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Famine
2008-11-03, 06:51 PM
So i'm playing a 3.5 game and i have a Deep Elf Barbarian who is based off the Cheroke native americans.

My last charecter was sort of a jerk so i was trying to be something of a Barbarian with a heart of gold, this was going well until he found some gold in a dungeon, he immeadiently hoarded as much as he could, not because he knew that it could buy him things, but because it was shiny and other players wanted it. He's also very distrsutful a NPC sorcerer because he appears to be a witch to my charecer


so the question is, is this ok? Can he be a nice guy but freak out and hoard shiny stuff because it's shiny?

Help?

lord_khaine
2008-11-03, 06:54 PM
so the question is, is this ok? Can he be a nice guy but freak out and hoard shiny stuff because it's shiny?

Help?

of course he can, its your char, the question is, do you want to do it?
think about, is there something to gain from it? how will it affect his relations to the rest of the party, will it lead to more or less fun for the party?

Famine
2008-11-03, 06:58 PM
So far it's creating tension between the rouge and me, but it's creates intresting group conflict..

rayne_dragon
2008-11-03, 07:34 PM
There's no reason you can't want to hoard it, but you might want to let the other characters talk you around to sharing it fairly or maybe trade you something of minimal value for their fair share.

Tengu_temp
2008-11-03, 07:42 PM
intresting group conflict

In many, many cases, this phrase is an oxymoron. Especially when treasure is concerned.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-11-03, 07:47 PM
But not necessarily in all cases.

Still, don't do things to needlessly antagonize people unless they're cool with it out-of-character.

Prometheus
2008-11-03, 09:51 PM
I can understand liking shiny things, but your Barbarian will end up with a lot of shiny things if he keeps going this route. At that point it would clear that an affinity for shiny things is not sufficient to explain your character's behavior for keeping such a massive horde. There are two routes to go with this.

Stick to the Native American schtick: "Why do you have to be a jerk and own things?" Stop hording, not because it relates to party dynamics or game mechanics, but it seems to make more sense that your character would have curiosity but not attachment. You could donate the gold, refuse to pick it up, or pay way for what you do buy than they are worth. You might qualify for Vow of Poverty, should you care for it.

African Diamond Warlord: "More Dakka, More Shinys" It would be a paradox, but you could extrapolate your character's love of shiny things by using the gold to purchase expensive baubles (non-magic, but shiny) and cover your character with them. Imagine several giant man-rings on each finger, gold bands around the arms, etc but a necklace with monster teeth. You would act with the pretense of legitimate authority via wealth but have a rugged sense of brutality that makes it clear you are not a noblemen. Obviously, if you went this way you would do it gradually.

I should mention that my use of the phrases "Native American" and "African Warlord" in this thread (and presumably other's uses as well) refer to the hollywood stereotypes of theses characters and are not foreign policy commentary. Say, Native American stereotype would be drawn from
"Pocahontas" and the African Warlord from "Lords of War".

elliott20
2008-11-03, 10:20 PM
*chants*

African Diamond Lord! African Diamond Lord! African Diamond Lord!

If your barb act this way, it could just be another dimension to his personality that people have just discovered. there is nothing wrong with that per se but the way you're playing it you could come across as just trying to find an excuse to be greedy with party treasure. You need to throw something else behind that to make it more interesting than just "I grab all the gold because it's shiny".

snoopy13a
2008-11-03, 10:20 PM
I don't see how hoarding all the "shineys" would be a barbarian thing but rather simply a selfish thing. A barbarian who believed in fair play would share any looted "shineys".

Sure, your character can do that but it can cause some issues both IC and OOC. The logical thing for a party to do when a member is taking more then their fair share is to boot that person and get someone else.

Person_Man
2008-11-04, 10:04 AM
If you don't have a strong concept of money, then why would you covet gold pieces over other, more shiny objects? Seriously, there's no reason to antagonize other players when you could roleplay the same personality by fawning over costume jewelry or feathers or whatever.

Devils_Advocate
2008-11-04, 08:22 PM
so the question is, is this ok? Can he be a nice guy but freak out and hoard shiny stuff because it's shiny?
"Nice" is a relative term.

Is hoarding something instead of sharing nice? C'mon, you know the answer to this one: No. Sharing is nicer than not sharing, you learned that in kindergarten. This guy may not have gone to kindergarten, but that doesn't mean that compromising with the other members of his team isn't nicer than not compromising. It still is.

Can someone hoard things that others want and still be an otherwise nice guy? Sure. Maybe you're happy to do work that others don't want to do. Maybe you're friendly and always willing to lend a hand. Being greedy doesn't mean that you can't ever be kind to others... but it might keep you from being as kind as you could be.

This quirk means that this guy isn't as amiable as he could be. If you want this dude to be as extra super agreeable and generous as possible, and also want him to hoard shiny, shiny treasure, then obviously you have two goals that are in fundamental conflict with each other. If this is the case, you may want to spend some time reflecting on which characterization goal is the most important to you. Other goals, like getting along well with the other members of your gaming group, might also be important, maybe even more important, so you should consider those as well.

If he's willing to trade his shinies to other party members for different shinies, that will probably let him get along with them better. If he won't do that, under the theory that if they want his shinies more, they must be better, then he has an inherently non-nice attitude about this particular thing. But that attitude can coexist with nice attitudes about other things, because, hey, people are complex.

EvilElitest
2008-11-05, 12:20 PM
No you can't, there is a law against it, you can look it up. because in real life, there are no nice greedy people :smallwink:
from
EE

valadil
2008-11-05, 12:46 PM
Maybe this is an area where your character could learn and grow. Conflict is interesting, but playing a dynamic character who changes his views over the course of the game is more interestin.