Dead Again

[bento]

If you have a player that's hooked on playing the "hero", you might consider instituting Action Points as a backup to their sometimes bad rolls or stupidity.

 

[kenobi65]

Sounds like that man needs to grab iron will and a few other will boosting abilities. It sounds your party is getting constantly hosed by fear effects.

I have to wonder why the cleric isn't prepping Heroes' Feast every day, now that he's got 6th level spells, if the party keeps hitting (and getting routed by) these fear effects. (And, for that matter, it also makes the party immune to poison!)

 

[Creeping Death]

Once somebody dies, they lose one proportional level with their new character, with a minimum level of 10. There has to be a penalty for dying. This penalty is just exacerbated when it gets applied successively.

Oh boy... I was in a group where the DM had that rule. Much lower level. I made it to 5th, died and was set back to mid 4th. Got a few unlucky rolls and died again, assassin vine crit hit and choked, from 25 hp (psion) to -10 in suprise round. New level: 4th. Died yet again, stayed at beginning of 4th. Rest of the party, 6th with one guy barely past 7th. We were playing one of the adventure paths.

When the encounters are tailored to 6-7th level characters, a 4th level character can't hit and can't hurt the enemies all the while the enemies can't miss, and pretty much can kill you in one hit. Since we were allowed to pick and create our own magic items for our new character, my three deaths helped increase the party's survivability.

With rules like that and a serious of unfortunate events, my only options was to have them call me when a new campaign was about to start.

I think with 3.5 creating a new character that is the same as the lowest party member is penalty enough. The more source books you allow, the longer it takes to create the character. Having a new character always start at 10 is frustrating while the rest of the party is 12 and 13th level. It will get to the point where the player might just say, "Here is Bob 1, the 10th level fighter." When he dies and is still 10th, "Here is Bob 2, the 10th level fighter, and woudln't know, he is decked out the same." rinse repeat until watching paint dry become more entertaining.

 

[Urbannen]

It is the same penalty as being raised from the dead, except that I calculate the new XP proportionately rather than setting it at the halfway point.

 

[werk]

LEEROY...


This guy is reckless, just rein him in. If he's not chaotic, you can remind him when you think he's being uncharacteristically reckless or lacks thoughtfulness towards his allies.

Repeat what he wants to do with emphasis. 'You are going to charge forward, alone, surround yourself with enemies that you know can incapacitate you with no effort, where your allies won't be able to reach you for a couple of rounds or even see what happens. Ok, hope you feel lucky...'

Heck, point him to this thread. If reading your OP doesn't make him realize exactly what's going wrong, he's beyond hope.

 

[Urbannen]

Yes, you're right, that's what I'll have to do.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

LEEROY...


This guy is reckless, just rein him in. If he's not chaotic, you can remind him when you think he's being uncharacteristically reckless or lacks thoughtfulness towards his allies.

Repeat what he wants to do with emphasis. 'You are going to charge forward, alone, surround yourself with enemies that you know can incapacitate you with no effort, where your allies won't be able to reach you for a couple of rounds or even see what happens. Ok, hope you feel lucky...'

Heck, point him to this thread. If reading your OP doesn't make him realize exactly what's going wrong, he's beyond hope.

JENKINS!!!!

Except the rest of the party doesn't seem to be doing much in the way of planning either.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Chimera]

It looks as if you should have a word with your player and tell him that, as heroic as it may seem, plunging yourself in the midst of a group of enemies is challenging certain death when the rest of your party isn't in place to back you up.

QFT.

He made some bad choices, not retreating when he should, not healing when he should, trying to be overly heroic when doing so is pretty much certain death.

He needs to learn from his mistakes and be more cautious.

 

[haakon1]

Notice that all 3 times, his character is a front-line combatant. A meat-shield. It seems that the other characters aren't supporting him sufficiently.

Are they even buffing him?

D&D is a team game.

QFT

 

[blargney the second]

Having just re-read the OP, I still think he needs to learn from his mistakes. No monster kills as many PCs as overconfidence - I wonder if the max hps has given him a false sense of invulnerability...

If you're DMing, you might consider giving them less deadly fights for a while so he can get used to his new character's abilities.
-blarg