What's an extravagant reward for (the equivalent of) high paragon PCs?

[Mercurius]

We're playing 4E, but I think it will be similar across the board. I'm looking for a truly extravagant reward for a quest that many of the great heroes of the land have died trying to accomplish. We're talking about high paragon tier and something that would be so massive, that it would be tempting to try - even if the chances of success are slim.

I'm thinking five million gold pieces, which would be one million per PC. Is that too much? Too little? Should it be that plus a keep or fortress or land holding?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The Head of Vecna.

 

[MarkB]

If you want extravagant, then go for something unique, something beyond money.

Maybe the only working prototype airship in the entire gameworld.

Maybe the maps and journals of a legendary explorer which, if deciphered, could lead one on a perilous journey to the Fountain of Youth.

Maybe a jewel-encrusted gold tablet written in an ancient language, which holds the promise of one favour from a particular deity - a favour which has been traded and passed down amongst mortals for generations without anyone attempting to redeem it, due to the deity's notoriously fickle nature.

Or, for a more classical approach, half the kingdom and the prince or princess's hand in marriage.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I was going to suggest offering a noble title, perhaps to each hero. When a nobleman died, the king was granted the ability to choose the next noble.

Usually the king gave the title to the heir, and wars could be sparked if they didn't, but they didn't have to. Louis XII of France, the "Spider King", handed all such "empty thrones" to his supporters rather than their "rightful" heirs.

I'm personally not a fan of kingdom management of that type, but to a PC that's a huge benefit. Many such nobles never spent times on their noble estates, instead living in the capital and being given some sort of important job (eg Ambassador to England, Minister of Finance, etc). The noble estates provided an income which could let them live in comfort between adventures.

I think we need to know more about who is offering the reward to give more advice. What do they have that they can offer?

I doubt they'd hand over an airship, cool as it would be, because that's basically an aircraft carrier, and the crown wants to be the only power that has one. PCs would have to earn an airship another way.

Another idea might be a lost family secret. Perhaps the True Crown and True Scepter were lost hundreds of years ago, and the king wears a fake. He wants the PCs to find them, and give him the crown. They can keep the scepter.

 

[Empirate]

Depends on what your PCs want. For some, simply more power/glory/money/magic/ale can be enough.

For others, there's good motivation hidden in their back story: change the past to unmake a tragic mistake in the PC's youth; find love instead of bitterness with someone they used to be close to but grew estranged from; re-found the betrayed and destroyed Order of Cleansing Flame/Conservatory of the Singing Harp/Dark Brotherhood/Royal Scientific Society/etc. (with the PC in question as their new head); redeem a soul lost to damnation; stop a war which would produce only losers from happening; and so on.

Finally, changing the PCs into a transcendent power is a classic. Let them become saints to be worshipped, their names spoken only in awe. Or even turn them into minor deities and let them each pick out a portfolio, name a high priest, consecrate holy ground, designate holy relics, hand down a book of faith or book of prayer and all that jazz. Have those deities be available in your next campaign, ready to be worshipped by Cleric PCs. Along the same lines, turning them into bindable vestiges or something like that may work - anything that those particular PCs will be remembered by at your future gaming table. That way, the players get the feeling that they're having a lasting impact, not only in this campaign but also in all future ones, not only on their game world but on the game's mechanics themselves.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I think it would depend on the quest that they were given, but what if they got command of what was holding this mystical macguffin? Perhaps its locked in a demi-plane and by retrieving the artifact the plane recognizes them as the new ruler and responds to their mental whims.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would most specifically not make it money, nor anything else that can be bought.