

Consider also that the Changeling's ability is similar to the Disguise Self spell, and shopkeepers might think that this is magical mischief rather than Changeling mischief. So they go to the Delver's Guild or start pressing the local mages to talk to apprentices etc.

Now you have the Arcane Casters getting heat. Think they'll do anything about that?

Over all (and not just in reference to this particular problem): Many players like to think that they're the first people in the world to ever consider using magical or racial abilities to rip up the world. Your job, as a DM, is to disabuse them of that notion. Every obvious trick or abuse they come up with *has* been seen and tried before in your game world. Magic isn't new or unknown, Changelings aren't new to the cities. There might be laws regulating them.

Remember that while magic and racial abilities change the world, it isn't our world to begin with. We take racial and social equality more or less for granted. We take fair trials and police needing warrants as fixtures in our world. They don't have to be in the game worlds.

Also, we live in a world of mass production, where any given item has a million identical twins. In historical fantasy games, every item is individually made and no two are alike.

Anything this guy steals, other than cash, is uniquely identifiable.

Now apply the same to people. In a world without modern transport, where 85%+ of the population is stuck on the farm producing food, in most towns everyone knows everyone else. Strangers are always suspect. And if someone the shopkeeper doesn't recognize comes into the shop, don't be surprised if he gets very, very close attention. Call it "personal service" if you like, but they're unlikely to be left alone to pilfer much.

Also recall the common punishment in medieval society for thieves: Your hand gets removed, brutally.

Nobody gets caught three times.