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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9256899" data-attributes="member: 29398">If she's killable as an NPC then she's killable as a PC.  Why?  Because there is no difference between those things in the fiction.Inhabitants of the setting don't walk around with little stickers on their foreheads saying "PC" or "NPC" or "PC-in-waiting" or whatever.  Jocasta stands out as different because of what she is - the last known mage - not because of who's playing her.  Barantir the Elf Fighter and Torvellian the Elf Fighter should ideally be treated the same in and by the fiction without regard to whether either, neither, or both are PCs.Sure, I'm not arguing that it can't be done.  I'm arguing that doing it is generally going to represent extra work for the GM.It's bad if in-game things are done for out-of-game reasons, I think we'd agree on that.  But when both the cause and effect (or problem and solution) are in-game things, let it happen.  Here with the last-mage example, by playing that character its player has potentially presented the rest of the group with an in-game problem, that beiong what to do with/about/to Jocasta the last mage.Now the others may well, in character, decide it's not a problem and move on; but I suspect that would be an unlikely outcome.  More likely are any of these:--- we have to protect her and keep her alive at all costs, that's our duty now (a goodly party, or if magic is beneficial/desired in the setting)--- we have to make sure she's safe, and a palace/constabulary/knightly order can protect her way better than we can (a goodly party that knows its own limitations)--- we don't want to be anywhere near her, she's a lightning rod for trouble; let's go! (a self-preservationist party if magic is feared, or illegal)--- we gotta kill her now before she blows us all to hell! (a practical party, if magic is/was known to be dangerous)Those are in-game solutions or reactions to an in-game problem; and only one of them leaves Jocasta as viably playable.Now there is one way this could all work really well, however, though I'm not sure you'd be on board with it; and that's if both in and out of character Jocasta's status as the last mage is kept completely secret, and she runs as another class (or equivalent) until the Big Reveal sometime near the campaign's end (assuming the normal luck of play allows Jocasta to make it that far).Why not?  If it's what my character would do... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Not every character I play is the guarding type, believe me.  But some are/have been.While nothing prevents such an arrangement, I've never met anyone who'd rather play a hench (which this would be) than a full-fledged character.If I'm playing a character that dies before I've had a decent chance to see what it can do, and assuming the dice let me, I'll sometimes come right back with the same thing again in a second attempt to give the idea a good run out.  If it's had a good run, though, I'll almost always come back with something different.</blockquote>

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