Imaculata
Hero
Even if they were on a time sensitive mission to save the princess, town, country, world or whatever?
Most likely, yes. With an incomplete party, they would probably not be able to defeat the big bad.
Even if they were on a time sensitive mission to save the princess, town, country, world or whatever?
All good questions, but I think a better question is, what does it matter? What if the character is brought back to life after 3 adventures, and receives the same level as the rest of the party? You say it doesn't make sense, but isn't the mechanical effect on the game more important?
Absolutely not. The mechanical effect on the way the game plays out is secondary to the in-game logic.
Which, in effect, means the PC gets experience while it is dead;
I think that sentence is at the heart of this discussion.
In my games, a player controlling an NPC gets XP because XP is something a player gets, not something a character gets. XP is a reward for overcoming challenges; a reward which the player can then use as currency to make their character better.
As [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION] already pointed out, in-game consistency and logic is not only more important than the mechanical effect, it should be what drives the mechanical effect.All good questions, but I think a better question is, what does it matter? What if the character is brought back to life after 3 adventures, and receives the same level as the rest of the party? You say it doesn't make sense, but isn't the mechanical effect on the game more important?
A valid point in cases where your average party level is going up by two or three per adventure, as in most as-written APs. That said, 5e at least seems to be more forgiving in such things than the last couple of editions; and if you're playing a campaign where an average adventure isn't guaranteed to get the party level average up by even one (which is by far my preference) it becomes even less of an issue.How else would that character be able to work in the party, if all the players are of a much higher level? You'd have to bring that character up to the same level as the rest of the party anyway, or he/she would be a dead weight.
I could not disagree more.Greenstone.Walker said:I think that sentence is at the heart of this discussion.
In my games, a player controlling an NPC gets XP because XP is something a player gets, not something a character gets. XP is a reward for overcoming challenges; a reward which the player can then use as currency to make their character better.