Is this fair?

[Gargoyle]

Good advice!

Don't worry, I am not planning to passive-aggressively undermine my friends to get "revenge". I am sure this'll turn out to be a joke (more I think about it, more I think its likely) or I'll just run with it. Its just a character. I am really mostly interested in seeing what people have to say about this kind of situation. Some comments are funny, some helpful, and all are fun to read. I particularly liked the first response (by Crothian).

Ozmar the Manly

That's probably the best attitude to have; you'll probably find a way to have fun with it by being so mature.

I do hope they're just joking with you though. I would hate to think that your buddies would change your character that way just because you left early once.

 

[GuardianLurker]

If it's a joke, then it's in bad taste. It may be a common joke, but it's still in bad taste.

If it's real, then you've got a very big problem, as the character belongs to you, not the GM or other players. Honestly, if this happened to me for real, I'd walk. Enough grief enters my life that I don't need to open the door for it.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I was going to say something like "Your DM must be crazy! I'd never let that happen in my game!"

Then I read a little more, and I developed a funny feeling that it was in fact a joke.

Call it a hunch.

 

[Aeric]

That's ridiculous! Not only was a major character-altering decision left in the hands of another player, but the decision made was so far from the character's personality as to be completely against type. It sounds like the group decided to punish you for leaving early. If I were you, I would demand a do-over.

 

[Nyeshet]

No offense intended, but you did hand your character over to another player when you left. That grants them the right to run it as they see fit (although I admit this seems to be an extreme example, and I believe it went against the alignment of your character). Hopefully this is a joke, as you suspect. If this is not a joke, and if you are upset with the situation, consider the following:

Are you under a magical compulsion to remain LG or a Paladin? Is it one level added to your current levels as a Dread Necromancer? One possibility, if you are not under a geas type effect, is to simply revert to your prior alignment. You lose your Paladin level benefits, but otherwise you can continue as before. Perhaps this level of Paladin can be traded in for a level of Blackguard or otherwise converted to your benefit?

If you have lost all your levels and had them replaced with Paladin levels you can always remove your character from play. This can mean anything from playing the stereotypical 'charge at anything evil' till you take on a challenge too great and die, to openly killing off your character, to retiring your character from play (so that he can lead a life of contemplation and strive to redeem himself of past sins while a Dread Necromancer, etc). Once out of play simply create a new character - a Dread Necromancer, of course. Most DMs will not (for their own peace of mind) have extreme differences in level between characters - such that the DM will likely allow you to create your character not at level 1, but instead at perhaps a level or two beneath the current party. You will catch up - eventually (or even faster if the DM allows you your own personal side quests to gain some token xp now and then, eventually allowing you to reach the party's level).

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Normally in such situations (ie: a player leaves while others play on), I tend to have the (missing) character in the background. If the party is in a location where they can (more or less) safely split up for a while (such as a town or city, etc) I state the character has left the group for some personal reason for a while. When the player returns the character returns, having just caught up with them. This presumes the group is still in a more or less safe location, of course.

If they are in a cavern, dungeon, etc, then I tend to keep the character in the background of the group - not really doing anything unless only they can do it, in which case I roll for the character (such as a rogue searching for traps or an elf rolling to notice a hidden passage). If the party dies then the character likely also dies - as determined by the situation and group itself (ie: did the situation allow for any possibility for escape? would the rest of the group consider it fair to allow for that character to have escaped in that situation when they did not?). If the situation allows for it, the fact that I'm willing to consider hand-waving whether or not the (potentially) escaping character happened to have any small but important letters, scrolls, items, etc the group was carrying often means the rest of the group has little trouble with allowing the character to live. If nothing else, the character now has an interesting back ground story to add to the rest of the (new) characters of the party. Perhaps he is intending to complete a journey or mission for the party, and hires or otherwise encourages the other (new) party members to accompany him.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I voted not fair but it was a close call. I still think it is hilarious!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Tiberius]

One word: blackguard.

If this turns out not to be a hoax, I'd say some nocturnal beatings were in order (if I were the sort of person to advocate nocturnal beatings).

I'd be curious to know the reasons why the rest of the group thought this act would be in keeping with the character.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Paladidn't

When asking how the rest of the session went, I was informed that the PCs had to make a sacrifice, and that my character volunteered, gave up his worldly possessions, and converted to paladin.

Kill all the other PC's--just to see how the DM and other players react. Hey, even a Paladin can "snap."

 

[PatrickLawinger]

Well, I am with Treebore on this. As a joke, okay, move on. Let's just say nobody I play with (or would play with) would ever do something like this.

Not that I haven't done mean things before, the meanest went something like this:

Group was playing, one guy had to leave, which was fine with us (I have a background policy like many others-though characters can die), and left his character with someone else. About 15 minutes later we got a call that a friend to several of us had car problems. Several guys left their sheets and ran off to go help her.

Well, the players left (I was DM) hit a point that there would be combat and we all decided to hold off (by this point we were missing 4 players). We ended up playing "21," a drinking game where you count up the "1's" while rolling a few d6's and passing them around the table. Now a bit older, we weren't really playing "hardcore" but just to pass the time, laugh, and talk. Yeah, we drank too, both guys rides just left, we started playing in the afternoon and it was only early evening. The next day someone emails "hey, what happened?" and the replies went like this:

Player 1: "Dude, I am SO sorry, really, totally sorry, SO SORRY that Pat has to tell you about it. I just can't say it"

Player 2: "Man, we haven't seen that many 1's since college (inside joke, refers to a party-even longer story than this one), but I'll tell you, we did our best to hold our end up!"

Player 3 (first player to leave): "Damn! Give, what really happened?"

Player 1: "Dude, I can't even say, Pat has to tell you, it is his damn fault." (see below)

Player 4 (left with P5 and P6): "Blast! You guys TPK'd without ME! BASTARDS! I'll tell XXX and XXXX to bring the BU's" (P5 and P6 generally didn't email until the day before the game: BU's-I ask players to have a back-up one level lower: another aside-P4 has the worst dice luck in the entire world, no, really)

I didn't answer emails the whole week, the guys that weren't there brought their back-up characters. As for what was really my fault, P1 and I are good friends, we drank enough margaritas that he decided to call his wife to come pick him up. When they found out what the 1's really were, they laughed like hell and ordered me to make margaritas for everyone (yeah, we ended up playing a board game that afternoon). Rumor has it, I make good margaritas, I am okay with them, but still experimenting. Oddly, I always have volunteers for the new experiments.

Has this gone far enough off track now?

They have to be pulling your chain, I have never played with anyone that would change your character like that withour your input.

Patrick, the thread derailer, thread killer, and, well, um, margarita maker I suppose ...

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Assuming there is not a joke going on, I wouldn't allow it as a DM or accept it as a player. Noone else gets that much control over a PC, hey, even the DM wouldn't get that much control over a PC even if I dominated him.

Totally out there.

BTW, no vote as none of the options appealed.