Stalker of Kharash - Code of Conduct

[Crust]

Hi, all,

I'm experiencing a bit of a problem at my gaming table. One of my players runs a ranger/warshaper/stalker of Kharash, and he tends to have what I call a Neverwinter Nights mentality (he wants to use feats and class skills without having to deal with role-playing consequences). He's not exactly an exalted PC, and he only wants to blast evil enemies to bits with full-on power attacks without having to follow any code of conduct. He'll kill PCs under magical compulsion, slay helpless foes who've yielded, and consider it ok to slay anyone or anything that is evil just because he/she/it is evil.

As part of his path following Kharash, I've also made him a good-aligned werewolf. As a result of his bestial behavior, however, he is currently cursed, forced to remain in wolf form until he atones for his poor conduct, which I'm currently working on with him.

With all that having been said, does anyone happen to have any code of conduct worked out for a stalker of Kharash that I might compare to my own? I'd rather not just follow the paladin's code of conduct, as that is a much different class than the stalker. Has anyone fleshed out a stalker code of conduct, or does anyone know where I might find one, if for no other reason than to compare it with my own ideas?

This is what I have so far:

1. Only kill when necessary.
-Fight with defense in mind, unless the enemy has your death or the death of an ally clearly in mind.
-Show mercy to those who yield, even evil foes.
-Never strike first, unless an enemy has threatened another's life directly.
-Undead, constructs (his other favored enemies), and irredeemable evil outsiders should be attacked on site, though suicidal behavior should be used only to save others.

2. Favored enemy does not mean "attack/kill on sight."
-Stalk foes and observe before acting.
-If a foe is clearly weaker, offer redemption and guidance.
-Undead, evil outsiders such as devils and demons, and constructs are an exception.

3. Think "Paladin code of conduct."
-No backstabbing.
-No stealing, breaking and entering (unless stalking evil or favored enemy), and no lying ever.
-No slaying PCs, even when magically compelled or controlled.

4. Do not cooperate with evil.
-Do not side or quest with evil.
-Do not strike any bargains with evil.
-Do not betray friends and allies to evil for any reason, even if such betrayal is in pursuit of a favored enemy.

Please let me know what you think. This PC makes heavy use of the Exalted Deeds book, and his conduct should act to balance out the massive damage he can deal due to the use of that book. The player resists this idea, and I need a concrete code of conduct so there's no confusion.

 

[frankthedm]

The player in question sounds like the type who should never be allowed to take any "Extra power at the cost of behavior limitations."

While it is your job to enforce such 'code of conduct' limitations, as DM you have far better things to do than to deal with someone who will seek too squeeze out every drop of power while doing everything possible to get around the limitations the character accepted for that power.

I say explain to him that you two just don't see eye to eye on character behavior and as such something is being done about it. Have him him make a new character, even let him keep his XP total, but his new PC can not have anything that requires a code of conduct or behavior limitation.

Probably be best to shelve the BOED too.

 

[Crust]

Thanks for the response. I feared that my thread would be ignored.

I agree with you entirely. However, I'm not going to alter reality and remove his PC from play. I'm putting my foot down and enforcing good conduct. Being that he's a stalker of Kharash that requires a neutral good alignment, I'm not going to expect him to follow a paladin's code, but I must set ground rules.

When he recently slew a helpless evil foe (a rival of his, in fact), I had Selune herself curse him, so now he's stuck in wolf form until he atones. I'm insisting that he show mercy to those who ask for it (even evil foes) and avoid attacking unless attacked first. I'm also insisting that he NEVER deliberately slay a neutral or good opponent, even if the foe is hostile or magically compelled. That's just the beginning. What I have above might be a bit heavy-handed, so I'm revising.

Another example of his misbehavior happened just yesterday (Sunday 9/9/08). One of the PCs had been possessed by an evil, intelligent sword, and the stalker spoke aloud the following: "I'm going to ice him," referring to the possessed PC. Nevermind that it was the sword that was evil, not the possessed PC. Both myself and another veteran player blurted out, "NO!" and "What?" at the same moment, so it's clear that he hasn't learned. His response was, "We can resurrect him afterward." Nevermind that the cleric in question is lawful good and the mentor of the stalker. Even after explaining all that, his response was, "I just don't think you understand good and evil." I was stuttering in speechless shock. He's stubborn, and even if he does understand, he won't admit it openly.

I basically have two choices: either warn him beforehand that this or that action will result in the loss of exalted feats and class abilities, or just let him do whatever he wants and punish him without any warning. Either way, the player does not like being controlled by me, the DM.

I'm still hoping for some additional suggestions concerning the expected code of conduct for a stalker of Kharah. Anyone?

 

[Aus_Snow]

He's not exactly an exalted PC

Well, by rights he should be. That [Exalted] feat that's a prereq for SoK (Favoured of the Companions?). . . he needs both the DM's explicit permission to take it, and ongoing Good (most of all, non-Evil) behaviour to keep it. Otherwise, it's Atonement time, at best.

Exalted feats are not something characters should be able to just casually pick up, like any other type. Likewise, many prestige classes. In fact, *all* PrCs are by default not an option in any given campaign, and the DM's judgement is the primary deciding factor.

For some inspiration, re: codes of conduct, maybe check out some clearly good, but stalker-y characters from books, movies, comics, wherever. That can work.

 

[arcanaman]

Ah the character has become so over complicated I cannot truly understand whats going on but I want to

 

[robertliguori]

Alternatively, throw temptation at him. Have a devil / agent of an evil god offer him a way out of the curse, and bonuses besides, in return for abandoning Selune. Have the temper be quite explicit about the terms of the offer. "We don't care who you choose to kill." However, the loophole is that every so often, his pact can be enforced (possibly according to the Frenzy mechanic from the Frenzied Berserker) and he can be forced into a homocidal rage. If he kills a sentient creature every three days or so, he's fine. If it's been four days or so and he wanders into a city, then he may well end up tearing through a homeless orphan before he can gain control of himself. Emphasize that all he has to do to avoid the potential fits of mayhem is simply choose to kill.

 

[Crust]

Sorry these are so long. I appreciate the feedback. Please read on. Maybe some of the more-experienced gamers can let me know if I've made any mistakes interpreting good and evil acts.

Let me clear this up first:

Kragg - NG half-orc werewolf ranger 6/warshaper 2/stalker of Kharash 6 (currently cursed by Selune to suffer only wolf form until atonement is realized). The irony of a werewolf being good-aligned has made things interesting for the campaign so far. The below example is just one of those ironies.

Great ideas, Robert. In fact, the rival that Kragg callously slew was his evil counterpart of sorts, an evil werewolf with levels in black blood hunter from the Player's Guide to Faerun named Reskyn (name taken from an NPC in the Waterdeep sourcebook), which I thought offset the stalker of Kharash nicely.

Reskyn - CE half-orc werewolf ranger 6/warshaper 4/black blood hunter 5 (faithful to Malar the Beastlord, one of Selune's rivals in my game).

Reskyn would repeatedly tempt Kragg with power and the freedom to exert it over others without moral consequence, claiming that Kragg's friends were fodder and fit for hunting only, and that Malar would grant him more power than Selune. Kragg would resist the temptation... but I always felt he resisted out of some selfish sense of superiority to Reskyn, not due to any true code of goodness. The fact that Kragg slew Reskyn while he was helpless shows this to be true, which is why he was cursed by Selune to suffer permanent wolf form. Instead of showing mercy and giving Reskyn the chance to redeem himself, Kragg just killed him, which I see as an evil act.

If Kragg wants to act like a beast, let him spend time as one is my (and Selune's) philosophy about the whole event.

Reskyn was trying to convert Kragg, not kill him. They fought on several occasions, but that was Reskyn trying to cow Kragg into submission and dominate him using intimidation. I find it interesting that Kragg didn't in turn try to convert Reskyn. That would have been the exalted choice, right? I find Kragg's choice very ironic when compared to Reskyn's behavior.

The player who runs Kragg is of the mind that Reskyn was evil, and therefore is capable of more evil deeds, and therefore must be killed. If I'm not mistaken, the "ends justify the means" is an evil idea, so I had Selune curse him.

He's been tempted to perform evil, and he fell victim to that temptation already. Now that he's stuck in wolf form, it's up to Kragg to learn how to behave as an exalted character, and the code of conduct will make things clear. Once he shows me that he's going to play along, I'll give him back his humanoid forms. I'm planning on testing him in a number of ways during the next module ("Library of Last Resort" from Dungeon #132), so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for the responses and the support, folks. Honestly, I wish I had never allowed the Book of Exalted Deeds to be used and abused like it's been, but I've allowed its use, and to just snatch it away is the easy way out, and if I do that, the players who need to learn something won't learn anything.

 

[robertliguori]

Sorry these are so long. I appreciate the feedback. Please read on. Maybe some of the more-experienced gamers can let me know if I've made any mistakes interpreting good and evil acts.

Let me clear this up first:

Kragg - NG half-orc werewolf ranger 6/warshaper 2/stalker of Kharash 6 (currently cursed by Selune to suffer only wolf form until atonement is realized). The irony of a werewolf being good-aligned has made things interesting for the campaign so far. The below example is just one of those ironies.

Great ideas, Robert. In fact, the rival that Kragg callously slew was his evil counterpart of sorts, an evil werewolf with levels in black blood hunter from the Player's Guide to Faerun named Reskyn (name taken from an NPC in the Waterdeep sourcebook), which I thought offset the stalker of Kharash nicely.

Reskyn - CE half-orc werewolf ranger 6/warshaper 4/black blood hunter 5 (faithful to Malar the Beastlord, one of Selune's rivals in my game).

Reskyn would repeatedly tempt Kragg with power and the freedom to exert it over others without moral consequence, claiming that Kragg's friends were fodder and fit for hunting only, and that Malar would grant him more power than Selune. Kragg would resist the temptation... but I always felt he resisted out of some selfish sense of superiority to Reskyn, not due to any true code of goodness. The fact that Kragg slew Reskyn while he was helpless shows this to be true, which is why he was cursed by Selune to suffer permanent wolf form. Instead of showing mercy and giving Reskyn the chance to redeem himself, Kragg just killed him, which I see as an evil act.

If Kragg wants to act like a beast, let him spend time as one is my (and Selune's) philosophy about the whole event.

Reskyn was trying to convert Kragg, not kill him. They fought on several occasions, but that was Reskyn trying to cow Kragg into submission and dominate him using intimidation. I find it interesting that Kragg didn't in turn try to convert Reskyn. That would have been the exalted choice, right? I find Kragg's choice very ironic when compared to Reskyn's behavior.

The player who runs Kragg is of the mind that Reskyn was evil, and therefore is capable of more evil deeds, and therefore must be killed. If I'm not mistaken, the "ends justify the means" is an evil idea, so I had Selune curse him.

He's been tempted to perform evil, and he fell victim to that temptation already. Now that he's stuck in wolf form, it's up to Kragg to learn how to behave as an exalted character, and the code of conduct will make things clear. Once he shows me that he's going to play along, I'll give him back his humanoid forms. I'm planning on testing him in a number of ways during the next module ("Library of Last Resort" from Dungeon #132), so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for the responses and the support, folks. Honestly, I wish I had never allowed the Book of Exalted Deeds to be used and abused like it's been, but I've allowed its use, and to just snatch it away is the easy way out, and if I do that, the players who need to learn something won't learn anything.

Crust, an interesting flip-side you may want to consider: killing in a blood frenzy is bestial. Fighting for dominance is bestial. Murdering someone because they were vulnerable and you might not get a chance later is human.

The interesting thing here is that the character completely subverted the Malar vs. Selune conflict. This may be the player's method of telling you that he is not interested in moral or philosophical quandaries of this nature. Possibly, it may be his way of telling you that he intends to resolve said quandaries in the old-school Planescape fashion of philosophical debate*.

Another option you might consider: have him run into a neutral-as-all-hell druid who will stop to chat, and is very sympathetic to the idea that Reskyn needed to die and isn't quite sure what gives Selune the authority to say he did wrong by offing him. Give the player a chance to speak his piece in-character (as the result of a special Speak to Animals spell), and let his directions guide you from there. I'll bet dollars to donuts that the player will cheerfully accept a quest from the druid to acquire the components for a Break Mode Lock ritual, wave his middle claw in Selune's general direction, and continue on happily, protecting the people he feels need protection and killing the ones he feels need to die. You've given Selune her moment of divine glory with the curse; now it's time to play up the fact that goddess or no, Selune is one power among many, and that her use of curse-as-blunt-instrument may well have just lost her a champion.


*Hit your opponent over the head with something heavy until they've stopped disagreeing with you.

 

[Drowbane]

Ask the player to read BoED... where it talks about what "Exalted" means. Then ask him if he wants to play that. If not, allow him to reroll his character a bit (either redesign or new character... whatever fits for you two)... as Stalkers of Kharash are "Exalted".

 

[irdeggman]

3. Think "Paladin code of conduct."
-No backstabbing.
-No stealing, breaking and entering (unless stalking evil or favored enemy), and no lying ever.
-No slaying PCs, even when magically compelled or controlled.

Note that there is no such thing as 'backstabbing" anymore.

A paladin is perfectly within the RAW code of conduct to use the sneak attack benefits - especially since they come from "flanking" which is in no may an immoral fighting concept.

I echo having the player (and you should re-read it too) read the BoED and its descriptions of what "exalted" means. There is a lot of guidance in that book on "behavior" and IIRC there is even a description of exalted ranger behavior.