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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6197207" data-attributes="member: 42582">I gave an example from my 4e campaign in the earlier thread linked in the OP.In the one an only TPK in my 4e game, after all the PCs had gone down one was definitely dead - the paladin of the Raven Queen had been dropped below negative bloodied by friendly fire from the PC wizard - but the others were simply at zero hp. I asked the players who wanted to keep playing their PCs. All did (including the one whose PC was dead) except for one player, who wanted to bring in a drow sorcerer to replace his half-elf warlock.So I decided that the PCs (other than the dead one) were only unconscious rather than dead (as per the options for zero hp in the 4e PHB). The PCs (other than the paladin, and the half-elf) woke up in a goblin prison cell (the TPK was at the hands of evil spirits under the control of the goblin shaman). Also in the cell was a drow. And all could smell the smell of roasting half-elf (the goblins had already butchered him).The paladin came back to life slightly later in the session, in a different context: his body was laid out on a ritual altar by the shaman, and the shaman was using the body as a focus to conjure up a wraith, the spirit of a witch who had (before dying, coming back as a wight and then being killed by this PC) been an oathsworn servitor of the paladin. The shaman was successful, but the Raven Queen (exercising her mastery over death and fate) sent the paladin back into the world also, to stop this spirit that was bound to his from wreaking more harm.(In mechanical terms this was treated as Raise Dead ie I deduct the notional amount for a Raise Dead scroll from the party's loot total for that level, and impose the resurrection penalty on the PC's actions.)Another PC has come back twice in similar circumstances, once at the behest of Erathis (to recover a lost Nerathi artefact) and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?324018-Wizard-PC-dies-returns-as-Invoker" target="_blank">once in circumstances that revealed his true origin and destiny</a>, with the agreement of many gods.Another example involved the drow, who died in poisonous fumes being hunted down by salamanders, but was <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?330383-Underdark-adventure-with-Demons-Beholders-Elementals-and-a-Hydra" target="_blank">brought back to life by the prayers of the paladin</a> (this one was an improvised action involving the permanent sacrifice of a Cincture of Healing).My general theory of PC death in (default) 4e: In 4e XP, and hence levels, are basically a pacing mechanism, for pacing both the growth in mechanical complexity, and the growth in cosmological significance, of the PC. The 4e rules mandate the same XP awards for all players in the group. PCs therefore level together. If a PC were to die and a new one be brought in, it would be at the same level, and under the control of that same player. Therefore, what reason is there for it not to be the same PC? The only reason can be a story reason. And given we're talking, to a significant extent at least, about the story of the dead PC, we're talking about a story in which the player has the primary interest and hence should exercise the primary control. My job as GM is simply to facilitate that, and to apply mechanical consequences (namely, applying the cost of a Raise Dead ritual to the party's notional treasure allocation for that level, and imposing resurrection recovery penalties).</blockquote>

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