Help Me Decide Breakbone’s Fate
If your character has the name Airdin, Elistar, Balthor, or Razor, look away!
Asking for help from the brain trust! I’m trying to build up to a Helm’s Deep-style siege of Camp Vengeance, with Breakbone in the role of Theoden.
So now I’m wondering what to do about Niles himself. In the book he’s listed as a noble, so as fun as it would be to give him a “ride out with me” moment to complete the sort of redemption arc I’m giving him, it’s going to be kinda anticlimactic when he immediately dies upon losing his 9 HP. On the other hand, my players have a dark enough sense of humor that they would probably laugh it off and maybe even appreciate the subversion.
Alternatively, if I wanted to keep the same ending from the Two Towers, should I allow the players to maybe go through a Draw Steel-style persuasion with him, with the reward being that his “renewed confidence” upgrades his creature type from CR 1/8 to CR Knight? Or even something crazier like the new CR 10 Noble Prodigy? (That’s probably overkill, but I’m just brainstorming.)
Which ending would you prefer if you were the DM or a player in this situation? And if you want Niles to survive, what stat block do you recommend I use for his “final form?”