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Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 4829240" data-attributes="member: 2673">I run a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  That game handles this dynamic very well.  There's a division between Heroes and White Hats - the champions and sidekicks.  Who would want to play a sidekick?  Lots of people, turns out, if the system supports them.Here's what I would suggest.  Introduce a new mechanic into the game, Sidekick Points.  They're little metagame points that can be used to balance the odds and make the lower level characters much more survivable.  Call them luck, whim of the gods, or inspiration from being around the high level folks.This is off the top of my head to make Buffy's Drama Points work with different levels in D&D, so bear with me.- All new characters start with a number of Sidekick Points (SP) equal to the highest level character in the party minus their level.  So a 1st level joining a 10th level would get 9 SP.- This is their cap, the most they can have at a time.- Any time they level, they have a new cap and get refilled.- They gain SP for doing sidekickish things - risking themselves to aid the heroes, helping out in non-level dependant ways, etc.  Being amusing companions.SP will help them survive in the following ways.- Spend an SP to automatically recover from dying (as if rolling a 20)- Spend an SP to reduce damage from below -10 to -1.- Spend an SP to add +5 to any roll.- Spend an SP to reroll any roll.The lower level sidekicks get to play out the role of a sidekick, which lessens as they go up in levels.I know it works in Buffy, where you have a group consisting of The Vampire Slayer, Teen Robot Ninja, Werewolf Avenger, and Steve the comics fan.  And Steve is not only not annialated, but is a fun character to play.</blockquote>

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