MandibleBones
2007-09-15, 12:35 AM
So I'm having an issue in the Friday-night game in which I play. Our party consists of a CG Half-Elf Ranger, a CN Orc Barbarian, my LE Elf Cleric and a Chaotic Stupid human rogue.
I suppose you can guess with which character I am having problems.
He's doing stupid stuff (not directly to the party, but still) that's got him headed toward evil, which as you can probably guess I don't care too much about - except that it effects the rest of the body. Tearing people limb from limb, while distasteful to my somewhat obsessive-compulsive cleric, isn't a problem - except when you roll in their bodily fluids and create such a stench that anyone within 20 feet of you needs to make a will save or be nauseated.
We put him 20 feet ahead of us and he encountered a room full of eight goblins (we were level 2, and they were by no means the hardest thing we'd fought tonight - Undermountain is a pain). Upon stepping into the room, all the goblins failed said save and were nauseated for 5 rounds (1d4+1, our DM happened to roll high). The rogue charges in and starts cleaning house with alchemists' fire and other splash-damage things (his favorite - he doesn't care who or what he hits with them). The Orc tries to wade into melee, gets within 20 feet of the rogue, fails his save and can't do anything but vomit and move. The ranger starts shooting into melee - and my cleric, with his dex of 8 (AFTER racial adjustments) just sits out. Sits down and starts polishing his sword - there's nothing he can do, and anyway he's sick of rescuing the rogue from stupid crap (pun intended).
I get no experience from this combat, since I didn't participate - but why WOULD I participate? The only person in danger was the rogue who put himself there AND caused the rest of us to be unable to join him without over-exposing us to danger.
This isn't the first time the rogue's done it, either - in our last adventure, he insisted on making a pet / necklace out of a rat he KNEW to be plague-infested, causing everyone but the overly-cautious cleric to catch the disease.
So after that, we make him travel 20 feet behind us - and we end up in a room near our exit. Three goblins and some psionic metal slug thing face us. Yelling at the rogue to STAY BACK until we're out of the way, the orc wades into melee and rages. The ranger stands by the entrance and shoots into melee. My cleric moves 20 feet out of range of the entrance and summons a skeleton to appear behind the goblins, the slug smacks the Orc for a goodly bit of damage and the rogue listens - this turn.
Next turn. The ranger snipes a goblin. THE ROGUE CHARGES PAST EVERYONE, bringing himself up next to the slug thing and the orc. Both the ranger and the orc fail their saves and start puking, nauseated. The slug and the goblins make it (one goblin smacks my skeleton and is in turn slashed into bits by its scimtar, the other swings and misses the orc). The slug knocks the still vomiting orc unconscious (-2 hp). The rogue moves to engage the remaining goblin, bringing him within 20 feet of my cleric - who promptly fails his save and gets nauseated.
Next round, the rogue kills himself a goblin, the rest of the party pukes, and the slug misses the rogue. The skeleton smacks the slug and goes BAMF. I use my move action to bring me behind the orc. The next round brings the end of my nausea; I finally make my save and am able to use the wand of CLW to bring the orc back into positive hit points just in time to watch the slug slam the rogue to -5. Ranger makes her save and twangs the slug with an arrow.
Next round I heal the orc, orc slams slug, slug tries to move toward the ranger and gets AoO'd, ranger shoots slug, slug releases metal storm of stabbity death that puts the orc to 0 hp but misses the still-unstabilized rogue (-7) completely.
Next round the ranger eats the AoO for firing at melee range and puts an arrow through what would be its skull if it had one. It drops.
I use my last remaning spell (a prepared Cure Minor Wounds) to stabilize the rogue at -7 and empty my waterskin on him to try and cleanse him of the stench before we're brought out. I then heal the rest of the party with the wand of CLW.
Now the player of the rogue is all annoyed and hurt that I didn't bother to heal his character past the point of not dying, and that I've apparently been a **** to his character the entire game.
Um, yes, that's true. I told his rogue, IC, that I would watch his back and heal him on the condition that he not put my life or the party's lives in danger by his actions. He did, and I chose not to fix him beyond saving his life.
If I were, in fact, playing in complete character, I would have simply let him die - he has been nothing but a liability to the entire party. However, that doesn't do so well for party dynamics out of character, and so I instead chose to let him heal naturally and suffer in order to try and teach him a lesson. It seemed like the thing to do.
How do I deal with this, IC and out? How do I keep this character from running rough-shod over the rest of the party and how do I keep this player from getting butt-hurt every time there are consequences to his actions - like me not risking my neck to save a character that seems Hells-bent on achieving a TPK?
And we just dinged level 3 - so "Dominate person him into submission" isn't really a solution.
I suppose you can guess with which character I am having problems.
He's doing stupid stuff (not directly to the party, but still) that's got him headed toward evil, which as you can probably guess I don't care too much about - except that it effects the rest of the body. Tearing people limb from limb, while distasteful to my somewhat obsessive-compulsive cleric, isn't a problem - except when you roll in their bodily fluids and create such a stench that anyone within 20 feet of you needs to make a will save or be nauseated.
We put him 20 feet ahead of us and he encountered a room full of eight goblins (we were level 2, and they were by no means the hardest thing we'd fought tonight - Undermountain is a pain). Upon stepping into the room, all the goblins failed said save and were nauseated for 5 rounds (1d4+1, our DM happened to roll high). The rogue charges in and starts cleaning house with alchemists' fire and other splash-damage things (his favorite - he doesn't care who or what he hits with them). The Orc tries to wade into melee, gets within 20 feet of the rogue, fails his save and can't do anything but vomit and move. The ranger starts shooting into melee - and my cleric, with his dex of 8 (AFTER racial adjustments) just sits out. Sits down and starts polishing his sword - there's nothing he can do, and anyway he's sick of rescuing the rogue from stupid crap (pun intended).
I get no experience from this combat, since I didn't participate - but why WOULD I participate? The only person in danger was the rogue who put himself there AND caused the rest of us to be unable to join him without over-exposing us to danger.
This isn't the first time the rogue's done it, either - in our last adventure, he insisted on making a pet / necklace out of a rat he KNEW to be plague-infested, causing everyone but the overly-cautious cleric to catch the disease.
So after that, we make him travel 20 feet behind us - and we end up in a room near our exit. Three goblins and some psionic metal slug thing face us. Yelling at the rogue to STAY BACK until we're out of the way, the orc wades into melee and rages. The ranger stands by the entrance and shoots into melee. My cleric moves 20 feet out of range of the entrance and summons a skeleton to appear behind the goblins, the slug smacks the Orc for a goodly bit of damage and the rogue listens - this turn.
Next turn. The ranger snipes a goblin. THE ROGUE CHARGES PAST EVERYONE, bringing himself up next to the slug thing and the orc. Both the ranger and the orc fail their saves and start puking, nauseated. The slug and the goblins make it (one goblin smacks my skeleton and is in turn slashed into bits by its scimtar, the other swings and misses the orc). The slug knocks the still vomiting orc unconscious (-2 hp). The rogue moves to engage the remaining goblin, bringing him within 20 feet of my cleric - who promptly fails his save and gets nauseated.
Next round, the rogue kills himself a goblin, the rest of the party pukes, and the slug misses the rogue. The skeleton smacks the slug and goes BAMF. I use my move action to bring me behind the orc. The next round brings the end of my nausea; I finally make my save and am able to use the wand of CLW to bring the orc back into positive hit points just in time to watch the slug slam the rogue to -5. Ranger makes her save and twangs the slug with an arrow.
Next round I heal the orc, orc slams slug, slug tries to move toward the ranger and gets AoO'd, ranger shoots slug, slug releases metal storm of stabbity death that puts the orc to 0 hp but misses the still-unstabilized rogue (-7) completely.
Next round the ranger eats the AoO for firing at melee range and puts an arrow through what would be its skull if it had one. It drops.
I use my last remaning spell (a prepared Cure Minor Wounds) to stabilize the rogue at -7 and empty my waterskin on him to try and cleanse him of the stench before we're brought out. I then heal the rest of the party with the wand of CLW.
Now the player of the rogue is all annoyed and hurt that I didn't bother to heal his character past the point of not dying, and that I've apparently been a **** to his character the entire game.
Um, yes, that's true. I told his rogue, IC, that I would watch his back and heal him on the condition that he not put my life or the party's lives in danger by his actions. He did, and I chose not to fix him beyond saving his life.
If I were, in fact, playing in complete character, I would have simply let him die - he has been nothing but a liability to the entire party. However, that doesn't do so well for party dynamics out of character, and so I instead chose to let him heal naturally and suffer in order to try and teach him a lesson. It seemed like the thing to do.
How do I deal with this, IC and out? How do I keep this character from running rough-shod over the rest of the party and how do I keep this player from getting butt-hurt every time there are consequences to his actions - like me not risking my neck to save a character that seems Hells-bent on achieving a TPK?
And we just dinged level 3 - so "Dominate person him into submission" isn't really a solution.