So, I am into week 4 of a D&D online session (roll20) with me as DM, and next week is Easter... and one of the players cant make make it... what is the right thing to do?
The character is stuck in a tricky position with a party of 5 seperated by a pool of acid - and we ran out of time. But what is the best thing to do now...
Specifically....
1) Is it better to say to the whole group to take a 1 weeks break from the game so that this important PC does not miss anything?
2) If not, what is a good DM solution to a player who cant play (I dont want to suggest that somebody else play his character or I play it) - should I suggest that they leave him behind and pick him up later, use some clever magic to teleport him back to the last town?
What do other DM's do?
Since it is specifically Easter, you might want to reschedule the session. I don't think players should feel bad for skipping a session because of a religious/family holiday. (Same thing for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, what have you.) This is different than a player prioritizing another aspect of their life (as we all have to do sometimes!), say to work late or on the weekend, or to attend a social function. In that case, I would say, Game on!
(Now, if I'm misreading your post and you're saying that the player is missing
this week, and you have all have to cancel the following week because of Easter, I'd say, Game on!)
In our group (also Roll20, another player frequently picks up missing PCs, but I personally find this suboptimal, especially at higher levels. We actually just recently decided that we will not be doing it anymore. The problems tend to be:
* Some players are sloppier than others at how they track their character resources, features, etc in the online character sheet. For instance, one of our players keeps track of all his resources on paper. Or just keeps track of his spell list in his head. It sucks to spend 15 minutes in the middle of combat trying to remember how many 3rd level spell slots Merlin has left, or which cantrips does he know?
* Players tend to get pretty good at knowing their own features and how they tend to use them, but they can be a lot slower trying to figure out how to use a class they've never played before.
* Players just forget to handle the actions of their adopted character's turn, so there are a lot of "Bueller! Bueller!" moments in combat
* Taking risks with another players PC really sucks, but if you can't take risks with a character, why is that character there?
* The game always moves slower as a result, and rarely gets in a groove.
Now, if the playerless character is easy to play and the adoptive player has coordinated with the missing player beforehand, this can work better. Our dwarven fighter isn't so hard, because we are almost always more cautious with him than his player is, and his strategy is pretty much always the same. Attack. Attack. Action surge?
Ghosting a character is I think the best way to go, and it's a good practice to establish early on. Players might grumble about being down a PC, especially if it's their one fighter or their one healer, but, so it goes. Fighterless parties and healerless parties still survive the dungeon, and, as suggested upthread, if things really go bad, the cleric can briefly snap out of his strange daze and cast cure wounds on the dying rogue. Personally, in these circumstances, I would say that the ghosted character should not get xp — the PCs who play should either be rewarded for facing a harder challenge and succeeding, or not be penalized for facing a challenge which is scaled down to their number. (Unless you just do milestone leveling or what have you.
