D&D 5E DM's: what do you do with players who want to switch characters?

[Imaculata]

Switch with no exp penalty. I'll even ask the player what he wants his previous character to do in the rest of the story. Will he become an npc that the DM can use in the story? Or will he simply fade out of the story? I'll also discuss with the group how the new character could best be introduced into the story, and try and come up with a way to quickly make him part of the party.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I do replacement entry by tiers. If the party is level 1-4, the replacement is 1st level. If the party is 5-10 the replacement is 5th. The outgoing character may take their items or leave them to the party as they wish. No new character enters the game with anything other than extra cash for better gear and perhaps a few healing potions. Otherwise, a steady stream of new characters just keep bringing in more magic items to the campaign.

 

[Uchawi]

I would let them switch as long as they can cover the story as to why one left and the other is introduced. But I would also try to determine the motivation, because some players may want to switch characters every other month.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Switching is like dying. Starting a level 1. Then I'll think of something to allow him to catch up. At least get him to level 3 quickly.

If he really is just unhappy with his class, I'd probably suggest multiclassing first, though. Or think of some RAW way to get his character to be more enjoyable for him. Sometimes it's enough to just throw in a certain magic item.

 

[steeldragons]

Player A no longer wants to be a dwarf paladin, now he wants to be a human ranger (or whatever). Do you allow him to just switch with no XP penalty?

Do you start him with less XP?

What if that dwarf paladin had magic items? Does the human ranger get them?

Sure something like this has been said. There's a million ways to handle this, and ultimately, it's however you want to handle it (not what any one or other table does).

Myself, they take an XP hit (which might not even be that much of a hit if they're already the lowest level member of the party) that puts them either equal to or 1 level lower than the lowest level PC in the party, depending on the power/level spread of the party.

Same for character death. Replacement/new PCs come in at equal to or a level lower than the lowest level "still going" PC.

So, in some cases, this is next to nothing. If the whole party is 3rd level, then they probably will start at 2nd level since it is trivially easy to get up to 3rd. If there are two 7th level PCs, a 6th, and 3 5th levels PCs, the "new guy" is probably coming in at 4th...and likely will be caught up to rest of them in a session or two. It's really just a judgement call, depending and varying from situation to situation based on circumstances.

Obviously, they also will have to wait until there's a place in the narrative that makes sense for this new character to appear. If it's "downtime" or in between adventures and the party is just going about town or wandering down a road to the next city, easy enough to start right up with "a mysterious stranger approaches you..." But, for example, in the middle of dungeon or half way through combat, this is much more difficult..."rescued prisoner" is probably my most often used play here. But even that isn't always doable. So, the player might have to wait until the party is somewhere this new character can show up on the scene...and yes, I have given players a week off here or there, knowing that that won't happen in a particular upcoming session.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My preference is generally to have the character start out at the bottom of the tier, roughly. I have a strong dislike of advanced starts, and try to minimize that as much as possible. As far as transferring magic items, I allowed that once, and regretted it.

On the converse, as far as character death goes, I tend to be pretty kind about it. If they can’t afford raise dead, then a simple quest in return will suffice.

 

[akr71]

Player A no longer wants to be a dwarf paladin, now he wants to be a human ranger (or whatever). Do you allow him to just switch with no XP penalty?

Do you start him with less XP?

What if that dwarf paladin had magic items? Does the human ranger get them?

If he isn't enjoying the character, he (probably) isn't enjoying the game. Let him switch, no XP penalty, but I've also let a player bring in a new PC at level 1 when the party has been level 2 or 3. I would let the new character start at the base XP of whatever level you decide together that the character should be introduced.

As for magic items, it would be much easier if the old character met a gruesome end and the party could pick the corpse clean. AaronOfBarbaria's answer fits nicely - group vs personal items

 

[Gnashtooth]

I let them switch. I don't allow multiclassing. It's never really posed an issue unless it's repetitive.

 

[Sunseeker]

Players are welcome to switch at any time, but the new character still requires some introduction. The old character can die, or simply wander away never to be seen again. I don't usually include other people's PCs are future NPCs in the world unless there is some very specific reason to. New characters start one level below the lowest level party member, minimum of 1. If the old character leaves via death, and his corpse is accessible to the remaining party members, they are free to loot him, but otherwise the old character leaves with all their stuff. The new character starts with the basic set of items I'm using in that campaign.

 

[jrowland]

My table rules for 5E:

If avg party level is

1-5 New characters are at the same level
6-10 New characters are at bottom of xp of avg party level
11-15 New characters are at bottom of xp of avg party level -1
16-20 New characters are at bottom of xp of avg party level -2

This applies to new players, old players who want to play something else, old players whose character died and want to play something else, etc.