Interparty Fighting.

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Okay, here's the background story. It's a tad long...

Our party consists of two clerics and a ranger. One cleric is of Ehlonna, the ranger is a former follower of Ehlonna, but due to bad roleplaying the DM took away his spellcasting, and the ranger has sworn off gods from then on. My character is a Cleric of Corellon. The ranger forced an amulet of Gruumsh around my neck a few sessions ago, and has been declaring (jokingly) his allegiance to Gruumsh ever since. (Like, 10 times a session. This is what caused his spells to be disabled.) My character ignored him at first, but gave him a warning or two eventually.

Enter last night's session. The Ranger (with speedboots or whatever makes him go 240 ft per round on a full run) runs around (fullspeed) on a uneven surface and fails his balance check badly. He skids on for about a 100 feet, getting pretty bad damage. (Hey at such high speeds, you get hurt easily. He was going about 50 km/h according to calculations, so... ) He decides to curse out loudly into the silent night, and says he'll roll for cursing a random god to hell.

The roll brings up Corellon. At this point I judged that my character was pretty sick of the ranger constantly badgering his faith, and cast Hold Person on him. (It was that or searing light, which I thought would be out of line.) The ranger failed his willsave, and I got to use him for a punchingbag for 42 sweet seconds. I lacked 1 point of damage to knock him unconcious. The moment the spell ends, the ranger runs away. Knowing I can't keep up with him, I draw out my sword and give him a final warning; my patience has ended. Get out of my sight and leave me be. He shrugs and goes back to camp. I resheath my sword, and continue my watch.

Then he comes back 1 minute later, scribbles something on a nearby wall (which reads buttocks in a somewhat less proper way) and then walks towards me, kneels and begins drawing something in the sand. (apparently an arrow pointing from me to the scribbles on the wall, a pathetic attempt at an insult ) My character was still furious, and the only reason why he gave another warning was because he knew he couldn't chase the ranger, decides to take the opportunity, and knees the ranger in the face. Unconcious.

Now I'm wondering, did I cross a line anywhere? The ranger's player was near furious that I knocked him unconcious... I mean, he had it coming miles away. Except for the roll, all his provocations were intentional.

How far should I go in this? If he hasn't learned his lesson now, what else could I do without breaking my own faith/alignment (neutral good) to straighten him out?

 

Challenge him to a duel of honour or something.

 

Hmm, when I was a DM for a group a while back, I had a player like that. After getting more than a bit upset about that (he once called a red dragon a pansy then ran away), I decided to have a little fun.

He used his speedboots to run away from the other players to ambush them. I proceeded to spawn the entire contents of the Deities&Demigods book (all equipped with faster speedboots) right on top of him and started the fight.

I don't think you were out of line. I probably would have done worse to him. If you talk to your DM, he can probably think of something for you to do.

 

He was WAY out of line! If your DM doesn't intervine (with a strong group of Gruumsh worshippers for instance ) you should feel no contemption of facing this ranger in combat and taking him out. However I would probably talk to the player first about his behaviour. If it's a personal matter he is infuriating you (IC and OUC), you've really got to sort them out if you still wish to continue playing with each other. And it will get personal if things don't change. Talk to the player and find out what's going on.

 

The DM has already intervened (taking away the spells) and spoken to him on it. While the player shows some progress, (though be it very little) he's still a pretty shoddy roleplayer. His former character was played along the same lines...

There is a strong group of Gruumsh Followers in the campaign, in fact the campaign is built around it. Problem is, we have yet to face a 'big bad' with whom we conversate. (That would be a nice point to force his 'allegiance' on him.) At this point it's chasing leads and slaying orcs. (Though we were captured by a band of drow residing in the Gruumsh Stronghold at the end of the last session. Perhaps that will provide some options.)

But the problem is, the way this has been going, I'll soon have no choice but to kill him. I seriously hope his little jabs have ended after this beating. Though I doubt it...

 

Make a sub plot out of it mayhaps. Try to kill him off, if he escapes, hunt him down. It would be extremly interesting to hunt down another player methinks.

 

Problem is, hunting a ranger/deepwoodsniper with said boots down is rather troublesome for a cleric in breastplate I'd better stock up on HoldPerson spells big time Perhaps I could just cast Deeper Darkness on his Boots (duration: 1day/lvl )

I'd rather not kill his character, it's his second in this campaign. (The first was a rogue/mage who thought he could be a careless tank. He got vaporised by critmissing a reflexroll vs a breathweapon when already low on HP) I'd like to improve his abilities as a player by having his character face the consequences of his actions. But I don't know if killing will be the right way of going at it.

Then again, there's only so far as you can push a cleric's tolerance for insulting his very religion.

 

Smite the Infidel!!!!!

 

I think we need to think alignment here, being a cleric of a good diety, I think you're doing ok. The honor fight mentioned is a good idea, or offer him a chance to repent his "sins".

 

Come one now...The Spanish Inquisition was a "good aligned" religious group...And they smote people all the time!!!

Smite him, smite him!!!

 

I've always thought of those evil inquisitors as evil masquerading as good. I could say some about alignment here, but it'd be a bit off topic.

Since Corellon is a CG deity, he probably wouldn't have any real set of rules to which you should do in this situation. I suggest simply talking it out with the ranger (in character), and trying to resolve what happened (since Corellon is a good deity). If there is actually some tension with the players, then that should definitely be resolved too.

(Btw, it's intraparty fighting. Interparty fighting means that two parties are fighting each other.)

 

Get him under hold. Then have parmanency spell on him.

Then decide whether to put a sign around his neck saying:"the man happened to say a bad thing of Corellon".

Or you can turn him into your undead servant

Youre choice

 

Just do like this:

Him: I am a proud follower of Gruumsh and I run in 50 KM/H and I am so good that you can't catch me.

You: That is good, my friend.

Him: But... But... And I think that all dieties are idiots and the ones that are their followers are interbred morons.

You: Corellon forgives you my friend.


You get the point? I think that it suits with the aligment a bit as well, only a bit evil.

 

If he declared his allegiance to Gruumsh, wouldn't he at least try to duel a follower of his nemesis Correlon in a straight fight? Gruumsh hates the weak, right? The fact that he is running away from an Elf is weak enough, I guess. Perhaps you should take out his eye.
Gruumsh doesn't allow nonclerics to use his name, perhaps the gm could punish him for that.

Some suggestions.
I think you're doing okay, btw.

 

It isn't so that he actually declared his allegiance to Gruumsh, he's just saying it to annoy my character. He didn't do it seriously, so Gruumsh isn't involved. Ehlonna didn't really appreciate it though, and took away his spellcasting abilities.

I will try the forgiveness route first. If that fails, he'll face the wrath of Faragon Fëamith, zealous follower of Corellon Larethian at the very next provocation. Just to sketch how zealous my character is: He cuts out the left eye of every true follower of Gruumsh he encounters and sacrifices them in praise of Corellon's name. (Currently carrying six bloody orc eyes in my pockets haven't had time to bathe in the moonlight. Pesky darkelves ) As for taking out his eye, I already discussed that with my DM. I think he is rather supportive of the idea