D&D General What do you do (as GM) if a PC dies in the middle of a session

[Li Shenron]

Unless the party are in town or other downtime and about to head out to the field, I can't see any reason for stopping the session while a player rolls up a character. If nothing else, continuing the session makes it more likely things will get to a logical place to bring the new one in; which can't happen if it isn't rolled up yet.

Sent away? What's stopping the player from rolling the new PC up while still at the table? Further, char-gen often needs some DM input anyway via answering of questions, which can be done during breaks in the continuing play provided the rolling-up player is still at the table.

That, and due to some bad past experiences we have a table rule that says that at least the key rolls (stats, hit points, other major character elements) have to be done in the presence of others.

All the more reasons for what I said I prefer doing.

Ah. I take a different tack both as player and DM: while every character is rolled up with the intent that it'll last a long time, there's no way to know ahead of time if that intent will come out real or not.

As I said, I do not let PCs die unless the player is fine with that. I've had players who intend roleplaying a character to be a lasting thing. So we DO know their characters WILL last in my game. I don't care if other DMs do not like this.

 

[Clint_L]

It's hard if you're playing a game with complicated character creation, because it can just take too long to make a new one in-session. You can get by with letting the player run an NPC. I have a few simple ones prepared for the occasion. But it's not very satisfactory for many compared to running their own character.

In the game I'm currently a player in, I've solved the problem for my part by having a backup character prepared in advance. I just level him up alongside my current character so he's ready. Always breathing down my current character's neck... Waiting... For just that one slip-up. Erh...

If the death happens mid-combat and there is not likely to be a revivify, I let the player take over the most powerful mob if they want. No one has ever said no and they are generally quite energetic about going after their former teammates. They always run the mob better than I do.