Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 HowdyHangman Jan 18, 2015 0:05:14	I'm playing in a campaign where there are keys which are needed to unlock certain parts of an artifact that allows the players to visit different worlds. There is a chaotic neutral, leaning very heavily evil, rogue in the party who is almost always hidden, during and outside of combat. I am playing a barbarian who annoys this character greatly. The rogue has expressed in and out of character that he would have killed my by now if it weren't for the fact that I have one of the keys on me and he doesn't want to risk losing it, which most of his considered plans - such as throwing me off a cliff, or blowing up the planet I was on - would have done. The DM is doing little to prevent this, which is understandable, as we were (just this once) allowing party combat from the get-go this campaign. Now, I'm in a predicament. I know I can take this guy in combat if he just tried to kill me by fighting me, which would be easy. However, he obviously won't try to do that - his attempts at murder will involve less direct means. If he does kill me, I want to assure that his character never finds this key, or at the very least has a very hard time in doing so. The keys are differentiated by color, so I bought 30 blue keys of different shapes and sizes at the local locksmith to confuse him. Then, I put the key in a climber's kit, which I put on my rhino. I also plan to "give a party member the key" (it will be fake) in front of the rogue. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks in advance.    To be clear, we are only level 6. The blowing up a planet thing had to do with a self destruction trap on a very small planet. I realize I can't use the rhino to its fullest yet, I just bought it because we're close to level 7 and my character is built around charging. I plan to buy another few hundred keys when I have more money.
#2 Timpookie Jan 18, 2015 4:56:56	Try giving a key to each of the other members of the party, without letting them know that everyone else is also getting a fake, and then try to give the remainder to trusted NPCs. Keep the real key hidden but on you at all times, or just destroy it/throw it off a cliff and say that you still have it.
#3 Damean Jan 18, 2015 5:46:40	If I'm understanding the situation correctly, if you succeed in tricking the rogue into believing that you no longer have the key, he will kill you. It seems that you need to make him believe that you always have the key on you (so he won't push you over the cliff), but that he'll never find it.    If it were me, I'd preemptly kill the rogue. At some point he's gonna realize that dead people are easier to search. However if your barbarian doesn't want to sink to the rogues' level, there are precautions you can take:  talk to your DM to see if you can get some bonus to combining a few enchantments to help hide the key on your person. Get a deep pocket cloak (an increditably useful item in any case) per the description, the cloak has hundreds of magical pockets. This will make it difficult if not impossible for the rogue to get in a "lucky" pick pocket roll for the key. Combine with the Hidden Item Compartment and possibly the Hidden Pocket martial practice ritual.    If there are party members that you can trust, make a vengeance pact against the rogue (in case he does kill you) and don't make it in secret. A rogues best attack is made with surprise. Take that away by training the Alertness feat: Benefit- you can not be surprised (and you gain a +2 perception).
#4 Beoric Jan 18, 2015 11:40:27	PvP is not my kind of game.  But assuming you are not playing a lawful good barbarian, for most barbarians, when threatened in-character by someone who tells the you they will kill you in your sleep or from hiding if given the chance, it would be entirely in character to kill that person before they have an opportunity to act.   For that matter, if I was a paladin, I would wait for the rogue to (inevitably) commit a crime, knock him out, and turn him over to the authorities.
#5 HowdyHangman Jan 18, 2015 13:46:19	Thanks to all! Personally, I'm not into PVP either. The barbarian is a viking who was offered his own ship - a life dream of his - if he works for the organization that the party is under. He is unsure if murdering his coworkers would jeoperdize this agreement. However, the rogue is used to jumping from job to job, so he has no qualms about such things. That would be why I haven't just killed him yet. Also, the person hiring us has a tendency to not be the most empathetic, so his response if I were to explain the situation would probably be something to the affect of "Well, just make sure he doesn't kill you." Without allowing me to kill him. Kind of frustrating.   That said, I found an item called a backpack of concealment that can basically make this whole situation impossible for the rogue. It's in the MME. Also, the reason I intend to "give the party member the key" is that I'm trying to keep him alive as well. I can later show the rogue that there are duplicates so that he doesn't know who has the real one.   I will consider taking alertness as well. The good news is that it is doubtful that the rogue could kill me in my sleep - his character isn't nearly as optimized as mine, the only way he could do this would be something odd like throwing off a cliff.
#6 Noctaem Jan 20, 2015 7:42:31	If party PvP is ok as per a group agreement, and the DM did nothing to stop another player from threatening me both in and out of character, I would just kill the rogue.  You can do it as per what you've said so why leave the threat standing?  Just kill him and get it over with.  Making all these plans and counter plans to avoid the guy getting this key..   F**k it, just kill the character and move on.  This reminds me of the saying "You mess with the bull, you get the horns!"
#7 CCS Jan 22, 2015 10:45:28	Spend a lot of $, have the key enchanted with a contingency spell so that if you die the key is destroyed. Or just kill the rogue....
#8 warghoul Jan 25, 2015 20:40:24	There is always the prison purse...
#9 samuraivillain2 Mar 10, 2015 12:26:19	Obviously you wait untill the Rogue is sneaking around some baddies and you Scream to him "Hey you want the key?" and throw a bag of keys at him