Coward in our midst

[Dannyalcatraz]

It all depends on your personal flavor of paladin.

If your PC is a firebrand/agressive type, have that PC confront him in some way. Calling him "the Coward" or "Craven" is a good start, as is exhorting him to take more effort in combat while in combat. Other steps might include vocally refusing to share things with him that he has not earned- not just treasure, but also the benefit of your companionship. By that I mean you don't share your water with him, you don't share your rations with him, you don't protect him. DON'T just let foes get past you, but by the same measure, you don't take extraordinary measures to keep foes away from him.

On the other hand, if your paladin is more pastoral, he should engage the character verbally to change his ways. Take him under your wing, try to get him to be a part of the group.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

There are a lot of ways you can handle this in character. You must keep a good sense of humor about it -- it is nothing personal, while also really sticking to whatever plan you come up with.

There is nothing wrong with a Paladin admonishing cowards in public, hiring bards, etc. As long as you are telling the absolute truth as your Paladin sees it.

There is nothing in the Paladin Code that prevents your PC from following the coward's lead as long as no innocents are in immediate danger. When he fights, you fight. When he hangs back and fires arrows, you hang back. When he flees, you flee.

It will get the other PCs attention right quick. And it will be hilarious.

"Clearly you believe you are in great personal danger. I have decided to stand by your side...as your protector. Right next to you. Where you go, I go. Into battle or away from battle."

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

There is nothing within the paladin/Ilmater/LG description that says you have to hang out with certain people. It is perfectly acceptable to walk away from an NPC after a battle so why is any wrong to do so with a PC?

The answer of course is: 1) players should be playing together & 2) characters should have some bond with each other.

I assume that both the abpve are not applying so you need to publicly & calmly bring this up with DM & player involved. I feel that you need to be brave & do this because I found this to be way I came up with my solution - albeit for slightly differing reason.

However you need to steel yourself for the possible worse-case response, so you need to ask yourself is the status quo unacceptable for you?

 

[Storyteller01]

I may have missed this somewhere in the thread, but what type of character is your friend playing?

What is the players relationship with the guy who hangs back?

Just seems like info provided has a few holes that need to be filled before good advice can be given...

 

[Patman21967]

Maybe I play my Pallys differently, but last time I played one, I found out that the Rogue had been stealing from the group. I stomped across town, kicked in his door, when his rogue buddy tried to attack me, punched him out, grabbed him by his shirt, and dragged him to the inn where we conduct all of our business. Under threat of injury, made him admit to what he was doing, and promise he would never try it again. It was pretty funny OOC, because he had no idea it was coming. I planned it with the GM during the week. Plus, it has been a really long time since I rolled as well as I did. His wife tried to intervene, and I rolled a natural 20 on my intimidate, and made her piss her pants.Really cool.

Point being, don't take it. Don't reward him with treasure. Constantly refer to him as others have said, Coward, Craven, Pu**y, etc...tell everyone who will listen stories of his "bravery". If this doesn't work, next time he doesn't cover you and someone dies, beat the hell out of him, for allowing one of your friends to perish. A Paladin does not have to be kind, merciful and pitifully nice. He can be vengeful at times, and can even do things that aren't "always" right.

Just my take

 

[The Shaman]

I have to be honest, whether the player and the group considers this to be good roleplaying or not, I'd have harsh words for the player - to me, this is just as bad as the rogue who feels the need to steal from the party or the wizard who casts dominate on the other adventurers.

Creating character concepts that are deliberately disruptive don't add anything to the game for me, no matter how well they're played.

 

[S'mon]

If the character is worthless, confront him in-character and tell him to shape up or ship out. Or if the others back him up, you'll have to decide whether your PC leaves the group - in which case you can bring in your own hides-at-the-back or kills-cowards-for-Gruumsh PC next.

 

[Janx]

It would be useful to know what kind of character the other player is playing.

I've got a gnome conjurer that definitely avoids combat. Nothing wrong with playing a coward. But he'll still cast spells and brought in monsters to help the party during the fight. And he has continued to cast spells after the big blue dragon blasted him and thought he was dead. The rest of the players were surprised I did it, most figured I should keep playing dead (3hp left really looks scary when facing a dragon).

But on the other hand, most any sane person should bring the matter up if a fellow party member isn't pulling their weight. It's a matter of personality type in how they'll deal with it. I think my half-orc barbarian would simply do some good parley. (Parley defined by half-orc barbarians as talking to enemy for a while and if they don't agree with you, kill them on the spot).

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Most of the postings here seem to think this should be handled in game, but I think there is something that has to be asked. What does the player want to get out of gaming? Does he enjoy the non-combat portions of the game a lot more than the fights? Does your game have a lot of NPC interaction? Do you get rewarded for it, or only for combat?

The player won't engage his PC in combat even though the party may be in trouble? Is the player afraid of his PC dying, or is he roleplaying a character that is afraid to die? This makes a huge difference as to whether this should be an in-game or out-of-game issue. If it is the player who is afraid, then in-game solutions will have little effect.

Why won't the party go for the character not getting full share of the loot? Are you Lawful Communist? The character must not need any new magic weapons or other combat oriented stuff since they won't probably get used anyway, so don't let him have any - you might as well throw it away (or in Lawful Good mode, donate the items or tithe them) as give it to someone who won't use it.

The player always plays the same character, no matter the campaign? Sounds like he may be a coward in another sense - afraid to try something different.

 

[gizmo33]

My problem is giving him Full Xp for doing nothing.

Note to everyone on this thread: Why are you guys talking about how to play a paladin when focallength's issues are only marginally related to being a paladin and mostly a matter of one PLAYER not appreciating the way another PLAYER plays? I strongly advise AGAINST any kind of passive-agressive "Oh, I'll just have my character say this" kind of stuff when it's really the player who has a problem with the player. I don't think you can objectively do anything in the name of "good roleplaying" when you're having player issues like how another person's character is given experience points. Is there something in the description of Paladin's of Ilmater that talks about how they police other people's experience point awards? (Excuse me for my ignorance about FR) Do paladins go around to villages and tell 1st level commoners what a bunch of wusses they're being for not solving their own dragon problems?

In general - please don't use DnD to solve personal problems.