I need ideas (3.5 campaign)

[Doxmaster]

In my campaign, I will be pitting a Warlock a Monk and a Dread necromancer against whatever party my group wants to make. The subquest: stop the three from reaching 20 and completing a ritual that will change existance (destroy it, recreate it, dominate it, become gods, undo gods...). The party will be aware of this threat, but it is my hope that they wont be able to do much about it.

While none of their classes are known for being extremely powerful, the three will basically annoy the group while they complete other quests; They might pop in to kill the king who was just about to pay the party, or the team might rescue the party from a a dragon slightly older than the party expected.

Of course, for every one level the party gains, the trio will gain one or two and the they won't be interested in really fighting to make things fair; an eldritch blast here, a grapple there, the occasional stolen and returned spellbook...but they won't stay long and they will try not to actually kill the party.

Now I need ideas as to what the party should be doing while they arent stopping my little team; every problem they face has to be a quest in and of itself, however it must also be something the three can intrude upon to remind the party that they have other problems.

-----IF I can win rock-paper-scissors to be DM, that is.

[dkyle]

I'm no expert in DMing 3.5. But as a fairly experienced DM in general, I can tell you that after the second or third run-in with them, your players' number one goal will be to kill them. They will do whatever they can to do it, and they will likely come up with some pretty good ways to do it. When they do, what's your response going to be?

I had a DM who liked to use untouchable NPCs to taunt the players. They remained untouchable. His status as DM did not.

[Doxmaster]

Other than the guys not being around to be killed and having other things to do, each has a reasonable chance of suviving at level 5:
The dread necromancer- fear aura, cause fear, darkness, Blindness and command undead on any undead nearby. I doubt the fear effects will come into play, but blindness on a caster from within darkness is lovely.

The monk- slowfall, fast movement and few neat feats.Jumping off a cliff or simply running will do the trick most of the time and carrying one or both of the others isnt out of the question.

The warlock- Spider walk+anything nearby. It can be a house, the castle, the cave walls...

There wont be anything stopping the group from ignoring more pressing matters to kill these roaches. Each one, if build correctly, can take care of himself and wont be in situations where he will die, unless everyone is willing to ignore a real threat to take him out. With them popping in only once or twice every few encounters, they won't be part of the game for long periods at a time anyway.

I thought it would make for a great plot driving mechanic: a PC rolls Spot in a market and sees one running out of the corner of her eye. They chase them and the PCs end up where the campaign needs them to be with little DM poking and prodding, once they finish playing around a bit.

[Arel]

Try not having them in the same place at the same time, if at all possible, till near the end. Let your players' paranoia work against them.

Let's say you have the monk 'annoy' them the first time or three. When you start hearing them talk about plans to stop the monk, then make your next annoyance be by the warlock. Flip back and forth randomly for a while so they don't know which to expect, or when, then spring the necromancer on them.

[Doxmaster]

That's the plan Arel, but I still need ideas of main quests. King blah blah needs to blah blah or blah blah will happen and make him sad.

[PJCDragon]

I have a question, are your players more into solving problems with force or intellect?

As for some ideas, here are some generic ideas that might help get the ball rolling.

Stolen crown/(insert valuable object here): Someone stole the king's(or other important/wealthy person's) object(s) and they are willing to pay discreetly to get it back, no questions asked.

Absentminded wizard: A wizard accidentally locks himself out of his own tower (if it really is his tower) and wants the party to go in and disable his magical defenses/guardians.

Cult: A church asks the pc's cleric(and by default the entire party) to assist them on a holy quest to eradicate a diametrically opposed group of "heretics" who do not appear to have done anything wrong, creating a moral dilemma (unless they are evil). ex. Church LG declares that Church CN is a group of heretics, and must be destroyed to stop their chaotic nature from infecting the populace and creating anarchy or something.

Guardians: the PCs are hired to guard/escort an item of significant importance from thieves(the monk maybe?). Whether or not the PCs succeed could lead to another mission or 2.

Just what I could think of at the moment, I will post more if I think of any.
Hope this helps, and good luck with the rock-paper-scissors

[BrinLondo]

DKyle raises a valid point about "untouchable NPCs."

DMing, I've found that the best enemy is the unseen enemy. Who really is the bad guy? My campaigns were rich in NPCs, they were important and relevant. As much as the NPCs relied on the PCs, the PCs had some reliance on the NPCs too.

First, don't introduce the NPCs immediately or even the plot. Best to create a series of adventures. My favorite tool NPC was "Mad Malcolm" a priest of Selune "blessed" with prophecy. Malcolm was useful in feeding quest lines or false quest lines to the PCs.

Start small. A group of zombies descend on a farmstead and slaughter the inhabitants. The party is hired to investigate. They're met by the farmer's brother who realizes that a framed map was taken from the farmstead. No live stock was taken or eaten, a larger village untouched, and a path leads away from the farmstead.

The party pursues and finds the zombies destroyed. If the party investigates, they may assume that a monk killed off the zombies.

(Plot tools): The map sets a region where one of the quests for the NPC bad guys occurs. The zombies destroyed by the evil Monk NPC effectively "kills the interest" of the PCs and sets the monk up as a potential ally/spy to the party.

From there, you could even arrange a meeting between the NPC monk and party and do any ol' quest. The goal being that the monk gets a feel for the habits and strengths of the PCs.

It sounds as if you're gearing up for an epic 20th level bru-haha and I'd caution against that. If your PCs are dogged and your antagonist present themselves, this will consume them to the exclusion of all else. ELSE is important. Give your PCs a lot of "else" to worry about. I loved when my PCs wanted "strongholds" or to "open a bar" or "start a company." The greatest gift to a DM is an physical address where the baddies can find them. Let them collect renown, kudos, and prestige in their communities and then threaten it constantly.

I wouldn't let the PCs know the motivation of the baddies. Let them figure out that these three are gearing up for Armageddon. The Baddies can now that the PCs are "fated" to stop them and that can be their motivation, but keep your PCs in the dark.

If this is a true and on-going campaign where PCs can come and go, this gives you some flexibility too. If you need to introduce a Baddie, have him show up and "fry"/off/kill one of the PCs. You'll know which one. The one that just isn't up to speed to the others and isn't quite "fitting." While the PCs will make contacts and friends so won't the Baddies. Let the Baddies hire bounty-hunters, thieves guilds, assassins, conjure a monster to harass them.

At times, intersperse this main conflict with mini-regional conflicts. In my campaign, which at one point emulated Dragonlance very loosely, the two sides needed to come together at one point due to the Cult of Vecna and their doings. It's a pretty scary thing when your arch-nemesis becomes your ally for a quest or two.

Lastly consider a "screw over." If the goal is for the Baddies to undo reality, what happens if the PCs win? Can they just walk away or must they "unmake" reality or keep it the same? Consider the "butterfly effect" in this interaction. Win or lose, your campaign is different after the epic battle.