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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 1437293" data-attributes="member: 913">Funny you should mention that.  In my current campaign the characters are 12th level.  When the party cleric bought the farm, the player came to me and said that he wanted to play a different character.  He had only created the cleric, a rather bland character, because he was new to the group and didn't want to cause waves.  I knew that it would cause difficulties for the party, as the cleric was the primary healer and the group was hundreds of miles from any sort of civilization.  Lacking a powerful arcanist, they couldn't even teleport to the nearest town.  Despite this, I didn't try to discourage him.  All along I had espoused the notion that players should be free to play whatever they want, and now I had to stand behind my ideals. To make a long story short, Pharos the Cleric was replaced by Sidrian the Fighter/Barbarian.  The most powerful spellcasting levels in the group (all ECL 12 or 13) are Druid 9 and Sorcerer 8.  So how has it worked?Well, it definitely takes adjustment.  My party is lucky in that they include the druid, as well as a paladin, and a bard with a wand of cure light wounds, who could all step in to help fill the shoes of the cleric.  Ability damage is more deadly now, and energy drain is truly terrifying.  The players actually became interested again in providing long-term bedrest to speed up healing.  Imagine their dismay when they realized that none of the characters had any ranks in Heal!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> After all is said and done, though, the only significant change is that the party rests more often, and they tend to be slightly more cautious.  Knowing that death might be permanent this time around tends to do that.  I haven't adjusted any of the encounters, and I don't plan to.  Some things that may have been easier before are now harder, but some things that would have been harder are now easier (that barbarien packs a wallop!).  Assuming you aren't adding a replacement character, things will only get tougher for the group, so challenges will need to be adjusted for fewer party members, at the very least.Before I give you some suggestions, I'd like to ask, had you considered what would happen if the cleric died?  Or was the cleric character "untouchable?"  Anyway, here are a couple of suggestions:1. Increase the amount of healing items found as treasure.2. I know that they are on a desolate, uncivilized continent, but surely there must be something that could be an ally and can provide sporadic relief.  Maybe whatever it is will allow the party access to their spring of healing waters if the party solves a problem for them.3. Poisonous creatures and undead will be significantly more deadly for the party, so try to give them more clues about the foes they will face.  A prudent party will take extra measures to avoid deadly foes rather than attempt to confront them head on, but they need the information to be able to take those steps.4.  Kill them all, then let them roll up new characters and make sure someone plays a cleric.</blockquote>

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