GM is railroading the party into Civil war. Help!

[James Lockart]

Okay, I'm still new to D&D 4e, but even i could see this one coming a mile away. Basically, I'm the party Controller (LV 6, Half-Elf, Con-Wis Invoker, based mostly in thunder and lightning attacks, I'm mostly shotgun at the moment but with plans to move to a more "Blast whiten 10" strategy as I level. Also, at the moment I'm standing in as a second tank along with the Paladin) and I worship The Traveler. The GM has been pushing me to take Keeper of the Everflow epic destiny when I reach that high. I also overheard him talking with our party Striker (currently Lv 6, Tiefling, Elementalist) who worships the Raven Queen and likes to call himself "the Raven Queen's personal cremation oven" (the things he does with Elemental Bolt, Escalation, Black Wrath of Hell, etc... is flipping ridiculous even by DPS standards.) The GM is pushing him to take Marshal of Letherna.
I was then informed by a member of our regular group, who's sitting out on this campaign, that the GM's pull this trick before, back before I joined the group. He plans to throw us at each other in an epic battle, one on one, at level 21. Odds are the looser will not be resurrected (if my opposition wins, there wont be anything left but ash.)
As I see it, i have a few choices.
1. I pick a different Epic Destiny, even though I think I'd like Keeper of the Everflow.
2. I get the Striker to pick a different epic destiny, even though he's fairly set on Marshal of Letherna.
3. Find some loophole I can use to get out of it.
4. Surprise everyone and take down the veteran Striker (Read "Crematorium")

I would like to see the story get interesting and think 4 is the best option. The problem is I have no idea how to take him on as a Controller. He outclasses me in Single Target Damage. He could one shot me even now. I've got a good chance of winning initiative the way my character is planed out (not afraid of hitting him by surprise the moment i have confirmation of his Epic Destiny either,) and unless the guy who let me in on this also mentioned something to our striker then he's clueless. Now we're still only Lv6, but I want to be ready for this fight. Can anyone out there give me any advice or point out alternatives I'm missing?

 

[Dice4Hire]

Just refuse to fight him, and get the other player to agree to not fight you.

Forcing players to fight each other is well outside the GM's powers.

 

[S'mon]

Just refuse to fight him...

Yes, that should make for a nice dramatic scene!

 

[fba827]

I know some DMs that love to see PC-on-PC action (wait, that sounds wrong).
Depending on your DM's personality, the more you fight the push, the more he'll contrive to force a confrontation between you two.

But having said all that.. you're level 6.. only halfway through heroic and still all of paragon to deal with. You might not live to see 21

Having said all that... i'm unfamiliar with those epic destinies but it sounds like the opposition uses a lot of fire ("crematorium")? or whatever type damage he uses, start keeping an eye out for ways to get resistance to whatever type(s) of typed damage your frienemy uses(/will use). Potions of resistance, armor of resistance are the two easiest ways off the top of my head though there are a variety of armors and potions that also have combined resistance types.

Don't get it now, because it will just be low level heroic stuff and the resist 5 fire will mean nothing by epic. But as you get in to late paragon look around for it (or get the brew potion feat in order to make some yourself later on)...

 

[James Lockart]

Yes, he's a fire elementalist, should have made that a little clearer. My bad. Looks like he'll be staking different means of ignoring resistances. He'll also be gaining resitance to thunder or lightning, his choice.
As far as refusing to fight, at best that buys time as Keeper of the Everflow says I end up going to war with the Raven Queen and her armies. Marshal of Letherna says that you become one of the Raven Queen's finest and go to war with those trying to usurp her power. There will be no party "consensus" to get out of this.
As much as i love dropping Thunder of Judgement on a solo and shoving him off a cliff for fall damage, it just won't work on this guy. I could try and re-spec towards psionic and Radiant, Invokers get a lot of cool psionic and radiant powers.
Alternatively, I could cut this off at the head and show up to the game Sunday "My invoker heard back from his god, he bought a boat with his swag from the last mission and sailed off. My Ranger/Rouge hybrid will be stepping in in his place." Then again, after racking up 80 damage in one round with a blowgun, they might not want to see that character again.

 

[S'mon]

1. I pick a different Epic Destiny, even though I think I'd like Keeper of the Everflow.

I think this would be the obvious choice. I just read up on the Keep ED and it's clearly for people who want to fight the Raven Queen.

 

[Jester David]

Given the number of levels and time before hitting 21 I woudn't sweat it. Characters might die, players might leave, the DM might change plans, etc. A whole lot can happen.
And when the worst case scenario is: PvP followed by resurrection, that's not huge.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

4e is not designed for Pc vs Pc battles... especially with a striker as one of them.

If the dm is indeed intent on this, changing epic destinies will just make him try another tactic or match up other players for his 'epic' scene he wants. I recommend talking with the other players and then as a group tell the dm that you don't want to have civil war, and if you did it would have to be in a more balanced game system.
In 4e is really comes down to who goes first if both players are intent on a fight to the death. That result is rather boring.


Or.. you could go with it, take the epic destiny and state that you beliefs are counter to the striker, but due to your long association you wont fight him now but will part ways.

Then have the rest of the party take sides and force the dm to run two groups.



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[James Lockart]

Split the party and he'll just kill us. He does not like the party splitting. And like i said, Resurrection is unlikely. I may talk the Striker out of it. I may just leave at that point. It'll have been a good game by then. Hell, the solo we just did ended with our Bard dating a Naga.

 

[fba827]

rather than defeat through combat, try defeat through diplomacy (or intimidate ). use standard action diplomacy/intimidate checks to try and convince him it isn't worthwhile to fight.
I mean, striker vs controller... it's a forgone conclusion unless the dice are loaded.

could also look in to various summons that invokers get and just get as many summons and conjurations for yourself to hide behind. even still in 'fair dice rolls' that will just delay the inevitable.