How Should a DND Table Handle PVP Without Causing D R A M A?

[@risperdude]

PVP can be a fun way to advance a story especially if used to promote different ways to look at a problem. But you are right. It is never fun if it reflects into real life.

[@PlayYourRole]

It's all about what your group is prepared to handle!

[@chatyxd6078]

My ranger was introduced to the party and the barbarian immediately ran and tried to kill me because he "had a 6 intelligence". We cast hold person and absolutely bullied him. That was the first and only character interaction we had because two days later we both died.

[@PlayYourRole]

Ya know the saying 'live by the sword, die by the sword'? Your barbarian took that very literally, you gotta respect it.

[@tomsawyerpiper9412]

Knock out with immediate rez to 1 hp. If the downed player still wants to fight the winner, combat resumes at current hp values and the player who gets downed rolls death saves. The inability for the players to harm each other is a big god-hand protecting one of the players from their actions. Keep in mind that I say this as a long suffering player who has never engaged in outright PvP even when it was an extremely appealing option.

[@PlayYourRole]

Unique rules for PVP is absolutely an avenue to go down, if your table is comfortable with it. I might give this more thought in the future!

[@emilraisio5168]

I've only ever ended up doing pvp once, and that moment holds up to be my favourite moment at a dnd table. The group was faced with a puzzle where one of us HAD to die to find the solution. Once we'd figured that fact out, it was only a matter of who, and how. We had a paladin at the table who was all about dying a warriors death, it's the only way for him to go with honor. My character, a rouge, knew how much tha meant to the other character. So when I drew my blade with a beaming smile, and calmly turned to the paladin, we both knew what had to happen.

[@emberthefox4951]

For once, a rogue who got along with the paladin.

[@emilraisio5168]

@@emberthefox4951 the best friends in the party infact, tho somehow we ended up fighting last sesh aswell, this time possession something something

[@its_sisha_not_chair505]

But maybe in the end, we're both the same~🎶

[@churchA.I]

@@emilraisio5168 you beat a paladin in 1 on 1 combat with a rogue? That's some seriously good luck

[@duwanglover3424]

In all the games I’ve played, there’s been four rules to it. 1. Combat ends at the first critical damage 2. It can only last for a maximum of 5 rounds 3. Combat ends if a player is successfully pinned for two turns 4. Both players have to agree to it The victor is decided by whoever dealt more damage or successfully pinned the other.

[@its_sisha_not_chair505]

My dm has some different rules with pvp... "Whoever starts bitching first loses and if you're under 10 hp, the combat ends. Now beat the shit out of eachother" And i've been winning every single pvp match... I don't know why, i just get really lucky with pvp. It's not like my characters are broken, i had a pirate with fuckin 12 hp winning a match against two players

[@inuendo6365]

While it was sort of implied, it's extremely important to NEVER allow one player to talk the DM into PvP behind the other players' backs. There's almost always favoritism at play and even if there's not it's incredibly shitty of one player to make another person's character just a plot point in their story instead of talking it out.

[@magenstaffarts]

I did allow players to have PVP as a sparring match, and I do allow PVP for character story, but I have them discuss it with one another and discuss with me.

[@PlayYourRole]

Exactly! As long as it's discussed and agreed upon out of game, I fully support it.

[@Fauix]

I generally have 3 approaches to handling pvp 1: have dedicated pvp areas such as a gladiator arena. They are usually accompanied by magic nonlethal aura on it to prevent character death 2: If both players seem into it and are enjoying themselves, ill run it as a normal encounter 3: If there is bad blood or a clear aggressor, I will implement the “Does that work?” Rule, where the recipient of the attack gets to decide the dice rolls. This also applies to non-combat actions like if a player attempts to pickpocket another player for their sack of gold.

[@maxkogan3785]

I lower their Max HP by 1 and declare a nonlethal combat, if the winner proceeds to try to kill the other afterwards, they know from previous conversations that they will be provoking the DM's wrath.

[@PlayYourRole]

This seems to be a pretty common solution surprisingly!

[@trebmal587]

My players are roleplayers for the most part. We're 12 sessions into my campaign, and due to the huge variety of alignments in the party, they already had 2 pvp fights. Each time, I let them did it, saying that it is also their story and I have no problem with players killing each other as long as it make sense in the narrative. I also insist that players need to make clear that it is a character driven moment and nothing else. I can do that because I trust my players. They're mostly here for the story, are aware that death might await them at any corner and therefore are ready to accept their character's death. Also most of them have experienced dming, so they're willing to tone down some things here and there for the sake of the game and the story. Now, story time for those two PVP fights : The first one occured when the smug high elf wizard started to call the charismatic half orc rogue a "green wildling" multiple times during a heated discussion. He finaly had enough and stabbed her in the neck, nearly one shotting her. After that, the two other party members managed to prevent the combat from escalating and they both accepted to stop tearing each others appart. We're all friends outside of the game so it didn't have any personal repercussion, every one treated it as a character drama moment. Also, they were in a desperate situation : in a no way back dungeon, with their ressources slowly depleating. If one of them died, the adventure was surely over, because I made clear I wasn't going to accomodate them. The second pvp fight occured a few sessions later, after a difficult encounter against a nomadic tribe. The players managed to capture two of the grunts who attacked them. During the interrogation, they realised that those were not inherently bad peoples, just soldiers trusting the judgement of their leader. The half orc rogue proposed to let them free, most of the group and the friendly NPCs they were escorting agreed. But the dwarf cleric, which is secretly from the death domain, decided otherwise. He proposed to personnaly accompagnie the captives to a nearby wood. Once there, he killed them both to make sure they wouldn't bring any information back to the rest of the tribe. The rogue (yes, him again) felt suspicious and followed them stealthly through the wood. Seeing that the dwarf didn't respect the group decision, and having a glimpse of his forbiden magic, he decided to attack him out of anger. Once again, sneak attack deals massive damage but not enough. Cleric heal himself, then proceed to knock out the already hurt rogue. After a few seconds of consideration, he stabilized him. His motivations were that the rest of the party would probably not take kindly that the rogue was killed, but also that his character has respect for his compagnion despite their moral divergences. It actualy gave the cleric's character more depth, and prooved he wasn't just straight out evil. If you read this overly long comment, you might think "but it's mostly the rogue's fault in both scenarios". Yes, it is. The thing is, the rogue's player know that in a 1v1 scenario, he's most likely going to lose, but he does it because... it's what his character would do. Fair enough. He also prooved himself really competent, especialy in social and infiltration situations, so the rest of the team learned to respect him, despite his somewhat loose temper.

[@theterron7857]

Nice stories, i wish playing with a party like yours... Mine only cares about stats, it's so unfun to play...

[@AllenGray47]

Any of our pvp is usually grappling, we wrestle each other to the ground. I suppose it also helped that half of them were goliaths. There's been a few times it's been all out but only for story reasons where someone was either possessed or had actually done something horrendous(murder hobo)

[@eldritchrage]

I want to pit all my mechanically inclined characters against each other in a battle arena style session, but nothing drives me more crazy than the rogue going "i wanna steal everyones stuff while they sleep." Leave my freaking table lol this was a great video, SUBSCRIBED!

[@bobinolabobine2778]

That was quite the timing to post this video man...in both of my games...both of my characters had fallouts with the group and almost came to blows...I'll put your advice to great use for next week!

[@EilonwyG]

Well stated! I'm not really a fan of PvP unless there's a good story reason for it. I've never played in a game where PvP occurred. I think most of the people I play with are non-confrontational to begin with and they play characters that more talk their problems out then fight their problems out. But I could see hiw two friends could come to opposite sides of a situation nd a possible PvP could be interesting, story-wise. But closest we ever came was playing Battle Royale sessions, every character for themseves. That's pretty fun.

[@PlayYourRole]

MAN that's something I should have touched on. FRIENDLY pvp can be an absolute blast especially if your characters have mutual respect for each other.

[@EilonwyG]

@@PlayYourRole We've had where characters have sparred with each other, but haven't really done any rolling for it. Although it could be kind of fun if one character is specifically wanting to learn something from another character (possibly in preparation for taking a feat or doing multiclassing in their next level) and there's a bit of sparring played out to show that this character is learning the thing they will eventually have as part of their character sheet.

[@TheRawrnstuff]

I am strongly against PvP at my table. This includes events that aren't combat. Stealing from a party-member, sabotaging their equipment, taking control of someone else's character without their explicit consent, none of that. In my games, the party works together, and if they can't justify their characters working together, they either have to roll a new character that does, or leave the game. If that can't be acchieved, I'll drop out of the game. At that point they either have to play their PvP game without a DM, or find a new one. Obviously, this is something I'm very clear about during Session 0, and much of that session is dedicated in figuring out why the party is so close. I _hate_ DMing a group that plays against each other. In my experience, the "narrative depth" that brings to the story is almost never fun in the long run, even for the players. An occasional punch or argument shared I'm fine with, but if the players can't get their characters to solve their issues, I'm starting to have issues. YMMV, of course. It's totally ok to play PvP in D&D if that's how you like it. But I won't be your DM.

[@jenkohr]

Do you think pvp at the table is different when the players are all family? I'm getting ready to run my first campaign that isnt a one shot and my second ever time DMing and my players are my little cousin and little sibling. All 3 of us are very excited but I want to make sure they don't hate this experience

[@PlayYourRole]

Truthfully? Family or not, it's really based on how much communication you put into it. It's all about making sure there are clear expectations!

[@greygoblin9491]

Worse if it goes badly you can't avoid each other for a few days to cool off.

[@drakewarrior1013]

I think the goal should be as said in the video - allow it only if players "care about the story". But even more important - characters should not wish to kill each other or even injure each other. There must be some goal that the characters are trying to achieve (even if this goal is "get this other PC to mind his own business"). There should be a goal and a way to get it, and the ability to compromise. If PvP allows for characters to understand "okay, we can fight, but ouch, it hurts. I don't want to get hurt, and I don't really want to hurt you. Let's try to cooperate on this one, just like we always did". If something like this raises - players should search for ways for their characters to get their goals, which should not involve long-term distrust in each other. For example, finding out that PC1 stole from PC2, a fight ensues, items are returned forcefully to their owner. Cool. But now PC2 doesn't trust PC1, and there is this tension between them, and it's mounting. Conflicts like "I want to kill off this hostage we got here" - "it is wrong, I will stop you if you try". If the other party member ends with "okay, I wish you just weren't looking so I could do it" - it will sow seeds of mistrust. Instead, the thief should explain why he took the item. If the reason is somewhat understandable and PCs are willing to promise to never do that again and forgive - then that is a good ending. The conflict with the hostage - same way. A character might say "I don't think it is too wrong, he is a threat. But I understand that it is not a good thing, and I promise not to do such things while we travel together". This can actually make for a good RP and make characters get closer and trust each other more. So, in short - just make sure the players are looking to resolve the conflict instead of winning it. Conflict should be a part of RP, instead of a challenge to overcome (because then somebody will lose).

[@Zakemaster]

In the years I’ve been playing 5e, there’ve been two instances of PVP I can think of, one as a player and one as a DM. As a player, we were playing an intrigue heavy campaign where one of the PCs died and, while we were working on gathering what we needed to revive her, the player took control of an NPC temporarily. We were given reasons to be suspicious about the character, but we’re ignoring the hints because we were focused on getting enough money to revive our friend ASAP. The former NPC then takes an opportunity and steals the MacGuffin our party was protecting, resulting in a tense chase throughout the city and a fight. It gave the player something to do before reviving her character, was able to finish up that NPCs storyline, and was a fun little encounter. I think it helped that this was an intrigue themed campaign, and so we all knew we should have been paying more attention to the clues. Everybody had a good time, and then we revived the PC shortly after. As a DM, only a few months ago, my party of three got into a bad situation where one of them was killed and the other two were captured by the enemy. There was still a lot of interesting story left for the dead PC, and so, using the situation they were in and the villain’s personality, the remaining two PCs were put into a fighting pit to try and survive. I’d discussed my plan with the other player, and he was onboard, and so I started seeding hints to the other two that his new PC was somewhere in the arena. Then the third fight happens, the enemy steps out and pulls off their cloak, and the formerly dead PC appears, revived and mind controlled by the BBEG into attacking the other members of the party. The fight transformed from trying to survive to trying to find a way to save their friend and escape, and it was a really tense situation that they barely got out of with the skin of their teeth. The lingering effects of the mind control and connection to the villain are still cropping up in the campaign, and everybody seemed to enjoy it, even though it was a bit of an asspull. Basically, if you’re gonna do PVP without most of the players knowing, you have to know your group and what they’re looking for in the game. There are definitely tables where either of those situations could have ended badly, but I knew my group well enough to know how they’d respond to the situation, as did my DM when I was the player.

[@912695ify]

At my table I have 2 rules regarding anything PvP: 1. All PvP actions (pickpocketing, sneaking, charming, etc.) is resolved between players without DM interference. Weather it is roleplayed out or a skill contest, any result hast to be agreed upon by the involved parties. If one person doesn't want it to happen then it doesn't happen. It encourages player interaction and everyone is happy with the results. 2.(I only this with players already comfortable with the game) All PvP combat must be agreed upon by myself and all players, even if they aren't directly involved. Player death affects the entire party, so everyone should have a say in it. I haven't had to use this rule outside of friendly shenanigans, but it keeps the game friendly for all involved.

[@Lavenish]

This has been useful, a campaign ive been running for my friends and I devolved 1st session to the paladin pvping the other two players because they tried to kill a shopkeepers and burn down the shop they were keeping.

[@tacnomel2591]

What I’d recommend instead of pvp is a competition like a race or some other challenge that fits the surroundings. Like if the players are in a jungle and want to race each other through it you could have different problems on the way like a rushing river or climbing trees. For bonus points you could have one of the players to either fall into a sand pit or some other danger (after saving throws to be fair). Then the other player will have to show their true colors by helping them or not. And at the end you can have a monster ambush them that would be to difficult for one person to fight but only just beatable with two. Of course this is all highly specific and would vary based on setting and level of players and you would likely need either a box or a fellow player to suggest the idea but I think I got the idea across.

[@GameHunterMaster]

In some instances, PVP can be a good way to promote character interaction and development. If all players involved agree to the PVP, and there is a good in-character reason for it, it can even be a fun experience.

[@TheBlu3Jay]

This is the best video that I have seen on this topic thank you I will take some of this advice in my own campaigns. Would love to see a video about how to deal with players that have characters that are a bit problematic or can create problems in the game, like characters with savior complex or who are very degrading to other players characters and or arrogant.

[@lancearmada]

These are some very useful guidelines thanks. I was thinking a summary of the different guidelines would be useful so I came up with my own: 1. (for players/DM) Only engage in pvp if it is your character who has a problem with their character. Don't cause pvp because you don't like the person playing the character. 2. (for players) Always say "I want to attack this player" rather than "I attack this player" because if the conflict is due to a misunderstanding then the DM can allow checks to resolve such a misunderstanding. 3. (for DM) Ask yourself, "will this cause someone to no longer enjoy the game?" 4. (for DM) Does your group care about mechanics or the storyline more? If they care about mechanics, don't let them engage. 5. (for DM/players) Players should discuss prior or as it is happening if the pvp is ok and they must be clear and understand what they hope to get out of the combat.

[@ira-jay]

I play with this group in a game called Terrivan as a tiefling named Kalt and there's another character, Taberis, who my character had been butting heads with since he joined the group (i joined late). It eventually escilated to us just trying to ignore eachother until we kept getting in eachothers way, and finally we did the whole "outside" gesture to eachother, our characters had a physical fight as well as a shouting match that got to the point where our DM tried to calm us down because she thought we were genuenly mad at eachother, but after that our characters finally cleared some missunderstandings and worked out some issues that made it possible for our characters to have one of the most genuine heart to hearts between characters i've ever had in DnD. So i think PVP can be a great thing, i always belive that anything should be allowed if the players are ok with it and it leads to good character pogression.

[@Fanatic_Foremem]

one fun thing I like to do is if a DM is super careful in not giving the players fights where they can die easily is start a rivalry between my character and another, where they take pot shots at eachother during non-battle situations, basically, a small chunk of damage from a ability or cantrip whenever my characters mildy annoyed, actually expending spell slots if they're actively arguing, that way when we get into the final battle before our next full recovery, some of us are actually not fully prepared and theres a bit more stakes. I make sure to set this up with someone I'm good enough friends with so it wont make the players angry with eachother.

[@Bladezeromus]

One of the things our group does is have our characters spar during travel. One thing we learned is that these sparring sessions work in story as training and on a meta level because it's a safe scenario to actually learn what your character's abilities do. It was exactly 1 week ago that I learned Mirror Image is NOT a concentration spell. I've we're level 10 and I've had the spell ever since I could get it... never used it because I just KNEW it was concentration. Nope. So now my new turn 1 is almost always bonus action Form of Dream, then Mirror Image.

[@mark_sturzbecher]

I use these steps when handling PvP: 1) Limitation - no actual damage (death is impossible) 2) Goals - instigating player has to state what they wish to accomplish with this altercation 3) Consent - both players agree to altercation and are okay with the possible outcomes 4) Rules - (3) contending checks: Base-attack roll, Insight, and a 3rd check reflecting their fighting style 5) Narrative - DM then describes the narrative

[@masonray9881]

In most of the games I’ve played in we’ve done pvp, outside of my dm saying it was okay we also had sparring, sparring was a way to spend time along with rp. Sparring was basically you get temp hp equal to your actual hp and you can use all your class abilities and it not actually being spent outside of the spar. Also, I’d like to say: it’s what my character would do.

[@Revan1939]

We recently had a pvp event in my game. It wasn’t a choice though, we had to roll a save and the ones who failed had to attack everyone around them until they succeeded. One of the best moments of the adventure, because not a single person complained about it. We all just went right into it. Some of us tried to help get every calmed down peacefully (the paladins) meanwhile the warlock and one or two other (me) decided the safest option was incapacitation. What I’m trying to get at is that it really depends on the people in your group. If we had one person actively using powerful magic or anything else to try to *kill* someone, it wouldn’t have been as fun.

[@retrojohnny1899]

Usually I always have 1 non canon battle royale session in each of my campaigns as it usually allows for people to potentially deal with any frustrations and people tend to always have a fun time with them

[@greygoblin9491]

Funnest way to do PvP is have the fighter and the barbarian do a sparing match. It's one of the few things martials get that mages don't. They can fight each other for the fun of it in the first place.

[@JesusHChrist-REAL-]

Me and a buddy were going to have this bit when my character got introduced to the party, where they got into a 'fight' where we did practically nothing to each other because we both had stupid high AC. He picked up a log rolled a 19 and a 20 on disadvantage just to do it and still got past my AC

[@the_fungus_]

In my campaign, there’s a small arena that has an enchantment that immediately puts anyone below 0 HP back to 1.

[@emberthefox4951]

A good excuse for PvP without expanding tensions would be a sparring match, preferably in a session where the DM allows PvP to have separate hp from regular gameplay. If things are going slow it can be a good way to get a taste of action, allows a sort of story progression between the participating characters since they can better grasp where they're at in terms of power, and saying no is a viable way to avoid an encounter. Try to ask the DM prior to any attempts and ask someone who's itching for combat. As for the DMs out there, I have a neat idea for if your players like PvP and you're fine with managing it: Make a mini campaign or a side/filler quest where a tournament is taking place. The party can enjoy some PvP and a narrative can still be pushed along if you play your cards right. You can also get creative with NPC participants, it's a great excuse to bring out some of your groups old characters or a character that you want to play in a campaign where you aren't the DM and see how they stack up to certain members of the current party. The characters you brought out could even be used later in the campaign, allowing more of a connection between the party and the NPC since at least one party member faced them in battle and knows what they're capable of.

[@DallasHunterH]

One of the first ttrpg I ever played was vampire the masquerade and one pc killed another pc and I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to do.

[@DallasHunterH]

But we all still laugh about it in good fun to this day.

[@PlayYourRole]

Ahahaha that's such an explosive introduction to TTRPG huh?

[@shadow_thiy]

I joined an online game 3 months ago. I as a player got a very solid impression after my character tried another spell on another character that had appeared to threaten him that pvp isn't a thing. Then after a couple months of weekly play. Another player got cursed by a lich and hid it well. After a few good rolls and commune spells my cleric figured it out and partially removed the curse through roleplay and a good deception roll. Then later that same session my character got a letter from the rogue for a meeting. Suspecting combat in character but not out of character my cleric went to ask another party member about it. I was told to trust the encounter so I didn't cast death ward even though I had it prepared. The rogue decided to assassinate my cleric through a one shot crit and threw my cleric's body off of the ship to hide the evidence. Out of character I was upset and furious. Having preconceptions in and out of character that there wasn't going to be pvp and that I hated the fact that a moment of trust was used to one shot my character. And since he's a cleric and fallen into the ocean. Swimming is practically impossible. The DM could see that I was upset, but the players kept reassuring him and I that it wasn't personal. And I was told to, "rise up to the challenge and roll up a new character next session". I hold no ill will to the dm because he is new to the game and he did try to find some way in game to save my character, but the group was pulling rules and mechanics over narrative ways to save the character. Days after the session I tried multiple times to air my issues with it, but the group at large didn't seem to see an issue with what happened. It's safe to say I'm not playing in that campaign again because of it.

[@colinchildress1251]

As the table necromancer, my in-game party doesn't know we all have a clone since we hit level 17 and finally got Wish. I just used it to make Clones of them without any components. Out of game, they knew they were safe and I'd just bring them back. But that let them act the way they think their characters should without worrying too much about consequences (even though our party synergy has always been really good together).

[@modshade2648]

I've had our undead warlock rolling undead fortitude because he got in the middle of my bear totem barbarian/paladin and our berserker barbarian (another party member) got into a booze driven, naked sweaty man brawl in the woods where they refused to hold back because "barbarian reasons". the berserker picked my char up and threw him at one point, he landed on the warlock who was particularly squishy at the time and low health after a battle earlier. honestly nearly killing my friends like that was some of the funniest moments we've ever had in that campaign. the campaign itself was a buncha chaotic murder hobos, all half brothers and sisters of various races and backgrounds, trying to work together to find their bard dad for their own reasons. the biggest threat to us the whole time was honestly us and it was great.

[@codycunningham3862]

My player's wanted to PvP soooo bad that I eventually let them, but the catch was that they could use their story characters and magic items they had and their inventories, but the fighting was held outside of the campaign setting and I let them do the duels they wanted in a controlled location, along with some team vs team skirmishes and a 'knock-out' style free for all. The most important thing about me telling you this information though, is that legit every single player wanted this, so there was no bad blood after it, because they were doing it because it was fun and interesting not because they were mad at each other

[@Spiceodog]

Totally agree P.s. in the wizard vs fighter, if the wizard wins initiative the fighters probably done for

[@Recardoisntaken]

I think I've had a weird pvp encounter and I want to share it, so my party had died to the bbeg and had fought through the 9 hells I set it up as a kinda respected trial thing anyway as they made it to the final layer they faced asmodeus (I made him a lot easier to kill seeing as the party was only level 15) and after around 10 rounds asmodeus made a deal with the monk. Asmodeus told him that if he doesn't kill relin (a sorcerer) he would kill the entire planet, the monk agreed and walks over and they have a fight where the paladin tackles the monk but in the end relin gets knocked and they eventually revive her and kill asmodeus permanently

[@gray9818]

So I just started playing D&D this past year and I'm in a campaign that my friend started for new players. 2 of the people in our party are rogues and at one point their characters hatched a plan to scam a stable hand into giving us an extra horse by staging a fight, bumping one of them into the stable hand, pick-pocket him, and then buy another horse with the money they just pick-pocketed off of him (which, in all honesty, is hilariously brilliant). So they had to roll a performance check and weren't very convincing so one of them threw a rock at the other to make it look more real and ended up getting max damage by accident. They ended up distracting the guy enough with the injury to where he didn't notice they paid him with his own cash. So far that was our only PvP experience (and likely the last) but it was so wacky and unintentional we all got a laugh out of it.

[@emilymares9623]

Would you be interested in doing a video about lycanthropy? How do we play a werewolf or similar werecreature? And how in the world do I manage it as a DM?

[@garrettlaturski6703]

I only had 2 instances of pvp, the first was after my brother killed an NPC for lying to us, I the paladin made 1 unarmed strike, punching him in the face. The second was because of a magic thing in a AL module, which made another player was forced to attack the closest player. And it would only end if we left the hole we were in, or after 10 minutes.

[@Taka-yn9ur]

Another way to do pvp, in my opinion, is if your running a one shot tournament type game. In that instance i think everyone should know ahead of time what their signing up for.

[@beastwarsFTW]

My groups use a battle arena with an failsafe to keep death to a minimum or it's a major in-game conflict like choosing which race to help in a war.

[@brettcardon4552]

I had an unfortunate experience in a PVP once. I was playing a Barbarian against a wizard (my DM) and a friend of ours from our group was DMing the fight. The battle map was 40 ft by 40 ft by 40 ft with no cover and a wooden 5 ft stand in the middle of the room. The wizard started by casting fly on himself and started casting fireball at me repeatedly. I had some javelins but I literally had no weapon that I could attack him with unless it was disadvantage. I felt pretty helpless while I was in the fight and just wanted it to end after 15 minutes. An hour later he finally got all my hit points down and my character died. Of course it was only supposed to be a dream in the context of our campaign but it left me as a player feeling pretty helpless and exploited.

[@andradios6029]

We dont do pvps anymore in our group because one of the players is a huge min maxer, first he used a homebrew to play and misinterpreted the class habilities and caused 12d10+90 on everyone on one turn... He was a lvl 5 fighter, he was forced to either change the subclass or use another character, than he make a true vision ranger gloomstalker and Spent 5 hours convincing the GM to use a eversmoke bottle and killed everyone because no one could get out of his smoke zone

[@patrickdees5256]

The first time has had happened to me, a player killed the the party at our weakest, at the end of the out of the abyss. (Please note I have aspergers, but I don't use this as a shield to justify how I acted) I was so sudden, I couldn't think of what to do, I froze.. after it happened, I was just so heartbroken. I was playing that scenario in my head over and over, figuring out how I could've done it differently. I even talked about how it effected me mentally, to the player, though I was less than kind when I confronted them.It kinda gave me a mentality of, "the next people I play with are going to backstab me the first chance they get." Thankfully I've gotten passed it, and haven't thought about that moment as much as I did. Me and the same player that tpked the party are playing in a new campaign together, and are cool now. My apologies for making this sound more like a r/rpg horror story thread.

[@PlayYourRole]

Unfortunately, this isn't super uncommon. Truthfully, these scenarios should NEVER happen unless there has been prior discussion about it with the group.

[@patrickdees5256]

@@PlayYourRole yeah. We had discussed pvp before. The play came in super late, so they probably didn't think about asking us out of character if it would be alright, and I had just gotten so attached to my character (a young female Goliath genie warlock) by that point. It was honestly devastating when it happened, because I had so many plans in store for. I've been doing my best not to assume the party I'm in is going to backstab my character, especially with how my brain works. and the second group I'm in keeps assuring me that though their characters are chaotic neutral, they will not betray my neutral good character. The important part is, I'm at least trying to move passed it.

[@Aja-e5j]

In the previous campaign I pickpocketed a party member Mid-combat to get an item that was mine and they were holding onto And in the last session the warlock used friends to try and scare the sorcerer, but she failed and got magic missiled And a few years ago I really wanted my fighter to duel the paladin, but the campaign was discontinued before we got to it (each player was to get a divine artifact, I had mine but wanted him to get his, so both of us can get all out and have a fair fight (also those things came with "immortality"))

[@skittlesilly]

I know, pretty soon our zealot barb will turn against us with as a new vorpal sword wielding chain devil drider (we're level 9) and I'm considering just having to try and Geas them so that they don't kill us but I don't know how well party will be with our barbarian only with us because he's being mind controlled

[@ron.c.koster]

Story time: My bestfriend and i had a pvp fight ingame, i was playing an samurai hexblade and he was as a brute fighter/bloodhunter lycan , we had sort of rivalry friend ship ingame. His char had been having trouble controlling the lycan , i was the perfect person to 'lett lose on'. We had talk about this for a few weeks. I ended up losing and he was more able to control the lycan. It was awesome for us and the party didnt see it comming but the timeing everything was perfect. Just saying it could work but pleasr talk about it if it is ok to do so!! Our timing and friendship made it an easy storybead but still.

[@jon-thomasmccullough-helm7339]

What I don't understand is that kill another player servant because they of the knight background then cries when his character dies in a DM has to Reckon it

[@ongoingplague3148]

"A monk is going to stun somebody to the point where they're never going to be able to act at all." Ah, Vox Machina vs. the Mighty Nein.

[@Cheesusful]

Only pvp moment l've had in my game so far seemed earned and appropriate to the story (and was not to "the death"): basically the party had just defeated the arcs villain and were interrogating him, till (for story reasons) the barlock slit his throat to steal his soul. The barbarian took offence at this, being more aligned towards good, and pinned the halfling barlock up against the wall and demanded answers. As it was a character moment and not about trying to kill each other I allowed it to continue.

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

I think good etiquette is DON'T PVP,. You have, you, THE PLAYER, to find a reason why you are adventuring with the party. It's the game, a party of adventurers helping each other questing in the world. Just like you are expected not to rape, murder, pillage, steal for no reason. Now, there can always be an exception to the rule, but when you do that, you are expected to do this while communicating accordingly with the party, the DM, gives everyone a head's up, and head toward a compromise with the player you are facing. You can't just ''win'' over another player. I butted head with my pacifist cleric in one game with the murderous hyena berseker thingy another player was playing, the tandem we develop was that I pointed clearly bad baddy monster that couldn't be negociated with to the berserker so she could have her fun, and I would always step in in front of humanoids telling them upfront ''if you don't comply and to good, this muredrous machine might kill you, and I might not be able to save you''. It was fair game from then on. I couldn't just follow her around all campaing and be like ''hey you murderous dipshit, don't play your character''.

[@billtie6052]

Yeah! Rape within reason!

[@cyrusmore]

Well. What about sparrings? It is being seen as a training and there's similar classes engaging. Fighter-Fighter, Wizard-Sorcerer, Cleric-Paladin, and so on. Sparring between fighters just gives healthy competition and it does make sense. We've had some sparrings and this is a lot of fun especially if DM adds some non-fighting competition. Like arm-wrestling between Goliath Barbarian and Dwarf Fighter

[@trevorninja100]

I played in a game where it was like a school for adventurers and there was effectively a "no death" barrier around the school. This was needed since most students were level 1-4 and the teachers were level 10-15 and sometimes a student was fried with lightning or impaled with a flying sword. Ended up having a PVP match where their character, a spoiled rich kid, insulted my character's lack of refinement because of my dead mother, There's more to the whole story but this is a short version. Ended up winning with only 1 hp left and after the fight we were celebrating cause both of us wanted me to win. He wanted a redemption arc for his character where he learned that social status wasn't everything in life and my character desperately needed something to pull him out of his ever-spiraling depression due to being a tortured isekaied soul. The point is that we both wanted to fight and both accepted either outcome. If he won then his redemption arc would simply come later and my character would be spurred to get stronger...mostly for revenge, no one insults his mother. I think we scared the GM though cause after that we made it into a rivalry and kept talking about a "fated rematch" outside the game. A rematch that never ended up happening cause the game fell apart due to two characters getting a bit too NSFW with each other.

[@BrunoFernandes-ty7mf]

PvP is tricky indeed, specially as a begginer DM. I had one player whose goal was to be the strongest (being clear: this was the goal of the PLAYER and not the character), so he build his character always to be strong, to cause the most amount of damage in the party (even being a cleric and the party having fighter, barbarian etc) and be the "winner" mostly, kill most mobs etc. At some point, although it was partially coherent with his character, he decides to DEMAND some of the loot the barbarian found, and this barbarian was the only character in the party who was strictly gold-driven. Well, the cleric player decided to fight after some attempts to intimidate not functioning. Not going to be specific because was not D&D - but a brazilian game, Tormenta20 - but because i thought the conflict were only verbal, by intimidation etc, i provided some advantages to the cleric for the rolls he made. But then he decided to fight and these advantagens, in combat, were gonna be waaaaay powerful because it synched with some feats he had. So, a bonus i gave only to be useful for the mental battle, became a landslide advantage against the barbarian. As usual in my table, because of my inexperience, i stopped the game, and explained how the PvP in that conditions were gonna be unfair as the advantage i gave was not for combat, but for the debate and intimidation. But as per the rules of the game, technically they would be persisting in combat. But it was a mistake, and was usual to backtrack some decidions, mostly in favor of them, when i made mistakes. That situation, for me, was one of them (especially because would harm the other player in a PvP he didn't ask for). Well, the power driven player was not happy to not have his massive advantages, and staying only with the basic advantage. Discussion after discussion, during and after the game, and he doesn't play with us anymore. And put his tables (one campaign recently started and one shot closing to finish; i am a player in both; but the other players of my table aren't) on hold for more than a month now. Most of the problem was my inexperience, my lack of control of the game, and the ideia that "well, PvP is not a problem, no one here is a child, it is a game". But when one is put in the "losing" side (the funny thing is that he was gonna win anyways, if he accepted the change), problems start. Specially if a player is power driven and started the PvP because he knew he was gonna overpower the other. Learned my lesson, and gonna be well more prepared for PvP, be it for disabling de situation, be it for stipulating rules before-hand or being clear about whats affects and what does not affects the battle.

[@2Guin]

My dnd party has a specific rule that don't allow ik habilities on players, example: "power word kill" it is pretty fun, considering the unbalanced classes... And yeah, we do pvp for fun sometimes.

[@hythunza1811]

Basically this, but players are never allowed to kill one another. The biggest issue I'm occasionally finding online (never had to PvP another player/have players PvP, thanks the dice gods for that), is that even in spite of things, players and DMs alike tend to not understand that the PCs are both the main protagonists, and the supporting protagonists to each other. Don't give injuries from PvP, leave players conscious and at 1HP, and certainly don't let them do it to be an arse. The party needs to work together in order to survive your world, as that's the whole point of forming an adventuring party, in addition to give DM reason to tell a story. Also, make sure both players are aware of mechanics... some players forget a simple grapple can prevent the Warlock/Sorceror with Eldritch Adept from spamming Eldritch Blast (Made a character sheet to use as a boss once, players didn't realize it was as simple as getting a grapple off to massively reduce boss damage in order to prevent the S of the VSM requirements listed in spell, in order to beat a level 14 warlock with high CHA as a bunch of 7s.). And if the players are using PvP for mechanical reasons (which I have indeed found to be the potential case with some homebrew and whatnot requiring damaging any entity or needs to be at a certain HP threshold to be more effective), feel free to give 'em the injuries and death saves. Don't go further than that ofc by adding an encounter.

[@comickazii6629]

The kobolds' damn alpaca familiar was trying to kill us all, so my 11 foot tall 2 ton warforged abso-friggin-lutely tried to backhand it into the lava. Kobolds riding the thing be damned. Then the kenku brothers decided to join in and crit the alpaca, which had half a ton of salvage and weapons in its storage space. One of the kobolds had his lower body shredded by the shrapnel and the other died not even a minute later. Then the cursed rock the last kobold kept talking to grew into an earth genasi and his backup character was immediately introduced.

[@PlayYourRole]

THAT was a.... That was a ride to read.

[@PlayYourRole]

NONE THE LESS one of the single most entertaining ways I have ever seen to introduce a new character haha

[@comickazii6629]

@@PlayYourRole The rock's name was Baja. When the kobold threw it he would yell, "Baja Blast!" When we asked why Baja has been stuck as a rock for the last 1000 years, he replied, "My bitch of an ex-wife!"

[@snake698]

I had a barbarian and a fighter beat each other because they were worried about each other and didn't want them in the frontline so they were like "I'll put you in single digits so you can't tank"

[@user-fe2ne7qx9z]

This might not be the appropriate place to comment this, but I think that "stories vs mechanics" is a false dichotomy. Just because I made a minmaxed character doesn't mean my ability to roleplay has been striped away. In fact, I believe there is ample roleplay opportunity in combat. I made two very similar optimized unarmed physad builds for different SR games. The first one would use his overwhelming unga-bunga strength to punch people into paste. I'd describe how he would throw his entire body weight into his enemies and the crunching sound of ribcages being utterly destroyed. The other one was a much more disciplined fighter who had knowledge of martial arts (Martials Arts in 4e are significantly better than 5e). He would wreath his fists in flames and chop through his foes butter. Due to an incantation Geas, he would have to shout something every time he activated his magic. Once, he shouted, "SHORYUKEN!" while upper cutting some poor corpsec goon.

[@Justin-fk6br]

Its an annoying, but common assumption unfortunately.

[@nabra97]

We had PvP 'cause my bard wanted to get a scar %) No in-game or out-of-game conflicts, basically sparring. It was fun to do once, but I'd play a sporting duel as some ability competition rather than a regular fight if we would do such stuff regularly (even with NPCs). Rolling sword attacks against each other till the first hit or till someone is down, without being able to do something else, is pretty lame on its own.

[@paulovictor9158]

For PvP to be fun the ones doing the pvp have to have a good intention, example: I've been in a campaign for a while, around 1 year and a half long, we are around 75 per cent complete with the main story, then a friend decided to participate, he made a combo using variant human hex warlock + devil sight with the darkness spell, and he really wanted to show off, I accepted to have a duel with him and later on we would find a way to fit into the narrative, I barely won the duel even with some magic itens , meanwhile he had none. Next session we found a way to fit it, (I made an oath to a princess, to be her guard, he chose to be a little inconvenient be it on purpose or not, then we fought) he got unsatisfied for loosing, not a lot, but a little. Then as I was talking to the princess I said: T: "I humbled him" P: "I heard you two fought" T: "That's precisely what I meant, he was a tough adversary, with a little more luck he could've won" P: *The princess pointed to my sword a +2 relic of my god* "Even with this?" T: "He was exceptional" P: "And you wouldn't be exceptional?" T: "I personally consider myself exceptional princess, but there are exceptions even to that"

[@paulovictor9158]

Winning doesn't imply treating the looser as a looser, this small conversation certainly made him feel better, specially because if he was the one with the +2 sword I'd be fucked.

[@jackiesharp018]

Idk how to deal with it when I have a dm who kinda has let in game pvp conflicts come into reality. I've tried to get my parents to let me not go to sessions but I have to have dnd because 'oh you had fun in Them' and my entire party is mad at me for telling the dm the problem because I feel like he was unaware and he just keeps nerfing and removing player characters while not touching our 'main' paladin because he's pretty much perfect and it's tearing our friendships apart and I'm constantly told not to tell our dm about the problem because he has anxiety and likely is stressed out about everything but that doesn't make it fair when I am turned into the villian in the game and in reality. It's so frustrating. I don't know which scenario made it the worst but it started when one of our party members betrayed us and the dm ruined the betrayal by making about how my character was evil instead of how the paladin was pretending to not have committed a war crime by literally saving this evil person's life

[@martecia2709]

My backup character is sort of intended to be a mini boss because my current character is going to leave rhe party only temporarily. Hes an astral self monk of the same level as everyone, with 3 levels of bear totem barbarian tacked on. Meant for a 1v4. Kinda built him to be a grappling tank tho. The goal isn't to kill anyone though it's just to have a relatively short pvp sessiop and we have failsafes just in case i die too fast or if my character is somehow too strong for a 1v4 Should mention they're all casters and a rogue If anyone's got tip and advice for this particular situation that's be nice

[@voidmystic00]

I think pvp can be used as a means of the party training with each other and/or developing new skills as they lv up.

[@TheRawrnstuff]

I wouldn't call that PvP, personally. Sure, the characters might be attacking each other in that scenario, but it's in the framework of getting to know themselves and each other better - an activity of growth. To me, PvP implies the opposite. Destructive intent.

[@triplezeroxz5875]

I engaged in pvp once One of our characters was being a drunk lunatic, I knocked him out. Didn't kill him. Didn't want to, just wanted to make sure he didn't mess anything up for us. The GM let me and it was fine. And in character for both of us, for better or for worse 😅 (This was Star wars rpg btw)

[@PlayYourRole]

Sometimes a firm knock on the head does what needs to be done

[@triplezeroxz5875]

@@PlayYourRole it was And tbh I like the idea of pvp. Especially for training arcs for the characters, or for nonlethal challenges. And I think it can be a nonlethal way for people to get a good idea of what they can do on their character sheet. Granted the game isn't balanced that way but if a table could homebrew a pvp mode for dnd I would love it. Personally speaking.

[@coombscharlie]

Isn't PVP most likely when one player is charmed, possessed or otherwise influenced by an enemy? The DM's role then is to ensure that the charmed character isn't deliberately pulling their punches. However, if PVP happens because one character really wants to attack another, then the other characters in the party have to react in whatever way they see fit - which might be by breaking the fight up.

[@cubicengineering4715]

As someone who has played a wizard on a PbP server with a special area for people to go and have PvP fights I can certainly attest to the fact that the classes aren't balanced to fight one another. Though in the Fighter vs Wizard example I'd actually say the Wizard is rather likely to come out on top! That is, if you've got the right spells I suppose At levels 1&2 Sleep is an incredibly good spell in PvP, averaging 22.5 effective damage. Sure it doesn't actually kill, but now you can spend as long as you'd like removing all of your opponent's weapons then wake them up with a critical Chromatic Orb for 27 average damage Then at 3&4 Tasha's Mind Whip shows up. You failed your save? Enjoy the 10.5 psychic damage whilst I step away without AoO and you aren't allowed to move approach and attack next turn Then from level 5 you get access to the best anti-martial spell; Summon Fey. Specifically the Mirthful variant, as the Charmed condition will likely shut down any way your opponent has of damaging you until you next damage them. And you get to try charming them EVERY round! Plus even if they succeed on their save for a round you've still got another body on the board. If they want to pursue you; you can spend three Misty Steps as Dash + Disengage on a bonus action so even a dashing foe will fall behind all the while your fey can keep pace, attacking and getting AoO for 2d6+6. If they ignore you and go for the fey, then you've just bought yourself 30hp of safety and the time to retreat whilst blasting with Scorching Ray or setting up defences with Mirror Image. Also I think the idea that casters are squishy is overexaggerated. We're definitely falling behind in HP but our AC is actually respectable. Just two 1st level spells, Mage Armor and Shield, get us to 18 AC; full plate. But whilst we can't use shields for +2 AC, we can add out dexterity! Also if you want to go hard on AC then go Bladesinger and now you're adding your intelligence too; 24 AC at level 2.

[@Ryan-jk6mg]

Amount of games that been in where PvP was talked about at session 0, is zero. Mostly to the fact that I joined a campaign after someone has left or I found the campaign later and they thought I was decent to play with. Cinema times I've been in PvP is three. With the last one being that a character that is part of our group decided to give some gold I got running in my intelligence business as a character they took it and they basically end up being destroyed. So my character rightfully angry goes down from where they were to talk this person and asked a simple question why my character did not like the answer and attacked him with that Homebrew item that made him have the paralyzed condition for a hour. After some talking with the rest of the party she did not throw the character overboard into the water and kill the character. Then it was slightly absolve but my character doesn't trust stuff around the other characters now and we're all fine with it at the moment.

[@green_frogball1015]

me and my party met some frog ppl, and one of them stabbed our fighter, that made it so he turned on us. i must say, it was a close call, i was low the ranger was down, the fighter was under the influence of whatever the hell that frog thing did. the fighter did manage to shake off its effects, got ranger up and it went smooth from there on out. was quite fun actually

[@goofygoober779]

I think PvP is fine as long as the people engaging in PvP can clearly differentiate between their characters feelings and their own feelings. It is more about emotional maturity and not so much about purpose of PvP. In my opinion, there is often an instigator for PvP and a second player who lets it happen aka escalates the situation and some times players have to find out the hard way that they are not the protagonist of the game but rather a part of a team, where anyone and everyone is equally as important.

[@heyfell4301]

I'm so protective with pvp, not letting my players even indirectly fuck the party, that one arc style became my players' favourite in existence: *PVP TOURNAMEEEEEEEEEENT*

[@lordderppington4694]

This is funny. Another player and I want to fight each other, because both of our characters are really strong and wanna figure out who's better. I thought this video would be more about rules than "Why/when to pvp" We just wanna duel each other in friendly competitive way, not in a drama angry way.

[@greatjagras6381]

There are many ways, privately for example. My favorite way is don't be that rude guy at the table and pick on a PC because you don't like the player. If you decide if your PC doesn't like another PC, pull them to the side, maybe with a party member and talk about their actions/choices. If you want to throw a threat in there, go ahead.

[@cptclonks7279]

I remember a session, everything was chill. I leave the table for 20 mins and when I returned a player is dead and and the player who killed him was getting his ass whooped. I the sided with the killer rezzing him for 1hp every round. I'm surprised cause my pc is supposed to be the ultra killy man

[@katetaylor9558]

I do not allow PVP at my table in three different games that I was in as a player were ended because of PVP and I am pretty sure it was just run badly by those DMs but I haven't seen it go well once so as a DM I don't allow PVP.

[@Damianweibler]

Let the drama flow, and everyone remain adults about it

[@Remixedfern_Nautilus]

The characters don’t have to agree to fight, but the players do

[@jefthereaper]

Make sure all players understand killing other players will not be tolerated in your campaign (a rule you make clear at the start of the game) If its not the kind of game they are looking for then they should not join. Fighting between players will be tolerated, just not fatal one's. If a duel issue's, make sure the characters in-game either agree on a non lethal fight, or ensure that when one of the players gets reduced to 0, you simply state they are now at 1 hp, and have the rest of the party step in to get them away from each-other (no rolls or saves will be allowed, they WILL be split up and won't be allowed to further attack each-other) If they try to keep going despite this, out of character inform them again these are the rules agreed on by all before starting the game. If at the start it was agreed on that players could and should be able to kill each-other, either set some rules for dueling to prevent drama, or make sure that everyone is clear on the risks involving this kind of game, and make sure not to create a character they would be too attached to. More importantly to unanimously agree on a "No Drama" rule if their char is killed, as this is the kind of game they are agreeing on. Suck it up and make a new character.

[@bljy853]

Warning: this is a bit of a book to read The PvP I've been involved in has almost* always been story related and never actually come to a character death (ie. Causing Fear on a player to get them to back off, attacking a player because they're undead when you're an anti-Undead Cleric, knocking someone out and carrying them away from a situation they weren't going to win, etc.) I say Almost* because there was one very, very strange game where three of the six players were just... weird. Context: It was an "Evil" game (more like very morally ambiguous, but all of our characters were criminals and kinda scummy in our own ways). The DM specifically said that we should avoid being baby eating psychopaths, because we still wanted to tell a fun story and that wouldn't be fun, so me and two other players did just that. We made dark, morally ambiguous characters that had a reason to work together and not fuck each other over. The other three... did not. So, further context, one of the problem players (PP) was a DM for another game me and about half the group were also in. He had his issues, like real world issues that leaked into the game. Racism, Sexism, and straight up lying were all big red flags, but we thought it'd be different because he was a player and the DM could shut him down (which he did). Another PP was also a player in that other game and he was just a very odd person. Not particularly combative or toxic, he just didn't seem to understand basic concepts sometimes and it made for very awkward situations (he would do random stuff like make his character fortnight dance or crawl around like a worm in the background while the other characters actually participated, it was weird. He also played a literal Nazi during a Superhero oneshot and didn't understand why that was a problem.) And the last PP I didn't really know well at the time, but he turned out to be the biggest cause for PvP. The first session, our group has been together for at least a couple weeks, consisting of a Changeling Sorcerer (cool guy), Kobold Alchemist Artificer (cool girl), Triton Paladin (PP I didn't know), Warforged Gunslinger (DM PP), and I was playing a Drow Battlesmith Artificer (the awkward PP joined a little later as a Lizardperson Monk). We have all turned to common banditry for one reason or another, winter is approaching and we have barely any money or food, and travel has slowed to a crawl so there's no one to rob on the roads. If we don't find a job or a source of food soon, we will starve. So we head to a known haven for criminals of the kingdom, a camp in the woods led by a large organization of outlaws. Most of us spread out, get to know people, ask around about any jobs that need to be done, do some of our own side hustles (the Changeling was a prostitute). The Triton Paladin though? He uses a disguise kit to try and make himself look like a high ranking soldier of the kingdom's army and walks into the camp and tries to recruit anyone and everyone he sees. A camp full of outlaws, bandits, and high-profile criminals of the kingdom he is now impersonating. This does not go well for him. The DM is very clearly trying to be lenient here, so all the NPCs form a mob and try to force him out. He then takes his dagger and slits the throat of the first guy he tried to recruit, right in front of everyone (thankfully, the camp had a low-level cleric that saved him). Now, the DM has literally been backed into a corner and forced to actually punish this character, so all the NPCs gang up on him, hold him down, tie him up, and string him to a post where they're going to hold a public execution by arrow storm. By this point, our character's notice what's going on. We have known each other for only a couple weeks so most of us ignore his attempts to flag us down to help him (we're selfish characters after all, and he wasn't making any good points for why we should help him. Actually, he was trying to implicate us, so we pretended we didn't know him). The DMPP though, he offers to buy his freedom (despite billing his Warforged as an emotionless assassin bot that doesn't care for other's wellbeing). My character tries to stop him since we're already very, very low on gold, but its too late, so we lose half our money to save this clearly insane person who tried to get us all killed. TritonPP is physically thrown out of the camp while we discuss how we can't trust him and we should just leave him behind instead of dealing with his insanity. TritonPP, meanwhile, has gone into the woods to remove his disguise, and then came back to the camp and tried to pretend that the fish in the poorly made soldier armor totally wasn't him, even though he is literally the only fish person there. We get our job and leave camp to pursue it, but TritonPP catches up with us. We tell him to fuck off, that we can't trust him, but we all stop to hear his response, because, OOC, we don't want to just fuck this guy's character over in the first session and we expect him to have a good reason for doing this and a good argument from his character for why he should stay. What's he do? He uses Command to force my character to Grovel, because he didn't like how rude my character was to him (personally, I think it was because my character was the one who said we should ditch his character even though A. his character never heard her say that and B. it was established before the first session that she is a paranoid Drow who is slow to trust and fast to betray if given good reason. Trying to get us all killed is a pretty good reason). This is what kicked off the PvP because my Drow lived under a very strict code of honor and dominance for all of her life. She was never to accept insult, always prove her strength, and kill anyone who disrespected her, especially any men. And this Triton man just did all of that in one go. So she attacked him. I let the DM and him know that she is coming at him with the intent to kill. DM allowed it, and TritonPP panicked. The other PCs stayed out of it for the most part, though they did take their turns to back up or take some Actions to counter his AOE spells. That session ended with his Triton being decapitated and my Drow taking his horseshoe crab shield with her as a trophy. That wasn't the end of the PvP though. I don't want to write more of a book than I already have, but that PP came back with another character, a Goliath Paladin, who ended up also being killed by the entire party this time for different but equally deranged actions, and then he disappeared never to be seen again. And the WarforgedPP's player was kicked out of the game after he tried to go behind me, two other PCs, and the DM's back to fuck us all over and completely derail the story. His character ended up being the target of an assassination job we took, so technically it wasn't real PvP but it basically was in our minds.

[@remiremiremi1936]

Whenever pvp occurs, no matter if im player or a dm in this situation i tell everyone involved, both spectating and picking a fight that no matter how powerful thair character is and how much they as a character think this is what they should do theres always at least like 30% chance they will go down as long as theyre the same level and do they really want to take that risk and have 30% chance to lose their precious character they spent weeks building for some hyper musculine bullshit? And if im the one whos picking the fight which happened before then i look for ways to introduce both side endorsed rules for the duel, we might agree to not use certain spell or not use magic items and aids like magical potions or gifts from other players and finally to agree what does the winner get from loser. It takes some patience but it tells everyone that we will fight but in time and place where its fair, even if one character wont agree to resolve things that way he will lose anyway because usually dont want to travel with cheater, backstabber or even teamkiller so yeah.

[@gotriomgmanz5419]

Uhh hey monk main here I hate pvp against (ranged)rangers/rouges and gun slingers and ...warlocks that have guns as their patrons, I hate fighting them because one time a player said that they were going to open fire on my character wich they did after a few moments of dialog and I told my dm that he would respond to the gun being raised with a prepared deflect missile if the gun fires, I catch the bullet, drop it to the floor and pvp just kinda stopped there.

[@joaof5838]

my first character ever died to an chaotic evil pc who killed my character because i was "annoying" (in-game). it was heartbreaking...

[@Epic24123]

Once I had players get into PvP over personal feelings, and to solve it I threw in an event that forced them to stop fighting. They ended up forgetting about the fight and carried on.

[@keldon_champion]

I only tolerate PvP on a case by case basis such as a twist at the end of a campaign, or planned stuff that's meant to advance the story. The players fighting with each other because they or their character can't get along with the group then it's time for a new character (or player if they just can't get along with the group)

[@CrusaderKnight2000]

What if they want to pvp for the fun of it?

[@keldon_champion]

@@CrusaderKnight2000 in the right group maybe but I have been playing d&d for over 20 years and I have never seen it go well because someone is always butt hurt and the group is worse after. Edit: also if the players all want to fight with each other I recommend a different game such as warcry or frost grave because these are designed for it.

[@CrusaderKnight2000]

@@keldon_champion You ever had a pc as the villain?

[@keldon_champion]

@@CrusaderKnight2000 yes but the reveal is usually the end of the campaign and the PC that's the bag guy knows what's coming so it doesn't impact the same as PC infighting

[@greygoblin9491]

You're a little off on the people who want to make strong characters. That's the point of the game for them, to challenge themselves. they might want to fight simply as a way to compare notes, which is fine. If it turns into a dick measuring contest then you need to step in afterwards and bring up the positive moments bolth sides had. And mention ways they could synergize their strength to turn it from a contest to a collaboration.

[@gabrielbaieel8073]

I had a party that monopolize money and itens and didnt give me my share because i "didnt deal damage enough"... Robbing them would be justified?

[@thepregnantpsychopath628]

We had pvp once in my party. I learned that day that vs ing wizards royally sucks

[@Cosmic_K13]

I find it funny that the only time the monk is consistently good is when fighting their own teammates.

[@silverrain530]

Then there's my group where 90% of characters are PCs and NPCs are rare: "Ooh, interesting..."

[@CJ-hh3gx]

Artificer initiated combat with intent to hold the fighter and barbarian in place so our enemy, a Rakshasa collecting soul debts could do what she came to do. It was entirely for story. He didn't understand why they should help people who sold their souls thinking it "wasn't actually going to happen". In his mind, this was simply the consequences of their actions. He managed to stun the barbarian with Hypnotic Pattern, but the fighter was a half-elf so it didn't take. Unfortunately, that meant getting physical with the fighter who was already fighting some hellhounds. When the fighter went down, he stabilized him immediately. The intent was never to kill them, just to stop what he felt was wasted effort on their part. It turned out alright. The players were fine though their characters were mad. The barbarian took a swing at the Artificer and hit him for nearly all the HP he had left.

[@LocalMaple]

If I ever play a crazy character, I first want to play Tyrian Callows. And my intro would be a PvP due to a misunderstanding. Imagine a Fey that adopted a child Tyrian to groom into their right hand, only to realize she did too good a job at it. The child has gone crazy in his loyalty to her, and can’t socialize with even other Fey that well. So she will look for a potential mate for him, one who is sociable and naively kind. The Fey will give him orders to assist her on her journey, protect her, and don’t attack her companions unless they attack first. When he protests leaving her side for a nobody, she will add on to become the heroine’s friend and to bring her [Impossible MacGuffin] should they come across it. With those orders, Tyrian would leave and join up with the party. But his Charisma is poor, so his attempts to explain sound like a threat. After a couple rounds of fighting, Tyrian would say something that explains himself, and the party lets him tag along. Roleplay, he’s still the crazy. But he has to defer to the heroine, and try to get along with her. ----- As for how I build him, I’m not yet sure. If I give him Shifter, he can have the disengage reaction. But if I go Dwarf, the Tyrian fake-out would be funny, and I can Patient Defense Dwarven Fortitude. Monk is a must, either Sun Soul or Astral Self. If I don’t go Shifter, Barbarian can give me the AC tail. Otherwise, Battlemaster has the intimidating attacks. If I were to do a 4 level dip into Rogue for Tyrian Callows, what subclass should I pick?

[@nicolasvillasecaali7662]

4:30 why no both?

[@Elminster-ln4yw]

Anyone else annoyed that he never told us “How to not kill each other” as the thumbnail implied he would?

[@Nirrith]

Our sorcerer and I pvp all the time as a meme, just one or two hits because it's funny to us

[@davidedwards2270]

we had "pvp" where my buddies monk wanted to wash my bear-bearian because in his 30 years of like he had never bathed and in the bath houses biggest room we fought hard and broke allot of things but in the end Wallace the worn vagabond of the forest was clean its not like we even planed this we where just drunk

[@erikbuchanan4648]

I had a game that included a woman, her x boyfriend and her current boyfriend. The new boyfriends character had a motorcycle and the old boyfriend telekinesis. The old boyfriend, out of the blue, telekeneticly grabs the motorcycle and begins to attack the woman and new boyfriend's characters. The new boyfriend turned intangible with a primed grenade. He dropped it inside the characters body and let it explode. One of my more memorable games.