D&D 5E DM's: what do you do with players who miss time?

[Lanefan]

I give out individual XP at the moment it is earned, so everyone knows exactly why someone got XP. Holding it until the end of the session would just confuse people and muddy the link between the action and the reward.

I'm almost the opposite: I'll let them pile up for several sessions* then give 'em out in an itemized batch.

* - unless I know someone is close to bumping, in which case xp get done more often.

Lan-"who now has to calculate and divvy up a rather immense number of xp after last night's impressive boss battle"-efan

 

[Imaculata]

A character dies, you mean?

And yes, it happens all the time, for a very obvious reason: most of the parties we play aren't high enough level to have revival available in the field, meaning it's not until the next trip back to town that anyone can get revived.

My players would leave what ever dungeon they are in, and immediately find the nearest church to put the deceased player back on his/her feet.

She would get half xp for the battle, via the exact rationale you describe: she was involved in the battle but wasn't around for the end of it as she had died.

So if you are a front liner, you are more likely to get punished for it. You lose out on half of the exp of the boss, even though you were probably dealing and taking the most damage for the team. And on top of that, you take what ever penalties that come with dying (including potential level loss), and you have to pay for your own resurrection out of your own pocket, while having to wait an entire adventure to actually be resurrected?

 

[Lanefan]

My players would leave what ever dungeon they are in, and immediately find the nearest church to put the deceased player back on his/her feet.

Sometimes that's not entirely practical.

That said, we usually run two characters at a time, in part for just this reason.

So if you are a front liner, you are more likely to get punished for it. You lose out on half of the exp of the boss, even though you were probably dealing and taking the most damage for the team. And on top of that, you take what ever penalties that come with dying (including potential level loss), and you have to pay for your own resurrection out of your own pocket, while having to wait an entire adventure to actually be resurrected?

Perhaps unexpectedly, over the long run the death rates I've seen are reasonably similar between front-liners (Fighters and similar) and back-liners (Wizard-types and Druids); mid-liners (Clerics, Thieves) tend to be a bit more resilient. Multi-classers are, not surprisingly, all over the map. I've got loads and loads of stats from our games to back this up.

However, you've now got me curious (and probably written off my next few off-days while I run the numbers) as to whether the same holds true for level drains.

Lanefan

 

[Imaculata]

Sometimes that's not entirely practical.
Perhaps unexpectedly, over the long run the death rates I've seen are reasonably similar between front-liners (Fighters and similar) and back-liners (Wizard-types and Druids); mid-liners (Clerics, Thieves) tend to be a bit more resilient. Multi-classers are, not surprisingly, all over the map. I've got loads and loads of stats from our games to back this up.

However, you've now got me curious (and probably written off my next few off-days while I run the numbers) as to whether the same holds true for level drains.

I'm playing devils advocate here a bit, but just suppose you were to rule this the way I do? The players who die still receive full exp for the boss battle. They took one for the team, but they don't get punished for it. Instead, the whole team is rewarded equally for their group accomplishment. While waiting to be resurrected, the player who died temporarily takes control of an npc, but any exp earned by this npc will eventually go to their character. After they've been resurrected, their character receives all of the experience that it would otherwise have missed out on. No sour grapes, the team is rewarded collectively and fairly.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm playing devils advocate here a bit, but just suppose you were to rule this the way I do? The players who die still receive full exp for the boss battle. They took one for the team, but they don't get punished for it. Instead, the whole team is rewarded equally for their group accomplishment. While waiting to be resurrected, the player who died temporarily takes control of an npc,

OK, while I'm not entirely on board I can sort of see where you're going up to here...

but any exp earned by this npc will eventually go to their character.

...but at this point you completely lose me again. Experience earned by an NPC stays with the NPC, who is every bit as much a levelled experience-earning entity within the setting as a PC is. As far as the game world is concerned there is no difference between them...characters living in the game world don't have little stamps on their foreheads indicating whether they have a player attached or not, and nor should they. Or does the NPC "double-dip", earning experience both for itself and for the dead PC?

After they've been resurrected, their character receives all of the experience that it would otherwise have missed out on. No sour grapes, the team is rewarded collectively and fairly.

Which, in effect, means the PC gets experience while it is dead; a rather absurd notion* to begin with and truly ridiculous if taken anywhere beyond a brief death-raise cycle.

What happens if a character dies and for whatever reason isn't brought back for quite some time - say, two or three adventures - and the player rolls up and runs a different character which retires (but is still out there) when the first one is revived? What if the player goes through two or three characters during this time?

What happens if the Stand-in NPC (SPC?) manages to lose a level during this time; does it drag the dead PC down with it? Ditto if the SPC manages to gain a bonus level e.g. via a Deck of Many Things?

What happens if the SPC dies?

Simply put, my character doesn't deserve to earn xp for things that happen while she's dead. It's not like she's actually doing anything* in an adventuring sense, and any sour grapes regarding fairness would quite logically go the other way: why should my character get xp for doing nothing while the rest of the party is doing all the work and taking all the risk?

* - one very rare exception to this IME has been the occasional time a character has somehow managed to do some adventuring on its own while dead in such a way as to be able to retain these memories in form of xp once revived. Depends how much one-on-one mini-dungeoning the DM is willing to do in the lands of the dead.

Lan-"this dead guy on the travois isn't pulling his weight - in fact, we're pulling his weight"-efan

 

[Imaculata]

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?

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.

 

[Maxperson]

My players would leave what ever dungeon they are in, and immediately find the nearest church to put the deceased player back on his/her feet.

Even if they were on a time sensitive mission to save the princess, town, country, world or whatever?

 

[Maxperson]

Which, in effect, means the PC gets experience while it is dead; a rather absurd notion* to begin with and truly ridiculous if taken anywhere beyond a brief death-raise cycle.

While I wouldn't give exp to the dead, either, I can understand how it could be done without it being absurd. The exp the dead person is getting, while based in the parties actions, is not really from the party. The dead person is off on another plane experiencing all kinds of things that the group is not, so while the number of exp is coming from the NPC, the true exp for the dead PC is coming from what it is experiencing. That also keeps the NPC keeping the exp it is earning, no double dipping being involved, and the dead PC getting his "share".

 

[iserith]

I agree that death and any subsequent return from it is a notable experience, one worth experience points. I would throw this under experience points gained from character development, after asking the player to describe what his or her character's personal afterlife was like and how it affects the character going forward.

 

[the Jester]

I'm wondering if some of the disagree here comes from the fact that some people mostly play with close friends while others play with people who are (gaming) associates?

I doubt it. I play with people who I have mostly been friends with for a decade or more.