This time, we explore the problems of a particular character trait and the need to establish ground rules, even if borderline out of character. This story's lessons all revolve around a pair of events, and the group roleplay that followed. With the death of the evil druid last week, our group lineup had changed a bit. Our group consisted of the fire mage, the shadowy summoner, the egotistical asshole fencer, the fiery blade dancer, and myself, the humble witch. Joining us this week would be a replacement for the evil druid (a dwarf soulknife) and a new player with his own character, a hobgoblin alchemist. We didn't know anything about these characters other than their race/class before they joined, but this session sort of told us all we needed to know...read on if you will.

Don't Be Greedy

Our village had been wracked by a mysterious disease, and our search for a cure led us to an ancient city in the jungle. We faced countless monkey-goblins as we explored the ruins (approximately 80 of them, all dead now), and even lost our druid companion along the way (he actually turned suicidal). As we moved on from our latest pile of bodies (we have a growing collection of those), we discovered a giant snake hiding in one of the ruined buildings. In a rare display of respect, the party stood aside and let me work my parseltongue ways. I charmed the snake, we all got 500 XP, and no one was injured (Achievement! Be appreciated!). Just as we finished with the snake, our two new companions revealed themselves.

The (female!) dwarf soulknife didn't really have much personalty, but that wasn't an issue because the hobgoblin alchemist had enough of that for both of them. You'll see why in a moment.

After introducing ourselves and making up a half-assed reason to travel together (we really shouldn't be trusting random people we meet in the jungle >.>), we continued our exploration. In the next building, we discover a very impressive workshop with a meticulously crafted bone flail resting on a workbench. Knowing how to handle magic items by now, we hit it with Detect Magic and a Spellcraft check. We discover that it's a heavy bone flail +2. The hobgoblin then approaches and says that he'll roll an Appraise check to determine its value, with which he does fairly well and we get its value. As soon as he finishes, we have a brief "Does anyone use flails? Or blunt weapons at all?" discussion, which leads nowhere, so the hobgoblin decides to just stuff it in his bag.

Silence falls for about 3 seconds (seriously count that out; that's a long time for a lively discussion to be interrupted, especially over Skype).

Everyone figuratively stares daggers at the hobgoblin, and three others start making up reasons why they would have been holding on to the flail. The hobgoblin, meanwhile, is trying to figure out the order of operations - the spellcraft, appraise, how/when it changed hands, that sort of thing. The mage and I are just sitting at the entrance to the building, looking like hopeless parents trying to decide how to settle a dispute between unruly children. Eventually, the party agrees that the hobgoblin didn't just "stuff it into his bag" and instead let the bard have it (the bard being the blade dancer; yes, it is a useless archetype, and it makes an otherwise mediocre class into crap).

We then move to the next building, which is surprisingly well-maintained, and push open the door. Still frustrated with the group from the last building, the mage, soulknife, and myself all wait outside while the rest of the party goes in to loot the place. They discover a skeleton against a wall wearing a belt and holding a longspear. The bard's detect magic and spellcraft reveal that the spear is a living wood spear, and the belt is a Belt of Mighty Constitution +2. As soon as the belt is revealed, EVERYONE starts to make up reasons as to why they need it (except me, because I had no delusions of actually getting the thing). To their credit, constitution is helpful for everyone since it's more HP, but not everyone needs magic items that revolve around the stat. While they're arguing, the hobgoblin suggests to at least let him appraise it so that we can attach a number to it. The group agrees, and he botches his roll, causing him to think it's worth far more than it actually is. He doesn't actually relay the number to the group, and they never ask, because they're already bickering over who gets it again. Once again, he tries to put it on or otherwise stuff it into his bag.

This time, there is no silence, there's just more bickering over the order of operations and who is most deserving/needing of the belt. The argument lasts for close to TWENTY MINUTES before it's finally broken up by the door revealing itself to be a mimic and nearly killing two party members. After the fight, the hobgoblin (probably realizing that we are not to be F'ed with) just storms off while the bard gets the belt.

A few other things happen during the session, and in fact it was by far our longest session, but that was the most memorable moment of it. Now for the lessons.

Don't Be Greedy

Actually the hobgoblin's player was not a greedy asshole, he was just roleplaying him more or less correctly. See, in Pathfinder, you get to choose 2-3 traits for your character. These traits allow for some minor benefits, but are mostly for flavor. You get two normally, but if you want a third, you have to take a drawback. Drawbacks are a bit more potent than traits, but usually not too troublesome. The hobgoblin chose the Avarice drawback, which does the following:

Deep, compulsive greed gnaws at you.

Whenever monetary treasure is divided, you must end up with a greater share of that treasure than your companions
or you’re wracked with feelings of jealousy and ill will. When treasure is divided, if you do not end up with at least 10%
more treasure than any other individual companion does, you have a hard time being helpful to your allies. You become
irritable, and can’t take the aid another action for the next week.

Now, mechanically, that's not a big deal. You'll probably never use Aid Another in combat and you can take 20 (get an automatic 20) on many out-of-combat rolls. The problem comes when you're roleplaying it. No matter their alignment, players typically have an understanding of fairness, and ANY TIME you demand more than everyone else, people will get pissed. It doesn't even have to happen consistently, even a single instance of demanding more personal loot than the rest of the group will put you on everyone's bad side, and it ALWAYS hurts the group. This is especially true if you're a crafter or a healer. If you demand payment for your items or spells that is even one copper more than it cost you to make them, people will get pissed and ignore your abilities. This very group had already dealt with a greedy alchemist once, and we would consistently choose to ignore his healing potions and buffing spells because he tried to charge us for them when they didn't cost him anything to make.

Bottom line is that, while the Avarice drawback is fantastic for roleplay, it's effectively worse than being an evil character. This gives you an in-character excuse to dick over your party, and they will make your own life miserable in response.

Develop Ground Rules

Two sessions ago, we reached an agreement that all monetary loot would be pooled for the party's use, and any expenditure greater than 10% of the pool required the party's approval. Unfortunately, we didn't come up with a plan for handling magic items, since at the time we didn't have a greedy party member. However, no matter what ground rules you have for loot, you MUST lay them out for new party members immediately, in-character. This becomes a much bigger issue when the group effectively has a "revolving door" of player characters (we've lost one almost every session), because then the party has to come up with an in-character spiel about how and why loot is divided a certain way. And then if the new character doesn't agree to it....well then you're just F'ed unless the DM allows for some metagaming.


Sorry this story was more technical than entertaining, but the group has been getting progressively smarter. Well, figuratively speaking. We aren't jumping into traps that we know are there anymore, but we are still willing to pick a fight with enemies that have VASTLY superior numbers (we fought 68 goblin-monkeys in a single fight last week, and some members were willing to duke it out with 20+ heavily armed and armored orcs that had us surrounded).

Be sure to check in next week, when the group fights 20+ orcs at once and storms a demonic temple!