Usually through some contrived magical bullshit that can ensnare them. Look at BG3. All of the party members should be ludicrously powerful from the experience they have. Karlach was fighting for a leader of hell, Wyll was fighting through hell trying to find her… they should be way higher level than 1 but the tadpole sapped them of their energies and kept them stuck in their form. Really you can come up with anything even remotely similar to that for your game. Doesn’t need to be a tadpole. Could be a curse or that you pissed off a god or a dozen other things. That’s the great thing with DnD. If you came think of even a slightly sensible way to do something then you can make it work. Hell even it isn’t sensible you can make it work.
One thing I’ve been experimenting with is creating archetypal characters ahead of time and then handing each player a couple sheets to choose from. If they don’t like either one, they can grab a sheet someone else discards.
I leave backstory details blank, but the basic mechanics of each character is already laid out.
In theory, it seems like I’m setting myself up for fights with my players, but in practice it hasn’t been a problem.
…of course this might be because my players are all either adults or preteens.
Question from a noob, how do you reconcile one of your players secretly being a super powerful creature during gameplay?
Do you just force them to basically ignore their origin during interactions?
Usually through some contrived magical bullshit that can ensnare them. Look at BG3. All of the party members should be ludicrously powerful from the experience they have. Karlach was fighting for a leader of hell, Wyll was fighting through hell trying to find her… they should be way higher level than 1 but the tadpole sapped them of their energies and kept them stuck in their form. Really you can come up with anything even remotely similar to that for your game. Doesn’t need to be a tadpole. Could be a curse or that you pissed off a god or a dozen other things. That’s the great thing with DnD. If you came think of even a slightly sensible way to do something then you can make it work. Hell even it isn’t sensible you can make it work.
I tell them “No, you can’t secretly be a edgelord dragon king prince of hell.”
One thing I’ve been experimenting with is creating archetypal characters ahead of time and then handing each player a couple sheets to choose from. If they don’t like either one, they can grab a sheet someone else discards.
I leave backstory details blank, but the basic mechanics of each character is already laid out.
In theory, it seems like I’m setting myself up for fights with my players, but in practice it hasn’t been a problem.
…of course this might be because my players are all either adults or preteens.