Who's your Gandalf now, baby?
- Thread starter dougmander
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Psion
Adventurer
Last game, there was a snake-woman/naga character that inducted the druid into her PrC order who served that purpose for a bit, but they didn't interact with her much.
The prior game, the PCs befriended a young girl with oracular abilities called "the prophetess" who gave them portents and whatnot over the course of the game. She became a major plot point later in the game.
The prior game, the PCs befriended a young girl with oracular abilities called "the prophetess" who gave them portents and whatnot over the course of the game. She became a major plot point later in the game.
Henry
Autoexreginated
I had an Uber-Galdalf in my homebrew campaigns -- two, in fact, a male and female wizard pair who shacked up together and both were over 600 years old. The next story arc before my last campaign played in that hombrew folded was that he had contracted a magical wasting disease that was slowly removing his spell capacity. His lover and he vacated to other realms, leaving the PCs to become the next "Guardians of the free lands", because he feared a day soon when he would not be capable...
dougmander
Explorer
Henry said:
Yeah, that's a common fate of the Gandalf archetype. Merlin, Gandalf, and Obi-wan all leave once the hero gets going.
Piratecat, your Gandalf is one of the PCs? How does that work?
Shemeska
Adventurer
I've had several, but I've never really had them seek the PCs out, it's usually been the PCs seek them out and then they point the PCs to something. I certainly don't have some Elminster-type randomly show up to save the PCs from certain doom and metaphorically allow the DM to stroke his ego's giant wang. But here's a number of NPCs that the PCs have used as directive forces at points:
Tollysalmon - a githyanki and insane former factol of the Bleak Cabal in Sigil, currently incarcerated in the Irretrievably and Criminally Insane Ward of the Gatehouse. She happened to be there incidentally and said something in passing to the PCs in my last campaign, something which seemed to indicate that she somehow knew a lot about what was then going on, despite having absolutely no connection to the events (it was a bit of random creepyness for atmosphere). Well, this second campaign now, the PCs have gone back to her a couple times and as it turns out, she's rather involved in the plot herself in some twisted little way.
Rhys - former Factol of the Transcendant Order, current chairwoman of the Sigil Advisory Council. The PCs asked her advice on a number of times, and each time they came out ahead. She never once led them astray when they actually needed the direction and sought her out, but it always seemed like she'd anticated that they'd be there looking for her.
The Cheshire Fiend - a yugoloth who interacted with the PCs by virtue of a semi-illusory projected avatar that looked like a large glowing fanged grin. For a few years of the game, they weren't honestly sure if they trusted him or if they hated him. He never harmed them, but they got used to his benefit enough, and mislead just as much as given useful information, that he was probably more trouble than he was worth. Plus, he was the child of the Keeper of the Tower Arcane back in Gehenna.
Daru Ib Shamiq 'The Lie Weaver' - yeah, it's probably not a good idea to seek out and ask advice from and trust a guy named 'The Lie Weaver'. But they didn't have much of an option given the sort of information that they wanted, and after one absolutely lovely wild goosechase he sent them on, they later went and sought out his brother 'The Blind Clockmaker'. That turned out swell as well...
Chorazin ibn Shartalan, the Thrice Damned - third time's the charm perhaps. This particular fiend didn't screw them over, and his help quite literally made some good happen. He didn't screw them over because they bailed on him before he had the chance.
However... more commonly the veritable mouthpiece of the DM has been something small and cute/annoying. Fairy Dragon, Pseudodragon, Quasit, Imp, Nalg, Mephit... pick one of them. That seems to be a schtick of mine, having something along those lines as my own little in character peanut gallery in my campaigns. I suppose Nisha the tiefling xaositect might qualify in the same way.
Tollysalmon - a githyanki and insane former factol of the Bleak Cabal in Sigil, currently incarcerated in the Irretrievably and Criminally Insane Ward of the Gatehouse. She happened to be there incidentally and said something in passing to the PCs in my last campaign, something which seemed to indicate that she somehow knew a lot about what was then going on, despite having absolutely no connection to the events (it was a bit of random creepyness for atmosphere). Well, this second campaign now, the PCs have gone back to her a couple times and as it turns out, she's rather involved in the plot herself in some twisted little way.
Rhys - former Factol of the Transcendant Order, current chairwoman of the Sigil Advisory Council. The PCs asked her advice on a number of times, and each time they came out ahead. She never once led them astray when they actually needed the direction and sought her out, but it always seemed like she'd anticated that they'd be there looking for her.
The Cheshire Fiend - a yugoloth who interacted with the PCs by virtue of a semi-illusory projected avatar that looked like a large glowing fanged grin. For a few years of the game, they weren't honestly sure if they trusted him or if they hated him. He never harmed them, but they got used to his benefit enough, and mislead just as much as given useful information, that he was probably more trouble than he was worth. Plus, he was the child of the Keeper of the Tower Arcane back in Gehenna.
Daru Ib Shamiq 'The Lie Weaver' - yeah, it's probably not a good idea to seek out and ask advice from and trust a guy named 'The Lie Weaver'. But they didn't have much of an option given the sort of information that they wanted, and after one absolutely lovely wild goosechase he sent them on, they later went and sought out his brother 'The Blind Clockmaker'. That turned out swell as well...
Chorazin ibn Shartalan, the Thrice Damned - third time's the charm perhaps. This particular fiend didn't screw them over, and his help quite literally made some good happen. He didn't screw them over because they bailed on him before he had the chance.
However... more commonly the veritable mouthpiece of the DM has been something small and cute/annoying. Fairy Dragon, Pseudodragon, Quasit, Imp, Nalg, Mephit... pick one of them. That seems to be a schtick of mine, having something along those lines as my own little in character peanut gallery in my campaigns. I suppose Nisha the tiefling xaositect might qualify in the same way.
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Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Technically, it's Velendo - and he's a cleric!
[sblock]By all rights, the 'Gandalf' should be Congenio Ioun, inventor of the Ioun stone, a 27th lvl archmage from a previous age of the world. The 20th-22nd lvl group of PCs is a little annoyed that Ioun is studiously not getting involved in troublesome world events. They figure he's just neutral. In truth, the real Ioun permanently died last year when magic briefly failed world-wide. This is a 16th lvl clone that was stored off-plane, desperately conspiring with the real Ioun's 20th lvl secretary and cohort to maintain the illusion that he's the same person - in the hopes that his empire doesn't crumble out from underneath him. The players don't know this.
Meanwhile, the PCs have far more of an inkling about the upcoming catastrophe than anyone else. The cleric, Velendo, is organizing groups of adventurers and contacting the most powerful people in the world, in the hopes of both gaining knowledge and of gaining powerful allies. He's going to have some trouble; in the same way that ruleers disliked Gandalf's gloomy advice, an ill wind blows no good. [/sblock]
In addition, a former cohort of the PCs (Stavros the half-orc inn-keeper) hires another former PC (Arcade) to dress up in his High Mage's robes, sweep into his tavern, and send low-lvl groups of adventurers out on missions. Then Stavros gets a cut of any treasure they bring back. It's a nice racket.
I'll toss this in spoiler text, as there's some stuff my players shouldn't see.dougmander said:
[sblock]By all rights, the 'Gandalf' should be Congenio Ioun, inventor of the Ioun stone, a 27th lvl archmage from a previous age of the world. The 20th-22nd lvl group of PCs is a little annoyed that Ioun is studiously not getting involved in troublesome world events. They figure he's just neutral. In truth, the real Ioun permanently died last year when magic briefly failed world-wide. This is a 16th lvl clone that was stored off-plane, desperately conspiring with the real Ioun's 20th lvl secretary and cohort to maintain the illusion that he's the same person - in the hopes that his empire doesn't crumble out from underneath him. The players don't know this.
Meanwhile, the PCs have far more of an inkling about the upcoming catastrophe than anyone else. The cleric, Velendo, is organizing groups of adventurers and contacting the most powerful people in the world, in the hopes of both gaining knowledge and of gaining powerful allies. He's going to have some trouble; in the same way that ruleers disliked Gandalf's gloomy advice, an ill wind blows no good. [/sblock]
In addition, a former cohort of the PCs (Stavros the half-orc inn-keeper) hires another former PC (Arcade) to dress up in his High Mage's robes, sweep into his tavern, and send low-lvl groups of adventurers out on missions. Then Stavros gets a cut of any treasure they bring back. It's a nice racket.
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