PvP Precautions 4e

[HMS Invincible]

It's been several days, but that thread about roleplaying jerk has taken an interesting twist.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138209

Our dwarven fighter lied about a quest, took us out to the forest, and then while he was on watch, attacked me while everyone was asleep. I took the first blow, dodged his action point, and promptly slaughtered him. His smoking corpse is now buried under a mountain, gear and all. Before he collapsed, he swore that his abnormally large family would swear revenge along with other characters from the party who were not present at the time.

So now I we have a druid multiclass wizard paragon hybrid lvl 11 coming to our party who is the brother of the dead dwarf. The dwarf fighter apparently held a grudge for 9 levels of adventuring and xp gain so now I want to prepare for the future. How do I protect myself from vengeful party members? My budget for defense is about 10000gp and anything lvl 12 and under I can make, along with a small force of 20 loyal retainers(lvl 4 warriors, lvl 3 wizard, lvl 5 rogues). Ideas?

[Gralamin]

It's been several days, but that thread about roleplaying jerk has taken an interesting twist.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138209

Our dwarven fighter lied about a quest, took us out to the forest, and then while he was on watch, attacked me while everyone was asleep. I took the first blow, dodged his action point, and promptly slaughtered him. His smoking corpse is now buried under a mountain, gear and all. Before he collapsed, he swore that his abnormally large family would swear revenge along with other characters from the party who were not present at the time.

So now I we have a druid multiclass wizard paragon hybrid lvl 11 coming to our party who is the brother of the dead dwarf. The dwarf fighter apparently held a grudge for 9 levels of adventuring and xp gain so now I want to prepare for the future. How do I protect myself from vengeful party members? My budget for defense is about 10000gp and anything lvl 12 and under I can make, along with a small force of 20 loyal retainers(lvl 4 warriors, lvl 3 wizard, lvl 5 rogues). Ideas?

...This screams an out of game problem, and something that should be resolved by talking to the player.

[Grumman]

...This screams an out of game problem, and something that should be resolved by talking to the player.

Or by bludgeoning him with a folding chair. But that talking thing sounds like it might work, too.

[Redrat2k6]

Bribe the DM with food.

But really I would solve this out of game. Because I wouldn't like someone playing a character who is trying to kill me, fail, then try again with a new character. I would start to have suspicions of some other more meta-gaming motive than just pure role playing.

So talk to the DM or the player (or both) and ask him/her to role play a way where he/she doesn't try to kill you. Or even better, a way where both of you can have fun doing the things you want at the same time. (Kinda like how Belkar is evil but still gets along with his party members... usually).

Edit: Ninja'd

[Dust]

So it turns out the IC chest-thumping and leaf-throwing was actually because Roleplaying Jerk is a problem player, eh?
Without bothering to ask why your GM is even allowing him to create a character to 'avenge' his old one via intercombat pvp, or why a player who thinks 4e wizards are weak and worthless (see prior thread) would multiclass one....here's what I'd suggest.

I was going to start browsing books and finding items that granted insubstantial and the like, preferably as a reaction, but I realized that would be going about this the wrong way.

Your GM apparantly has no problem with pvp conflict and party drama for no reason.
Roleplaying Jerk is clearly looking for a fight. He attacked you unprovoked and is making a 'revenge' kill character.

Take the Sun Tzu route, and strike first.

[Crow]

Throw your poo at him. That ought to solve it.

In character, of course! Let's not do anything crazy here. If you really want to resolve the issue in-character, I will also have to go with strike first. Then, after the smoke settles, you guys can discuss the issue out of character, as gentlemen, and find out what's wrong.

Or just tell your DM that you guys want to run a gladiator campaign or something. Some players just really enjoy PvP...

[HMS Invincible]

Your GM apparantly has no problem with pvp conflict and party drama for no reason.
Roleplaying Jerk is clearly looking for a fight. He attacked you unprovoked and is making a 'revenge' kill character.
Take the Sun Tzu route, and strike first.

Well I've proved that I can kill anybody who dares challenge me, so this should put a temporary stop to this. But if this is an out of game problem, then I guess I could have a more serious talk. Part of the problem is even though this sounds like a revenge character, the rest of the party and the DM had no problem with his new character showing up. I can't just demand we kill of a random PC. So if I want to strike first, I need to convince the party.

We're a dysfunctional gaming club and we don't kick people out. We mostly passive aggressive/sabotage people until they get the hint. Either they play nice afterward, or don't get to play much. By we, I mean the DM and me. Everybody else is very passive or concerned about the plot only.

This is the Wild-West of personalities where anything goes if your charismatic enough. The DM is very lax about PC conduct, sandbox campaign and all, so he lets most things slide as long as it won't grant anybody a big advantage against his beloved npcs/monsters. In the end, I step in when anybody betrays or screws a fellow party member over and the DM doesn't warrant it serious enough to do something.

[DabblerWizard]

Player vs. player conflict (where a Player character is attacking another player character) is only okay if both players want to be involved in that sort of in-game scenario. At that point, it's there because you have some compelling roleplay reason.

If either player is not okay with it, then you're falling into the same problem I think I mentioned in the last topic. Group harmony trumps in-game pvp fighting.

Group harmony involves both in-game, and out-of-game group stability.

Having a character attack another character, because a player is angry at another player, is childish, counterproductive, passive aggressive, all around foolish behavior.

What rational character would want to continue adventuring with another character that keeps trying to kill them?

At best, one character dies and the rest of the party moves on. At worst, one or more party members breaks off from the remaining group. Then, at the very least, you'll have a single character going off on their lonesome, doing things not related to the other characters because they don't want to be involved with those people, giving both DMs and players a big headache.

As other people have suggested, figure out this player's motivations. Why is he creating a brother of the recently deceased character? Is his revenge only for IC reasons, and would he sacrifice this goal to keep the group together?

It seems clear, though, that he's got an OOC grudge, that he wants to play out IC. This is bound to lead to a major schism in the gaming group.

[Hal]

I'm with the people who keep saying "solve this out of character, because that's where the problem is."

In a more game-oriented sense, how in Moradin's discarded beard trimmings do all of these relatives know that their kin was slain, and that you're the guy who did it?

I mean, seriously. There's only so much rituals and insight checks can tell you before it's clear that the player just wants to kill your PC.