D&D 5E After character death - new character wealth and magic

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

• Nov 11, 2018

• #1

If a character dies, I feel that the player should be able to start at a level in-line with the rest of the party. Generally, this will be one level lower than the lowest leveled living character.

But what have you found to be the best way to handle the wealth and magic-item disparity?

Do you attempt to provide the new character with wealth and magic commensurate with its level? If so, do you have a set of guidelines or a table for this?

 

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cbwjm

Seb-wejem

• Nov 11, 2018

• #2

I always start a new character, whether new player or a replacement character at the same level as the rest of the party.

For items, I think in the past I've started people out with one item of similar power to the rest of the party. More common for higher levels since before level 5 the party might only have a couple of magical items between them.

 

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FreezerBurnedDM

Villager

• Nov 11, 2018

• #3

I also always let new characters come in at the same level as the previous one. I just don't think its fun to make one party member weaker then the others and it also sets up a higher chance of that character dying as well.

For items, it really depends on the item levels of the rest of the party. If everyone is decked out in magic items, it again isn't fun to start with none.

One example of what I've done for a high level campaign with a lot of items is let players bringing in new characters "pick" one item, usually giving me a suggestion for what they want and I offer them a couple choices (if they want a sword, I'll offer a choice between a Scimitar of Speed or Frostbrand for example) and then make them roll randomly for the rest. I find it lets them have a little power over their character direction while still having some randomness in the mix.

 

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Tormyr

Adventurer

• Nov 11, 2018

• #4

There is a table somewhere around page 40 of the DMG.

 

S

S'mon

Legend

• Nov 11, 2018

• #5

I base my approach off the DMG.
Basically, Tier I get standard starting gear.
Tier II get 1 Uncommon item chosen from a list, plus 100gp, plus standard starting gear.
I don't currently start PCs in Tier III or IV.

Edit: Perma-death is rare IMC what with Raise Dead being available, so this is more for new players' PCs.

 

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

• Nov 11, 2018

• #6

Tormyr said:

There is a table somewhere around page 40 of the DMG.

Click to expand...

Oops. Should have though to check the dmg. . Thanks for pointing me to it. This should work well enough.

 

ExploderWizard

Hero

• Nov 11, 2018

• #7

Items depend on the situation. If character turnover is fairly common and you start off every new character with an array of items and the party retains those items whenever a party member dies then there will soon be many more items floating around than the DM had intended. This will have an effect of magical items replicating like tribbles.

So if you find that the party has good number of excess items already then you may want to restrict or eliminate the items for new characters to avoid over-proliferation of items. 5E characters tend to be very capable at higher levels even without a plethora of magical goodies.

It is good to make starting items for new characters something that is decided on a case by case basis. Don't let a table or inflexible house rule unbalance your campaign.

 

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Earth2Carnifex

Explorer

• Nov 11, 2018

• #8

I use a protege system, where the players can divert up to 25% of experience points gained during adventuring to a protege who has some link to the main character. They can also divert gold and unused magic items to these other characters. These proteges are often close by, guarding horses or maintaining a fallback position for the main characters and can act as a backup force when needed. This does slow down character progression a little bit, but it gives players who participate a character they can insert into the group fairly seamlessly. In some cases the party has even allowed the activated protege to inherit the equipment of the dead character.

 

Larnievc

Hero

• Nov 11, 2018

• #9

I start them at the same level and give them the basic package as per character creation. PCs don’t need magic items like they used to.

And there is always the magic items on the dead character.

 

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Shiroiken

Legend

• Nov 11, 2018

• #10

In a normal campaign, we usually have everyone score the same xp, present or not. Not only does it keep it easier to track, but it keeps everyone on the same power level. My current campaign is a West Marches style, so each player has several characters of various levels.

I don't approve of adding magic items to new characters. As we found out in 3E, this creates a situation where character death actually adds magic items to the group after they loot their dead companion. Since magic items are no longer required for power levels, there is no reason to give them out to new characters.