Anyway, a minor problem in a game I'm in. Two of the players don't like each other much. It's not really an active dislike, they don't argue, or fight, or anything like that. But they seem to be dead set on their characters never helping each other out on the battlefield.
For example, week-before-last's game, we got mobbed by hobgoblins. We have:
Melee Cleric (me)
Paladin (my wife)
Archer Ranger (player A)
Wand Wizard (player B)
Player A and B are the ones in question. Me and the Mrs. pretty much cut up the middle and start bashing face (for obvious reasons, we team up well). One warcaster and one archer do a pincer move, going around us (and some intervening buildings) to get at our back ranks; the wizard and archer. The wizard focusses on the caster, the archer on the archer, despite the fact that anybody with a better grasp of tactics than the proverbial novice in a nunnery knows that they should concentrate their fire and eliminate one opponent first. The wizard went down (after being forced to retreat, second wind, and chug a healing potion), and the archer *still* didn't give him any support, and got himself liberally peppered and nearly dropped.
(As a side note, I wish I had played a Tactical Warlord like I had originally planned. My cleric isn't smart enough to negotiate tactics, whereas a warlord would have just told the archer to quit farting around and give the wizard some damn artillery support.)
Anyways ... should I say something at some point? I know it's just a game and even a TPK (which we didn't get) isn't the end of the world, but I find it frustrating on some level that they can't put this aside. On the IC level, as a cleric of Tempus, losing a fight is unconscionable, if not out right blasphemous.
At very least, you'd get your answer as to why they don't.
Really you don't have to be a warlord to understand a battlefield and communicate it to other PCs though.
Even if you had a Barbarian with a 6 INT, I think he/she should be tactically minded enough to say, "Uh, why you guys not attack same enemy? More hits make go splat faster."
Even if they hate each other, try to remind them their characters don't.
Maybe each of them is friends with some of the others in the group but not each other. If that's the case, maybe you guys can work out some changes in background and possibly even character choice that allow them to "avoid" each other in game. If one of them can team up with you, and the other can team up with your wife, then they can "work with the team" without working with each other. If you can come up with a good storyline reason why their characters don't trust and like each other, then it will even be good roleplaying!
That may necessitate you and your wife, who work together naturally, making some sacrifices, but you've already got a less than ideal situation where two of your players don't like each other, so it might be necessary.
Are they flexible enough to "team up" with everyone else but each other? That might make things even a bit easier.
Note that I'm assuming that the players genuinely don't like each other, if not actually dislike each other. I don't think you can realistically expect to solve that. Some people aren't compatible, through no fault of either person. I lucked out with my current gaming group, and everybody enjoys each other's company. If you aren't that fortunate, you have to do the best with what you've got.
It's common enough a problem its cropped up on the boards somewhat frequently
I think the best advice is to either drop hints or just politely encourage a little cooperation while intentinally avoiding the fact that the two don't get along. Usually its a personality conflict and the only connection is d&d. If you're like a good many gaming groups you have to make concessions to other gamers.
"We hang together or we hang seperately."
- A Famous American.