Talk:Halish

Does TotW provide default PCs? ~ Lhynard (talk) 13:38, August 14, 2015 (UTC)


 * No, he's an NPC, but the module does suggest a player could take him over if a character dies or a new one needs to be introduced. I let a new player take him over, since there was no good way to introduce a new PC. Then another player took over after him. Halish has had two or three players now, and is a fully fledged Dark Human Cleric/Rogue. — BadCatMan (talk) 14:53, August 14, 2015 (UTC)


 * cool
 * The closest I've come to doing something like this is having a minor NPC from EotSS become a PC's cohort, because he had a high leadership score. I used Oma el Catahras, because she would be two years older when the PCs reached her and the book made it sound like she was anxious to leave Teshburl. I had fun expanding her from what the book described. ~ Lhynard (talk) 16:11, August 14, 2015 (UTC)


 * I made Halish an adventurer from Calimshan, adventuring with some of the other names at the temple. It's good to have a priest of Mystra involved in this module, giving the PCs a personal stake in the campaign. One of the other new PCs inserted herself as one of the Sharran minions, reformed by her previous character, a paladin of Lathander. And we have Sithierel boating them around the Plane of Shadow. This happens a lot in my games; all my NPCs get personalities, histories, and motivations of their own, so the PCs keep them alive to find out what they are. — BadCatMan (talk) 00:56, August 15, 2015 (UTC)


 * I'd probably enjoy playing in one of your campaigns.
 * I love giving back-stories to NPCs, also, canon or no. Unfortunately, I usually write up far more back-story than the PCs ever discover! I had one NPC, a retired dragon-slayer, for which I came up with his whole career and history, including motivations, etc. They basically just wanted to hire him on to kill a single dragon for them and that was it. I was so sad. However, I write up all our recaps online, so I had an excuse to have this NPC post "journal entries" at least, and I got to share some of his tales that way.
 * There's been one main exception to their never learning all the back-story&mdash;though it took them probably 20 sessions before they bothered to ask her her tale. I had an NPC that was essentially a DMPC, because I only had two players initially, so I came up with a lot of back-story for her. She was an escaped air genasi jhasina. Despite all the clues&mdash;that she could float, that all her magic was ice or wind related, that her hair blew around on its own, that she could speak Auran, that her breath was always cold, that she hated men, that she hated slavery&mdash;they never guessed she wasn't human or was a former slave until she volunteered for a task where she could hold her breath indefinitely to avoid a gas trap. Then, they finally asked her what her story was.
 * She eventually had to leave the party, because I had too many real-life players, but I take it as a huge compliment that they are always asking if she'll ever come back into the story.
 * Sorry for rambling! I'm waiting for my code to compile, and it's taking forever.... ~ Lhynard (talk) 01:30, August 15, 2015 (UTC)


 * Admittedly, I usually just have a bunch of ideas and impressions of the NPCs, even the mooks, and whoever's left alive for questioning at the end becomes a more developed character. Captive NPCs might switch sides, or try to persuade or trick the PCs to escape or sow chaos. Play-by-post gives me the time to just wing everything.
 * I know that feeling, waiting for code to compile, programs to run, data to download. I must have done more PbP gaming than PhD project, unfortunately. — BadCatMan (talk) 11:23, August 15, 2015 (UTC)