I'm in the early stages of a campaign and my PCs are now in Nabat, about to go through Long Arm of the Hutt, assuming they don't just try to steal a ship and leave. I'm allowing FaD characters and I'd like to let them meet a mentor type to kick off their journey with the force. The problem is this group always wants to recruit pretty much every PC they can (we are an old D&D 3.5 group) so I don't want them to be too powerful, and also need an excuse to not have them join up, etc. I don't want someone that would be powerful-enough to solve all their problems (like an Obi Wan). Maybe someone who has studied the lore but isn't too powerful themselves?

I also realized I was being a little thick-headed in assuming the character would be Human or Twilek (since we're on Ryloth) but then I realized it could be something else maybe.

Anyways, just hoping to workshop some ideas for this character here, or even generate some useful NPCs. I'm also going to need some contacts for "jobs" at some point.

Some ideas spring to mind.

One is to give them a holocron then it can't join them and it will only act as a mentor.

The other is to have a mentor who has no force powers but knows all the lore (librarian or researcher type).

Lastly if he is a force user with training he would have been around before order 66 so he could be quite old and unable to get involved in much.

4 hours ago, MrTInce said:

One is to give them a holocron then it c  an't join them and it will only act as a mentor.

This is what I did and it's worked out really well.

In our last campaign. My group's mentor was Netti that had been severely injured. She found a secluded planet and took root there to heal. So she could not leave planet as long as she was rooted. However the PCs could go back to her for sage advice and training, and I had her and the group develop a bond that allowed them to talk telepathically (though I never introduced it, this could have led to a projection of her appearing.)

Maybe pull a trope and have the Mentor Figure aware of the precise day that he will die and has had a vision, a prophecy if you will of the player's achieving something fantastic that makes training them worth while. The mentor figure might be able to help for a while but they will stress that they are unable to help without draw considerable attention. Heck, maybe have a moment where the mentor figure eventually is put into that situation because he had to save the PC's and he considered the cost worth while.Of course never share with them what the precise prophecy is otherwise that might change the future

Alternatively, maybe instead of the master dying, have him preform an action that will turn him to the dark side and change his character completely. Maybe he merges his soul with a Sith spirit to de-active a sith mega weapon and thus fundamentally becomes a different person who, for a time at least is unable to consider direct action against the PC's because of the lingering fondness that clouds his actions. Maybe it's not anything that grand and that he must join the antagonist to provide the oppertuntiy for the PC's to strike him down on a later date; only to become a villain in his own right.

Or, pull a Jade Empire and have the mentor figure be the big bad the entire time. Posing as a pious figure who is eventually allows himself to be captured by the big bad only to turn on the PC's the moment they have defeated the evil overlord to take his place, using his prior connections to the big bad to simply take over and use the nemesis's resources more efficiently to find the force McGuffin. Maybe he too wants to reach Mortis to gain the powers of the three, but can't reach it if he is a corrupted soul thus he has a reason for being a villain, but not necessarily corrupted at the outset of the campaign. I mean, this is a fantasy setting in all, but with some star ships thrown in.

The thing is; before you decide what to do with this mentor figure consider what the climax of this particular story arc might be and the running theme. Is it honesty triumphs over all? Greed is self destructive and perseverance will prevail? Start with the villain's end goal and build a frame work of how he would get to there, that way you can find the mentor's relation to this end goal and you can figure things out.

Thanks folks. A lot to ponder. I'm kinda liking the idea that this person is a non-sensitive academic. Maybe a proffessor on-the-run because they were caught hoarding forbidden knowledge. I think my group would really be triggered by the notion of book burning!

I wrote a ton of guidance on how to go about this in the mentors section of Disciples of Harmony, you might wanna check that out!

10 hours ago, KRKappel said:

I wrote a ton of guidance on how to go about this in the mentors section of Disciples of Harmony, you might wanna check that out!

And what are you working on now? Any sneak peeks?

I could tell you, but then I'd have to.....come up with a new career because FFG would never hire me to work on a product ever, ever again. But I can tell you I did some work on the upcoming Rise of the Separatists, Collapse of the Republic, and Allies and Adversaries books!

59 minutes ago, KRKappel said:

I could tell you, but then I'd have to.....come up with a new career because FFG would never hire me to work on a product ever, ever again. But I can tell you I did some work on the upcoming Rise of the Separatists, Collapse of the Republic, and Allies and Adversaries books!

That's fair. Can't wait

You could always have the mentor be a non-sentient cactus. That'd solve the problem of the mentor being too powerful.

...Was that just me? Okay then, I'll see myself out.
You see, it's funny because this is a thing I'm doing with a current character. Seriously =) .

On 4/24/2019 at 11:04 PM, Absol197 said:

You could always have the mentor be a non-sentient cactus. That'd solve the problem of the mentor being too powerful.

...Was that just me? Okay then, I'll see myself out.
You see, it's funny because this is a thing I'm doing with a current character. Seriously 😃 .

I'd do this. There is a legends example of a force sensitive tree.