Looting Dead Comrades

[blargney the second]

What is it with paladins in particular being so intent on acquiring material wealth...?

-blarg

 

[ThirdWizard]

It might an eyebrow raise from me, depending on the characters involved, the campaign, and the setting, but that's about it. In my campaigns, generally though, bodies are interred with their items. This serves a mechanical purpose of keeping the PCs from jumping in wealth due to PC death. The new PC can come in with standard weath and there are no discrepancies.

 

[was]

It depends. I could see it if the gear is used to continue the fight against evil. Kind of like your buddy taking up your rifle to continue the fight after you've fallen. If it's taken to sell or merely to increase the wealth of another character, then I might have a problem with it.

 

[painandgreed]

I woudn't see anything wrong with it unless the dead PC had written a will or otherwise included a family history to his character. I've seen it go both ways and it largely depends on the metagaming aspects on how the players are used to doing it. Most PCs never end up having a family in their background and for that matter, an adventurer party in many ways can be seen as the PCs family. If the PCs were that close to their families to begin with, they'd be back working in the family business. Likewise, most PCs don't have offspring that said stuff would go to and now that they're dead, won't. Overall, I think it's a metagaming issue more than an in game one. If they're really worried about it, ask the dead character's player if he had a family that he would have mentioned and what his character would have mentioned what he wanted done with his gear. I'm sure that in a dangerous career like adventuring, that there were many such mortality discussions around the campfire that would never have gotten roleplayed.

 

[Rykion]

Unless the dead character had family or a will there is nothing wrong with dividing up his stuff. Doesn't really come up much in most D&D games I've played as high level characters get resurrected and low level ones don't have stuff worth taking.

In my games of Shadowrun, looting a dead character's stuff usually turned into a run. First to clean out the bank accounts, and then to find and get past any defenses in the dead runner's home.

 

[Warbringer]

Was it an act by the character, or by the player.

If this was a character act, to allow the party to continue in their quest, avoid leaving behond goods that an enemy could use, or even to remember the fallen hero and make best of a bad situation... FINE

If this was a player act, I want hos stuff... BANG, punishment

 

[pntbllr]

The palidan better get to it before the rogue or there might not be anything to distribute

 

[tonym]

The paladin's distribution of the dead PC's items is the right thing to do because the paladin decided it was. No other PC has that kind of moral authority.

Similarly, if the paladin had decided it was proper to leave the items where they fell, that would be the right thing to do.

When the party is in any murky ethical situations, the paladin decides the correct course and everybody else respects his judgment. That is his job.

Tony M

 

[Psimancer]

Because culturally, there is a common law precedence that says by default, your relatives get your stuff. This is the ways things have been done for thousands of years, and it stands to reason, that if the GM hasn't defined it differently, it works the same in the game world...

Or you could take a militaristic view of the situation, rather than a civil one…

From a military perspective, equipment is never truly owned, but rather borrowed from the unit; when a soldier dies, gear is redistributed by the quartermaster, a payout sent to the family (or some other organisation - church, guild, etc), and (maybe) some of the kit is buried with the character (favourite sword, mundane armour, well-worn boots, etc).

It is very likely that a Paladin will take this outlook; why would one weaken itself in the fight against evil???

 

[Imret]

If there's no family, and given the paladin's background, I'd say redistribution of the dead comrade's possessions - at least those of practical value - is perfectly fair and justified. Things like magic items anyone can use, rations and water, torches, etc., should be used to help his comrades survive...provided that resurrecting or raising the fallen PC is out of the question. There's absolutely nothing in the code to forbid this practice, provided his religious beliefs don't prohibit taking items from the honored dead.

Since the fallen PC is evidently a druid or ranger, any magic items he had that are useless to the rest of the party could be dealt with by the paladin, to the best of his knowledge and honesty, answering a single question.

"What would he do with his items if he were to live for but one more day?"

The paladin, by virtue of his...um...virtue...is uniquely entitled to answer these sorts of questions in the absence of a speak with dead or the chance to return life to him. If the other PC's don't trust the paladin to make a just decision in this situation, the party has much larger problems than what to do with a wand of barkskin.