Combat is an integral part of the game, and must be accepted as such. Nevertheless, many players get very attached to their personae, and are greatly distressed if they are killed in fights. Others accept that fighting serves a purpose, but object to being assailed on all sides when they are exploring or merely socialising. To accommodate such situations, MUD has a class of "protected personae", or PPs. These are just the same as normal personae, except they cannot attack or be attacked by other players; this includes "attacks" from spells (benign or otherwise) and the stealing of objects from them. Note that game-controlled objects ("mobiles"), such as the vampire, are not bound by any restrictions, and have no compunction in attacking or otherwise harassing PPs. You can tell a PP because the persona's rank is of an explorer/priestly kind, rather than the conventional fighter/magic-user variety.