It is generally entertaining when the player spurs his character to charge-tackle monsters headfirst, but it gets annoying when his response to every locked door and trap is "smash it with my hammer until its in a billion pieces." My character is paranoid and resourceful, so I always attempt to salvage and keep anything useful, and to remain quiet and low-profile. You readers can already sense where my issue is.
Normaly, this black-and-white personality difference is fun to roleplay, but sometimes with this player EVERY door needs to be kicked in, EVERY trap needs a big headbutt, and EVERY monster deserves a smack upside the head from a hammer. This gets annoying very quickly during the sessions, when every neutral denizen of a dungeon we come across we are forced into combat with, or we plunge headlong into every trap, when we could have easily negotiated with the denizen and gone around the trap.
I have tried to ask Mr. Dynamic in-game to show a little caution and descretion, but he either ignores it or uses it as fuel to badmouth my character (I'm a Heretic Binder, he is a paladin, normally its ok for roleplaying but it gets tiresome when it goes into every statement this paladin makes).
I recently have started to feel like this player's roleplaying is starting to hog all the non-combat actions of our adventure, he keeps going and going and going until we have moved on away from our opportunity for roleplaying, and we (the rest of the party) either forget what we were planning on doing in the meantime, or don't have a chance when the player rushes screaming through the doors into another combat. This leaves very little time to actually try and earn the extra exp we get from roleplaying (its such a minute amount, that it hardly matters right now, but in the future it might cause a level gap).
What should I do when he starts to hog the spotlight, without being a jerk? I honestly can't roleplay as much as he does, but this is one part me not thinking of something to say and one part the other player taking up our time. Our other players are perfectly content to do minimal roleplaying, and just fight monsters. I, however, have a personality for my character that I want to act out some, but don't get much chance to. What should I do?
It's great that the Paladin wants to roleplay and wants to be 'in character' but such...one sided antics can get old real fast. I personally am not sure if a one trick pony Smash! character counts as 'good roleplaying' but even so. Maybe if the DM is giving rewards, talk to the DM about giving rewards not so much for being 'in character' but more for 'character building events', such as when your character reaches an important point in his or her life or completes a background goal or some such.
Also, talk to the character's player and just tell him hes hogging and to let other people have a chance to take the spotlight. Just straight up tell him you think his character is a bit of a glory hog.
This is one reason that I do not hand out 'good roleplaying' rewards very much. It inspires grandstanding, and I dont think my players are mature enough to handle it lol.
Not that Im mature myself.
Anyway, hope the advice helps.
You might also think about this from a character PoV: if you were a cautious adventurer whose ally was an overeager paladin, what might you do? Depending on the situation, I know I might use his antics to play a 'good cop bad cop' routine. For example, while he's smashing through a door I'd yell to the NPCs on the other side "If you give up now, my overeager friend won't kill you." That's a chance to rp for me, and a chance to end the fight before it even begins.
When he starts an unnecessary fight, I might hang back and investigate an interesting item nearby or just plink away with a xbow or go for a priority target that he missed in his headlong rush. And when he gets in over his head because he just had to trigger an unnecessary fight, I'd bail him out with an "I told ya so." Or maybe I wouldn't, if he's always badmouthing me.
Or maybe I just wouldn't adventure with him.
The more I read your posts the more I suspect the problem is your DM and not the paladin. He should not be rewarding disruptive behavior. If I were DMing and a PC desided to disarm every trap by "smashing it with a hammer" he'd get the full effects of the trap with every swing. It's hard to be an ass-hat when you're bleeding to death.
Wait, are you the same guy that's going to get killed at level 20 when said paladin randomly turns blackguard?
The more I read your posts the more I suspect the problem is your DM and not the paladin. He should not be rewarding disruptive behavior. If I were DMing and a PC desided to disarm every trap by "smashing it with a hammer" he'd get the full effects of the trap with every swing. It's hard to be an ass-hat when you're bleeding to death.
Dragonsblood , has a strong point. The Original Poster, should talk to the DM. The DM has many many tools to control grand standing roleplayers. I have DMed several times, and I have used several techniques to keep the role play balanced. Not all players characters are going to have role play options that are flashy or straight forward and its the DMs duty to make certain all have their chance to shine.
Examples; Make an obviously overpowered NPC (The king of the nation, with an army of bodyguards) that disagrees with the Paladin, and tells him to be silent. The paladin could have a nightmare where he sees his gruesome death at the hands of a dangerous and mysterious trap.
However, you've stated that him and the Paladin are buddies, so I personally believe your chances of success are next to nill. But worry not, I have another suggestion:
If talking to the DM solves nothing, then set up an ambush and kill the Paladin. You're a Binder, you can do it quite easily if you prepare yourself and catch him by surprise. Killing him will completely wreck the other campaign you guys are playing. That will teach the DM to listen to you next time you bring him an honest and heartfelt concern.
Oh, and don't worry about alignment issues. He's not Lawful Good. He's Lawful Stupid, and if killing an Evil creature is a Good act, then killing a Stupid creature is an Intelligent act, and therefore, it should not cause your alignment to shift (except perhaps towards Intelligent... but that's actually a good thing).
;)
Okay, now seriously:
If your character is not Good, then ICly threaten the Paladin with killing him if he doesn't stop being such an idiot. If your character IS Good, then ICly attempt to reason with him, stating that his actions are endangering innocents (you, the rest of the party, any cohorts or bystanders) and that taunting neutral denizens into fighting the party is not Good. Compare him to a bloodthirsty Barbarian, if you must. The key here is being eloquent and demonstrating that you are concerned for the safety of the rest of the party. Advocate caution. This should also be good for RPing awards. If the Paladin does not relent, then threaten to kill him on the grounds of protecting the innocent from his recklessness, report him to his church or otherwise ruin him.