What about the cleric that always heals himself or the thief that takes something from the chest before anyone knows about? Do you think its possible to be selfish or is it your right to exercise the best of your class for yourself before others?
You can do what you want with your character so long as you remember the other players can do the same and they might want to 'punish' your selfishness.
Of course it is possible to be too selfish. Most campaigns are cooperative ventures where the wellbeing of the team as a whole is of high importance.
There are exceptions to this, but generally speaking everyone is dependent on each other, and should be thinking, at least to some small degree, in those terms.
Now, that isn't to say that one cannot be selfish for some moralistic reason, your character is your character. But beyond a certain point, if a character is not trustworthy, the player doesn't get to object if his character is treated as such. Kicked out, turned over to the authorities, forced to pay for a party member's resurrection, etc.
Edited: daishain on 3rd Jan, 2018 - 11:58pm
Thanks for your input what about the case where the character sees to self first as a matter of by the way helps others but never as a first priority. I guess you can say they are never willing to sacrifice self to save others which might be to some degree 'normal' depending on the situation. I think exceptional people risk saving others before themselves or am I ignorant about that?
I wouldn't consider self sacrifice to be an expected mode of behavior if that is what you're asking. People willing to work together for the betterment of the whole is what I'd consider the default for a normal campaign.
True self sacrifice is a level of heroism that I'd consider rare, and to be cherished when it appears.
I'm sure a player could argue that sparing a spell to assist another character could jeopardize a future time when he would need it. While some might call that just preparing some might say its being selfish. I've actually seen both aspects of that happen during play and can caused mixed feelings.
It's perfectly fine to play a selfish character. One of the more common alignments played is chaotic neutral and that is talking C͏a͏r͏e of them selves first. We can't expect all characters to be virtuous like paladins and always put themselves last. That isn't realistic.
Edited: Kyrroeth on 4th Jan, 2018 - 12:46am