Walking Dad
First Post
From
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4589277-post1.html
Bolded by me.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4589277-post1.html
A permanently dead character obviously does not count against the number of PCs a player can have. If a character of 4th level or higher has been killed, the player can mark him as permanently dead, and replace him with a character of a level higher than 1st. This works the same way as retiring such a character. (See below.)
Bolded by me.