Just curious. Some of my group are power gamers (myself included) and sometimes I think about what would happen if me/he were dominated and forced to fight each other. Most of my character deaths have been at the hands of my party members due to confusion/domination and it's always left a sore spot. Some of us like to out-do each other damage wise, so why not the ultimate test in mortal combat? It's just something that I think about occasionally and wondered if anyone else thinks about it to. Cooperation is nice and all, but sometimes you just want it all.
Stories about tpk'ing your party are acceptable and encouraged.
Having a group of adventurers run into their "mirror universe doubles" is a standard trope for a good reason.
If this is a purely personal desire to see who is best and not an in character type of thing, you could set up a game of the conflict roleplaying game.
If it is in character, well this is pathfinder, find some neutral party clerics of sufficient level willing to spare an afternoon, and find some uninhabited space and go at it. In pathfinder injury and death are reversable, so if your characters REALLY want to see who would win in a no holds bared match, hiring a mid level cleric or two and some money spent on diamonds as well as some space people dont mind getting messed up is all you need to have a duel to the death with little or no consequences.
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I had an inquisitor who got turned into a half-fiend and, because there was a chance he'd become evil as the demon fused to his flesh continued to whisper corruption into his mind, I figured out which of the party members would be the most dangerous to fight.
In order.
1. The Conjurer. I might be able to take her down quick, but if the rest of the party defends her long enough she could summona Half-Celestial Hydra.
2. The Two-Handed Fighter. Nothing like a big Strength score and a large earthbreaker(he was a half-giant) to ruin my day.
3. The Cleric. He had some blast spells, and great defensive buff spells.
4. The Rouge/Shadow Dancer. I could literally just fly away and not give a damn.
Ahh this post brings back some memories...
In 3.5 we were playing The Sunless Citadel (or something along those lines) at 1st level. Our wizard decided to kill the kobold that kept his tribe from killing us. Trying to save my own skin, I ran back and told the queen, a sorceress. Her and her guards tracked us all down. TPK squarely on my shoulders.
In another game, we all got into a fight over the division of a small pile of magic items, the first those characters had found. At first it was just yelling, but then one of the fighters got particularly mad and attacked another PC. Soon enough, everyone's weapons were drawn and people were dying left and right. Someone was dumb enough to kill the cleric, then got killed in the next room. TPK again.
My group and I have an annual tradition of heading up to a cabin in the mountains for a long weekend of gaming. It's become a tradition that at some point I fall into an irrisistable and several-hours-long nap and the rest of the guys run a PVP arena battle whilst I snooze.
Last year, they mixed it up and did a team battle and rolled to determine who was paired with whom.
The characters have always been at least 17th level, so it's generally worked out that whoever wins initiative flat out wins.
Last year's winner was a necromancer, who won initiative and popped Persistant Suffocates on the other PCs. The next bout he agreed not to use that tactic and things were a bit closer.
I'd say go-for-it! Establish some ground rules (i.e. non-lethal, by agreement only, etc.) and have at it. It can be memorable and a lot of fun.
So far we've had at least 3 such face-offs
1)- In the first one, a mischievous princess wanted to evaluate her new bodyguard's skill so she trailed him thru the city in disguise at night and provoked him into a game of Cat and Also Cat. It ended as a stalemate before he needed to save her from the gang of toughs they pissed off by doing this on their turf.
2)- While sailing to a Smuggler's Shiv, said bodyguard had been training in martial arts with one of the NPCs and wanted to test their skill. He challenged anyone who would face him to fisticuffs and Gelik set up a betting pool. More than a few bouts were fought, and much celebratory drinking ensued afterwards.
3)- Sasha and the princess got into a wrestling match while the rest of the party was pre-occupied. Why? Because Sasha implied the princess was "pretty good for a newbie". After over-estimating her training, the princess got pinned and had to cry "Nanny!" This actually setup her training for Improved Grapple for the next level since pride demanded a rematch.
About eight years ago, I had a Barbarian that at the time was the most powerful character I'd played. He had a ridiculous to-hit bonus, dealt tons of damage, and had all sorts of random out-of-left-field tricks he could pull due to various custom-made magic items the DM handed out over the course of the campaign. Not optimized by any means, but he was a ton of fun and he was great at what he did. Naturally, when I DMed with another group, I told them all about this character and so on.
Well, one day, one of my players decides he wants to make a character and duke it out with my old character. I said go for it, not really knowing what I was getting myself into- so this player then proceeded to make his own Barbarian, except I realized in the process that this wasn't fair at all. The player in question wasn't making a real, playable character- true, it was a playable character at its core (he basically took the character he was playing in my campaign and beefed him up to 20th level with an approximation of the gold my character had amassed), but every level, every feat, every magic item was specifically chosen because it gave him an edge over my guy.
My guy was all about dealing one incredibly powerful hit (basically, he'd make one amazing charge, and then resort to full attacks if necessary, but that charge was his bread & butter). Sure, he had lots of HP and high AC, but it was all about that one attack. My player, though, made a character that was larger than mine, with a cheesy 3e item that made him always considered set against a charge, with a feat that let him stop a charging opponent if he hit with his attack. Plus he used pretty much all of his gold to beef up his AC (including buying items with sacred and profane bonuses, which I wouldn't have allowed were this an actual game I was running). He did crap damage, which meant that he couldn't really fight back very well, but my character would have been basically a sitting duck against him. Had I re-made my character with his sit-in-one-place-and-block-charges character in mind, I'm sure I could have done the same thing to him, but luckily it never got that far. I think something came up and we never actually did that fight, but I don't think it would have been fun to be a part of.
What's the moral of this story? Heck if I know. I guess, uh, if you're going to pit characters against each other, don't let the players prepare specifically for it if they know each others' strengths and weaknesses. That's like saying you can beat someone at Chess by learning the exact strategy they're going to use and finding a counter for it.
I've done more than fantasized, I've had flat out in-character battles with other players, and it's not really that fun. Woo-Hoo for differing alignments and character concepts.
The problem is, that it doesn't really end, even after the fight is over. Whomever loses the fight will most likely want payback, and then for the rest of the campaign(and sometimes stretching into other campaigns) you are always looking over your shoulder, buying certain items, taking certain feats/spells "just in case..." In short, it sucks.
If you can have a good-natured duel with a fellow player, then that's not so bad. Defending yourself from getting blindsided by the party's CE psychopath isn't exactly fun.
Heck, there was a game once where my character was assaulted as soon as the game started. The DM allowed all alignments/classes, so I rolled up a Tiefling Warlock. As soon as I joined the group, the party's melee killguy took me out. The reason? His character hates demons and anything demon-related. I had no knowledge of this upon rolling up my character. It literally took me longer to roll up my character than the time it took to actually play it.
In a Vampire game set in the middle ages, our GM hadn't completely thought through the ramifications of player choices.
My character had picked up a few ranks of sorcery granted by a particular demon and enjoyed it well enough. Eventually we were tasked by an NPC to go and perform a great binding ritual to seal away the demon by carving glyphs into the side of a cliff 200 feet above a ravine of sharp rocks.
I was arguing against the idea and I expressed as much. Another player's character was for it because the NPC was powerful and could provide some good things. The other four characters took sides from there.
Unfortunately, before we could actually start the fight, a "meteor from space" crashed into the cliff and killed us all, so said the GM before storming out of the room in anger.
Always wondered if I could have won that fight, heh.
It is all about the Finish him!