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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 2354035" data-attributes="member: 20741">I empathize.I recently killed a PC in similar circumstances last December.  The scenario was a little different though. The PC was not fighting and was running a gauntlet (a ford) along with the rest of the party.  Due to horse movement and the timing of swings and itnitiative, the PC was the logical and only available target of the Ogre armed with a great axe when it was the Ogres turn to swing.  The Ogre swung.He criticalled with 48 points and the 4th level PC Ranger died.  The first time I have ever killed a PC in absentia.The consequences are more serious in my campaign.  I don't really allow raise dead for anybody - and it certainly isn't available in my current campaign (War of the Lance - prior to the return of good clercial magic).So the PC died.  I felt that the player could be justifiably angry with me, but I don't regret the decision and I would do it again.I run a campaign where the story drives the game.  IMC, we've had 15 sessions so far over the poast 10 months. Only ONCE have the players had a chance to rest and go shopping, as it were, without pressure on them to make great haste as part of their quest.It is not possible to logically have a character depart or return to the party given the quest they are on.  I don't have players BAMF away and BAMF back.  That may be a compromise that some DMs here will make in their games for the sake of fun - but I'm not one of them.As well, the encounters and the campaign are crafted ahead of time and some of them cannot be easily changed on the fly.  The Ogre and the rest of the bad guys guarding the ford were one such obstacle that was central to the plot.I also consider it unfair for the party to be deprived of a PCs vital skills/spells because the player cannot make it to the session. I run a game where "for the good of the party" is expected and a balanced party is an inherent part of the campaign.Accordingly, the PC is given to another player to play and the other players will play him appropriately.   If I think a player is causing an absent PC to unnecessarily take inappropriate risks, I will overrule the contemplated action for the absent PC.  From time to time if it is a critical point and a borderline decision, a phone call is made to the absent player to get his input (if possible).Using this approach, only once in over 26 years of being a DM has a PC ever died in absentia. While the PC does not actually fade from the scene, in most cases, they effectively fade as the players present concentrate on their own characters - not playing someone else's. This is not true when there is no choice and the party is in battle.Sometimes bad things happen to good people.  While I don't think the PC in this specific example was being played all that well from what I have read so far - I wasn't there and I can't be sure.I do think that the hallmark of being prepared to kill PCs who are absent is for the DM to ensure they are being appropriately played and not made to face unnecessary risks.If the risks are reasonable and the player controlling the PC is playing him or her reasonably, it can be appropriate to kill the PC.To this I would add a gloss: provided that this rule and the risks associated with it are well known to the group as a whole.</blockquote>

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