Character Death - what do you do?

[diaglo]

all new PCs come in at lvl 1.

you can choose to roll 3d6 in order: str, int, wis, con, dex, cha
or you can pick from pregens.

 

[Bonzi]

all new PCs come in at lvl 1.

you can choose to roll 3d6 in order: str, int, wis, con, dex, cha
or you can pick from pregens.

So if you're running a high level campaign, your basic answer is to take the player out back and shot them?

 

[BlackMoria]

Replacement characters come in at the level of the lowest level surviving party member and with just enough XP to qualify for that level. Usually, this means the new character comes in at the same level as the rest of the party.

I don't punish the character by making the character come in at a lower level than the rest of the party - to my thinking, being put in the dead book is punishment enough as is coming in with the minimum XP to qualify for that level.

 

[diaglo]

So if you're running a high level campaign, your basic answer is to take the player out back and shot them?

what's high level?


current campaign has a mix of 1st thru 4th lvl PCs.

 

[shilsen]

Another thread got me thinking about this:

So a character has died in a game that's already underway, what do you do now?

In my game, they wouldn't die.

I let PCs use action pts to survive a killing blow/effect and be dropped to -9 hp and stable.

 

[Lanefan]

Seems to be quite a few people along the lines of '1 level lower than the lowest in the party' answers in here. I'd use that for a normal game as well.

One campaign where it led to problems was Rappun Athuk - which is pretty lethal. I noticed it lead to a 'chain death' situation:

Example:

PCs are 8th level.
Someone dies. Makes a 7th level PC.
Next week someone else dies. Now they make a 6th level PC (1 lower than the lowest level).

We found this actually lead to an unplayable module - as the challenges kept getting more lethal and the party kept getting lower level.

Anyone else run into that sort of problem?

Yep; leading to many of my awful memories of running Night's Dark Terror years ago. Party went in at 4th and due to a combination of bad decisions and bad luck started losing characters. The deaths cascaded until the party was down to mostly 2nd-level, at which point I just said "you come in at 2nd regardless".

Lesson learned. For my current campaign I've used 1 level lower than the party average, or equal to the lowest level, whichever is worse; and that's worked out OK.

As for starting gear, I roll randomly...it just makes sense that some characters will have done well in their careers prior to joining the party, while others will have been unlucky...against a general-idea base level (in 3e, this would be the wealth-by-level guide).
If I roll 01%, well, that tells me most or all of their gear recently got blown up and the character is starting fresh. If I roll 00%, the PC has got real lucky (or is on the run, having just ripped off a pile o' loot from its last party) and comes in with lots of stuff. Most of the time, a middling roll gives the new PC some useful gear; enough to be going on with.

Lanefan

 

[kenobi65]

you can choose to roll 3d6 in order: str, int, wis, con, dex, cha

Hey! diaglo listed the ability scores in a different order from that presented in The Holy Book (1974)!!!!!

 

[chakken98]

With my group we are pretty divided on new character in the game. I tend to do the 1 level below group level. my brother in law has us stay at the same level we were at. are buddy will makes the new character for us if we don't get raised. (which has been both good and bad).

As for treasure we tend to do 1/2 of the DMG treasure, other 1/2 (maybe less) from DM.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Hey! diaglo listed the ability scores in a different order from that presented in The Holy Book (1974)!!!!!

I think it's a sign of The End Times. Keep an eye out for the 4th edition horsemen.

 

[Brimshack]

We're currently using the highest level of the party - a random die roll (maxed at the same level as the as character it is replacing.) I like the random element, and basing the level on the highest character in the party helps to solve the diminishing returns. We do makde sure to gear x.p. to the level of the character earning it rather than averaging x.p. for the party, so a character significantly lower than the party average is able to catch up to close in a few games. Treasure is 50g.p. per ECL of the incoming character.