[Pathfinder] What should I do with this party?

[samuraibsd]

Okay, so I may have committed a huge faux pas here by not posting an introduction first, but this is something that's bugging me and I feel like I really need to get it off my chest before I just lose it.

So I started playing in a brand new game Friday night, and I was really excited for it. I'm playing a Wizard, and I have a lot of buffs and debuffs. I'm leaving the damage to our rogue and fighter. Fine. I'm neutral good.

There's a couple of problems I can foresee, but the main one is this: I'm literally the only good party member. Out of seven players, I'm one of only two who aren't evil. Five of them are evil, two of those are chaotic evil. The other is neutral. This is a pretty obvious problem. My character isn't a big fan of wanton killing, but everyone else seems to have no trouble running around slitting NPCs' throats whenever they feel like it. I have concluded that (in-character, at least) I have three basic options:


Carry on and see how things evolve.
Intentionally put my character in harm's way, let him die, then create an evil character who fits into this general motif.
Kill the PC who I'm judging now to be the biggest source of problems.


The reason it's even a question for me is that at the moment, I have an excellent opportunity to kill said PC with little effort, and it has a very significant chance to succeed. The opportunity will not present itself again for at least another level -- maybe more. Based on his actions tonight, there's a nonzero possibility that I'll simply be killed by this PC, and it's significantly more likely that he'll do it than someone else.

Out of character, of course, I can talk to the player, or if things get really bad, to the DM, but in general, I like to settle things in-character. The obvious issues of a Stupid Evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidEvil) or Chaotic Stupid (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChaoticStupid) are the reason why I just ban the CE alignment for PCs at all in games I run, and I make players write me a 3 page essay on why any other Evil alignments are valid for their character before I allow them. Needless to say, the DM for this game is quite lenient on a great many things (but that's not quite the point of this part of the post).

So my question is this: How does one deal with being the only good character in a group of evil ones? Is it even possible? Should I just bail on this game before things really get out of hand? Thanks for your opinions, guys.

[Zerter]

Just kill the guy, his stuff, the experience and the fact you had the guts to kill him will allow you to function better in the group. Also it can be start of a slide to neutrality that will make all these issues disappear if you don't want to deal with them.

Also, "The obvious issues of a Stupid Evil or Chaotic Stupid are the reason why I just ban the CE alignment for PCs at all in games I run, and I make players write me a 3 page essay on why any other Evil alignments are valid for their character before I allow them."

You give them homework on their alignment? If you were personally played by someone you would have to assign the player playing you a three page essay on your lawful evil alignment, just saying.

[samuraibsd]

You give them homework on their alignment? If you were personally played by someone you would have to assign the player playing you a three page essay on your lawful evil alignment, just saying.

It just makes the player really think about why they're doing an evil alignment to begin with. If the reason they give me is "because I want to kill stuff all the time," then I might not allow their character to take that alignment, especially when it will obviously conflict with the other players. If it fits with their character's actual motivation (meaning that there's some thought put into it), and the rest of the party won't have their fun reduced/eliminated by it, then it's fine.

[Keneth]

What I like to do, as a DM, is have everyone start out as neutral (if their class of choice allows, otherwise the closest thing). Their eventual alignment depends on their actions while adventuring and all of their actions have clear, sometimes dire, consequences. This generally helps acquaint the players with the fact that being evil or chaotic doesn't usually mean being stupid evil or chaotic stupid and, if they're deadset on playing such a character, they'll soon find out that it's not "ok because their alignment says so". If you go around killing random people or breaking every law you can think of, you're gonna end up hanging from the gallows.

As for your problem, try talking to the group OOC first, to see if you can come up with some better group dynamics. Otherwise feel free to "dispose of" the guy who's putting everyone at risk of retribution for the good of the party. If you happen to get killed in the process, reroll a character that'll fit in better with the group. If the other character dies, he should be urged to make a less extreme character. Note that either way, fighting amongst the PCs can give rise to some bad blood between the players. You both need to be ok with one of your characters dying before going down this path.