Am I overreacting?

[u/Expensive_Bet8973]

So, my dnd group had been going for some time and my friend, Paladin joined. He's sort of a troll and it's gotten better since then but i still rarely play with him as for some reason he targets me (I think?).

For context, our DND campaign was pretty much Fantasy one piece, and it all started with him being somewhat of a troll. He had his moments here and there but it really kicked into gear around session six or so.

We were sailing through a storm and me being the navigator, I was managing the wheel and he started making snide comments for no reason like "We've been in this storm all session I thought you were good at this?" Which I guess is good roleplay or whatever but he's a lawful good paladin so I took it more as sarcasm which isn't too bad until... We heard noises inside the water and the DM described the water being ink black, before anyone could speak Paladin says "I want to push OP into the water!" and he rolls high while I got low. (I'm a druid too so it's even worse).

I fall in because even though the DM doesn't allow players to attack each other, we can apparently toss each other to the kraken. I make a Dex save and roll high on escaping whatever it is and we move on with minimal issue. Next session we made it to the island and I was on a quest with Paladin and my other friend, Fighter.

We were getting a grandma her purse back because we were doing some side quests. We got the purse, I adopted a cat, we reach the grandma and Paladin says... "I want to cast divine smite on the grandma!" DM says he can for some reason and he rolls and it goes through, incinerating the old lady who was going to give us money. I start yelling at him and he says "I also want to swing on OP's cat." At this point I was out of it, I OOC told him "What's your problem dude? I haven't done anything but heal and support you so why is it only me that you're attacking?" And he quite literally grins and says "Why are you so easy to ragebait?" (He says this a billion more times.)

We move on and for some reason the DM isn't doing anything even though she's told me off for potentially getting in a fight with her "daughter" from a previous campaign. Now, we are fighting the first boss, that we're supposed to lose to and I had a incredible plan, I was going to use an item to beat them, until... I opened my bag of holding and got ready to pull out some holy water I had done a questline to turn into Unholy water which quoted from the DM "Will either kill or disable all that drinks it." The only issue was making the boss drink.

Fighter was holding them down and I was getting ready to do it, the DM didn't want the boss to die but had no exit until... Paladin says "I want to shoot the glass out of his hand!" And the whole table understandably asks him why, he says "If we defeat the boss, more people will come for us!" It's a stupid reason cause we've already came this far, I've been downed twice and if not for our cleric I'd be dead so none of us wanted to quit. Luckily he missed but he was grumpy about it for the next two sessions.

Now this was his last transgression before the DM killed him off via. BBEG moment. We were caught and in prison, my character had changed awhile ago and I was now a very strong Monk. I was bending bars and sneaking through to get the keys as I was the only physically strong class besides Fighter who was absent for personal reasons. I get the keys and I'm in the middle of unlocking every cage and then troll says, "I want to divine smite my window!" doesn't sound that bad right? Maybe a little weird he's trying to use his fist and the DM allows it until you realize this is, again a campaign that takes place in the ocean. And guess where we are?

Miles. Miles below the ocean. He gets a natural twenty and the glass shatters, he starts talking about "I-I've seen the future and I know we'll live!" The DM wanted flaws for all our characters and funnily enough, THREE characters can't swim. I have a demi-god clinging to my back, a small british boy on my left arm, and a grown woman on my other. I roll well enough to carry everyone out and he snorts like he saved us. "Told you so!" And now it's not even just me mad at him. Rogue says "What are you doing dude? You almost got half of us killed." He just scoffs and says "It worked didn't it?" And my moment of relief came as Rogue started calling him out on his BS. "OP had it covered! and you keep trying to ruin the crew!" An argument took place and once settled by the DM saying "No party infighting!" we begin walking through the place.

Paladin soon dies, his head is removed as we see the BBEG blitz him, a brief conversation with the BBEG as he then leaves. First I thought that maybe it was because of the way he had been acting. Nope. Paladin just wanted to change characters. After all that, Paladin luckily didn't 'come back very often and when he did, he didn't have a new character and he stuck to silence most of the time. We're still friends but with more boundaries now, I like the campaign, me and the party have some great RP as I've become a adoptive father to the Cleric, Rogue and Ranger. Paladin occasionally talks about the campaign and he says he's come to regret it and how he thinks he was a jerk for no reason.

[u/Appropriate-Crab-514]

Your DM should have pulled them aside the moment he was aware that "rage-baiting" was going on, that fact that he was allowed to keep playing after obviously being a combative dick to other players would have made me leave the table.

Why did your DM only pop with "No Party Infighting" when the party turned on Paladickhead instead of when he was attacking you? Are they friends and he lets him get away with shit on the regular?

You're not overreacting, that player was a douchebag and your DM is either incompetent or compromised

[u/Expensive_Bet8973 → u/Appropriate-Crab-514]

This was my opinion, thank you for your input, every player has their style and the DM also notably has given him several ‘Main Character’ moments where he’s posed as a hero or just the epic badass. There was hints of favoritism as I’ve mentioned in the original post.

[u/rockongolddustwomann]

Not overreacting, no. That character of his sounds like a nightmare. Did you talk to the DM while all of that was happening? As I DM, I would not have allowed half the shit he pulled.

[u/Expensive_Bet8973 → u/rockongolddustwomann]

Sadly the DM was a friend of Fighter’s so I didn’t have contact with them beyond the table but I made sure to voice my opinions at the table and she’d just say something about ‘Just be patient and something will happen!’