Hmm, now I want a wizard (what do you do with PCs who die?)

[Corlon]

What do all of you guys do when a PC dies and isn't reserected. Usually I just let them come back with a different character at the same level, but in my campaigns, whenever one of them wanted to change their character (fickle fickle people) they'd die in some way or another, or ask me to kill them, and at first I'd do it because the new characters were pretty cool and everyone was having fun (that's what dnd's all about isn't it?), but lately I've gotten sick of it and I really don't want it to happen in my newest campaign.

So eventually I made a rule that any new characters come into the game at level 1, which got many complaints, so a couple where at most two levels behind.

Any suggestions, or just comments?

 

[hammymchamham]

I do one level below average party level. I made a slight exception with my last PC's death. The party is about 500 XP from the next level, so I started him at the bottom of that level (Which is level 7 for the record).

 

[Ran]

JOKE ANSWER:

I bury them, or maybe burn them...

REAL ONE:

I usually allows same level for random deaths, they are not to blame after all, of course when someone wants to let a character die just because he does not like it anymore (how often he thinks I he can go with it???) I let him come two levels below, that is true for those tat just want their characters to part away, giving way to the new one.

Of course that IF the leaving character is leaving as part of a LOGICAL and game adequated way, he can start with same level, maybe a level lower, just to know it shoudn't be made a habit...

Yes, I am an evil Dm, or a kind of...

Evil Dm smile

 

[Wormwood]

On level lower (as per Raise Dead).

 

[Mystic_23]

My group usually starts new characters at the middle of the level one level below their current character's level. That might change in lower levels when they die if there's no logical way that they can reasonably get ressurected.

If the player decides that they want a new character, the DM usually tries to find another way to have them leave the group or kills them in such a way that there is no way we can get their stuff. It gets bad when you have players changing characters (for whatever reason) and the group gets that much extra stuff to distribute among the party (gold, magic items, etc.)

For example, in one of the games I'm currently playing in, I started playing a human Cleric of Helm...and was LG. One of the other players was a Paladin of Helm as well. So, we got along well, but we tended to butt heads with the rest of the party due to their alignment.

However, the guy playing the paladin had to leave because he was going away to college. I knew that my cleric wouldn't be fun to play anymore, because he would spend his entire time butting heads with (and losing to) the rest of the party.

The paladin was going to leave the party because he was going to go off and be a Templar (prestige class). So, my cleric left at the same time, and both went off to work closer within the church. That is when I created my current character...the Dwarven Barbarian/Cleric/Runecaster.

Sorry for how long this got, but the point is that, as a DM, you have to be careful about players changing characters, and having the equipment and gold redistributed.