Arjen |
I'm going to start AoW in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to it but I was wondering how you all handle PC deaths. Of course when PC's die in the first adventure it isn't difficult, the player will start with a new 1st level character, but what about when most characters are 4th level or higher?
I intent to use Hero Points so that there might be less deaths, however deaths might still happen (the Hero Points will result in less fudging in the players advantage).
On one hand a 1st level character in a mean 4th level party is very vulnerable but on the other hand the character will advance in level very quick due to the large amount of XP it get's if it survives.
Thanks, Arjen
Akhena |
Here is my personal system. When a PC dies, I give him two levels less than the highest level character in the party. I also give him the same relative advancement (XP) in his level as the highest level character.
Example : highest level character in the group is lvl 5 with 12.000 Xp. The new character will be lvl 3. For his Xp, he will have 3.000 (base for lvl 3) plus (2.000 / 5.000) * 3.000. So he will have 4.200 XP. I figured out that when the highest level character is 2 lvl up, the new character is just one level behind.
Malachias Invictus |
I'm going to start AoW in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to it but I was wondering how you all handle PC deaths. Of course when PC's die in the first adventure it isn't difficult, the player will start with a new 1st level character, but what about when most characters are 4th level or higher?
I generally start them one level below the lowest "real" character, and with zero experience. When they earn enough experience to be at this level, we say that the character has become "real." In my group, this generally does not take long, because of the DMG experience system.
MI
alacar |
When a player dies, I don't penalize him since a lot of the time, it is just too many criticals on my part or they made a little mistake and payed the ultimate price. I let my players keep their current experience points. I don't like to think of experience points as something exclusive to the character but to the player, something they have earned that shouldn't be taken away. Needless to say, I also never use level drain, taking away hard earned levels.
farewell2kings |
I start replacement PC's at 75% of the party's average experience point total.
I am planning on not allowing raise dead/resurrection/true resurrection for Epic level PC's. Once they've achieved EPIC levels, I figure the PC becomes a servant of their deity.
This should encourage EPIC level players to retire their characters. I will see how it works out.
bshugg |
When a player dies, I don't penalize him since a lot of the time, it is just too many criticals on my part or they made a little mistake and payed the ultimate price. I let my players keep their current experience points. I don't like to think of experience points as something exclusive to the character but to the player, something they have earned that shouldn't be taken away. Needless to say, I also never use level drain, taking away hard earned levels.
Wowzer, I want you as a DM. Thats a very generous system.
I feel like the players need to be penalized for their mistakes. Either in game, or getting into a bad encounter. A player who's character dies, has to start at the base XP of 1 level lower. So a dead 6th level means they roll up a 5th level. I then hand out new equipment for them and let them do a bit of customization themselves (potions and basic stuff). The other players are usually happy when a death occurs because they often get to loot the body. If someone tries to abuse the system though, they end up getting screwed when they next come back.
ASEO |
You could youse the character tree concept, where each player has 3 back up characters, and each time their main character goes up a level, then one of the back up characters does as well.
Another thing to do is have a character pool that kind of works like a tag team approach. Cleric X is injured, then the church assigns Cleric Y (another PC) to travel with the party for the next adventure or so. The downer on this could be Ep gathered, but you can always award more story award points to keep all the characters at the appropriate level for each adventure. That way when a character takes a dirt nap, the Player will have another character available that already has ties to the current adventure. This is something that I like to do as a DM. My current campaign has around 20-30 PC levels 1-6 that the Players can easily swap out whenever they want to between adventures, or whenever they are back in town.
I have had parties in the past closly tie themselves to a particular temple (usually involving a healing god). They donate their unwanted magical items, and pay the temple a persentage of their loot, and the templa looks on the members extreemly favorably when it comes to powerful clerical spells.
Still, I rule that any return from the dead costs the PC a level, and that there must be some part of the PC, recovered at the time of death (no banking toe nails) for any return from death spell to be effective, perhaps with the exception of Reincarnation which pulls the PCs soul into another body.
ASEO out
BanditofLV |
What I do in my campain when a PC dies is I allow the player to create a new character who will start with just enough XP to be at the same level of the character that just died. (i.e 1,000 XP for a 2nd level character). The player can then role up any new charcter race and class other than what his character who just died was. Example, if his dwarven clerc just died, his new character can be any race but dwarf, and any class but cleric. I feel there should be some sort of penalty for being able to role up say a 3rd or 4th level character without frustrating the player.
Cardinal_Malik |
I allow my players to start at the same level they were, but with starting xp for that level. Also, I've explained that since conditions around Diamond Lake are so hazardous, death happens all the time, and the fact that there's a nearby diamond mine and a temple to Wee Jas, I give "locals" a discount on the raise dead spell. After all, even with the local Diamond mine, not every character has the 4000 gp worth of dust (instead of the regular 5000) needed to buy the temple's service.
That said, I also use action points, and that helps. So far only one character died and paid out the cash to come back, but two PC's have wicked looking scars on their faces (their call, not mine) after the cleric's heal checks to remove the Kyuss worms at Blackwall Keep.
Jeremy Mac Donald |
You could youse the character tree concept, where each player has 3 back up characters, and each time their main character goes up a level, then one of the back up characters does as well.
Very close to the system I use except that instead of having one of teh back up characters go up a level all the back up characters get 1/2 the experience that the current character acquired.
Jonathan Drain |
My old DM would rule that your new character would be the same level as your old one would, were you to have him raised. A 5th level character who dies would be replaced by a 4th level one. A 20th level character who dies and is replaced can do so at no penalty, although in 3.5 you may wish to charge them the cost of the 25,000gp in diamond dust.
My old rule was that replaced characters return at one level below that of the highest level PC. This was because some PCs would die repeatedly and end up three or four levels behind, which was not fair, and caused them to die even more regularly while being useless to boot.
My current rule is that if you die, you return at the same level. This is terribly generous of me and encourages PC recklessness, but it has to be done because there are only two players and they tend to get their characters killed a lot.
Andy Collins' rule is that a dead character who is raised loses no XP but takes a permanent negative level until he gains another level, at which point the negative level disappears. The penalty for dying lasts for at most one level this way and so is not permanent. You might like to try that solution for raised or new characters.
Achilles |
...death happens all the time, and the fact that there's a nearby diamond mine and a temple to Wee Jas, I give "locals" a discount on the raise dead spell. After all, even with the local Diamond mine, not every character has the 4000 gp worth of dust (instead of the regular 5000) needed to buy the temple's service.
Unfortunatly there's not one cleric written 'as is' in Diamon Lake that's high enough to use Raise Dead on a party member...probably the only way to get some one raised would be a 3 day trip to the Free City....