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View Full Version : Killing a fellow party member (ideas)



Imaskari
2010-04-05, 03:51 PM
Sometimes role playing leads to party members not agreeing with each other all the time. Actually PVP incidents seem to be more common than usual in this game I recently joined, and I might have to add to that count.
Basically there's one character who is pretty much a jerk to everyone (character, not player, just to make that clear) is very controlling and likes to read minds, and generally regards other characters, PC and NPC alike as inferior. Now my character has quite a lot of secrets that he's not willing to share and has warned the other character that if he so much as touches his mind, he will gut him, no second chances. Now so far things are fine, but I really don't expect the other character to honor those conditions for long, so I'm trying to think up some creative ways to off him that have a low chance of failure.
I've worked out the numbers for me just murdering him in his sleep and it's pretty much impossible for me not to succeed, as it turns out, assassins are pretty good at that sort of stuff, but I'm looking for something a little more colorful (and preferably low risk, I could probably beat this character in a fair fight, but hey, I'm an assassin, I'd rather not take the chance)

Some things to keep in mind...
My character is a changeling (the other players don't know)
The other character has a high will defense (this is a 4e game) that I'd rather not test.

The Glyphstone
2010-04-05, 03:59 PM
In before "talk to him out of game'.

By "assassin", do you mean the role, or the DragonMag class? If it's the former, I think I remember reading they have some sort of 'shroud' mechanic that can be built up passively on a target, and then expended to have additional effects or damage when they use their powers. Just keep a constant stack of shrouds on him without letting him know, especially if he starts hassling you...when the mind-reading comes out, drop the hammer with a massive opening round hit.

Imaskari
2010-04-05, 04:05 PM
Yes, the class.

Shrouds disappear on one target once you make another target, and targets are aware of your shrouds unless you have a certain feat (which I'm planning on retraining for next level) so I couldn't just keep constant shrouds on him. However, that was one of the things that factored into killing him in his sleep and adds a cool 4d6 to damage. In a fair fight I could use lurking shadow to completely disappear, then dump four shrouds on him before unleashing an attack, but hopefully it won't ever come to that.

Lysander
2010-04-05, 04:08 PM
Imitate his appearance, commit a crime, let the local authorities kill him for you.

Of course the real question for you is, what would you accomplish by killing him? If you do he'll just roll up a new character and probably design it to kill yours.

randomhero00
2010-04-05, 04:10 PM
Easy. Imitate an evil bad guy and talk to the evil bad guys you are currently fighting. Lure player to death. Profit.

Mind reading isn't mind raping. Slip a note to your DM that you purposefully don't think of the betrayal, or recite some mantra over and over in your head while you're near said mind reader. "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ..."

Dragero
2010-04-05, 04:12 PM
Poison! Con effecting Poison! Poison in soup! Poison on his pillows! Poison on his sword! Poison in his hair! Poisoned poison! Mix poisons! Poison his clothing!

Did I mention poison?

Abd al-Azrad
2010-04-05, 04:21 PM
Imitate his appearance, commit a crime, let the local authorities kill him for you.


Did I mention poison?

Combine these two strategies. Imitate his appearance and kill a guard. The town guard will arrest him, possibly kill him on the spot, but they may just take him to a cell. Then, approach one of your guard friends who was particularly hurt by the murder (maybe you killed his partner while disguised?) and offer him a little extra ingredient for the prisoner's food. Wink, wink. :smallwink:

...The extra ingredient is poison.

SSGoW
2010-04-05, 04:23 PM
Best way to kill him? Get another player to come up with the idea then ride their coat tails :p

Evard
2010-04-05, 04:47 PM
Combine these two strategies. Imitate his appearance and kill a guard. The town guard will arrest him, possibly kill him on the spot, but they may just take him to a cell. Then, approach one of your guard friends who was particularly hurt by the murder (maybe you killed his partner while disguised?) and offer him a little extra ingredient for the prisoner's food. Wink, wink. :smallwink:

...The extra ingredient is poison.

Take this one step further, knock out the guard on duty change into him and give the guy the food :D Since the cell should be anti-magic anti-ability the character won't be able to tell that you are not who you appear to be (slide the food in don't go into the cell lol)

Out of character make sure the other players don't mind his character dying >.<;;; If they storm the prison and kill you thinking you are a guard that's your own fault lol

WarBrute
2010-04-05, 04:52 PM
...The extra ingredient is poison.

I thought it was sprinkles :smallfrown:

Dragero
2010-04-05, 04:54 PM
I thought it was sprinkles :smallfrown:

It is.

Poisoned sprinkels for all!!

Ranger Mattos
2010-04-05, 04:56 PM
Just remember: Everything can be solved with explosions. Or fire. Or exploding fire.

Dragero
2010-04-05, 04:59 PM
Just remember: Everything can be solved with explosions. Or fire. Or Poisoned exploding fire.

Fixed it for ya!

Imaskari
2010-04-05, 05:30 PM
Ooooh, I'm liking the crime/guard approach, that could be fun. Unfortunately my character is broke as all get out, so I can't really buy good poison anytime soon (though he might not try to read my mind anytime soon either, at least while the warning is fresh, so I should have time to stock up)
And keep in mind, this is purely for role playing, mind reading is a huge huge no-no for my character, he would kill anyone over it, the other character is actually rather lucky he got off with a warning the first time. One thing I don't have to worry about though is party repercussions, everyone hates that character, we tried to sell him to a monster just last week. And again, no ill will towards the player, it's all a game, but this is for role playing sake, I want to have a plan just in case.
Thanks for the ideas guys

nargbop
2010-04-05, 05:34 PM
Drug the player! Steal his character sheet! Replace it with a level 1 kobold with the flaws Murky-sighted and Incontinence.

(reading the thread now)
Ah! In-GAME methods! Yes, I second the "Pretend you're him, and burn down the orphanage" method. Then, you can get the reward for capturing the villain who burned down the orphanage.

Kyrthain
2010-04-05, 05:44 PM
Drug the player! Steal his character sheet! Replace it with a level 1 kobold with the flaws Murky-sighted and Incontinence.

(reading the thread now)
Ah! In-GAME methods! Yes, I second the "Pretend you're him, and burn down the orphanage" method. Then, you can get the reward for capturing Poisoning the villain who burned down the orphanage.

Fixed Poisoned it for you. :D

Dragero
2010-04-05, 05:49 PM
Fixed Poisoned it for you. :D

You have learned well, young padawan.

Lord Vukodlak
2010-04-05, 06:21 PM
Volunteer to take watch kill him in his sleep. Its really that simple.

Considering the rest of the party already hates him, the next time he does something just attack him. The rest of the party might just join in on your side.

Touchy
2010-04-05, 09:06 PM
Drug the player! Steal his character sheet! Replace it with a level 1 kobold with the flaws Murky-sighted and Incontinence.

(reading the thread now)
Ah! In-GAME methods! Yes, I second the "Pretend you're him, and burn down the orphanage" method. Then, you can get the reward for capturing the villain who burned down the orphanage.

you forgot the truenamer.

But unfortunately for your joke this is 4e.

herrhauptmann
2010-04-05, 09:51 PM
Drug the player! Steal his character sheet! Replace it with a level 1 kobold with the flaws Murky-sighted and Incontinence.

(reading the thread now)

You missed the important fact that this is 4e. (Will defense is a phrase that shows nowhere in 3.5). Character also mentions the assassin class, not the assassin PrC.

Go all Rasputin on him. Fill an entire buffet with poison, enough that any two bites should kill a man.
When it keeps failing, shoot him in the head.
Then beat him when the man with half his brains tries to strangle you.
Then throw him in an icy river so he drowns.
Finally, have some peasants steal the body from the morgue/investigators, and cremate the body, which will then sit up and attempt to escape the flames.

Or just keep trying the poison.

Olo Demonsbane
2010-04-05, 10:27 PM
You missed the important fact that this is 4e. (Will defense is a phrase that shows nowhere in 3.5). Character also mentions the assassin class, not the assassin PrC.

Go all Rasputin on him. Fill an entire buffet with poison, enough that any two bites should kill a man.
When it keeps failing, shoot him in the head.
Then beat him when the man with half his brains tries to strangle you.
Then throw him in an icy river so he drowns.
Finally, have some peasants steal the body from the morgue/investigators, and cremate the body, which will then sit up and attempt to escape the flames.

Or just keep trying the poison.

Rasputin was secretly a well-made cleric. I could do his shtick at 7th level :smallcool:

Kyrthain
2010-04-06, 06:24 AM
You missed the important fact that this is 4e. (Will defense is a phrase that shows nowhere in 3.5). Character also mentions the assassin class, not the assassin PrC.

Go all Rasputin on him. Fill an entire buffet with poison, enough that any two bites should kill a man.
When it keeps failing, shoot him in the head.
Then beat him when the man with half his brains tries to strangle you.
Then throw him in an icy river so he drowns.
Finally, have some peasants steal the body from the morgue/investigators, and cremate the body, which will then sit up and attempt to escape the flames.

OrAnd just keep trying the poison.

Why would poisoning have to be an or? :D

DwarvenExodus
2010-04-06, 06:42 AM
Trick yourself into thinking that his food is special. Actually poison season your own food. He swaps them, and enjoys his food.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-06, 06:43 AM
Get big, preferably vicious or high crit weapon. (Poison It.)
Take the watch, lay on all four shrouds, attack him. You'll almost certainly hit, and as it's a coup-de-grace, it's an auto-crit. Deal more damage than his bloodied value and the problem is solved.

Radar
2010-04-06, 07:14 AM
Trick yourself into thinking that his food is special. Actually poison season your own food. He swaps them, and enjoys his food.
I prefer Iocane-like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUee1WvtQZU) solutions. It does take time to prepare tough. :smalltongue:

I would support the framing scheme - should be the most satisfying. If this PC is such an egomaniac, he will surly dig himself even deeper. The best thing is to watch your enemies tie their own noose.
You can even use his abilities against him - spreading a gossip about his mind-reading abilities might be enough to set a lot of people against him. That would make your plan so much easier.
edit: maybe set up a pitchforks & torches mob to lynch him? Not as good as conviction, but viable.

Kyrthain
2010-04-06, 04:03 PM
Good plan. If you're immune to the poison, you can use even more. And, you have so many more options

Wear inhaled poison as cologne!

Poison your healing potions, and give them to him if he gets hurt!

Poison your clothes with contact poison, and give him a hug!

Onion Knight
2010-04-06, 06:12 PM
Mind reading isn't mind raping. Slip a note to your DM that you purposefully don't think of the betrayal, or recite some mantra over and over in your head while you're near said mind reader. "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ..."

Definitely this, you don't want him finding your plans out and planning a counter plan which ruins the plans you planned.

That, or think about poisoning him constantly. If he reads your mind, he may begin to stop eating or drinking for a while, if you are very lucky he may start taking all the night watches so you don't have any opportunity to kill him, causing him to get more and more tired...

Kyrthain
2010-04-06, 06:18 PM
Think constantly about specifically poisoning his food. Then secretly poison your own. And his for good measure.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-06, 06:34 PM
Definitely this, you don't want him finding your plans out and planning a counter plan which ruins the plans you planned.

That, or think about poisoning him constantly. If he reads your mind, he may begin to stop eating or drinking for a while, if you are very lucky he may start taking all the night watches so you don't have any opportunity to kill him, causing him to get more and more tired...

This is not a bad suggestion, but it's worth remembering that this is a 4e Assassin. Which is to say, it could work great, but if the Target starts counter-plotting, this could get ugly.

What with our Assassin being so terribly, Wizardly Squishy.

A quick, clean, midnight beheading with as little warning as possible is the way to go, really, imo. Just make sure you can deal enough damage. You're aiming for equal to or above his bloodied value. You only need to do it once, so a daily is fine. If you've got a fullblade or other high-crit weapon, that could help, but it's probably best to get as high as possible with non-rolled dice first. Ideally, you shouldn't be worrying too much about how the magic-weapon crit dice and any high crit dice fall.

Now, given the high will defence comment, and the mention of mind reading and so on, I'm guessing we are talking something like a Psion. Now, I've really no idea how he's reading minds, because I know of no way to do so in 4e so far, personally.

(Note - Telepathy, when listed as a language/speech option, only means telepathic communication, not rooting around in people's minds.)
I'm guessing it's either something plot related, or general bit of homebrew? Or am I missing some of the Psions toys, perhaps?

Still, whatever the case, a Psion still has nice low HP most likely, as do most other classes that are likely to have high Will defence. If you're in the first two or three levels, you'll pretty much drop him to 0 or below with one hit of a coup-de-grace even using your at-wills, because your four shrouds together already do something like 36 damage. he'd need to be pretty high level to survive, actually. just from invoking your shrouds (and hitting) he'd need at least 73 hitpoints not to die instantly.

Which is to say, an auto-built psion isn't safe from your at-will attack whilst you are equipped with a mundane butter-knife, till he's level 14.

By the looks of things, you just need to make sure you hit him in one try and that he doesn't see it coming.

Really, the trick here will be in managing the fallout with the rest of the party. If they are happy with him being made dead, you could simply own up to it and break out the party's champagne supply.

Otherwise, you might want to figure out some way to frame an enemy of the group for the killing, and make sure no-one sees you do it. But I mean, you ARE the guy on watch, and you are an Assassin. If someone saw you do it, you weren't trying. :smallwink:

No, I haven't given this any thought. Why do you ask? MY PARTY HAS NOTHING TO FEAR. >_>

John Campbell
2010-04-06, 06:48 PM
Just remember: Everything can be solved with explosions. Or fire. Or exploding fire.
Poisonous exploding acid. (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=37499#strip2)

Brendan
2010-04-06, 10:03 PM
I say you frame him and when he goes to prison, help him escape. However, that special potion to break the bars is actually every poison in the book added together and put in a blender with a block of c-4 and maybe honey, for flavor.

Kiren
2010-04-06, 10:06 PM
Plant explosive runes everywhere, make it tempting too, leave open an old tome and....

"I got a wizard to cast explosive runes"

Then put it on the name tags for the potions of the party when he trys to heal.

For good measure replace the potions with acid.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-06, 10:18 PM
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/716/justshoot.jpg
No, really. Add shrouds, stab. Done.

It doesn't have to be complicated. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlel164s0xw?from=Main.WhyDontYouJustShootHim)

sambo.
2010-04-06, 10:19 PM
i always prefer the classic Paranoia strategy in these circumstances whereby loyal TroubleShooters are the hapless victims of a most unfortunate "accident".:smallwink:

deep_well
2010-04-07, 12:44 AM
every poison in the book added together
Just one book? why not every book? :smallwink:

The Shadowmind
2010-04-07, 12:55 AM
Just one book? why not every book? :smallwink:

To add insult to injury have every contact poison there is delivered delivered by a monk. With that many poisons they are bound to roll a few natural 1s.

Octopus Jack
2010-04-07, 05:27 AM
Frame him...


...for genocide

nolispe
2010-04-07, 05:38 AM
I hate to say it, with all the wonderful plans running around, but anything apart from midnight beheading is rather riskiy, and for all PVP, you want to minimise the element of chance. Just one thing: during said midnight beheading, take the form of someone else. If things go horribily wrong, make sure you can escape and come back later, with the excuse that you, for instance, got hit by some spell that knocked you unconscious, or got poisoned.

Boo
2010-04-07, 05:44 AM
Replace all his potions with acid or poison.

...Or both.

If that doesn't work, set a bucket of bleach right beside his head and pee in it. What? Not fantasy enough for you?

NotMe
2010-04-07, 09:53 AM
You a changeling, so next time you're in town take this other character's form.

You have little money, so I suggest borrowing as much money as possible, from as unpleasant people as possible (organised crime can be good). Thefts and so on could also be good, as long as you can get away (being seen is fine). Any local champions and the like should also be insulted and generally denigrated. Challanges to duels and the like (particularly agreeing to fight with weapons that this other character is unlikely to be familiar with) could also help.

Subsequently send a few messages attempting to weasel out repaying any money you borrowed (as him) and to generally keep a high level of anger simmering against him.

Outside of town resume your form and return to party. When this other character next makes a shopping trip he'll have a pleasant surprise waiting for him.

I'm largely ignorant of 4th edition, so please forgive me if any of the above is rules incompatible.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-07, 10:49 AM
You a changeling, so next time you're in town take this other character's form.

You have little money, so I suggest borrowing as much money as possible, from as unpleasant people as possible (organised crime can be good). Thefts and so on could also be good, as long as you can get away (being seen is fine). Any local champions and the like should also be insulted and generally denigrated. Challanges to duels and the like (particularly agreeing to fight with weapons that this other character is unlikely to be familiar with) could also help.

Subsequently send a few messages attempting to weasel out repaying any money you borrowed (as him) and to generally keep a high level of anger simmering against him.

Outside of town resume your form and return to party. When this other character next makes a shopping trip he'll have a pleasant surprise waiting for him.

I'm largely ignorant of 4th edition, so please forgive me if any of the above is rules incompatible.

It's as rules compatable as it is unnecessary, given how good Assassins are at killing sleepy-heads. It all boils down to getting away with RPing all the above, taking all that spotlight time and leaving the target with plenty of opportunity to RP his way back out of trouble.

In short, it's a Bond-Villain plan. Bond Villain Plan's don't work.

NotMe
2010-04-07, 11:09 AM
It's as rules compatable as it is unnecessary, given how good Assassins are at killing sleepy-heads. It all boils down to getting away with RPing all the above, taking all that spotlight time and leaving the target with plenty of opportunity to RP his way back out of trouble.

In short, it's a Bond-Villain plan. Bond Villain Plan's don't work.

The OP has already stated that he knows the other character could be killed in his sleep, thus I'm assuming that something with a bit more style and roleplay is desired. It's also an idea that can be implemented without the other character (in character) ever knowing who implemented it (thus not necessarily breaking up the party if it fails) and doesn't use an instant win button (dull).

While I generally share your view of Bond villain plans, if they can work anywhere it's in a roleplay game where cinematic is virtually de rigueur.

Additionally, I think that dying to a fiendish plan is significantly more stylish than alternatives, gives the other player possible get outs and good roleplay time, and is generally less likely to lead to out of character resentment (obviously depending on players, may not be an issue).

Regarding taking the spotlight and other implementation, this depends on your groups playstyle and DM (what happens on and off camera, what can be sorted out before sessions, etc), but so does everything else in D&D.