The campaign I'm in has hit a bit of a problem with conflict between characters. There is no issue between players at all, nor does it look like it will get that bad, but it is still an issue that would be nice to know how to best approach. I'd like advice for what can be done to get characters working together better, even if such ideas require the GM to set up events to help it work out.
The main problem is conflict between my character (The main healer of the party, using the vitalist psionic class from Dreamscarred press, which is relevant due to the unusual mechanics it uses for healing. Especially the unwilling participant feat for it) and the party ranger. It may be a bit my fault, as my character forced the ranger into being part of a telepathic collective so as I could cast healing and buffing effects on her, which I admit may of been a mistake and waiting till she needed the healing/buffs so as a chance to have it be a willing thing would of been much better.
The event that really started things getting really bad from my perspective was when the ranger stabbed a beggar in front of most of the party. The beggar did call out for the city guard in response, making the ranger flee, though a certain lawful party member asked me to stop the ranger. I did the only thing I could with my abilities, draining 18 hp and causing 3 damage bleed, which is rather significant at level 6. The ranger managed to tend to bleeding and still escape, but blamed my character for doing such a large amount of harm. This is also the event that when the player explained the why, the GM decided made her of evil alignment, due to backstory the GM hadn't read till then that would of made her evil to begin with.
Since then it's been a bit of a stretch for the ranger to even be working with us at all, feeling very forced. The ranger has made it clear she never wants to be part of the collective, meaning no healing, no buffs, no telepathic communication. Past clearly selfish actions of not sharing anything she finds while searching places (She tries to be sneaky about hiding what she finds, but is rather bad at that) but expecting a full share of anything anyone else finds, has resulted in the party not being willing to let her carry any healing wands or potions she did not pay for herself.
Last session things got worse, her going as far as spending the first round of combat picking up loot and trying to hide that she had found anything, while the rest of us almost died. She was spotted doing so by only one party member who just happened to be our smarter evil character (Which the rest of us think in character is lawful good for various silly reasons), whom after the fight suggested the ranger should get no future shares of any loot due to that action and not revealing what she had taken no matter how much we tried to make her. It was very hard to argue against that suggestion and the ranger had nothing to say in her own defence.
Any suggestions of how to solve this without forcing a change of characters? How can we best rebuild party trust?
This does not sound like there is no issue between the players at all.
some good in character RP there. just let it play out, if you have evil characters, PvP is a bound to happen thing. Just make sure no hard feelings are left over. NONE of it is personal (player to player at least)
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Kick the ranger out of the group and get a new good aligned ranger who happens to have the same stats.
Your DM was an idiot for allowing an evil character in a non-evil group.
Let the ranger player know that his evil guy is not working out and he needs to play nice with the rest of the group or find another game. Pathfinder is a social game not a competitive game.
If there is some crap about the evil player being the DMs girlfriend I don't care. Find a way to clean the mess up. Tell the DM he needs to run the game for everyone's benefit.
I disagree with Karkon, I find a -small- bit of PvP can spice things up drastically. (note, not all PvP end with character death). Be flexible and allow things to happen. Remember, its a game. Don't crush one players dreams due to another's complaints.
That aside, if you don't want PvP in your world (however small or large that amount is) state it forcibly and clearly at the start. Usually its best to not allow evil characters in a no PvP game as well.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Quote: Don't crush one players dreams due to another's complaints. Conversely, don't allow one player or character being a dick ruin the experience for the rest of the party.
Whilst I agree karkon's response is a little extreme, he does hit the right notes - if nobody else wants to be playing evil characters, it might be time to ask the player to change characters.
well.. there are 2 evil characters. One just hides it well.
"She was spotted doing so by only one party member who just happened to be our smarter evil character (Which the rest of us think in character is lawful good for various silly reasons)"
that aside, as said, let it play out, if said character cannot continues reroll. alternatively, if people want no PvP just force him/her to reroll.
social does not exclude competitiveness. (though moderation of the competiveness is necessary to prevent sore feelings.)
Do what you would do with such a person in real life. If you absolutely do not trust them, they do not back you up and they steal from you would you even associate with them? Hell no. You would get rid of them or leave them and make sure they did not hang around you.
Honestly if the player thought that the character would HAVE to be allowed in the group no matter what they need to be taught that is not the case.
Why would your group keep such a person with them?
Just straight up tell them, 'Your a thieving, lying, murderous scumbag and we want no part of you. Since you want no part of us then leaving and finding your own way should be as much a relief to you as it is to us."
Karkon: I do agree the GM was a bit of an idiot, though the player of the ranger (Actually a male player playing a female character) was a bit of an idiot too not realising the character backstory/personality was clearly evil and then the GM not paying attention to the backstory till clearly evil acts happened in game. Still, I am trying to avoid the easy solution of just tossing out the character, which is the route the GM will force upon us if an alternative is not found.
As for it being a non-evil party, this makes two evil characters, a lawful neutral character, and my character that barely counts as chaotic good. I don't see it as impossible for us all to get along if not for a few inconvenient events.
Rorek55: I agree with you, the issue is it is getting to the point that the characters have no reason to want to work with each other. Conflict is fine, but if the characters are unable to even want to work as a team, let alone succeed at working together, then something needs sorting. Considering how much healing we have access to, some fights not quite to the death would be perfectly fine when we have downtime, which we get a huge amount of.
I just don't see that as much of a fair fight if I went against the ranger, considering our last two boss fights: First of which the rest of the party couldn't touch the boss apart from me, second I soloed due to being the only one whom made it to the boss after our failure of a plan to get there failed. Being able to solo a boss is a bad sign for a build, healing faster than I was getting hurt, and that second boss was tougher yet I didn't use any daily resources, and in fact managed to come out with a free full party heal from it (Excluding the ranger whom I can't heal due tot he collective thing). I'm pretty sure no one in the party is stupid enough to start PvP without me on their side, removing that as a likely part of a solution.
(Yes, I believe my build is a bit overpowered, though can't change as the party would be screwed without it due to how tough fights are getting, and the GM seems to be hesitant to allow me to tone down my build by removing the archetypes I'm using to make it work so well. This is a tangentially related issue, which does seem minor compared to the character conflicts)
On the character issue. consider allowing the players to "remake there characters" so to balance the power level out.
Make a deal. Everyone has their price.
Well, here’s the thing- who decides if your character is a “Richard”, the type who would kill beggars, etc? *YOU* do. Thus, there ARE some player issues. Stealing from the party *IS* being a “Richard’ both IC and OOC.
This seems to be caused by the DM not setting limits on character creations, ie “No evils”.
Either that, or you guys all need to be evil.
The other issue here is that realistically speaking, the only reason why the character is part of your group is that his player is sitting at the table. IRL, you’d boot him (or they’d boot you, but…).
So yes, there needs to be some level of re-boot. I suggest you guys all sit down, with the DM and discuss this OOC, like adults.
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In my experience, it always starts out that the character is stealing from the others, demanding more than his fair share of loot, grabbing up loot during combat and refusing to fight, and basically indulging in all manner of bad, selfish behavior because "that is what the character would do."
And it always ends the same way, with that player playing every character that way, revealing that is he, not his characters, who was indulging his worst, most base behaviors at the expense of everybody else, until he has to be asked to leave.
I managed to talk to the player of the ranger, and there was an explanation for everything. Nothing that justified things nor anything that was ever shared with the party.
*The ranger seems to only have issue with my character in the party, due to hating crowds and being forced into a telepathic collective. The player fully understands why my character initially forced her into the collective, and given time due to letting her stay out of the collective that drama would apparently die down time time. If the ranger survives long due to being cut off from the party healer's healing abilities as a result.
*Stabbing the beggar was due to hatred of humans and having lived a mostly isolated life, not being used to cities. Which is a very poor justification.
*And the whole looting in combat? Apparently the ranger thought it was just one flesh golem wielding a scythe, hence that we could handle it, plus was already in the middle of looting so stopping did not make much sense.
And now for the current solution our group is seriously considering: Using bestow curse to make an unbreakable magic contract/team charter to prevent any future betrayals/misunderstandings. Of course, this requires the party to agree on something, and the secretly evil party member seems very hesitant about it, plus is the one who has most against the taking loot in combat and not sharing, due to risking losing class features from such stuff (Lovely how the Order of the Cockatrice has an edict about always getting an equal or greater share). Overall, if this breaks down, it may be evil character vs evil character, rather than my good aligned character being dragged into a fight.
I think a moonlight duel betwix the evil characters could be quite epic.
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