One of our players (our Fighter) has started complaining about "kill stealing". Not overly much, like throwing a tantrum or anything, but they're still voicing their opinion about it.
Some instances of this:
- The group were fighting a monster in a dark cave. After a brief game of cat and mouse, the group set up a trap (which ended up with everything going horribly wrong), but the Fighter managed to pull off a critical throw, catching the beast in its escape. He then succeeded to grapple it, and hold it beneath the pool of water ("holy water" that was fatal to the beast). However, before the monster stopped kicking, another player walked up and shot it in the face, delivering the final blow. The fighter was not pleased after all the (self proclaimed) "excellent work" they had just achieved.
- The group was up against a group of three Ogres. The group made quick work of two of them, and decided that they needed to pursue their target (whom the Ogres were blocking). Everyone (including the Fighter) agreed that the Fighter could take the last one, or at least keep it busy while the rest of the group dealt with the target. They again performed admirably, taking little damage from the Ogre, only to have an NPC step in and deliver the killing blow. (The GM admitted that the ogre had less than 5 HP.)
- In the same encounter, once the Ogre had been dealt with, the Fighter joined the others who, due to bad luck, had not been doing so well against their target. After a bit of a scuffle, the Fighter did then manage to deal the finishing blow, only to be met with a Hellish Rebuke. Again, the Fighter was not appreciative.
Again, their reaction is probably relative to that of a "sore loser", saying it's unfair, accusing other players of kill-stealing, etc. They don't try to hold a grudge, but sometimes bring it up if it's relevant to something happening at the time. (Maybe when a player steals a kill off another player — "yeah, like that time when that happened to me!"). I think they may feel cheated?
As a player, I'm not really sure how this should be handled.
Edit: As per the comments, the group is awarded XP in milestones, not on a per-conflict basis. If anything I believe they may just be feeling sore about all their effort ending with someone else stealing the limelight.
And to clarify the question, I'm looking for ways to approach the group about handling this. Either to try and calm the player, or to try and make the group more aware of this, and more accomodating, because I feel the player may feel a bit shunned by everyone else's lack of consideration to his objections.
Best Answer
I'd suggest you put yourself in their shoes. For a better understanding of how they feel, imagine the game as a movie with their character as the hero.
In a movie, if the hero heroically struggles with evil and some bystander steps up and kills it when it was almost defeated by the hero, would you think that's a fun scene? Would you want more scenes like that in the movie?
Chances are, your answer is "no". Their answer seems to be "no". The relative rarity of movies that work this way implies a majority of people does not like this, even though mechanically, the audience does not get anything from the scene, no XP, no money, they just take away how it felt. And it did not feel good.
They probably do. They put in effort and risk and it seems the reward for it is claimed by others that did not put in either. The reward might well be that feeling, not loot or XP.
In the three scenes you described, was there any reason for them not to be the hero? Why did the NPC step up all of a sudden when the plan was for the fighter to hold and the others to go for another goal? Why did the PC "walk up" leisurely to deliver the killing blow in the middle of a chaotic fight? Why the hellish rebuke trap? What was it good for, other than to steal his heroic ending of the scene?
In real teamwork, the others share the risk. All fight and by random chance one will get the killing blow. If all share the risk, then it's teamwork. If only they are at risk, then they should get the good feeling of having overcome it.
66% of your mentioned examples are DM made, so I'm not sure if this is something that can be handled by a player alone. Talk to the group as a whole, including the GM. Maybe do the same exercise, let them imagine the scenes as a movie and ask them if they would want to watch it.