How do I deal with a player that kills his character on purpose?

[Dragonblade]

It sounds like he had a vision for the character and it wasn't meeting his expectations so he scrapped it. I think deliberately killing a character is immature player behavior. I'd have a long talk with the player before letting him rejoin the game at all.

On the other hand, starting at half their level is a ridiculous penalty. New characters in my game always start at the same level an old characters. I could see starting a new character one level lower, but half? Personally, I would just leave the game if I had to start at half level. You should seriously consider changing that policy.

 

[Hammer of the Circle]

No penalties. It's his game group too. Just let him play the kind of character he wants at a suitable power level to the rest of the party. Btw, if he passed over exiting his character in favor of death, he may have liked his character a lot less than anyone else in the group realized.

 

[Templetroll]

From the description it is a serious power-gamer who will say anything to the DM to get the possibility of haing more power but is incapable of keeping up his end of the bargain to get it. He may want more attention than he gets playing so he is getting it by dieing.

Let the guy roll up a character at the same level or one less, up to you; as others have pointed out half the level is too harsh. Make sure he has to come up with an idea of why this character is wandering around and gets to this oasis. It is up to the other characters whether this new guy gets to travel with them, not DM fiat. This character should not be related to anyone in the group, it has to be a person that no one has an easy reason to put up with. The character should also only use the normal book permitted feats and prestige classes that you permit in your campaign; nothing special for the player any longer.

I'd have the DM tell the brother of the dead character that he freaked and pounded the chest of his brother in hysteria and suddenly the guy coughed up some water and was alive! Yay!! He is now an NPC and is really quiet from his near death experience and terrified of water. He wants to get to an inland town with no rivers to settle down and will leave the party at the earliest opportunity - this shows that player what he should have done to remove the character from the party. The NPC has minimal interest in those zen abilities anymore would be how I would play it.

If the player kills off another character due to boredom or whatever then I'd invite him to stay away from the game until he is no longer bored by it.

 

[Doug McCrae]

As a standard rule for my players, when a character dies, the new one is created at half the level of the old one.

That's a terrible idea.

 

[Humanophile]

I find it interesting seeing who backs a coming in at the same level, and who backs coming in at -1 level. I have to say that I'm prone to point buy/-1 level; I've lived through too much opportunistic seppuku. (On the other hand, I also have a rule that anyone less than 2 levels below the highest party member immediately levels up at the end of a sesson; half or first level is insane in all but a very few extraordinary circumstances, all of which involve keeping the n00b far from combat.)

As for dealing with the player, I'm afraid he sounds like either a glory hound or a rather flighty person. The first doesn't really have any solutions, as any sane gamer realizes what happens when a wide range of power levels are offered in a book. If the latter, try aiming him at a versatility-based PRC that the other players will all agree to try not encroaching on. The Mystic Theurge and the Chamelion could both help him feel like he has a wide range of options each day, while hopefully letting the razzle-dazzle of being this "something special" placate him in lieu of more power.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Bringing in a Player's new PC at 1/2 level seems a bit harsh. Have you considered maybe changing over your house rule to one more in line with the prevailing opinions here? Maybe a 1 level drop for the new PC with a meager amount of equipment compared to the old PC. In this manner, the player sees the disadvantage of retiring or dying, but doesnt get a crippled character that may be perceived as not being worth playing at all.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

At that cost, he's definitely not trying to get a more powerful character. Past level 5 or so, bringing a replacement character in at half the level of the previous character with only a single (minor) magic item isn't ever going to bring in a more powerful character. In fact, the character will be lucky if he's even able to occasionally contribute to achieving the party's goals. Playing a 3rd level character in a party of 6th level characters would suck. Playing a 5th level character in a party of 10th level characters would suck even more. (So, let me see, the other wizard can cast more empowered fireballs than I can cast fireballs, at three times as much damage, and (probably) with a higher DC).

I offered to let him retire the character, but he said no, he would finish out the campaign they party was in, and 30 minutes later the character was dead and they were a long way from home.

As a standard rule for my players, when a character dies, the new one is created at half the level of the old one. They get whatever basic equipment they want and 1 minor magic item of their choice that fits with the character.

I just want to avoid the player thinking his character isn't strong enough and wanting a new one to build up. It doesn't seem fair to the other players who have evolved their characters as members of a group that have developed a dynamic that has to change just because one player isn't happy that his character doesn't kick (what he feels as enough) butt. The character that died, was the only brother to another party member, so not only did he have another party memeber die, but his brother.

 

[pogre]

I have the solution for my campaign that works great!

Each time a character gains a level in my campaign they also get a character advantage card. This is just a little random bonus they can spend once per an adventure. My players really like them and it's a fun little mechanic. It is also a way of rewarding characters for earning their levels in the campaign via adventuring.

Naturally, there are times when folks cannot make it to the table for whatever reason or maybe as in your case they want to switch/retire characters. No problem - they create a new character or bump their levels, but they do not get character advantage cards for those new levels.

Thus, I can bring new characters into the campaign at a level equal to the lowest level of other regular characters and not feel bad that their character is optimized for that level.

This concept has worked great in my campaign and I know one of my players had adapted it for his campaigns as well.

Check out pogre.com where I have posted 8 sets of level character advantage cards for free.

 

[DaveMage]

There may be another factor that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Sometimes, people just get tired of D&D. I was DM in a long-running campaign when two of my players started being very whiney. Turned out they just didn't want to play D&D anymore (and were doing so mainly to be social). Part of it may have been that my DM style was starting to bore them (although the other 3 in the group were having a blast), but there are times when people burn out on the game, or, are simply bored with the game the DM has created. It doesn't mean you are a bad DM in general, but you may be a bad DM for that particular player.

However, as others have mentioned, it's a game. If a player is not having fun, the DM, IMO, should do what he or she can to change that (as long as the changes don't affect the other players having fun). If a happy medium can't be reached, the player should stop participating in the campaign (lest he or she begin to bring down the others).

 

[Amal Shukup]

Lots of interesting ideas in this thread.

In my campaign, Death is generally considered a 'bad thing'...

If a player is tired of their character, I've got no objection to them swapping out (no level penalty), although I prefer (and ask) them to do it in a convenient place where a) ditching the old character and b) introducing the new character can happen in a way that makes sense to the campaign. I'll go out of my way to set up such a situation given a bit of notice...

New characters start with standard money for level, and they can't keep their stuff ...

I would be quite annoyed at a 'suicide'. Definitely disrespectful to me and the other players. Would neccesitate a conversation at least. Ongoing offside behavior gets one bounced (although, somebody behaving that badly for any length of time is probably already thinking about leaving anyway).

If a character is killed (just run of the mill character death) I let them back in at the minimum XP for one level lower. Note, with differential XP awards by level as per the DMG (don't have the book in front of me, so no page ref) they catch up within a level or two. No big deal.

If a character dies in a way that's really true to the character in a roleplaying sense, or in a truly heroic fashion (assuming the character isn't supposed to be a coward, say), I let the player come in at 'Par' or even with a slight bonus (XP or item/cash - not a whole level)

A'Mal