Problems at the gaming table.

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

Ok bob here is my suggestion. I have quiet a bit of xp with party conflict. Some of it is because sometimes we don't get along (personally) sometimes it's alignment. sometimes it's class (imagine a party with a paladin like character, a cleric of miskal, and a evil wizard). I'm sure you get the picture. Anyway here is how I recomend you try and handle it.

First I must ask if the wizard character is new to the group. You said that he was a fighter/monk and then took levels as paladin.

If he is a new character to the party then i would ask him, as some one above put it, what right he has to the ring. If you are an adventure WHY would you give up powerful magices to new guy. if his response is still that he can make more use of it say yes you probebly can but the bard MUST be compensated. If the wizard can make magic items suggest he make something specialized for the bard. a fair or trade in favor of the bard. More flies with honey, get it.

My suggestion to the bard would be try some paloticing. glad hand the rest of the group. be the charismatic bard and win the rest of the party over. even work on the wizard. pretend that the tension doesn't exist, but have it in mind if the wizards anounces that he has some new undead creation spell and later in the night asks the bard "would it be alright if I cast a spell on you?"

The big thing to remember. For everyone to remember is that you want to have fun. It's the bards item and that's it. that's the way of things. my group has split and actually had battles with each other. once everything is resolved we trudge on.

 

[Kaji]

Well, it sounds like your wizard is being foolish, but sometimes that's the way it goes. As far as being worried about later teamwork, I guess there are a couple of different ways to handle it, depending on the personaliites involved.

1. Talk to the wizard and tell him to chill out and buy the ring.
2. Talk to the Bard and advise him to give the ring to the wizard.
3. Advise some of the other players quietly that this lack of harmony will cause great trouble in the future, and see if they are willing to intervene.
4. Ignore it. When the party has trouble later, the party should be concerned about this lack of harmony and take care of it themselves.

Personally, I'd let them work it out themselves. If they are sent packing without success because your wizard is being dense, so be it. they'll figure it out.

 

[jmucchiello]

Well, I would get together with the other players and suggest to the DM that the Wizard's player has to go. But if you need to keep him around and party unity is so highly valued: pool money together with the other players and pay the Bard for the Ring and then give the Ring to the Wizard.

 

[Tsyr]

Well, I would get together with the other players and suggest to the DM that the Wizard's player has to go. But if you need to keep him around and party unity is so highly valued: pool money together with the other players and pay the Bard for the Ring and then give the Ring to the Wizard.

I dunno... if I was the bard, I sure wouldn't be inclined to part with the ring after all that, for any price. At least, short of the wizard's soul, or something...

 

[hammymchamham]

Originally posted by Bob5th
Personally I hope the guy ends up moving back where he came from and leaves the group. Gaming was better without him.

I know how you feel. We recently lost a player, and its better without him. Another guy left before him, and hopefully will come back (he left due to time AND the other player, so hopefully will have the time soon).

 

[ced1106]

k. Rant ahead. Take with a dose of salt!

We're playing Dungeons and Dragons, not Catacombs and Communists. **Especially** if the Wizard and Bard aren't Lawful Efficient, they can keep any darn thing they want. People act like this in "real life". Why not in a game?

In "real life", if you had this perso n in some business or volunteer project, you'd have to weigh kicking him out of your group vs. what contribution he **does** make to your team. Can your party live without the wizard? Can he be replaced? If not, you have to make a deal with him and take care of it yourself.

I'll also ask why does the wizard have to cast spells for free while paying for the ring? If you didn't have him around, you'd be paying up the wazoo for scrolls and potions. How about all you other PCs who have been receiving these spells and items **for free** dig into your pockets and pony up the Bard's asking price? If this ring benefits the **entire** party, why aren't you bearing some of the cost?

And keep the GM out of it. He's there to have fun, not play marriage counselor.

End rant.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Redleg06]

Some good points, but is the player just being a pain in the a$$ or is he really making the aforementioned points Cedric the Entertainer just made?

Is he playing his alignment? Is he playing consistantly for his character?

Once you can answer these questions, or other, similiar ones, you have to decide whether to vote him off the island or not. Sometimes that helps, other times it makes for Gamer Politics, which are IMHO the most pathetic kind of politics period.

 

[SurgicalSteel]

The problem is that the party wizard refuses to make items for a certain player.

Does that character (<== NOTE character, not player) have an obligation to make magic items for anyone?

Magic items cost...
1) feats
2) XP
3) money

Heck, you are lucky that he makes magic items for anyone besides himself.
He is PERMANENTLY losing XP for you.

He'll make items left and right for everyone else.
<snip>
The Bard is likely still willing to sale or trade the ring to the Wizard at a fair price but the Wizard still wants it at no charge.

Let me put it this way:

If the bard won't give a magic item to the wizard for nothing, then why should the wizard give a magic item to the bard for nothing?

Thats pretty hypocritical if you ask me.


The truth is, things should never have gotten to this point in the first place.
By now, there is probably so much resentment that unless a significant and genuine effort at reconciliation is made, the situation is essentially unsalvageable.

 

[Bagpuss]

I'm with SurgicalSteel on this is seems a prefectly in character reaction to take. Perhaps the Bard would exchange the ring for an item the wizard makes for him, that would be one possible compromise, but the wizard has no obligation to give the Bard anything and visa versa.

The best parties I've been in have always had some personality conflicts among the characters.

 

[Kilmore]

Okay then, why does the Fighter HAVE to bash the goblins, or the Rogue HAVE to pick the locks and find the traps without the other characters paying them directly for it? Certainly those are more dangerous jobs in general than standing in the back and throwing spells.

A wizard makes items and casts spells because that's what a wizard does.

---"The wizard would go as far as to watch the Bard get killed
and then take then ring from his dead body."---

Okay... THAT's the part I have a big problem with. If he was in my group, and I could see this for myself, I would consider the wizard completely untrustworthy, especially if I was the Bard. He'd be dead to me. Just think of going to work with someone who wouldn't mind seeing you dead so he can take your car.

Brrrr...