I remember one scene as a player when the group tried to interrogate a baddie. He managed that all people except one left the room and even got peas during the interrogation. When all left he used a charm person stored in a ring. We forgot to check him for such things. The Pc rolled badly, untied him and helped him walk out of the house. We met him several tmes afterwards.
What have you done to REALLY make your players hate an NPC?
- Thread starter Herremann the Wise
- Start date
Mishihari Lord
First Post
My most hated NPC ever del'Bishar, was a slaver. He and his men caught the NPCs on the way back from a dungeon, with their hit points low and their spells depleted. Most of their gear was sold off and the PCs were transported to a foreign land where they were to be sold, but they escaped in the middle of a swamp/jungle wilderness. I was planning to have the wagon their cages were in swept off a cliff by a rockslide into the swamp below. One of the PC's in desperation called on her (CE) deity, which gave me the perfect time to do it.
We had several months real-time of the PCs adventuring without their gear, which was a very interesting change of pace. They eventually got most of their gear back.
Surprisingly, several of the players told me that this was their favorite adventure ever. They referred to it as "The Quest for our Stuff." And they also had a blast when they finally tracked they guy down and attacked his base. I believe they got him.
I got the idea from A4.
We had several months real-time of the PCs adventuring without their gear, which was a very interesting change of pace. They eventually got most of their gear back.
Surprisingly, several of the players told me that this was their favorite adventure ever. They referred to it as "The Quest for our Stuff." And they also had a blast when they finally tracked they guy down and attacked his base. I believe they got him.
I got the idea from A4.
Agamon
Hero
Hmmm, best way to make the party hate an NPC...have him join the party! 
Seriously, don't make up some back story as to why he should be hated. That might mean the PCs hate him, but the players won't. It's what the NPC does during the game that will make the players hate him. He doesn't even need to do it personally all of the time, as long as his prints look to be all over it. But having him best them in some way and escape to try and best them again another day is usually enough to generate hatred.
I've personally overdone the betrayal thing. I need to lay back a bit, the players won't trust anyone at this point. But, yeah, that works too.
Seriously, don't make up some back story as to why he should be hated. That might mean the PCs hate him, but the players won't. It's what the NPC does during the game that will make the players hate him. He doesn't even need to do it personally all of the time, as long as his prints look to be all over it. But having him best them in some way and escape to try and best them again another day is usually enough to generate hatred.
I've personally overdone the betrayal thing. I need to lay back a bit, the players won't trust anyone at this point. But, yeah, that works too.
I had a gnome bard (the one in Sharn: CoT) write a play about the characters, spinning everything they did into a "comedic" piece. Then he dissed them in their own inn. And backed the fighter's opponent for a city council seat. Finally, he slipped, invisible, into the room of the little girl they were guarding, and cast an illusion of her laying in bed, with a dagger in her heart.
They paid the Tyrants (a group of doppelgangers) to set the bard up for murder, and then sneaked into the jail and slit his throat in his sleep. But they really hated that guy.
There was also a pair of Warforged who set first crossed them in the Forgotten Forge (the adventure in the back of the ECS). They cost them a pit fight by cheating, accosted the rogue in an alleyway, and (in my best plan yet) even bailed them out of jail, just to do the "evil monologue". The PC's killed them in a pit fight surrounded by web spells, with the help of a local guild leader.
They also hated Lucan Stellos from "Whisper of the Vampire's Blade", for his dodgy, never quite willing to stand up and fight attitude.
I think the main way to make your players hate your npcs is to set up a few encounters with the npcs where the pcs can't get a hand up on them. After two or three encounters, the players will be chomping at the bit to put them in their place.
They paid the Tyrants (a group of doppelgangers) to set the bard up for murder, and then sneaked into the jail and slit his throat in his sleep. But they really hated that guy.
There was also a pair of Warforged who set first crossed them in the Forgotten Forge (the adventure in the back of the ECS). They cost them a pit fight by cheating, accosted the rogue in an alleyway, and (in my best plan yet) even bailed them out of jail, just to do the "evil monologue". The PC's killed them in a pit fight surrounded by web spells, with the help of a local guild leader.
They also hated Lucan Stellos from "Whisper of the Vampire's Blade", for his dodgy, never quite willing to stand up and fight attitude.
I think the main way to make your players hate your npcs is to set up a few encounters with the npcs where the pcs can't get a hand up on them. After two or three encounters, the players will be chomping at the bit to put them in their place.
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Two examples, one big, one small:
Big: Had the party escort an enfeebled, 80-year-old normal man around, protecting him from attack after attack of flaming creatures. He kept wandering off (being early Alzheimer's) to get lost, so they had to keep interrupting adventures to save him from himself. Final adventure? He turns out to be the human host for the demon they've been hunting for two years. The real old guy begged them to kill him....
Small: Gave an alchemist potions of invisibility. Low magic world where it was really hard to even cast spells. He was the only one with the formula, which required, as one of my players put it, "purest unobtainium". Runcible Moon would ask the party for help, get them into trouble, then leave. Eventually they found out he knew Something Big and started looking for him. After a year they caught him and captured 2, repeat 2 potions of invisibility. He kept getting away after they captured him the first time too. I actually think they hated this non-villain more than anyone else.
Big: Had the party escort an enfeebled, 80-year-old normal man around, protecting him from attack after attack of flaming creatures. He kept wandering off (being early Alzheimer's) to get lost, so they had to keep interrupting adventures to save him from himself. Final adventure? He turns out to be the human host for the demon they've been hunting for two years. The real old guy begged them to kill him....
Small: Gave an alchemist potions of invisibility. Low magic world where it was really hard to even cast spells. He was the only one with the formula, which required, as one of my players put it, "purest unobtainium". Runcible Moon would ask the party for help, get them into trouble, then leave. Eventually they found out he knew Something Big and started looking for him. After a year they caught him and captured 2, repeat 2 potions of invisibility. He kept getting away after they captured him the first time too. I actually think they hated this non-villain more than anyone else.
jerichothebard
First Post
I created a monster called the lich spawn - basically a low-powered lich - and threw him at the party repeatedly. They really, really, really hated this guy, because he just kept coming back.
Eventually they started taking all kinds of risks to destroy him every time he showed up. Leaping down a four-story stairwell, without the benefit of slow fall (at third level), charging through traps, ignoring his minions and concentrating all their firepower on him, that type of thing.
In the end, they bypassed my planned ambush for them, set up an beautiful, awe-inspiring ambush of their own, found his phylactery, and donated it to the Hunters of the Dead. He is now a permanent resident of "the Zoo", the Hunter's training facility, where Hunter-trainees beat him to death about once every two weeks and then wait for him to regenerate.
Eventually they started taking all kinds of risks to destroy him every time he showed up. Leaping down a four-story stairwell, without the benefit of slow fall (at third level), charging through traps, ignoring his minions and concentrating all their firepower on him, that type of thing.
In the end, they bypassed my planned ambush for them, set up an beautiful, awe-inspiring ambush of their own, found his phylactery, and donated it to the Hunters of the Dead. He is now a permanent resident of "the Zoo", the Hunter's training facility, where Hunter-trainees beat him to death about once every two weeks and then wait for him to regenerate.
Gold Roger
First Post
As has been said multiple times in this thread, personal exposion is the best. This may be fights where they never get hold of him, get betrayed or defeated by him or simply meetings where he acts badly towards them. The person my players and PC's hate the most is their current employer, an archeologist by the name of Sigin. He employs slaves, disregards the lifes of his "workers", commands foolishly and is overall unfriendly and arrogant. The group keeps a list of people whose head they'd like to see on a stick. The list has seven names and six of the are Sigin.
Zappo
Explorer
Having the NPC candidly admit to raping a friend of his, while implying that he didn't think it was a big deal. That's for the "in the background" category, I think, since the act happened before the PCs got involved.
For the "in the campaign" category, I think that casting Mordenkainen's Disjunction ranks pretty high on the "hate-me-meter".
Also, being evil and annoying but impractical to be killed due to political reasons.
For the "in the campaign" category, I think that casting Mordenkainen's Disjunction ranks pretty high on the "hate-me-meter".
Also, being evil and annoying but impractical to be killed due to political reasons.
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