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all the time. in fact, i prefer it, and always make NPCs available to the players if possible for NPC deaths. i find tying them directly to the story like that enhances role playing options, and my players get a further kick out of taking part of the story and making it their own.
My current game started with Ironfang 1. There was a paladin, and 1 of the npcs became his squire. At the climactic battle the paladin died, so the player choose to play the squire. This pc is a paladin summoner whose ediolon is the spirit of the dead paladin.
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All the time, in fact for ALL Adventure Paths I've ever run I've not only encouraged PCs to pick up a NPC that's around, but I've downright forced them to when they (sadly) died mid-game when there was no feasible way to have them create a new PC from scratch.
About half of the time the Player kept the NPC as their own (As I always did my best to help flesh them out and inform the Player about the PC history and background), the rest of the time they simply fill the role of letting everyone still participate until the next meeting by which time they'll have gotten together with me to make a new Character.
For example I had two PCs die in the same round of the fight against ..
Yes, but the examples I can think of offhand are from games other than Pathfinder.
The long-running Buffy game I played in had a huge stable of NPCs that were divided up between players as needed to keep the GM from having to juggle too many sock-puppets in a given scene. Certain NPCs were promoted to "guest PC" for a session or two when the group was trying out a new player and/or if that session's adventure was focused on a NPC who was sufficiently spoiler-free to be under player control.
In the D&D game that I run for my wife and kids, there's only 3 players, so we have a couple NPCs to round out the party: one controlled by my wife, and one rescued in their first adventure and still run by me. Once or twice, a friend has joined us and played my wife's NPC for a session.
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My very first game involved me playing a character whose player had left the game and was being used as an NPC. They asked if I wanted to play it and I said, "Sure. Tell me what I need to do." I ended up being the party leader by the end of the game and played that character for years.
When in Book 3 of WotR, I was able to play a NPC the party had saved way back in Book 1 (adding class levels and filling out her background). I don't believe any of the other players realized who she was, unfortunately. Considering most of the original PCs that were around in Book 1 had died or left the party by that point, maybe it was simply appropriate role-playing.
Ive never personally let a player take an NPC as his character (or new character if it's a PC that died)
However, I've seen it happen, in a L5R campaign, my character had the disadvantage 'true love' and I'd given the DM her general traits (clan, family school, how I met her...) I expected a distant relationship with my character trying to win her and to get his and her parents to agree to the union... instead, the DM statted her out, made and made her a member of our group of magistrates... awkward, and even more so when a new player joined the group and he was given my love interest to play. her personality was not quite what I expected.
A few times on both ends. I tend to as a player, when writing up backstory, make a few NPCs who are direct contact. People who might be miffed if the character didn't come home. I occasionally wind up liking these NPCs more than the original character and after a death or debilitation rotate into them.
More than once, I've had a new player at the table for a day and offered them a non-plot pivotal NPC. It it's a character I've saving for a betrayal or something I don't give them up of course, but I normally have handfuls of friendly NPCs available if players don't have a character concept in mind yet for what they want to play, or if they suffer untimely death mid-session.
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Once, when a PC died, I replaced him with an NPC from the module I was running at the time. That (N)PC got involved in one of the most dramatic RP moments of my life. The experience was so incredible, I felt I had to relate it at great length. The result was the first message I ever posted on paizo.com.
Once, in a kingdom building game wherein a lizardfolk was the Emperor and had (for political reasons) married a sahuagin empress, when another of our friends started playing I allowed him to take on the sahuagin empress character.
Yup, not a problem. Last time the DM just got tired of running, so I took over the adventures so all the PCs but me could keep playing our characters, and a NPC squire we were developing became the former DM's character to join our squad as a full member.
As a player in the Skulls and Shackles campaign, another player took over an NPC. This required an edit to the character to promote NPC stats and wealth to PC levels.
I don't call playing an NPC while the PC is not available as taking over the NPC character. My current character had a 24 Hour spell to cast, so I wound up playing an NPC for three sessions.
I have also seen an NPC given to a player to play when their PC died. This let them continue to participate in the session without having to come up with a new PC on the fly. While some could create a PC overnight, we play weekly, so we have lots of time to make a replacement PC.
/cevah