Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Slayer_5 03-21-07, 03:56 AM	Ok, I have been given control of the RHoD Campaign I talked about in another post. We are Ret-Conning it so that I am starting this session with the Battle of Brindol. The party mage has made it explicitly clear that if the battle STARTS to go bad, he will just teleport out of there. In a battle with armies and dragons, when the mage leaves, things go bad. Really, I don't even know where to begin if he up and teleports the second he realizes I gave the dragon "Overcome weakness" from the Draconomicon... Any suggestions?
Caligula 03-21-07, 05:05 AM	If the player wants to retreat or flee, you should let him. Why not? I mean, do you want to force him to die rather? This battle is so tough so you must realize that a TPK is very possible. The DM's job, in my opinion, is not to control the players decisions, but rather to administer them. Now, if he does teleport, where to does he go? Most of the valley is occupied by enemy forces and he might end up at a very tight spot indeed.
snakeheadfish33 03-21-07, 07:43 PM	I agree. Let him bail. I think if the PC did that during one of the many intense and harrowing battles at Brindol, his/her companions would definately be displeased. They may not like having that player at the table anymore. They may even be intentionally devious to that player's PCs later on. Those are fairly drastic examples most likey ... me not knowing your group and all. Another way of taking what your player said is as a threat. I've heard similar such statements. One which ultimately led to us dropping any further gaming of the Shackled City epic adventure from Paizo. Which, if your not familiar or had not heard/read, is a great adventure. I'm highly displeased my group will not be finishing it. Try to avoid something like that from happening to you. Cater to your players, but if they make threats as an attempt to control the game or something, don't stand for that. Truthfully, I'm going to ty to sneak the game (Shackled City) back into play at some point. I don't understand why he wouldn't want to take battle in such a grand battle. One which bards will sing about for ages, should the players succeed. Losing your favorite PC could potentionally happen every game session really, so why try to run from that?
CastTiltowait 03-21-07, 10:16 PM	Another option if you really don't want to have the player take off on your game is to have one of the NPC's defending the town activate some form of magic item/spell that blocks teleportation into/out of the city to help prevent the bad guys from gating in extra-planar help, teleporting past the walls, etc. I'm not familiar enough w/all the spells in the spell compendium having never played a wizard in 3.x, but I recall from my days in 2nd ed some magic item (a flag I think, maybe from Oriental Adventures) that you could put on a keep that prevented hostile teleportation into or out of the keep. You could make it some kind of really large area of effect "dimensional anchor" centered around the cathedral or main keep, or defined by the limits of the city wall. Just make sure you make the actual item something waaaay too large for the party to steal (like the Cathedral's entire front altar, or Lord Jarmaath's throne), or you could be opening yourself up for trouble later, like them taking it into the Fane at an inopportune time. The trick is not totally ******* off the player in doing it, since he'll immediately suspect you of having screwed w/his character. You could increase the "reasonableness" of this counter-measure by having an encounter before the battle in the streets where some teleporting bad guy causes trouble by teleporting into the town, perhaps directly into the gate house to open the city gates. If you don't want to make it blatent he can't teleport out anymore, you can hint at it by having a RHoD bad guy attempt a dimension door or the like and have it obviously go wrong to the party's benefit. If he misses the hint that it's a "No T-Port Zone," well, that's his mistake. You tried to show him that it IS a simple defensive matter that, oops, stopped him coincidentally, you'd "planned this long before" and forgot his teleport comment. You could make it more blatent by having whichever NPC is assigning them to protect the Dawn Way rattle off what other significant NPC's are doing in the meanwhile and tossing into the mix that Immerstal the Red has activated some protective items that will hopefully prevent the RHoD from summoning demons or magically skirting the defensive barricades. If you follow that up with the bad guy trying to teleport, no one can blame you for not warning him.
Imatash 03-22-07, 12:36 AM	hmmm I hate it when a character says they will ditch the party. Perhaps the dragon knowing the spell caster is the most dangerous party member will leave the rest of the party to some high level minions to battle, maybe breathe on them for good measure then seek the Mage to play with. If he ditches the party that should cause trouble enough on its own if both sides survive. Remember Player Characters die....:) Imatash
chesspiece 03-23-07, 04:36 PM	Yes, that kind of attitude from a Player burns me too. Of course, my grey elf wizard almost died from grappling with an advanced otyugh - because I wouldn’t abandon a new member of the party. But as DM, you should do your best to play it straight rather than targeting him. If he saves one of his best spell slots so he can run, then he’s bringing less offence against the Horde. If he does run, then he’s hurting the Party even more. On the bright side, at least they’re recognizing that the Horde is a credible threat. It might help his courage if the Party puts the NPC volunteers to good use. If the level ~9 PC sees that low-level warriors are holding their ground, he might be less inclined to bail. You also could give the PCs a pep-talk between missions, reminding them that their names & deeds will be forever remembered in song. (The subtext being that acts of cowardice will also be remembered… ‘Sir Robin ran away, away!’) One thing you might want to consider - if he does flee, ask him if he wants to teleport back to the temple of Pelor since he had time to become very familiar with it before the battle. Let him heal up and maybe grab some consumables – the Player can shop until the current fight ends. The PC can then get sent back to the Party just in time for the next battle. Of course, if he insists on teleporting to another city... that Player might as well go home for the night and skip the next game too. Knowing the Battle of Brindol, I’m predicting he might get into trouble against Abi. IIRC, your group’s wizard was big into fire damage (heh, heh). But Abi will let PCs run. So if the wizard flees and the rest of the PCs can’t handle the fight, then let them go into hiding for a time. Abi will meet his objectives (damage) and the PCs will lose some victory points. They can regroup and stand against the Waves. Of course, if they can’t defeat Abi in Brindol, they’re probably doomed when they reach the Fane... Cheers, Stephen Martin