PC Death and XP

[Galfridus]

What do you when one or more PCs, due to frequent deaths, starts to fall behind the rest of the party? I'm starting to get concerned that I could end up having one or two PCs at 7th while the rest of the party is at 9th or even 10th. What do other people do to handle this situation?

 

[Datt]

For the most part we just keep on plugging along. Most of our group is 14 to 16 and we have one guy who is 12 because of deaths. He still shows up and we, as a group, just try to protect him so he will live through a couple more battles and hopefully gain a few levels. Otherwise if they keep dying tell them thier god has decided not to allow their soul to return, and then have them roll up a new character of equal level to the other players.

 

[ichabod]

When a PC dies, I give the player a choice: have the character brought back, or start a new character. The new character comes back at one session's xp behind the lowest xp character in the party. It's worked OK so far, although there could be situations where it becomes a problem.

 

[0-hr]

There is a common house rule (or FR rule?) that suggests the DM figure xp differently for different levels. The same adventure is more dangerous from a 10th level point of view so they get more xp than the 14th level folks. Over time, this should let them catch up a bit.

 

[Deadguy]

There is a common house rule (or FR rule?) that suggests the DM figure xp differently for different levels. The same adventure is more dangerous from a 10th level point of view so they get more xp than the 14th level folks. Over time, this should let them catch up a bit.

Yup, that's the methodology of the FRCS. And I must say that it does work - people who lag a little do catch up, those who lag a lot see a definite advantage. It makes continuing the character a more viable option I imagine.

 

[Kyramus]

I've implimented something different in my game.

Whenever they are brought back, they don't loose their level, they do loose XP. level -1 and multiply the result by 1000.

So a 10th level character being brought back would loose 9k xp. He needs to regain them in order to gain a level, but it doesn't diminish his abilities.

It's worked well so far and people still don't like to die.

 

[Quickbeam]

The FRCS method suggested works fine, as does a concerted effort by the party to help shield the lower level PC. However, I think there comes a point where a new character -- at or just below the lowest PC level/XP in the party -- becomes the best solution. Then again, IMC characters are not permitted more than three bites at the apple...their original life path and two returns from the grave. This makes it impossible for someone to fall too far behind. Besides, if a PC bites the bullet that many times, I'd say they've got bad mojo and other karma issues .

 

[the Jester]

Here's another vote for the FRCS xp system.

 

[Psion]

I bring in new characters at one level below the party average, though sometimes I set a "floor" incoming xp.

I also use a rule very much like the FRCS rule, except that I don't use CR so obviously it's a little different. If the character's level is below the party average, they get a 20% XP bonus, and get a similar penalty if they are above the party average party level.

I recently let a player take over an NPC that is 3 levels over the party (he's 21st, the party is 18th). He only gets 40% of the standard XP award.

 

[Hygric]

While running the return to the temple of elemental evil, I had one PC (a cleric of Pelor) who seemed to keep dying over and over again. He ended up at 7th level when the rest of the party was at 8th or 9th. A 2 level split is about as far as I want to let level differences get in a party, so I snuck in a book of exalted deads into the module. Helped bring him back up a bit, but not exactly an everyday solution.