Replacement characters..what level?
- Thread starter Emirikol
- Start date
MerakSpielman
First Post
Shallown said:
The point is that death should not be mearly an inconvenience, like a paralysis spell, that is simply a temporary condition that can be cured with the correct magic. Or, if their new character comes in at the same level, they can be considered not only to have been magically cured, but transformed into a new, equally powerful character via divine intervention. Whee! It's cool dying, there's no downside, and I get to try everything in the book!
Nor should death have the end-all, "roll up a new character after a year spent getting attached to this one" kind of finality. It just plain sucks to lose ALL that careful character development.
There is always a way to avoid death, and a properly paranoid and savvy player should realize this and manage to avoid death situations. If there is no downside ("punishment")other than a temporary black-out, then the players will have no reason to attempt to avoid death at all (except TPKs).
Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
No, there isn`t always a way to avoid death. If you fail your Save against a suprising Save or Die Effect, you`re dead.
If a rouge fails to disable a trap, and it goes off, there was no real way to avoid it ...
Anyway, I decided, for my campaign:
The first time your character is lost "beyond repair" or you decide to retire him (because he doesn`t fit in the campaign, you are bored by the concept and want to try something new...), you can roll up a new character of that level. (But be aware that the character has only the minimum Experience Points for the designated level, so he might still be behind the others).
For further deads, the general rule is average party level -1.
There are some problems if you let replacement characters start at severely lower levels:
a) The player feels that his character is to weak, and can`t contribute much to the game. This lessens his fun.
b) When I design adventures, I am assuming a certain party level - it sometimes screws my plans if the characters are to weak to face the challenges - it is especially difficult if only one character is a few levels behind the others, because the others might have little problems with a certain attack, while this poor character has little chance...
c) If a replacement character dies, and you still follow the same rule, you will end up with a character that is only there to die again or stay at home.
I experienced these problems as a player once - I was still a bit unfamiliar with D&D, and this might have been the reason why my first characters died, but when I was approximately 4 levels below the average party level (without me), I felt useless. Luckily, my DM allowed me to bring up a higher level character...
Oh, besides:
It is a game - no real reason to punish someone if you only want to have fun
Mustrum Ridcully
If a rouge fails to disable a trap, and it goes off, there was no real way to avoid it ...
Anyway, I decided, for my campaign:
The first time your character is lost "beyond repair" or you decide to retire him (because he doesn`t fit in the campaign, you are bored by the concept and want to try something new...), you can roll up a new character of that level. (But be aware that the character has only the minimum Experience Points for the designated level, so he might still be behind the others).
For further deads, the general rule is average party level -1.
There are some problems if you let replacement characters start at severely lower levels:
a) The player feels that his character is to weak, and can`t contribute much to the game. This lessens his fun.
b) When I design adventures, I am assuming a certain party level - it sometimes screws my plans if the characters are to weak to face the challenges - it is especially difficult if only one character is a few levels behind the others, because the others might have little problems with a certain attack, while this poor character has little chance...
c) If a replacement character dies, and you still follow the same rule, you will end up with a character that is only there to die again or stay at home.
I experienced these problems as a player once - I was still a bit unfamiliar with D&D, and this might have been the reason why my first characters died, but when I was approximately 4 levels below the average party level (without me), I felt useless. Luckily, my DM allowed me to bring up a higher level character...
Oh, besides:
It is a game - no real reason to punish someone if you only want to have fun
Mustrum Ridcully
Last edited:
Li Shenron
Legend
Until now, our DM has always let us create a new character with the same exact XP as the just dead one. Well, sometimes with more XP, if he died in a battle later won by the party, he got the experience for that won fight as well.
Given the fact that both combat and story XP are always evenly distributed among PCs (it never happened that a player purposefully avoided combat while the others were in), our DM's policy is basically to reward players who come to play most often. Obviously, the XP gained by the party is still proportionate to how well the whole party plays, more or less directly.
Given the fact that both combat and story XP are always evenly distributed among PCs (it never happened that a player purposefully avoided combat while the others were in), our DM's policy is basically to reward players who come to play most often. Obviously, the XP gained by the party is still proportionate to how well the whole party plays, more or less directly.
Joseph Elric Smith
First Post
I usually do one level lower then the lowest surviving member of the party.
ken
ken
MerakSpielman
First Post
Mustrum_Ridcully said:
You could have found out that there was a caster with save-or-die spells in the vicinity, and arranged to use up his spells in a harmless manner, say, via illusions, or blind him so he can't target ranged spells. Or you could have sneaked in while he was asleep. Or avoided him altogether. If you are exposed to such an opponent without knowing they were there, you should have done better recon.
And the trap, well, interrogating enemy prisoners sometimes will reveal traps. In general, though, there aren't a lot of insta-kill traps since they took away "save or die" poison.
Oh, besides:
It is a game - no real reason to punish someone if you only want to have fun
Indeed. Different strokes for different folks and all that. I have fun knowing that my wits and my character's abilities are keeping him alive - just barely - in a very hostile world. If there was no threat of death - and the penalties associated with it - there would be no risk. If there was no risk, there would be no fun.
Last edited:
