Touchy situation with my group

[Zogg]

Hopefully nobody in my group will see this, otherwise I may find myself disinvited....but hopefully some of you out there can offer some advice with the current situation:

-All in all, my group is very cool. Everyone is mature, friendly and focused. There are usually anywhere between 4-7 people that attend. Here's where the problem lies....

-The DM is the wife of one of the players. The player in question (the husband) is playing a disgustingly powerful, rich wizard who waltzes through every session utterly destroying every monster with his spells & possessions, one of which happens to be a baby pegasus with a collar of mind control. Often this pegasus will cast darkness (it has blindsight) which inhibits the other party members from effectively participating in battle. He has taken a level of cleric in order to use curative wands and has admitted to having a scroll of 'true resurrection'.

-In order to compensate for the wizards immense power, the party (APL 7) often has some seriously powerful monsters thrown it's way. One session ago my 6th level cleric was beheaded by a demon with a vorpal sword (I should note we were travelling with two NPC's of epic level, but still) as were two other party members. Hilarious moments included the times when our DM asked our paladin, "Can you beat a grapple check of 49?" or "Does a 35 hit?"

-The husband helps the DM, his wife, design creatures to throw at the party. When I found out and mildly protested, they responded by saying, "But he doesn't know where they are placed in the dungeon." This wouldn't have been such an issue, except that after my cleric had used all his spells and I wanted to rest in order to help prepare spells that would assist the party, the wizard told me, "You can't help anyone. And you know why? Because you didn't prepare your spells wisely. No. We will go on." This coming from the guy who helped the DM - his wife - design the session!!

So those are the facts to date. I rolled a new character after my last one died and it's a nuetral cleric of Grumbar. Since Grumbar is the God of the earth element (opposed to the air), I was thinking my PC would put a hit out on his pegasus (since it has wings and often takes to the air) in order to 1) take the wizard down a peg and 2) teach him that winged creatures are inferior to creatures of the earth. This is a long term goal - I would do this by hiring a thief to shoot an arrow of greater slaying at the creature, then using a potion of invisibility to get away.

Obviously the above idea is somewhat fueled by my OOC issues with the fact that the DM has a bias in favor of her husband's PC. In fact, I doubt I could even pull it off without her telling him as I know she tells him EVERYTHING about our PCs...

But another part of me reminds myself that I am still having fun. I am not jealous of the wizard PC - I'm not a powergamer - I just find myself annoyed at the abundantly clear difference in power between the wizard and our PCs (I would say everyone else has a very _normal_ PC with _normal_ wealth - mainly because they often die and have to either pay for resurrection or roll up a new character).

Sorry for the long post - I wanted to give as much detail as possible to be fair. Should I just swallow my pride and recognize that the DM is forever going to be biased towards her hubby? I have subtley brought up the point to the DM in the past that the wizard is overpowered - and it wasn't really recognized as an issue. And it's not the end of the world - I don't want to play a communist game of DnD or anything - but some semblance of balance would be appreciated.

 

[Darkness]

What level is the wizard hubbie?

Also, how often does the presence of the other PCs make a difference in an encounter's outcome, compared to the uber-wizard going it alone?

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I wouldn't kill the pegasus. That can only cause issues. Bad ones. Not like the wonderfully witty kind you get with Time or People.

*ahem* Anyway, before I got off topic...

If I were you I'd perhaps make a more city-dwelling role playing character. DMs tend to make adventures designed for characters, so if your character focusses heavily on Diplomacy or other Role Playing related things, then you'll likely find more RP oppurtunity which is a field where you won't be completely outclassed by the wealthy magister.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Ouch.

Not a nice situation.

Try this, its all I can think of:

Ms. DM. I like your game, the plot is pretty cool, and I feel like I'm really getting into it. But I kind of feel like a fifth wheel. Your husband's character is slick, but he pretty much dominates every situation. I feel like a spectator, not a player. I'd like to do something about that and I'm open to suggestions.


... hope that helps.

 

[Zogg]

The wizard is high enough level to cast "Waves of Fatigue" twice - which probably makes him 11th.

As for Moe's suggestion - my last PC was pretty much what you describe. I had a cleric of Sune5/bard 1 with an 18 charisma and lots of Diplomacy. Our sessions don't seem to incorporate too much in the way of city politicking and NPC conversations - or at least when we do I didn't see any result of having a high Dip.

I forgot to add that at times the husband/wizard will help his wife the DM kill us off - for instance in the last session he had her move a monster to gain a flanking bonus after she had already rolled to hit. I was like, "what tha?" I should note that he DMs his own game and is known for being a complete butcher.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I feal your pain, my group is in a simmilar situation, only i dare say worse. In my case the husband is the DM and the wife is the problem player. I say it's worse because he tells her everything he's going to do, that way she can help weed out the "Bad ideas". If he's running a mod it's even worse because she'll sit home all day and read it. OK, pretty bad right? It's worse, her characters are pretty much immune to death. The DM would never kill one, unless she told him it was ok. All her character are in major possistions of power or realted to people in major possitions of power. Finally the ultimate kick in the junk, she doesn't keep track of HP, XP, Treasure, ammo, spells used, ect. She also rarely has a character sheet and just randomly decides if any given roll is a success. On one particularly fun night she announced, after being unable to find her sheet, "It doesn't matter, the rules don't apply to me anyway, TEE HEE!" We've afften thought about retaliation in game, but at the end of the day it'd just cause more problems. The only reason we stick around is because we've been Friends with the DM for many years, long before he meet his wife.

I guess the moral of the story is it can always be worse. You have to decide if it's worth dealing with or if you're better off just moving on.

 

[blackshirt5]

Since I don't see Tom Cashel around anywhere, I'll say it:

Kick him in the junk.

And my own bit of input:
Go all ECW on the DM; ask if you can play an Oathsworn from AU, then start ripping up the scenery and describe the resulting carnage(read their powers, one of them is the ability to use anything as a ranged weapon) and try to hit and kill the wizard PC with it; justify it in game as "I have sworn to you from your artificial means of survival!". Then, TAKE HIS STUFF.

 

[Zogg]

On one particularly fun night she announced, after being unable to find her sheet, "It doesn't matter, the rules don't apply to me anyway, TEE HEE!"

Oh. Dear.

Thanks for putting things in perspective. I would have major issues with that group, no doubt. As I've said it's not the end of the world - I still get jazzed before every session and the DM knows her stuff. My fear is that the higher we get in level the worse it's going to get....I'm expecting the wizard to pull out a "time stop" spell any day now.

 

[Angcuru]

THAT's the blackshirt5 I know.

 

[blackshirt5]

yeah buddy; I'm out of my funk and back on my game, with a fresh new diet of junk-kicking and ECW inspired Mayhem.

Now, where's Bartlett? I want to bring Lugh into his game and screw it up on him.