We left off our last session with the druid accidentally killing a puppet companion the cleric had, and the cleric walking up mid combat and attacking the druid. The cleric's player is planning to take it further and continue in their fight next session, wanting to get full revenge for his puppet.
I, a hexblade, plan on just trying to continue fighting the rat king's we're up against while they do this, and the rat king's are currently fully focusing down the druid. I think the druid's gonna die.
I've been paid to protect the cleric, but I'm gonna do what I can to keep out of pvp.
Opinions on the situation? I find it kinda funny, but don't wanna see either of their characters be lost.
We left off our last session with the druid accidentally killing a puppet companion the cleric had, and the cleric walking up mid combat and attacking the druid. The cleric's player is planning to take it further and continue in their fight next session, wanting to get full revenge for his puppet. I, a hexblade, plan on just trying to continue fighting the rat king's we're up against while they do this, and the rat king's are currently fully focusing down the druid. I think the druid's gonna die. I've been paid to protect the cleric, but I'm gonna do what I can to keep out of pvp. Opinions on the situation? I find it kinda funny, but don't wanna see either of their characters be lost.
The Cleric has a puppet? I would assume they were the Puppeteer Class to have a puppet (D&D Supplement on DMsGuild).
Why would the cleric - stop the fight with the Rat King - and attack the Druid? Knowing the Rat King is, in turn, eventually going after the Cleric as well?
What is the Cleric's alignment? If the puppet (whatever that is) was killed on accident - you'd think they'd discuss it post battle.
"That puppet cost me 30 gold!"
"My mistake. It got in the way of the area of effect spell. Allow me to pay you back over time."
Or something.
Character on character combat, over something trivial... seems, odd to me. Especially in the middle of combat. And even more so when it was an accident (puppet I assume got in the AOE spell area - and that's how the Druid killed it?)
Puppet was just something the DM made up to sell to him. Just a tiny sentient wooden companion. He bought it from some merchant a while ago. Me, the druid, and a rogue just joined.
Also, yes, the puppet was caught in an aoe, can't remember the name of the spell.
To be honest, I don't think the cleric should react so extremely, but he was attached to them as a character.
The gist is, how this sorta stuff's handling should be determined ideally at Session 0. PvP can sink a table. There's ways to handle character conflict without rolling for initiative, but if you're going to do it, do it right. It's also super important for players to make clear a character is upset with a character and not a player upset with a player, if it's the latter, that air needs to be cleared before the game continues.
In this instance it's frankly beyond unwise for a character to disrupt a boss battle to deal with a grievance against another character member. If I were the DM we'd time out and talk about the massive liability the character's action creates for the encounter, a battle designed for the party working as a cooperative force, and likely retcon the drama with maybe the character being told to secure his personal grievances and focus on the real fight. If he wants to mutter some edgelordy "this isn't over" as part of the resolution, I'd grant them that. Maybe even a "this ends now" moment sometime after the session has properly ended and its time to divide up the loot.
Puppet was just something the DM made up to sell to him. Just a tiny sentient wooden companion. He bought it from some merchant a while ago. Me, the druid, and a rogue just joined. Also, yes, the puppet was caught in an aoe, can't remember the name of the spell. To be honest, I don't think the cleric should react so extremely, but he was attached to them as a character.
So - if it's a tiny wooden sentient companion - the DM has the answer in front of them if they're wise.
They could send a note to the Druid that says, "You know some old magic trick to resurrecting the puppet. You just need to find a treant that is willing to break off a branch of itself to give to you willingly."
Then boom - side quest. Party needs to find this treant. When they do the treant says, "To prove your worth, I need you to ____________" and boom. Do the quest for the treant. The treant gives you a branch. You weave it and do some old ritual - and the puppet is revived.
Puppet was just something the DM made up to sell to him. Just a tiny sentient wooden companion. He bought it from some merchant a while ago. Me, the druid, and a rogue just joined. Also, yes, the puppet was caught in an aoe, can't remember the name of the spell. To be honest, I don't think the cleric should react so extremely, but he was attached to them as a character.
So - if it's a tiny wooden sentient companion - the DM has the answer in front of them if they're wise.
They could send a note to the Druid that says, "You know some old magic trick to resurrecting the puppet. You just need to find a treant that is willing to break off a branch of itself to give to you willingly."
Then boom - side quest. Party needs to find this treant. When they do the treant says, "To prove your worth, I need you to ____________" and boom. Do the quest for the treant. The treant gives you a branch. You weave it and do some old ritual - and the puppet is revived.
This is awesome, you could even spotlight the adversarial characters and use tropes from action buddy comedy to cement their new found friendship at the end.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Since Warlocks are Charisma classes, it probably wouldn’t hurt to spend a quick moment in combat doing an intimidate or persuasion check (whichever is higher—deception isn’t the most applicable here) to tell your party members “knock it off, let’s kill the scary thing first, then we can talk.” That night cost you a bonus action or action in combat (depending on how DM rules), but probably is worth it to get the others to try and fall in line without having to get involved in combat yourself.
I’ll be honest, there are times PvP can be fine and fun—this just seems like a pretty dumb reason to engage in PvP and like the Cleric was fishing for an excuse to attack the Druid. Based on the pretty flimsy justification for going after someone who is also being targeted by the NPCs, I expect there might be something more going on at a player level.
Since Warlocks are Charisma classes, it probably wouldn’t hurt to spend a quick moment in combat doing an intimidate or persuasion check (whichever is higher—deception isn’t the most applicable here) to tell your party members “knock it off, let’s kill the scary thing first, then we can talk.” That night cost you a bonus action or action in combat (depending on how DM rules), but probably is worth it to get the others to try and fall in line without having to get involved in combat yourself.
I’ll be honest, there are times PvP can be fine and fun—this just seems like a pretty dumb reason to engage in PvP and like the Cleric was fishing for an excuse to attack the Druid. Based on the pretty flimsy justification for going after someone who is also being targeted by the NPCs, I expect there might be something more going on at a player level.
I'll definitely give convincing them a shot. I don't wanna see the party really fall apart, at least not during this fight.
And for the second thing, I do know the druid's player kinda put a bad taste in the mouth of the cleric's player by making a very much joke character.
And for the second thing, I do know the druid's player kinda put a bad taste in the mouth of the cleric's player by making a very much joke character.
I figured it might be something like that - overreactions generally arise at the player level, not the character level. That is something that will have to be addressed between the players - preferably before next session. Ideally, the dungeon master will begin that conversation—they have the most authority at the table and thus tend to be in the best situation to try and mediate disputes between players.
You probably want to talk with your DM about your suspicions that the Cleric’s player is angry at the Druid’s, and that maybe some divine DM intervention is necessary.
Unless your table is extremely good at separating themselves from their characters, PvP is best avoided. If they can truly not let in-game conflict translate to Out-of-Game conflict then it isn’t so bad. My table can have characters have beef with each other and not take it personally because we’ve all been IRL friends for decades and don’t take things too seriously. Not all tables can do that.
PVP is a death knell for most tables, and certainly for sessions unless all players are cool.
I would not be so chill.
I do think that while the cleric is overreacting, it is at least in character, and someone should check on how that deity they serve feels about this because attacking a nature serving Druid could result in a huge issue for them. I mean, if the Druid follows Aphrodite and the Cleric is a priest of Venus, well, that will not go well for either of them.
I hope your DM has some good moderation skills. That is a bad scene.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Why not talk to your DM and suggest that the puppet is not dead but instead in death saving throws, and then in character suggest that the party try to heal/stabilize it? Either that or if mending is cast on it within an hour, it can be restored?
We left off our last session with the druid accidentally killing a puppet companion the cleric had, and the cleric walking up mid combat and attacking the druid. The cleric's player is planning to take it further and continue in their fight next session, wanting to get full revenge for his puppet.
I, a hexblade, plan on just trying to continue fighting the rat king's we're up against while they do this, and the rat king's are currently fully focusing down the druid. I think the druid's gonna die.
I've been paid to protect the cleric, but I'm gonna do what I can to keep out of pvp.
Opinions on the situation? I find it kinda funny, but don't wanna see either of their characters be lost.
The Cleric has a puppet? I would assume they were the Puppeteer Class to have a puppet (D&D Supplement on DMsGuild).
Why would the cleric - stop the fight with the Rat King - and attack the Druid? Knowing the Rat King is, in turn, eventually going after the Cleric as well?
What is the Cleric's alignment? If the puppet (whatever that is) was killed on accident - you'd think they'd discuss it post battle.
"That puppet cost me 30 gold!"
"My mistake. It got in the way of the area of effect spell. Allow me to pay you back over time."
Or something.
Character on character combat, over something trivial... seems, odd to me. Especially in the middle of combat. And even more so when it was an accident (puppet I assume got in the AOE spell area - and that's how the Druid killed it?)
Side Note - So confused about the puppet...
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Puppet was just something the DM made up to sell to him. Just a tiny sentient wooden companion. He bought it from some merchant a while ago. Me, the druid, and a rogue just joined.
Also, yes, the puppet was caught in an aoe, can't remember the name of the spell.
To be honest, I don't think the cleric should react so extremely, but he was attached to them as a character.
Timely video
The gist is, how this sorta stuff's handling should be determined ideally at Session 0. PvP can sink a table. There's ways to handle character conflict without rolling for initiative, but if you're going to do it, do it right. It's also super important for players to make clear a character is upset with a character and not a player upset with a player, if it's the latter, that air needs to be cleared before the game continues.
In this instance it's frankly beyond unwise for a character to disrupt a boss battle to deal with a grievance against another character member. If I were the DM we'd time out and talk about the massive liability the character's action creates for the encounter, a battle designed for the party working as a cooperative force, and likely retcon the drama with maybe the character being told to secure his personal grievances and focus on the real fight. If he wants to mutter some edgelordy "this isn't over" as part of the resolution, I'd grant them that. Maybe even a "this ends now" moment sometime after the session has properly ended and its time to divide up the loot.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So - if it's a tiny wooden sentient companion - the DM has the answer in front of them if they're wise.
They could send a note to the Druid that says, "You know some old magic trick to resurrecting the puppet. You just need to find a treant that is willing to break off a branch of itself to give to you willingly."
Then boom - side quest. Party needs to find this treant. When they do the treant says, "To prove your worth, I need you to ____________" and boom. Do the quest for the treant. The treant gives you a branch. You weave it and do some old ritual - and the puppet is revived.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
This is awesome, you could even spotlight the adversarial characters and use tropes from action buddy comedy to cement their new found friendship at the end.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Since Warlocks are Charisma classes, it probably wouldn’t hurt to spend a quick moment in combat doing an intimidate or persuasion check (whichever is higher—deception isn’t the most applicable here) to tell your party members “knock it off, let’s kill the scary thing first, then we can talk.” That night cost you a bonus action or action in combat (depending on how DM rules), but probably is worth it to get the others to try and fall in line without having to get involved in combat yourself.
I’ll be honest, there are times PvP can be fine and fun—this just seems like a pretty dumb reason to engage in PvP and like the Cleric was fishing for an excuse to attack the Druid. Based on the pretty flimsy justification for going after someone who is also being targeted by the NPCs, I expect there might be something more going on at a player level.
I'll definitely give convincing them a shot. I don't wanna see the party really fall apart, at least not during this fight.
And for the second thing, I do know the druid's player kinda put a bad taste in the mouth of the cleric's player by making a very much joke character.
I figured it might be something like that - overreactions generally arise at the player level, not the character level. That is something that will have to be addressed between the players - preferably before next session. Ideally, the dungeon master will begin that conversation—they have the most authority at the table and thus tend to be in the best situation to try and mediate disputes between players.
You probably want to talk with your DM about your suspicions that the Cleric’s player is angry at the Druid’s, and that maybe some divine DM intervention is necessary.
Unless your table is extremely good at separating themselves from their characters, PvP is best avoided. If they can truly not let in-game conflict translate to Out-of-Game conflict then it isn’t so bad. My table can have characters have beef with each other and not take it personally because we’ve all been IRL friends for decades and don’t take things too seriously. Not all tables can do that.
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PVP is a death knell for most tables, and certainly for sessions unless all players are cool.
I would not be so chill.
I do think that while the cleric is overreacting, it is at least in character, and someone should check on how that deity they serve feels about this because attacking a nature serving Druid could result in a huge issue for them. I mean, if the Druid follows Aphrodite and the Cleric is a priest of Venus, well, that will not go well for either of them.
I hope your DM has some good moderation skills. That is a bad scene.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Why not talk to your DM and suggest that the puppet is not dead but instead in death saving throws, and then in character suggest that the party try to heal/stabilize it? Either that or if mending is cast on it within an hour, it can be restored?
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting