I have a little concern about my group

[Warcow]

Okay so my group I think might die soon if they don't change their tactics/animosity towards each other. I last week had to severely nerf my fen hydra (I call it mine because I custom built it) because the group wasn't going to live if I didn't because of the lack of team work. They already lack a "balanced" party.

We've been playing this campaign for about 4 months now and the party is level 6 because of how I handle the level ups. In the session before last our party's tank (a barbarian 5 purple dragon knight 1) died thanks to a couple of fumbles and a mob of marionettes. The fight in which I nerfed my Fen Hydra was the introduction of his new character a skill based fighter. The fight ended with the fen hydra having about half it's intended hit points and less than half of all it's attacks each round.

I believe that the party's reason for the rapid fire insults stem from two problems the first being the player who lost his barbarian not being able to take a joke and the fact that the monk/drunken master of the group feels that he has been cheated because he has such low hit modifiers and deals lower damage with his hits than the Barbarian or even the Ranger (both played by the same person).

I have tried to keep the peace but am failing miserably what do you suggest? I really don't want to get a TPK but the way the party is headed I can't see it ending in any way but that.

My party consists of:
Shard (human rouge lvl 6)
Xanaphila (elven ranger lvl 6 melee spec.)
Aust (elven ranger lvl 6 ranged spec.)
Luna (Human Fighter skill spec. (replacing a barbarian)
Awnetu (Human monk 5, Drunken master 1)
Qillathe (Elven druid lvl 6)
Miles (halfling rouge lvl 6 trap spec) (played by me in an attempt to keep the party alive added before other rouge was added)

One of my players agreed that if a TPK happens he'd like to try DMing a campaign.

So my question I guess is whether or not I should score the TPK on purpose (to avoid looking like I'm just handing over the reigns), try something new to get the party to play nice, or just simply end the campaign here and hand over the reigns?

[Turial]

Last time I had something like that happen it turned out that the broken halfing grappler was infact the devious shadow dragon that had been hunting them all along. TPK...and we started a ghostwalk campaign that the players liked alot better.

Though word of advice....ghoul monks are devistating.

[Arkat]

Is this the first time you've ever DMed a game?

If so, hand over the reigns and observe other DMs and try to pick up some pointers from them. After awhile pick up your campaign again and use what you've learned to improve it.

If it's not and you've been successful in the past, keep trying with your current campaign unless you and everyone else isn't having fun. In that case, hand over the reigns or start something new.

[Warcow]

Last time I let a halfling rouge with a questionable background in my party it was me.

I was kinda leaning towards lifting my near constant nerfing and just letting the party die if they die after all the party's last encounter of the night is about to get ugly thanks to the fact that the fire breathing spiders are basically time bombs which will go off almost as soon as we start this week. Then they are going to run into two frost giants (one of which is a titan) .

All of this was planned out far and long in advance.

I don't want the party to die because they are at the point in the campaign where NPCs just aren't trustworthy and they haven't even gotten the first shard of the planar shifting device. Plus I know they want revenge on the backstabbing Sionass.

So your recommendation is a TPK.

I'll keep that in mind.

[Warcow]

Is this the first time you've ever DMed a game?

If so, hand over the reigns and observe other DMs and try to pick up some pointers from them. After awhile pick up your campaign again and use what you've learned to improve it.

If it's not and you've been successful in the past, keep trying with your current campaign unless you and everyone else isn't having fun. In that case, hand over the reigns or start something new.

(sorry in advance for the double post)

This isn't my first time dming but it is my first successful time dming. I at least think that everyone is having a good time with at least the campaign I just think that due to some party imbalances that they have just gotten hostile out of frustration and mild boredom with my nerfed down monsters which aren't supplying as much challenge as they used to at the start of the campaign.

[Orion]

(sorry in advance for the double post)

This isn't my first time dming but it is my first successful time dming. I at least think that everyone is having a good time with at least the campaign I just think that due to some party imbalances that they have just gotten hostile out of frustration and mild boredom with my nerfed down monsters which aren't supplying as much challenge as they used to at the start of the campaign.

Instead of nerfing the monsters, nerf the campaign. If your players aren't cooperating and acting as a team it's time to re-build the basics of group play in the team. Design some scenarios with non-nerfed monsters that they should be able to handle and run them through those for a couple of games. Give them a chance to work together on something fun and challenging and see if they can re-establish the group dynamic.

If they're not capable of working with each other give them a rest and let someone else run a campaign for awhile. Not every campaign is successful, or taken to its desired completion point. You might have to set it back on the shelf and think about it awhile.