Let's Make As Many Heroic Monster NPCs As We Can Think Up

[tbok1992]

This is exactly what it sounds like, a thread in the vein of of "1001 Ways To Introduce A Character In The Middle of a Dungeon", except for about good versions of normally evil monsters you can introduce into your campaign, and replacing that artificial limit with "As many as we can think up."

I'll start:

1. A F-to-M transgender Drow Sorcerer chased out of Drow society because of both Drow society considering it an abomination for a woman wanting to be a "lesser" man and the fact that a few of the nobles thought her/his sorcerous powers posed a threat to their status. He/she is currently questing for a Belt of Permanent Gender Change, and has a host of psychological issues due to Drow society's aforementioned screwed-up attitudes towards gender.

2. A peaceable and intellectual Gnoll (treated as insane by the rest of his tribe) who fell in love with a human slave. Said slave returned his affections and they both eventually escaped just as the Gnoll tribe was about to kill the good gnoll for funzies. They currently roam the countryside as an adventuring pair.

3. A doppelganger with a friendship with a city-state's lower class, who uses its shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate the city-state's wicked and oppressive nobility (Who are currently causing mass starvation and overcrowding in the city's slums due to their greed) to try and help his friends from the inside.

What ideas do you guys have?

[supermonkeyjoe]

4. A mindflayer whose tadpole didn't come out of the spawning pool quite right, wears a ring of sustenance to remove its need to munch down tasty tasty brains. It runs a library and happily educates those who come to it seeking knowledge, mentally dominates those who come with hostile intentions into doing a few chores and then leaving.

[Blightedmarsh]

5) Orgrod-thung the open handed.

This hobgoblin mercenary realized that he could get more money by betraying employers and helping the adventurers. Not only does he get payed by the BBEG but he also gets to loot the treasury and gets a share in the reward money. Best of all there is almost nothing stopping him from doing it all over again but the other way around.

[karkus]

I once heard of a campaign played by some of my friends that involved a team of four monsters;

A Mind Flayer Monk, an expert in grappling and pulverizing foes.

A Doppelganger Rogue, capable of bypassing any social obstacle.

A Yuan-Ti Ranger, master huntsman.

And a Rakshasa Sorcerer, giving an arcane edge to the team.

------------------------

On the topic of monster heroes, Ettins have always been a mystery. They're two separate beings, so what if one is a mage and the other a warrior? What if they are both mages? Do they get double spells? There was a mention of an Ettin in a story whose left side was gifted with natural arcane ability- a Sorcerer- with the right side being a powerful warrior (a Fighter, I think). The left side allowed the other to take control of both legs, leaving him only a single arm to complete somatic components. (Plus, Ettins have average Wis and Cha scores, with no penalties or bonuses to them)

[karkus]

How about a bunch of Awaken-ed animals that adventure together?

[Balmas]

Oh boy.

Meet Rhomus, the former spellscale, and current necropolican Dread Necromancer. In a drunken orgy, he got involved in the cult and underwent the transmutation. Now undead, he adventures with his slaymate friend, campaigning for undead rights. After all, mindless undead are either forced to do evil actions by their creators, or typecast as evil by good clerics. His argument is that most are good, and would do good if they were given the chance.

[Manly Man]

A red great wyrm takes pity on a small kingdom who has little to no available resources for trade and teaches them the finer points of the economics of the surrounding kingdoms, disguising herself as a scholar. She also rushes to the aid of the kingdom when a far more powerful nation is aiming to conquer her 'pet project'.

A war troll that has a strict code of honor is sent to kill a man that, as he was unaware of, managed an orphanage. Upon slaying the man, the troll finds out what the man did, and so both protects the children and seeks vengeance upon the wizard that had hired him to murder the man in the first place.

A nightmare was racing a shadow mastiff around the multiverse, and upon reaching Elysium, the purity and the benevolence forever changed him, his coat becoming white as snow, his fiery tail and mane turning bright as gold, and from then on he turned around, and aims to go back around to meet his foe at the middle and defeat it before it makes its full circle.

A tribe of water orcs helps protect a seaside town from a tribe of sahuagin, the fighting all being underwater and so the villagers are, for the most part, unaware of the presence of either of them. The orcs also help feed them during rough times by killing and beaching large sea creatures like whales, giant squids, or large fish.

An army of skeletons has been Awakened and, resentful of their villainous 'master', turn against him and overthrow him. Knowing just how unpleasant evil beings are from personal experience, they decide to fight against evil, and do so by taking to the sea and maintaining a facade of being a vengeful ghost ship of sailors who were so dedicated to ridding the sea of pirate vermin that even death could not hold them back.

A noble salamander is forced to watch as his brothers are slain brutally by a powerful efeeti. He gathers and leads a group of other natives of the Elemental Plane of Fire that were wronged by the efreeti to find him and punish him for his crimes.

[kieza]

An Inevitable that goes around using divination and its knowledge of natural laws to inform scientists when they are about to do something insanely dangerous due to ignorance (such as exposing test subjects to radiation to see what happens, or accidentally creating a "perfect plague") and then killing them if they insist on going through with it.

A troll that goes around to famine-struck towns and hacks off bits of itself to feed the villagers.

A succubus that disguises herself as a small child and goes trolling for sex offenders, whom she consigns to the "special hell."

An orc whose rage burns cold, not hot, and becomes a deadly calm, calculating warrior when you make him angry. He's currently trying to convert other orcs, because if they can all be like him it'll go a long ways towards fixing their image problems.

[Jeff the Green]

A necropolitan dread necromancer who was a paladin (the job, not the class) before being kicked out of his order for becoming undead against his will. He now roams the countryside righting wrongs and generally scaring the bejeezus out of evildoers. (Actually playing this guy right now.)

A succubus cleric/silverhair knight of Lastai with a vow of nonviolence who literally seduces bad guys to the side of Good.

[SleepyShadow]

Gindar Black-Tooth, bugbear samurai, defender of the small, and activist for goblinoid rights.

Vronti "This is Red Hand" Spathi, a blue half-dragon who used to be a member of the Red Hand of Doom. Now, this phalanx fighter wants nothing more than to settle down and follow his dream profession: he has always wanted to be a baker. Yes, a baker.

Snapper, a displacer beast illusionist who puts on circus performances for children.

[Morithias]

I don't usually do this but this is perfect.

http://rustyandco.com/

Of course we always have the infamous Succubus Paladin.

[ReaderAt2046]

I'm not sure if this counts (for reasons you'll see in text), but I've had an idea in the back of my mind for a while about a vampire who converted to Christianity, which granted him immunity to sunlight and holy symbols, as well as the right to take the Lord's Supper, whereupon he discovered that a single sip of the Blood of Christ could quench his thirst for weeks on end. He still feeds of of humans, but only when he'd be jsutified in killing anyway (self-defense, capital punishment, etc.)

[Eldan]

A psychic vampire living on Elysium (really, psychic creature of any kind) who eats the traumatic memories of others for nourishment.

[v072]

Would a grisgol (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...040905a&page=4) containing a demi-lich count as heroic?

[Falconer]

A philosophical-type necromancer who became a lich because he feared dying before completing his Grand Theory of Everything (tm). After several centuries of contemplation and meditation he has slowly moved on the alignment spectrum from Evil to Good, and offers his wisdom to whatever brave souls seek him out.

[therakishrogue]

A mummy lord awakened from a thousand year slumber by tomb robbers who discovers that both the nation she served and the gods she worshiped have been forgotten, and the people of the once prosperous land are now starving raiders. She then takes it upon herself to rebuild the nation and regenerate the land, which due to centuries of poor range management has become an infertile desert.

[Smart_alec]

27-ish) Thak Spleeneater. A character I fully intend to nick and build one day.

28) Fa'rum the Sphinx. Of the protector of holy places and relic's flavour. She simultaneously works under the perview of the God of the Hearth and the God of Nature and as such fights exclusively against those who would harm familial groups or destroy or denigrate the home around them.

29) A Neogi who has decided that being good while also being pragmatic is more profitable.

30) A [Insert species here] who is a worshipper of Torog or Loviatar who uses his capacity to inflict pain in conjunction with healing magic to bring use and sensation back to crippled limbs.

31) A Slaad. Who by random chance has always done a good act rather than an evil one. (It could happen I suppose.)

32) Maxwell the Bullywug. Who's good but still kind of a prick. He knows that if he acts a certain way people will allow him to hang around and maintain his low level aura of annoyance and frustration. (The mutant love-child of Belakar and Ja-Ja Binks.)

[tbok1992]

Would a grisgol (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...040905a&page=4) containing a demi-lich count as heroic?

Don't you mean an ArchLich? Because, ArchLiches are the good ones, and Demiliches are too detached from humanity to become anything but Neutral or Evil and too powerful to ever consent to being shoved into a Grisgol. Unless the Grisgol is made up of Artifacts...

I think I just came up with a new BBEG.

33. A Grell who is his race's equivalent of a Vegetarian due to not eating humanoid flesh, and thus has become an excellent chef due to having to become far more creative with flavoring to make his dishes taste good.

34. A Rilmani who became Neutral Good rather than his race's default True Neutral because, when he looked at it closely and studied the manifestations of it it over many years, he realised that the whole idea of a "Balance between good and evil" that one needs to maintain at all costs is kinda bullhonkey.

35. A mindflayer/Beholder hybrid that retained parts of its previous personality and only feeds on the brains of other beholders due to its disgust at them thanks to the usual Beholder xenophobia, though the conversion to Mind Flayer has made it fine with the other races.

[tbok1992]

36: A unusually intelligent troll, who, with a combination of his regeneration, a NIPPLE CLAMP OF EXQUISITE PAIN! , his use of the spell Distilled Joy and lots and lots of stabby implements, has managed to set him up as the continent's most people of Ambrosia on the continent. A good NPC to creep out your players mightily, even if he is Good aligned.

[Xefas]

37: A Chaotic Good Crusader, champion of freedom and breaker of tyrants, is finally defeated by an evil Lich - once a monstrous mage-king whose realm of slavery and oppression was overthrown by the Crusader. In an act of terrible vengeance, the Lich forces the Crusader to wear a Helm of Opposite Alignment, turning his alignment to Lawful Evil, and then sets him loose to sow the very wickedness he had dedicated his life to stopping.

After many years of villainy, the Crusader is killed by a band of heroes, and his soul plunges into the Nine Hells of Baator. There, he is mercilessly scourged of his humanity, and turned into a lowly Lemure. Centuries pass, and that tiny spark of power that had lead him to, in mortal life, become a great champion for whatever banner he chose to serve under, has also driven him to rise through the ranks of the Devils, casting off his Lemure form, and becoming a Spined Devil, then a Bearded Devil, and so on until he eventually arrived at the ultimate infernal station of Pit Fiend.

Then, after a particularly hazardous battle in which he sustained multiple magical attacks, he brings to bear his extensive magical expertise in order to rid himself of the various curses and hexes afflicting him. And then he notices it - remembers it. As a lowly soldier, the Devil field-medics had noticed a powerful enchantment on him that they could not break and, being rank-and-file cannon fodder, they would not call in the higher-up authorities to waste a Wish or Miracle to cure him.

But now? Now he had the power. He activates his Wish spell-like ability and breaks the enchantment.

The entire ethical universe spins upside down as the enforced morality leaves him, and the strong Chaotic Good convictions of that long-ago Crusader return. The Pit Fiend does not remember that life, except perhaps as the most fleeting of dreams. But he knows that what he is now is a lie. He knows what is good and bad in this world. And he knows he has done immeasurable wrong in his many hundreds of years of life.

Now he must atone, one good deed at a time.

[Voyd211]

Tonton, an LG lich kobold wizard. (I've never seen any hard evidence that becoming a lich requires that you be evil)

Got tired of being kicked around by his tribe. Froze them all. Kept his sanity by devoting himself to the village he lives in, built on top of his tribe's warren. Occupies his time by preparing tons of spells, serving as a librarian and keeping riffraff out of his village.

Probably sucky, but eh.

[SleepyShadow]

Merc Han't, the necropolitan mind flayer ninja who travels the globe selling items which may or may not be stolen to adventurers in need. He keeps all of his merchandise in his patented Trenchcoat of Holding, and he greets all of his customers with a friendly "Welcome, stranger!" Yes, even the repeat customers.

[Wraith]

40: An Awakened Giant Octopus with levels in Monk. His only possessions are an Amulet of Air Breathing (!?) and a insatiable yearning for revenge against the man who killed his Master. Now he travels the world perfecting his skills, Inigo Montoya-style, hoping to be ready when the time comes.....

41: To outside views it looks like a young, slightly incompetent Wizard with his Raven Familiar. To those in the know, an Awakened Raven who is secretly an Enchanter. The human once wronged the Raven in a grave fashion and ever since has been Dominated to act as it's servant-come-Familiar until his debt has been paid off. Until then, they hunt down other Enchanters who abuse their power for undeserved profit.

42: A Swarm of Rats that served as Animal Companion to an Urban Druid who has gone missing, and is presumed dead at the hands of the cities local Thieves/Assassin's Guild after his watchful occupation kept them from freely using the sewers.
None-sentient, but the Swarm seems to have some instinctual knowledge of the difference between Good (what the Druid stood for) and Evil (the backstabbing murderers) - did the Druid choose the Swarm because it was Good, or was it Good because the Druid chose the Swarm? - and continues the vigil of the city's underways, watching the shadows from the shadows with ten thousand pairs of gleaming yellow eyes.....

Incidentally, this will be the concept for my next character, when the opportunity arises - for some reason having a Swarm as a Companion, and just bumping its HD every time it levels rather than picking a new creature, sounds like a lot of fun.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Tonton, an LG lich kobold wizard. (I've never seen any hard evidence that becoming a lich requires that you be evil)

From the SRD:

Alignment

Any evil.

By RAW, a Lich has to be evil. Whether this is a stupid rule that shouldn't be there or not is debatable (for the record, I think alignment requirements are always dumb) but the existence of the rule itself is not.

[Voyd211]

Is there any step in BECOMING a lich that requires evil?

[Pie Guy]

Is there any step in BECOMING a lich that requires evil?

Creating a phylactery, which is so evil that it has no description.

[Voyd211]

How is that evil? I don't think I've seen any specifications that say "phylactery automatically makes you evil, do not pass 'go,' do not collect 200 gp." I INCREDIBLY doubt that just putting your soul in a box instantaneously turns you into Xykon. A Lich is free-willed, it can make decisions of its own, moral or otherwise.

[tbok1992]

Well, 4e says it's because one has to pledge one's self to Orcus to become one, though if one gets high level enough to pick the Archlich Epic Destiny, one can skip that step and be a good Lich.

[TuggyNE]

How is that evil? I don't think I've seen any specifications that say "phylactery automatically makes you evil, do not pass 'go,' do not collect 200 gp." I INCREDIBLY doubt that just putting your soul in a box instantaneously turns you into Xykon. A Lich is free-willed, it can make decisions of its own, moral or otherwise.

The process of becoming a lich is unspeakably evil and can be undertaken only by a willing character. A lich retains all class abilities it had in life.

If you willingly perform a ritual of unspeakable evil, it's pretty reasonable to rule that bam, you're evil. (Technically, it's possible to become non-evil later, or there could be some exceptions that are merely very dark Neutral, but the general WotC attitude is a fair approximation.)

Also, IIRC, Libris Mortis has something about the generally static nature of undead; they (apparently) don't change their mindset much at all, which naturally makes "oh I totally converted back to Good after I was undead" rather less plausible.

[Jay R]

43. A wandering human adventurer appears, but he's just interested in saving lives and making things better. He doesn't go around killing monsters and stealing their stuff.