So yesterday my group began a new campaign set in a homebrew campaign. We had 32 point-buy and free license to use just about anything ever published for 3.5 by WotC. I have a bit of a monk fetish but noticed the Ninja class and came up with an interesting concept.
My character was a young houdini, with ranks in Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Concentration, and Bluff. I planned on taking 2 levels of Ninja and then taking Sorcerer levels all the way.
My other party members were a Scout planning on taking ranger levels and eventually going into Dervish and a Warlock (all humans).
Anyway, the player playing the Scout and I talked beforehand and agreed our characters would be friends, having worked together in the past conning rich merchants and putting on small shows for peasants. My character was CG, but I didn't know what he was playing.
So we end up on a ship guarding an important man. The ship was attacked and the Scout spent the first 7 rounds hastily donning his armor and making moves to get to the deck of the ship. The warlock began in the fight but ducked down after the fight began, he appeared later and helped fight. My ninja, who could not take Weapon Finesse because of the BAB requirement was fighting with a kukri (+0 to hit) the entire fight. The scout finally came on deck and immediately got knocked down by 2 consecutive attacks. The fight continued and we ended up saving him from the burning ship on a skiff, after defeating the goblins (who succeeded in burning their own ship as well as ours).
We shipwrecked on an island with a church who was cutting down the forest to harvest darkwood. My character organized a meeting with the fey who were fighting the church. The scout did not see enough profit (the church had offered us gold to kill the fey) and did not want to participate. The warlock and I broker a plan to attack the church and steal their adamantine axes which they used to cut down the darkwood. I promise the Warlock he can have the magical necklace the fey are offering as a reward. We tell the scout of the plan, but he still thinks its a bad idea and will not commit to helping us unless a good opportunity presents itself.
Anyway, the fight breaks out and it begins badly for us, with the church guards taking the axes they were guarding with them (meaning we would have to kill them to steal the axes, which we hadn't planned on). We had played some games with the guards and knew they all had breastplate, large shields, and longswords (so an AC of 17-18, which is the main reason the scout thought it was a bad idea to fight). An NPC druid cast entangle for our side and wolves and satyrs began attacking the church. The scout, convinced we would lose the fight chose to fight on the side of the church, and attacked one of the wolves (later he said that it would lend credence to us not being involved in the attack)!
The fight continued and eventually the scout changed over to our side, and immediately afterwards I was hit for 9 points of damage, bringing me to -1 and dying. For the next 9 rounds I failed my stabilization rolls. There were 2 guards in my area, but the scout made double moves and didn't really attack them until halfway through my death when I mentioned he could draw his shortbow. During my last round the warlock activated a wand to try and heal me, but failed his Use Magic Device check. The round after the scout declared he could save me now, but it was too late. He bemoaned that it was a matter of 1 round that led to my death.
Now, he had the best attack bonus, the most hit points, the best armor class, the highest movement rate, and the best damage (especially with skirmish damage). Yet he was not willing to stand and tank because the odds were against him. In the final battle both of the guards in my area were wounded and probably would have gone down with 1 hit because of me and the warlock repeatedly hitting them for low amounts of damage. Rather than charging them, he just made a lot of movement trying to lead the guards away.
Before the game we agreed he would be playing the 'tanking' role. I understand its level 1 and crazy stuff happens at low levels but I attacked with +0 more than he did with +3, with a worse AC, hp, etc. He is simply a passive player, which we attribute to his WoW playing. During the fight the dm let it slip that one of us was Neutral Evil (and the warlock had already mentioned he was Chaotic).
Did the scout do anything wrong? Do I have any reason to be mad at his kiting tactics and general lack of aggression? The dm offered to get me raised but I didn't want to continue mostly because I couldn't see any reason for my character to adventure with such a 'friend' who would constantly disagree about quests and have almost directly opposed alignments, not to mention had shown himself to be a traitor (in my character's eyes).
Right, wrong? What would you do?
My character was a young houdini, with ranks in Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Concentration, and Bluff. I planned on taking 2 levels of Ninja and then taking Sorcerer levels all the way.
My other party members were a Scout planning on taking ranger levels and eventually going into Dervish and a Warlock (all humans).
Anyway, the player playing the Scout and I talked beforehand and agreed our characters would be friends, having worked together in the past conning rich merchants and putting on small shows for peasants. My character was CG, but I didn't know what he was playing.
So we end up on a ship guarding an important man. The ship was attacked and the Scout spent the first 7 rounds hastily donning his armor and making moves to get to the deck of the ship. The warlock began in the fight but ducked down after the fight began, he appeared later and helped fight. My ninja, who could not take Weapon Finesse because of the BAB requirement was fighting with a kukri (+0 to hit) the entire fight. The scout finally came on deck and immediately got knocked down by 2 consecutive attacks. The fight continued and we ended up saving him from the burning ship on a skiff, after defeating the goblins (who succeeded in burning their own ship as well as ours).
We shipwrecked on an island with a church who was cutting down the forest to harvest darkwood. My character organized a meeting with the fey who were fighting the church. The scout did not see enough profit (the church had offered us gold to kill the fey) and did not want to participate. The warlock and I broker a plan to attack the church and steal their adamantine axes which they used to cut down the darkwood. I promise the Warlock he can have the magical necklace the fey are offering as a reward. We tell the scout of the plan, but he still thinks its a bad idea and will not commit to helping us unless a good opportunity presents itself.
Anyway, the fight breaks out and it begins badly for us, with the church guards taking the axes they were guarding with them (meaning we would have to kill them to steal the axes, which we hadn't planned on). We had played some games with the guards and knew they all had breastplate, large shields, and longswords (so an AC of 17-18, which is the main reason the scout thought it was a bad idea to fight). An NPC druid cast entangle for our side and wolves and satyrs began attacking the church. The scout, convinced we would lose the fight chose to fight on the side of the church, and attacked one of the wolves (later he said that it would lend credence to us not being involved in the attack)!
The fight continued and eventually the scout changed over to our side, and immediately afterwards I was hit for 9 points of damage, bringing me to -1 and dying. For the next 9 rounds I failed my stabilization rolls. There were 2 guards in my area, but the scout made double moves and didn't really attack them until halfway through my death when I mentioned he could draw his shortbow. During my last round the warlock activated a wand to try and heal me, but failed his Use Magic Device check. The round after the scout declared he could save me now, but it was too late. He bemoaned that it was a matter of 1 round that led to my death.
Now, he had the best attack bonus, the most hit points, the best armor class, the highest movement rate, and the best damage (especially with skirmish damage). Yet he was not willing to stand and tank because the odds were against him. In the final battle both of the guards in my area were wounded and probably would have gone down with 1 hit because of me and the warlock repeatedly hitting them for low amounts of damage. Rather than charging them, he just made a lot of movement trying to lead the guards away.
Before the game we agreed he would be playing the 'tanking' role. I understand its level 1 and crazy stuff happens at low levels but I attacked with +0 more than he did with +3, with a worse AC, hp, etc. He is simply a passive player, which we attribute to his WoW playing. During the fight the dm let it slip that one of us was Neutral Evil (and the warlock had already mentioned he was Chaotic).
Did the scout do anything wrong? Do I have any reason to be mad at his kiting tactics and general lack of aggression? The dm offered to get me raised but I didn't want to continue mostly because I couldn't see any reason for my character to adventure with such a 'friend' who would constantly disagree about quests and have almost directly opposed alignments, not to mention had shown himself to be a traitor (in my character's eyes).
Right, wrong? What would you do?
Last edited: