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

[the Jester]

In my campaign, all pcs start at first level. Period.

It doesn't matter what level the group is; new pcs start at level 1.

This is a playstyle choice that is fully supported by both 5e as a system and my dming style.

Now, this isn't how I ran it in 3e or 4e, because both of those systems had built the math to make that extremely untenable. But 5e has gone back to bounded accuracy, which is far closer to how the math worked in 1e and 2e, when I also held to this policy. This means that, just because a party includes high level pcs, that doesn't mean that every monster they fight will have a ridiculous AC that is unhittable by lower level pcs. Nor does it mean that every encounter that a party that averages level 12 needs to be with CR 12 monsters. So low level pcs can contribute to encounters that include high level pcs.

Now, of course there are high level monsters that can easily one-shot a low-level pc. So as a DM, you have to be judicious about using those encounters. But it is extremely rare that a group of any level encounters (for example) an adult dragon in my game, or a high level spellcaster, or a fiend who can cast fireball at will. You sort of have to seek those encounters out, or at least seek out an adventure that includes such monsters. And you usually have a clue that such encounters might be coming, if you seek out such an adventure. For instance, a party that is full of low-level characters ought to understand that a dungeon that nobody has returned from for the last two centuries is likely to be very dangerous indeed.

I run a pretty sandboxy game, and one element- a very important element- of that is that the pcs usually have a fair amount of control over the level of risk & reward that they might face. I also have a strong element of "further from the city is more dangerous" going on, as well as "deeper into the dungeon is more dangerous". Neither of these is always true, but they are generally likely to be true.

Most of the players in my game run different pcs at different times. Adventuring groups are mostly loose, with changing membership, and so most players have 'stables' of characters of differing levels. Among other things, this means that low-level pcs can usually find lower-level buddies to adventure with.

So the bottom line is, new pcs are first level and usually have the gear of a normal starting character. One exception is when a pc is connected to another pc (e.g. the child of an existing pc comes of age)- that character might well start off with an inheritance, should the elder pc want to give him or her one. Another exception is if a player takes over an existing npc and it becomes a pc, though this is much rarer.

 

[5ekyu]

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?

I generally start new charscters st the same level with slightly lower net gear and wealth - if the previous character's stuff of not in play. If the previous character's stuff is still there, cut the gear wealth by 33-50% cuz I dont want death to power up the group.

If the existing party is mostly found gear then the stuff for the new charscter will be chosen by me. If it's mostly bought or chosen, the new PC gets choice.

 

[ccs]

PC replacement in our games varies wildly based on location, situation, story.... Basically each instance is discussed.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don’t typically like to have party members at different levels, so I have new characters start out at the same exp as the rest of the group. That said, I tend to run more serialized campaigns, where each session is part of an ongoing story. If I was doing something more episodic, where a consistent cast of characters form the through line of a series of otherwise self-contained adventures, then I would more seriously consider having new characters join at either level 1, or at the lowest level in the tier the party is currently at, depending on how tight I wanted the level ranges to be. In any case, I stick to the DMG’s guidelines for starting wealth and equipment beyond 1st level.

 

[Satyrn]

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?

After my fighter died, my new druid came into the game with nothing. However, the rest of the party looted my late fighter's gear, and redistributed all the party's gear to where it best fit. That is, I didn't get the boots the fighter had, but my druid was handed the wand of lightning bolts that no one else needed.

So, since we consider all the loot as belonging to the party, there's no need to bother doing anything special for new characters and they start with starting gear . . . oh, we do let them start with plate mail if that's their schtick and the party's wealthy enough that anyone in the party who wanted it could have bought it.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

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?

For me a new character is always a new character with no extra items.

What happens with the items of the dead character depends on scenario. If the PCs flee, the enemies will loot his corpse and the players might get it back later when they finally defeat the enemies. If the PCs win the battle, they can directly loot their fallen comrade. If the PC was burned to dead, all wooden objects that are not magical might be destroyed. And enemies would usually keep coins and magic items but probably not all the random adventuring gear.

What my players usually do:

- They feel inclined to give those items to the new PC of the same player, but also are in conflict with how to realistically explain why they give a stranger all their money; but they are capable enough to decide themselves, I don't even need to intervene here; last time my group decided to spend the coins of their fallen comrade for healing potions for the group

- As for magic items, we never see them as very character-bound; the group has a number of magic items and give the items to whoever seems to be able to make most use out of it; this might actually end up with one person getting most of the magic items, but none of us sees that as an issue either as the magic item effects again benefit the whole group

Maybe I'm just lucky with my group, though. I really don't have any players going "Hey it's unfair that he can deal more damage than me!".

Of course in AL, that's not so easy, as magic items actually are character-bound. But for AL it is also clearly defined that on death you lose all items and coins if you are unable to pay for revival.

 

[Seramus]

New character comes in at the same level. Wealth depends entirely on what the other characters do with the existing magic items from the dead character.

 

[Oofta]

While gaining levels and power is an important aspect of D&D, I always start new characters at the same level and roughly the same equipment (although I do have final say on items) as everyone else.

Why? First, I simply don't want to have to hassle with significant level differences. If everyone else is level 15 that 1st level character is probably going to die the first encounter with an area attack. Bringing in red shirt number 6 to see how they die this time is not my idea of fun.

Second, I sincerely hope that playing the game is it's own reward. The other players didn't "earn" their level and gear, they had fun playing a game with friends. Playing is it's own reward.

Third, my campaigns are about telling a story. One built between myself and the players. The reason to advance in levels is so that we can tell a different part of the story. At low levels, the PCs were in a work camp run by orcs. At mid levels after their escape they joined a resistance group. Now they're the leaders of an elite strike force trying to take down the BBEG. It would make no sense for this veteran group of tactical experts to take on an apprentice just as they're going to invade the fortress of the high lieutenant of the ultimate BBEG.

Last but not least, I just don't see the point. A character dying probably already sucks for the player, why put them in the penalty box? Let them write up something they'll have fun playing and get back to the game feeling like they can contribute as much as anyone else on the team.

 

[CydKnight]

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?

But I thought magic items and wealth didn't matter so much to 5E? That any such gains should be considered "boons"?

Seriously though, I once allowed a few new players to come into an already running campaign that had reached level 5. I even allowed them to have some questionable wealth and magic items and they ended up outshining the players that had already been in the group playing for months. Then one got really pissy out of character when the other players wouldn't allow his assassin to shake down the room and pocket all the choice loot for himself just as he had been doing from the beginning. Between that and his growing list of magic items and impossible to find poisons seemed to grow every session without finding such during game play, the players insisted we continue our campaign without him after that. The funny thing is that my existing players were mostly 12 year olds and the new players that were asked to not return were 30 and 65.

So the game story aside, I would just say that I would be careful allowing magic items that were not earned during game play. It can create animosity (in my experience) depending on the group of players you have if they have all earned their magic items through game play along with all of their levels assuming the campaign started at character creation Level 1.

 

[Blue]

Depends on the feel I'm going for the campaign. Though I detail how replacement characters due to death, due to retirement,a nd new players coming in get treated at the beginning of any campaign.

In a "Damn Big Heroes" game, they'll come back same level. This is probably my most common.

I've done stables where everyone had 3 PCs and you can advance a lower level character when a higher level one levels. New PCs enter your stable at 1st.

When I used to do individual XP you'd come back at minimum XP to match level with the lowest level party member.

I've given bonuses to new characters who intentionally martyred themselves to save the party.

All in all, it comes back to the feel I'm pushing for a campaign. Grim and gritty, heroic, etc. With 5e I find that heroic fits the mechanical assumptions well if I'm not tweaking (variant rest rules or something).