Carebear2326
First Post
I would like some advice. I am currently playing in a campaign with a dysfunctional party. We have an elven bard (my character), an elven sorceress, a dwarf barbarian, a human cleric, an extremely taciturn human monk, and a halfling pirate (fighter/rogue). The pirate seems to be the only player in the group with a decent grasp of tactics, but his advice is constantly being ignored because the player is playing up the halfling's 6 charisma to the hilt--very egotistical, and absolutely tactless. We are trying to rid a ruined keep of the large group of orcs (and an ogre and at least one divine spellcaster) that live there. Our first attempt, against the wishes of the pirate, was a frontal assault on the keep. We managed to escape with only one unconscious character, after having killed no orcs and given away the element of surprise. The halfling suggested setting up an ambush for the orc raiding party that we expected to retaliate against the town. The party actually agreed to try this idea, but en route to our chosen ambush point, the halfling, hidden in the woods and scouting ahead, spotted an orc ambush already in place. He warned us without giving away his position, but the rest of the party ignored his warning and blundered right into the ambush. A near-total party kill would have resulted if the pirate hadn't felt obligated to pay his debt to the party (the campaign begun with us rescuing him from a hanging), so instead of remaining safely hidden and watching us die, he sneak attacked two orcs and used the nicest two healing potions (two cure moderates) in his private stash to save the cleric and dwarf. After this, I tried (as the high-charisma diplomatic bard) to reconcile the party to the halfling, but they refused to even acknowledge his role in saving the party, and of course his egotistical little pirate got quite offended at what he perceived as severe ingratitude. So after taking a couple of weeks off for Halloween parties, we're resuming our weekly game tonight, still needing to deal with the orcs in the keep (though there are six fewer now). My problem is that I, from the perspective of both a player and a character, am getting frustrated with the party's lack of unity and lack of planning, and for the first time in my three years of gaming, I'm actually dreading tonight's game. Any advice you can provide on what I can do to enjoy the game despite the party's dysfunctional nature would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
In DM'ing my group, I always tell them, if they don't use tactics, then they will all die. Period. Now, even as the player, you, as the character, can step up and be the leader by demanding that the other characters pay attention and get with the program, or they will die. Your character doesn't have to go along with their stupid frontal attacks, and you can say this is what I think we should do, and do it; if they don't follow, you can still go off and do what you want, or at least not accompany them into a stupid death, and when they get slaughtered, it won't be because you weren't there, it will be because they were stupid and deserved to die!
