D&D 5E Poll: When do you typically retire your PCs?

[steeldragons]

I aired on the side of "high" and went with 'By 15" though more often than not, it's closer to 10.

10th and 12-14th seems to be where most past characters hit the showers.

In over 30 years of D&D enjoyment...not counting "uber" ridiculous where we'd start with 20th or 25th level for a one shot or few games/short campaign, only 1 PC ever got to 17th, and one to 16th.

The vast majority -of characters that ever got that high- ended up in the 10-15 range.

 

[Blue]

I've retired multiple characters, and none based on level. Even with you now suggesting retiring based on level I'm having problens envisioning it. Here's some options:

1. When their story is told.
2. At the end of the campaign.
3. As a martyr to save the rest of the party (negotiated with the DM)
4. If intra-party conflict causes problems.
5. If the party changes and my character has nothng in common/doesn't trust them.
6. When their character arc completes.
7. When an opportunity comes up that's offscreen but the character would take it instead of continuing to adventure.
8. If the party really really REALLY needs some class (healer, whatever) adn I'm least attached to my character.
9. If the DM become annoying.
10. When they get married, or had a kid, or become a noble, or some other life stage where going out to risk your neck daily is not good. (On the other hand, I've had a character get married to a really swashbuckling cleric of luck and we adventured happily ever after.)
11. To pursue some very long downtime activity.
12. Because it was right for the character for them to leave.

 

[Lanefan]

A better way to ask perhaps is not at what level do you retire but after how many adventures; as in most situations number of adventures is a more common measure of career length than level: some campaigns get to 10th level in 3 or 4 adventures, others might take 15 or 20 or even more.

And my answer would still vary all over the place.

Lanefan

 

[Caliban]

Usually the campaign will end or the gaming group will break up rather than me retiring a PC. I do have one that retired at lvl 10 because he became the king. The campaign is still going, I just play a different character now.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

None of the above? I retire my character when (a) it no longer is a good fit for the campaign, (b) it is no longer a good fit for the party, or (c) the campaign folds.

Any of those states can occur at any level.

Aye - when's it no longer fun, they stand down, regardless of level.

 

[Li Shenron]

When do you typically retire your PCs?

Typically? Too early...

 

[steeldragons]

I've retired multiple characters, and none based on level.

Well, right. I hadn't even considered the question was asking that.

I've never retired a character, at any level, simply because of the *level*. It's been that the game dies out. Or we just want to switch to a different campaign. Or we switch DMs. Or the [gaming] group disbands. Or something of that nature. The PC in question is no longer needed for a given scenario and back "into the stables" it goes...possibly to be used again in a related game, probably not.

But no, I don't stop playing characters because "Oh! I'm 10th/15th/20th level? This guy's done now."

 

[auburn2]

Typically they die before they reach retirement age. I've played at least 100 characters since I started in the early 80s and I think the highest level character I ever played was a 16th level half-elf fighter/Assassin in 1e. He used a wish to bypass level restrictions too or else he would not have been that high. The whole party got TPKed against a group of demons, succubi I think. They weren't that powerful either and we had beat tougher before but two of our guys failed a save (needed a 2 got a 1) on the first round, including the mage and then after that they just kept summing demons, with the demons they summoned summoning more demons. We were killing 3 a round every round and for a while it was close but then they got enough in there so they were summoning more than we possibly could kill every single round and after a long, long time we eventually fell. One of the NPCs (a halfling bard ... not RAW) managed to escape but all the PCs perished.

I do have some characters I just didn't play any more because the players quit or broke up but the vast majority died, and most of them before level 10.

The highest level I have got a 5e character so far is level 9 and she is still alive (bladesinger), in one of the 5e games I DM the characters are at level 12.