I like the idea in principle–I enjoy thrashing PC expectations, and a friendly undead NPC will often do that to a party of good characters. Still, you would be well-advised to put serious thought into how undeath is going to work in your campaign world, and into what sort of undead the NPC is.
Here are some questions to think about in fleshing out the scenario (no need to answer them here):
If they’re going on a journey with him, a lot of mundane details may become relevant. For example, what’s his decay like? Does he reek? Will he draw attention from scavengers/make it hard to hide/have his smell noticed at town gates? Does his physical deterioration impose a time limit on his quest (and if so, could a good mortician buy some time)?
Is he animated by negative-planar energy? Does he have a chilling touch that could cause problems with accidental contact? Will healing magic help or hurt him? Will people mistake him for a lich?
As an undead, he presumably has the customary immunities to various mind-affecting magics. Also, he doesn’t need to breathe and probably doesn’t have any sleep-like downtime. What kind of challenges can he help the party through, just by being undead? (Retrieving something from a cloud of poison gas, waking the party up after they get hit with a sleep spell, things like that.) It might be a good idea to plant some problems he can provide a shortcut through early on–it will help build acceptance of the character by the NPCs if he gets them out of a tight spot or two.
More generally–what’s his spell list? A single spell that can kill a target and animate it as a sentient undead is pretty serious mojo, and a custom spell at that. Obviously, he’s a pretty potent caster, and has given necromancy a lot of attention. Regular use of necromancy is probably not going to endear him to the PCs. They’ll probably also feel upstaged if he can blow encounters to smithereens with his magic, so you’ll need plausible reasons for him not to use it much. (Maybe being undead interferes with his casting and/or spell preparation? One possibility is that he can cast, but not prepare any more spells–his current list is all he has, so he only uses them in the direst of emergencies.)
I hope some of that is helpful. I spent quite a bit of time considering questions like these while building an undead-prone nation in my campaign world not too long ago.
I’m loving it all guys, thanks so much for the feedback. The story is coming together along with key players and twists and such.
I really appreciate the input and the ideas! I’ve incorporated a lot of them.
First I’ve renamed Mishra. I knew he was a Magic character, but I just liked the name a lot. I’ve changed his name to Telos.
The players will not be contacted by Telos, rather they’re going to be summoned by a gnome who is working for the merchant guild.
The guild leaders will inquire about hiring the group to help their friend back to his home, from Sharn (in Breland) to Arcanix (in Aundair) where Telos has his own small floating castle. They will not tell the group about his condition, instead will instruct them to escort the carriage (no they cannot use the lightning rail or a flying ship) without inquiry or peaking in on him.
Telos has a personal assistant that is an aged warforged, named Kist, which he repurposed to be his assistant. The warforged will travel with them as an NPC and will do his best to be the buffer between the characters and Telos.
All in all, it’s shaping up nicely.
I love the idea that he can still cast, so I will have to figure out Telos’ spells and such. Thanks for that! hat tip
