Character rebuild question and help


Advice


I'm DMing Rise of the Runelords and we just finished Fortress of the Stone Giants, but I have a PC that wants to rework their character because of the story events. He is a Dwarf (Sin Magic: wrath) Wizard 9/Ranger 4 (Hippogriff rider archetype). His animal companion, the barbarian, and the druid's animal companion all bit it near the end, and he no longer wants to get another Hippogriff, as to him it's like getting a puppy after the beloved family dog has died, he feels it would be wrong to just wait 24 hours and have a 'new' friend. Saying that also he'd probably just lock himself in his room at the Rusty Dragon for awhile to mourn and pour over Mokmurian's spellbooks. All he wants is to drop Ranger and all it's benefits and go straight Wiz 13 (same school).

Should I allow this since his original concept was 'wizard dive bomber' and built the character to reflect that? Or should I say no to it, and let him get another bird horse when he is ready. I think though he didn't mention it, the fact Snips died so easily and even with Boon Companion wasn't very good got to him.

Shadow Lodge

you may want to tell him that even though his character lost a good friend his character shouldntquit the fight. soldiers lose squad mates and friends all the time. as long as they have a clear goal or objective they dont let that loss effect their mission.

mind you they still feel the loss, they just accept that it is part of "the job" and keep going. new additions are added to the group, or squad, and they continue the fight.

with that being said, if he is using this event to change characters, then that means he isnt having fun with that character. so my advice is to let him change it because this game is all about FUN.

Shadow Lodge

He's in dreamland.

Unless you're playing some serious homebrew, he needs to stick to what he's got and learn to have fun with that. He's talking about being underpowered by the class choices he's made (albeit not by the battle - but he had to have known the risk was his companion could die).


There is nothing wrong with encouraging your player to stick with a character he has started, but make sure playing this guy is something that is fun for him. I'm not sure what the benefit would be to forcing a player to continue with a character they don't find fun. Also, if you force him to play a character he does not enjoy he could just stop playing.


If he feels his class isn't working out for him, and that he doesn't want to lose companions constantly(they will be weak after all), then I'd allow it myself. I hate losing animal companions. Its about fun after all, and I'm not there to judge his intentions, but if its not working out for him its probably just fine to let him keep the character but rebuild to reflect the changes.


It sounds to me like the player realized his build choice was sub-optimal. That's fine. It happens.

On the one hand, you don't want to ruin his fun entirely by making him stick with it. On the other, there can be a slippery slope where letting one character change leads to never-ending parade of changes as things are tweaked and thrown out.

If I were DM, I would bring it up with the whole group, and let them work it out. If they decide to allow it, then I would lay ground rules about how and when, so people don't abuse it, unintentionally or otherwise.

3.5 Unearthed Arcana had a rule about retraining that would let people slowly change their character, including class levels. It was a good idea.

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