What are you house rules for replacement characters? (e.g. to replace dead, missing, or boring/obsolete characters)
Do you have every replacement character start at FIRST LEVEL?
I typically start replacement characters with starting equipment and wealth and at the beginning of the same level. I also require players to have a back-up character prepped, as I kill a PC probably 1 in 4.5 game sessions.
[EDIT: Related note: I ban raise dead (and the like) spells in all of my campaigns.]
Existing Players start with the same amount of XP as their last character. New Players start with the average amount of XP of the group. All characters start with normal starting equipment (1st level).
This is a good question, which is a pity because it seems like exactly the sort of thing that the rules should spell out explicitly.
Basically, my rule is "Players always get to play." They've taken time out of their day and turned it into free time and they're entitled - I use the word advisedly - to get to spend that time playing. I suppose that's technically a houserule, because I don't recall the rules ever saying anything to that effect, but it seems pretty obvious to me.
Mainly I deal with this by not making death the default way to fail. This removes a huge chunk of the issue. The game is still challenging, but the players' participation in it is not at stake.
I'm not one who denies the use of Raise Dead, so that's always an option, but if death is on the table, players are encouraged to have a backup character ready to go, complete with a reason for that character to show up around the time their other character dies. If their character dies, the other one slots right in, with as short a delay as possible.
If a player is absent, their character has become separated from the group in some way. It's usually not hard to come up with a reason. I might change any prepared challenges to keep the difficulty roughly the same, but since death is not the default failure mode, that's not entirely necessary. Also, I might not even have any challenges prepared, as we might be making them up as we go. I take similar steps if a player has to depart the game entirely, except that I might also try to replace the player.
My other rule (again, I'm not sure why this isn't an official rule) is "Players always get to participate meaningfully." So, if a character is replaced, through death or player departure, the new character is roughly as effective as the old character. I don't mind following the rules for Raise Dead in 4th Edition, which are that the character suffers a -1 penalty to most rolls for about 6 encounters, which is roughly equivalent to temporarily losing about 2 levels. I might apply that to a completely new character, treating it as the character not yet being quite in synch with the new group, but honestly there's not really a good reason to punish a player like that, even when using Raise Dead.
So, "Players always get to play," and "Players always get to participate meaningfully." There are lots of ways to follow those rules, but those are the rules.
We don't.
If a character dies, the other party members will get him to a cleric and raise dead. That character (and possibly party) may owe the church a flavour, a lot of money, a magic items, etc.) but otherwise there isn't much reason why a character can't be brough back. As a DM, I'd generally be extremely careful about invoking things which would utterly destroy a character beyond the ability to be raised. Such abilities tent to be high level. Worst case, give them a wish spell to bring the PC back.
We've never had someone hate their character so much that they need to swap it out. Our group is pretty experienced and most can roleplay almost anything.
If the entire party is destroyed, captured (without hope of escape), or dies... then we start a new campaign.
I think the only time we switched out characters was in a playtest and in a few Living campaigns.
I make the Player keep a replacement charather handy. If a charather dies, the replacemnt steps in with same XP and level, but with normal starting gear. I also tell my players to assume that magic gear from a dead charather is on a no-loot kist, unless it is a item that the char was carrying FOR the party, as opposed to his own. So while they may loot a bag og holding, the fallen clerics magical armour is off limits. (Usually the new char gets a freebie at the next dungeon or two to get him/her on par with the rest.
I dont restrict access to raise dead, etc, but I tend to keep it a bit real. the local shrine of whatever might not have a high enough cleric to cast it, but the Church in waterdeep surely do. Items for spells like revify are also available, but if the charathers sell them, well, then they dont have them.
Then again, my players like the fact that their charathers are not imortal, and thus tend to play on the carefull side. I dont particulary like killing PCs, but I dont go out of my way to spare them either, so if Joey the Barbarian slaps an ancient red dragon, the ancient red dragon might slap back 
Centauri wrote:
I misspoke slightly.
The new character isn't "roughly as effective as the old character"; the new character is roughly as effective as the other characters, maybe not in the same ways, but enough to satisfy the player. The old character should have been the same way and in that case my sentence is correct, but I can imagine a situation in which a character goes away because it was less effective than the rest of the group and the player decided they'd prefer one that was roughly as effective as the rest of the group.
My house rule is rather strict. I like to reward players for playing smart and not dying.
If a player simply wants to change characters I let them create a new one with equal experience points.
If a character dies, the player can make a new character with 50% xpof the dead character. Starting gear as per a new character.
However I give the lowest level character in the group an 25% bonus for surviving each encounter due to it being more challenging for them. So eventually they catch up to the others. It's been working, and players REALLY try to avoid character death.
My players always introduce characters of the same level as the rest of the party.
Xuub wrote:
I start a completely new player with a character at same level of the party and starting equipment, sometimes giving them a single magic item depending on level. I don't use XP and instead track party level up for myself to fit into the narrative. For a dead character they start at -2 from the party level, but I give them a level up at the end of the first two game days. Like many others have said I bring the new character in immediately usually as a prisoner in the next room of the dungeon or something similar.
We let players introduce replacement and/or new characters at the same level as the group and we have what we call the pilot episode rule basically the first session you play your character in is the pilot and you can change it if you wish at no cost to you
Replacement characters, whether coming in because the player wanted to try something new or because a character died and couldn't/wouldn't be brought back to life, have the same XP as the character they are replacing (including any earned from the combat which killed the character, if death is the cause for replacement) and start with the same gold piece equivalent of equipment that the original character was provided at the start of the game (everything earned in play since then need not be given because the party still has it and can re-distribute a share to the new character as "hiring bonus" or as a "we want you to live because that helps us out, so here's money and/or stuff" donation).
I take a zero punishment stance on the matter of character death because I find that "[insert character name]'s story ended sooner than expected" is enough of a motivation to play smart and try to keep your character alive.
That said, I don't find my games having many new characters introduced outside of "I'm not really digging this character anymore, I'd like to retire him for a while and try out this other idea," circumstances - I barely ever kill player characters, even when monsters attacking them are trying to kill them, and despite me refusing to fudge dice rolls. The deaths that do happen tend to be at high enough level of characters that they are not permanent.
Eh, I leave it up to the players mostly. We've had a number of approaches.
I'm not a huge fan of resurrection being fast and easy to obtain... so I guess I do discourage that approach.
We often have friends or relatives of the dead PC show up as replacements... sometimes seeking vengence on the monster who slew their friend/brother/sister... whatever.
Sometimes we'll convert an appropriate NPC to a PC.
If death happens during a game session (near the start of the session), I like the player to adopt the role of one of the bad guys, or an NPC if available. This allows the player to give some thought to how to re-enter the game with a new PC... rather than have the person just whip out a backup character who happens by and joins the group.
I haven't tried to insert 1st level PC's into an existing group in over 30 years. I tried that back in the AD&D days and learned that it was just a pain for everyone, DM included...
I'm usually fine with a new character coming in to replace a dead character, at the same level, and with a roughly equivalent amount of gear (rare or unique magic items excluded).
I try to keep the characters alive (without being too obvious about it) if the players are enjoying them, though; apart from one unrecoverable TPK, deaths in games I run are more likely due to a player tiring of a character, or wanting to do something different, and opting to go out with a bang. Character death stories can be pretty powerful, if you plan them out and give the player the closure they want.
When possible, I like to have henchmen or proteges (more generally, potential PCs) associated with the party and with individual characters/players.
The idea is that when a PC dies, they can pick up a potential PC and keep going.
The specific level and gear of these PPCs will depend on the exact game being played. Some games assume a level or XP differential is normal; others don't work so well when you do that. In general, the idea is that there might be some minor weakness, but nothing permanent; either they should catch up eventually or just have a penalty to start with.
I'm in the DM crowd that doesn't keep a close count on XP, tells everyone when they level up and always keeps the group the same level, even after rerolling.
On a side note, I have found that one of the most enjoyable ways for a player to start a new character is to take over a well-known NPC that the party likes. So instead of "what do you want to play next" it's "who do you want to be?" Some players really like that idea, and often NPCs aren't fleshed out much so they can still turn them into their own idea, with the class they want and the appropriate level.
Emirikol wrote:
I played in a game that lasted about 16 years. This was AD&D 1st. Players had about 3 characters and could run any of them when they wanted. We had new characters start at level 1. Raise dead was possible but in those days you lost a con and had to roll a survival so it wasn't guarenteed you would return.
In 4th edition I don't think this would have worked at all as you really needed characters within a level of each other at the most to be at all competent.
We are about to start a 5th edition game but we haven't talked about character death, but I expect a similar several characters and new ones are level 1 approach which should work ok in 5th I think.
One problem I found when playing with other people was if you just start characters at high level it is hard to have the same sort of background and growth that they have if they start at low level and work up. Also people can be useless at playing them in dangerous situations.
"How many of those have you got?"
"Fifty."
1st unsolved character death of a campaign is a same level replacement with the same monies and gear equivalencies as the worst geared party member.
Second + deaths the characters are one level lower.
Synjin wrote:
In general I try to keep everyone about the same level. For the most part the party gains XP as a group and levels enmasse. Keeps everything pretty level. The group doesnt' seem to mind so far.
Past groups I've been part of have done the same thing, and there have been other groups that all new characters come in 1 level below party average. I only start characters from 1 if everyone present is starting same time but I have started groups at various levels depending on what I was running at the time too. My current method seems to do well with my group though and it makes it impossible to upstage the rest of the group for a grandstander to "hog" all the XP.
If the character is being brought in to replace a deceased one, then it comes in with the same xp and treasure (roughly) as the fallen one. If the character belongs to a new player, it comes in with roughly the same xp and treasure as the rest of the party. At the outset of the game, I let everyone know that there is an arc to the campaign and they are expected to stick with their characters, even if that means being brought back from the dead, so generate a character you'll enjoy playing.
If, however, the old character is being swapped out because the player becomes bored with it, then the new one comes into the game with the minimum experience needed to be one level lower than the one leaving. I'm not big into punishing players, but I adopted this tactic after having a player who regularly changed out characters. "Let me get this straight, you abandoned your two-weapon fighting ranger to bring in another two-weapon fighting ranger, and now you're ditching this one in favor of yet another two-weapon fighting ranger?" Much like the class and fighting style, there was little variation in the way they were played. I do ask what I, as a DM, can do, what elements I can introduce into the game, to make the experience more appealing to the character in question. Unfortunately, the results are sometimes limited when dealing with weak role-players, generic characters, or both.
When running a campaign, this can be an aggravating pain in the nards for the DM. OK, what reason does the new guy have for joining up with the group? If the party isn't far away, geographically or in terms of time, from the beginning of the adventure, it may be easier to work in a new character. The further away they get, the more difficult this becomes, until the new character may have only the most tenous connection to the original plot; no skin in the game, so to speak. Now, you no longer have a group of characters banding together in pursuit of a common goal, but rather a bunch of people sitting around a table and throwing dice. One thing I've found which helps, and sounds a bit video-gamish, is the establishment of some location where like-minded individuals are to be found. For example, if the party is out to stop an evil cult (ugh, how pedestrian), there may be a good-aligned temple which brings together those determined to stop it, and it is here non-penalized replacements are to be found. Of course, the PCs need to return here in order to do so, which might be a challenge unto itself if they are far away or on another plane.
"Players always get to play" sounds wonderful, and I wish I were among those internally wired to adopt such a philosophy, but to my thinking, theater-of-the-mind isn't only for players. DMs put an appreciable amount of thought and time into creating their campaigns, and being submarined time and again quickly leads to losing one's enthusiasm, and when this happens, it's time to move from behind the DM screen.
shut_up_and_roll wrote: