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In aneffort to clarify and codify my rules for characters in the online play-by-post game, The Chronicles of Ashmont, here are the rules for player characters.
Decisions, decisions
1. A player may only play one character at a time. Hirelings, followers, servants etc will be played by the Dungeon Master and their stats will, in general, be hidden from the player. The one exception is for players who take the http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/leadership—final feat.
2. Play whatever character you want. You may switch between characters at appropriate intervals, generally when the party returns to a village or other “base.”
3. Change your “build” when you please (so long as it is during a rest period.) If you want to retain a character but are unhappy with the “feat progression” you’ve chosen, remake the character. I don’t want something like the relative “crunchiness” of Pathfinder to be the reason you’re unhappy with your guy.
4. New characters start at first level.
5. New characters do not inherit the gear of their predecessor.
6. You may “bank” experience points at a rate of 2 to 1 from your main character, saving it for the time when making a new character is required or desired.
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All of that feels very reasonable and makes for good game balance. (I wouldn’t want to have a level one inherit a +17 sword of world slaying…) my question though, is what about character death? As it goes in these games sometimes a player dies, and although that is a sad thing, I think its an important piece of the game because actions must have consequences. (Leaving aside our current objective and its counter-to-this goals… But those are being influenced from beyond me and have limits in terms of risks associated and charges etc… But back to the point)
If we reach 3rd level or above and have the unfortunate occurrence of a character dying, does that character come back as level one? I can understand things like a player choosing to create a new character but it almost seem like character death has a double penalty and that this could get to be even more of an issue as time progresses and gaps widen more and more.
The obvious solution, given the rules you have stated, is that players bank XP in case of death. (Like saving for a buy back in dota or something) While this would allow them to start with something progression of the main game would slow as players used xp to stay ahead of deaths advance.
Of course this could be hand waved or re-assessed on a case by case basis, and in terms of where the party sits (level-wise) at the given moment, but these are my thoughts on it.
Comment by librarylegend March 13, 2014 @ 10:23 pmYour concerns are reasonable and something I’ve dealt with almost as long as I’ve DM’d.
At the time of writing, I’d seriously considered making characters come back at some average level or perhaps one level lower than the lowest in the party.
I decided to stay with coming back at 1st level, with the added bonus of banking xp. Yes, it will slow down the main progression, but I think it makes up for it with the fact that you can not only have a higher level character ready if you do die, it also let’s you play higher level “alts” while your main character is alive.
The other thing is, higher level encounters give more xp, so a lower level character in a higher level party will level faster. It may be a small thing, but it helps.
I think it’s a good trade off, but like everything, I’m always willing to re-assess.
Comment by S4M March 18, 2014 @ 11:28 am