What do you do about PC deaths?

[Haltherrion]

Our group doesn't play with any way to restore life except for reincarnate. Instead, we typically have a backup PC in the wings and already integrated into the world (often our new campaign character creation process explicitly creates two PCs at once).

You die, you get a new PC at the median or low end (depending on circumstances) of party XP. Either the backup PC is brought to that XP amount at the time of death or, as in our current campaign, he is maintained with the other PCs and sometimes is even played instead of the prime PC.

I like the idea of the backup PC in the wings as a ref. It gives the new PC more context. It also reminds the player that there is an easy and immediate remedy for PC death which makes the possibility of death more real, even though we still have a relatively low PC death rate. (That is, it tends to mitigate the case where a player thinks: "the ref won't kill my PC; it will cause too much disruption to the session or to the campaign.")

 

[JoeGKushner]

With the new 3.5 rules (borrowed from FR), losing a level isn't really that important unless it's a 'critical' level where you get a new spelll level.

I mean that's one of the things I don't like about paying experience points for magic items and special abilities from either Oathbound or the various Path of. If you spend enough points, you don't advance at the same time as the other characters and then when the GM bumps up the encounters, that player is raking in the experience for an adventure and usually winds up with more experience.