Touchy situation with my group

[Voadam]

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."

Tell him "Don't give me that crap, this is a group effort, You do not make unilateral decisions for the group. Everybody, I am out of spells, I really want to stop and gain back some healing capacity before we continue on." Hopefully the group will back you up.

He insulted you to your face, don't let him do so. If he is doing it out of character tell him to cut the crap, if he is doing it in character tell him in character to cut the crap.

 

[Voadam]

I've been in the same situation (not that long ago). I haven't read everyone's advice here, but feel one thing needs to be pointed out, if it hasn't already:

"Do not play out your conflicts in game or in character."

This tends to be a sign of passive-aggressiveness. Taking time out of game means you can speak your mind and be honest. Gaming out the conflict in game will likely only confuse the issue.

Also, in the long run gaming out a conflict will likely hurt the game. Once your character stops acting as a character, but instead as a foil to other players or the DM your roleplaying becomes suspect. Its much harder to earn that trust once it has been broken.

I'd agree, putting out a contract on the pet will only initiate a PC on PC feud and make things more antagonistic. These things can quickly degenerate and take down a fun campaign.

 

[Voadam]

-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'.

-

Talk to the other PCs about this darkness tactic then tell the pegasus (apparently it is sentient) that it is getting in the way of everybody else in combat and to knock it off.

Also the next time somebody dies turn to him and demand that the scroll get used.

 

[reapersaurus]

howandwhy99 is exactly right up above ^^^

Zogg, Darkness's advice has been great in this thread. I would echo some of his statements, especially that the wizard is just too high of level, and should be rectified (I think the fairest solution is to knock him down some levels).
The DM screwed up majorly when she allowed the wizard to gain THAT many more levels than everyone else. I don't care what caused that inequity - it doesn't matter if the wizard singlte-handedly slayed a dragon to get that much more XP than everyone else - it never should have been allowed. She should fix it... PRONTO. It's not a world-changing fix, it won't affect the story, it only affects one person if the wizard is bumped down to level 9. That one person will still be more 'powerful' than anyone else, so he should have no problem doing that to help the party.

Don't try to change things in-game.
This is an OOC problem, and should be solved by *gasp* the players talking to the DM. How is the DM and her husband supposed to know how you feel unless you talk to them? I swear, I just don't get how gamers seem unable to communicate when it comes to RPG's. It's really not that hard to bring up something that's bothering you about a game - preferrably get the other players on board, then say, "Hey, DM - you know, I've been unhappy with the discepency in levels, and how we are noticeably weaker than your husband's character. Could you fix that?"
It's not like you're calling them jerks or anything - it's a GAME. There shouldn't be any competition, or ego's involved here.

As for the husband, if ANYONE told me I didn't prepare spells well, while he knew what encounters would be faced, me and him would have a talk. In front of everyone. He caused the problem - not me having a problem with it.

As for the pegasus- what the heck is a baby pegasus going to do for an 11th level wizard?
I'm blanking on how it could be helping him. Have you looked at the pegasus's stats in the MM? Does it go into combat? If so, it should be dead in one round. Full grown they only have 34 HP.

I'd be interested in the rules aspects of your problem - I predict that you are not a powergamer, and there isn't a person in your group that knows the rules WELL. 2 Manticores SHOULD be no challenge for an 11th level wizard.

"(I should note we were travelling with two NPC's of epic level, but still)"

this is a sign (to me) of a big problem.
I'd guess that the DM likes controlling things, and isn't OK with anyone other than her NPC's or her husband's PC dictating the flow of the story.
It's the sign of an inexperienced DM, that has to control the story by having characters under her control that dominate the PC's.

 

[WizarDru]

Here's an idea.....never roleplay with your spouse or significant other....or those who do.

Here's a better one...roleplay with people who can set aside such relationships and remember that they're playing a game. Considering how many husband/wife teams there are on the boards here, I don't think segregation is necessary. Some folks might do it unsciously and some might do it because they're insecure. But quite a few don't do it and have no trouble keeping such issues out of the game.

Just ask Piratecat, Sepulchrave or...oh yeah, Me.

 

[Voadam]

Power discrepancies can work fine as long as the powerful characters are not jerks and everybody has something to do in game.

However for many styles of play power discrepancies can be no fun.

Things a DM can do to even out power discrepancies:

If the discrepancy is from one person showing up to more games and therefore being higher level then the DM can change the xp system to a flat award system instead of CR based so higher levels take longer to advance than lower ones (longer game time, same xp amount in base system) this really changes the advancement rate for everybody though.

The FR xp system awards more for lower level characters and less for higher ones for facing the same CR encounter. It is based off of individual level instead of average party level and works well.

High powered characters can be depowered, energy draining for levels, losing items to sunder, etc., stat drains that are not restored.

Weak characters can be pumped up by in game adding templates lycanthopy adds a lot, for example, and helps combat characters more than straight spellcasters like mr. wizard.

Challenges can be made that are tailored to other members of the party. For instance, golems and rakshasa in 3.0 are immune to spells (in 3.5 conjuration ones now get around this).

Noncombat encounters such as roleplaying and politics are not as dependant upon character power and level.

All of these are suggestions for the DM.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Wow. That sounds like a pretty bad group. I'd chafe at being forced to play a henchman to a powerful Wizard and leave the game. I've never had a good experience when someone is DM'ing and thier spouse is in the game.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I was wondering if the extra Xp came from sessions were you couldn't make it, or sessions were it was just the DM and Hudband continuing with just the two of them and the NPC's?


My trouble couple are famous for that one. We show up and they started several hours before we got there.

 

[Zogg]

Again guys, thanks for the replies. I should let you know I'm a pretty perceptive person and not afraid of confrontation or addressing problems as they come up. Nevertheless, I'm not exactly barraged with alternative gaming options. If I could find another group that is as dynamic as this one (again, the other players are cool and the DM can offer some cool stuff) I'd be there in a heartbeat. Other details, for those interesting:

Immediately after the wizard insulted me (IC) he apologized (IC) twice as he 'felt he had been rude'. His thinking (IC) was that if we stopped to rest more the monsters in the dungeon would be more prepared for the party and we should strike now while we have the element of surprise. I don't really buy this (and I should mention that three characters ended up dying in the following battle), but he ended up looking like a prick in front of everyone.

As for the pegasus...sigh...I won't make a hit on it. It's utility is pretty high as it has been enhanced by god-knows-how-many magics, makes fly by attacks and, as mentioned, loves to use darkness which screws monsters and PCs alike. I should note it's not a nice pegasus - it bites any PCs that try to interact with it. Oh, and it's bite drains levels. One time the party paladin tried to lay on hands on the pegasus after it had been hurt and the player playing the wizard had the pegasus attack the paladin, draining two levels. The wizard rationalized to the paladin, "He thought you were trying to hurt him". Needless to say the paladin was PISSED.

Luckily in our last session we were travelling and the wizard stayed in his "enchanted wagon" analyzing dweomers while we fought most of the monsters that came our way. Yea, he has a magic wagon of speed (and who knows what else), two horses, and recently befriended a female NPC (played by the DM, though she pretty much hands out with the wiz) who appears to have extremely high strength and damage resistance.

So you can see I'm just a lowly dwarf cleric travelling with a munchkin wizard. Perhaps one day I can graduate and become his 1st lieutenant!

 

[Voadam]

Immediately after the wizard insulted me (IC) he apologized (IC) twice as he 'felt he had been rude'. His thinking (IC) was that if we stopped to rest more the monsters in the dungeon would be more prepared for the party and we should strike now while we have the element of surprise. I don't really buy this (and I should mention that three characters ended up dying in the following battle), but he ended up looking like a prick in front of everyone.

Glad to hear that he apologised. That quote was rude and insulting.

As for the pegasus...sigh...I won't make a hit on it. It's utility is pretty high as it has been enhanced by god-knows-how-many magics, makes fly by attacks and, as mentioned, loves to use darkness which screws monsters and PCs alike. I should note it's not a nice pegasus - it bites any PCs that try to interact with it. Oh, and it's bite drains levels. One time the party paladin tried to lay on hands on the pegasus after it had been hurt and the player playing the wizard had the pegasus attack the paladin, draining two levels. The wizard rationalized to the paladin, "He thought you were trying to hurt him". Needless to say the paladin was PISSED.

Ask the paladin what kinds of things energy drain and wonder whether the pegasus is Evil.

The paladin's response should have been to draw his sword upon being energy drained by a magical horse.

The explanation the wizard gave sounds like complete bunk.