Punish a player?

[VertDeLion]

I feel like I have a player who's cleverly abusing the re-roll character feature I've implemented (if your character dies, you may re-roll a new character who's level is one below your previous one). His current character has a major plot item (a piece of a demi-god) and is planning to give it to an assassin guild as payment for them to kill off another player, as well as possibly kill a major plot NPC, and then kill his character off and re-roll so he wouldn't have to suffer any repercussions for backstabbing the group. This can potentially lead to not only a party-wipe, but turn the game unwinnable for the players side.
Do you think this is a punishable move?
Would you punish such an action?
How would you punish it?

[MadBear]

I feel like I have a player who's cleverly abusing the re-roll character feature I've implemented (if your character dies, you may re-roll a new character who's level is one below your previous one). His current character has a major plot item (a piece of a demi-god) and is planning to give it to an assassin guild as payment for them to kill off another player, as well as possibly kill a major plot NPC, and then kill his character off and re-roll so he wouldn't have to suffer any repercussions for backstabbing the group. This can potentially lead to not only a party-wipe, but turn the game unwinnable for the players side.
Do you think this is a punishable move?
Would you punish such an action?
How would you punish it?


It's never the fun answer people are looking for, but the obvious answer is to talk with the player OOC. This isn't an ingame issue. You have a player who's looking to gain enjoyment in the game by making other's enjoyment obviously less. I'd find out why this character is doing this ("IT's what my character would do" is never a good answer btw).

In-game punishment rarely has any desired effect except hurt feelings, mad player, and a less fun game overall.

[VertDeLion]

It's never the fun answer people are looking for, but the obvious answer is to talk with the player OOC. This isn't an ingame issue. You have a player who's looking to gain enjoyment in the game by making other's enjoyment obviously less. I'd find out why this character is doing this ("IT's what my character would do" is never a good answer btw).

In-game punishment rarely has any desired effect except hurt feelings, mad player, and a less fun game overall.

I believe he's mentioned multiple times that he just wants to kill his character off so he can re-roll because he "keeps finding new class combinations". So far, both his characters have trolled the party to a certain extent. The first character was fine because it was actually in-character. His second one is literally just doing evil stuff because his character is neutral-evil

[Monavic]

I feel like the game he wants to play is not the game you and your others players want. If he just likes to troll the group and try out new class combos instead of develop one maybe he is not right for your group. Talk to him out of game about what you are trying to do with your game and how everyone should be having fun without ruining someone else's.

[Asmotherion]

It's never the fun answer people are looking for, but the obvious answer is to talk with the player OOC. This isn't an ingame issue. You have a player who's looking to gain enjoyment in the game by making other's enjoyment obviously less. I'd find out why this character is doing this ("IT's what my character would do" is never a good answer btw).

In-game punishment rarely has any desired effect except hurt feelings, mad player, and a less fun game overall.

I second that

[Farecry]

Have him roll up a few combinations and make him roll at the beginning of combat to decide which one he uses. That way he can stick with the same character. Maybe even force him to rp the combo's differently from one another

[Angelmaker]

Your current system is already punishment: losing a level to switch from a character I don't like? Losing a level, because I heroically held the bridge and allowed my teammates to escape?

Personally I never ever understood why any GM would like to have level discrepancies in their gaming group. Everybody should have the same chance of contributing within the given framework.

That said, it's your game.

Here is what i would do: make it understood that you support any players wish of finding their wanted career including any and all homebrew they can come up with as long as it sanity checks with you. Also make it clear, that character concepts which are too similiar to another players, need prior clearance with that player. Also drop the level loss, as it adds nothing to the game.

If you have the feeling a certain player is dying on purpose for whatever reason, it's appropriate to find those reasons out instead of layering punishments on top. If character death isn't already punishment enough, i dont know what you are talking about.

[Quickblade]

I would have the assassin guild double cross the player and kill him after he delivers the piece of demigod to keep their possession of it a secret. That will mess nicely with his plans.

[Darth Ultron]

Do you think this is a punishable move?
Would you punish such an action?
How would you punish it?

No.
No.
And I'm so very much a punish the player type DM, btw.

To me, this is just good role playing. The player has thought of a play and is actively doing something....that is great. I wish more player could do that. I get so many of the ''I sit in the tavern and pretend to drink and be so cool...um..DM when does the adventure start? My character pretends to drink more!''

But even saying that, it's not like everything will 100% go according to the players plan.....

.....and once they kill of the planning character, they can't do anything about it...

[jaappleton]

There's multiple issues going on here, it seems.

First, he's trying to kill off NPCs. Well, that might be a good thing. The player is engaged and wants to accomplish things in your world. Is it what you intended? Well, likely not. But as a DM, that's one of the things you have to roll with.

Second, he's likely trying to kill off a fellow party member. While not necessarily a terrible thing, it does take more experienced players to do this correctly. More often than not this devolves into something terrible, and fractures the group of players. Not characters. PLAYERS. A very important distinction.

Third, you're concerned about the item itself, the mcguffin. A bunch of things can be done about this. For one, can the group get it back from the assassins? Will they transport it to a safe house, or try to use it in some dark ritual, and that's the party's opportunity to get it back? Was it a fake the whole time? Is there a religious order associated with the demi-god that's going to track down the party, and then launch an attack on the assassins guild, and the party can get it in the mayhem? Or maybe the party joins this religious order in the attack to get it back? Does that order have new information, and what the party thought this whole time was totally wrong, were they being manipulated by previous NPCs?

So those are the issues going on.

Should the player be punished? Maybe. Depends what you want to punish him for. For coming up with things you're having trouble dealing with, things that are throwing a wrench into your plans? Absolutely not. Never punish the players for that. Punish the player for killing another players character? Eh, depends. Is Player A killing Player B's character because Player B's character has been a total jerk? Well, maybe Player B has it coming to him. Is Player A doing it because he's just being a jerk? That's something else.

You claim this person keeps changing characters because he's coming up with new class combinations. He's finding new builds that excite him. I'll be brutally honest, I do that same thing. The solution to how to deal with it is this:

Make him feel empowered. If he's built around stealth, let him shine. Not at every single turn, but let him shine. "Here's the spotlight, do your thing". Just like how you let the spellcaster take out 12 lesser enemies with a single fireball now and then. Let the players feel empowered now and then. This makes them feel good about their characters. Feeling like your character isn't effective is a bad feeling. Now, nobody is going to have a character that can handle every situation every time. It's not possible. But give them their moments in the spotlight, each of them. Then, personalize things for their characters. Did the character leave his daughter behind years ago? Is she part of that religious order mentioned earlier, the one trying to get the piece of the demi-god? Make the players care about their characters, and their stories, and feel attached to them.

That's how you stop serial character switching.

[furby076]

1. As mentioned, drop the level loss. All players should be same level. In fact, all players should be the same XP. Having some players 1 or more levels below the rest of the group reduce their contribution and isn't fun for them. It also hurts the group. So, what's the benefit to the game?
2. As mentioned, talk to the player. Tell him you are not running an evil game. If he wants to be evil towards other NPCs, you are willing to allow it (assuming you are), but the player must be neutral or even good towards his fellow PCs. If the player thinks that is "dumb" and "unrealistic"... remind him it's about group happiness (yours included) and throwing fireballs from your finger tips is also "unrealistic". If the player doesn't care, tell him the alternative is to not be a part of the group. It's the least fun thing to do as a DM, but sometimes necessary. The group > individual.

Remember, you are the DM and control the game. If the player says "ok, sure" and then tries to be sneaky about things, just say "nope". If he keeps on trying to be sneaky and carry out his machinations, then dismiss the player.

Now if the player just wants to switch characters, tell him he can do that - it doesn't require killing off his current PC (why does it have to?) - and he can do it a limited amount of times. Ask him why he is doing it. If it's to try new things out - then are you OK with it? If you are OK with revolving door of PCs then go for it...if not, then tell him its disruptive to the group, and makes your life more difficult when planning the game. If that is not good enough for him - then he doesn't care about you - and you should dismiss him. Also, only let him change characters outside of the current adventure.

[rollingForInit]

This is a prime example of when you need to sit down and talk with the entire group about what kind of game you all want to play. Do you want Player vs Player themes? Do you want PC's to kill each other? If the rest don't, and this player wants to, and intends to play that way, then that player will just have to leave the group, simple as that.

Hopefully if you have discussions like that, you'll be able to run a game that everyone wants to play. Perhaps everyone is fine with in-group backstabbing. Perhaps this player realises that he's doing stuff others dislike, and stops.

[Captain Morgan]

Without knowing the full story, this seems like a pretty terrible player all around. PvP is rarely a good thing, and he's exploiting metagaming to make it happen. His character actually wants to kill themself? Probably not.

And the suggestions above are correct. You should totally talk out of character, probably to the whole group because this can very easily ruin the fun of others. In game punishments are unlikely to lead to fun times.

HOWEVER, if I was going to punish this player, I'd do something akin to a soul trap or a flesh to stone + bag of holding. Don't let the character actually die. Make it so the party can cart him around without inconveniencing themselves, and can theoretically eventually heal that condition... If they want to. They are unlikely to want that if they realize he's assassinated one of them. He is effectively barred from participating, he won't be gaining xp, and he may still eventually be killed off.

But seriously, if you are going to do all that, you would probably be better off just kicking the player out.

[NecroDancer]

I can understand always wanting to make a new character but seriously why does he want to kill off another party member!?

The best choice is to let him try to hire the assassins and then send the assassins after the other player. Make sure that when the assassins arrive the player can deal with them so the player doesn't actually get killed.

Or maybe the assassins have a sort of honor code (think the assassins guild from discworld) and refuse to kill someone for an extremely sketchy magical item (it could be a fake made with nystul's magic aura or maybe it's too risky for them to have). The assassin guild may just demand a ludicrous sum of money.

[Contrast]

I feel like I have a player who's cleverly abusing the re-roll character feature I've implemented (if your character dies, you may re-roll a new character who's level is one below your previous one).

I would point out that you may be, at least partially, causing the issue with your 'feature'. By punishing players for changing characters you're making it so that he feels he has to achieve something rather than just saying 'I've decided to change character, can I retire and swap over?'.

I'm not really sure this constitutes 'clever abuse' either. You say he's escaping the consequences by getting his character killed but most consequences of such actions involve said PC no longer being a PC anyway (getting killed, going to prison). It seems you really need to sit down with the player OOC and have a chat with him about what he's doing. Maybe point out RPGs are communal enterprises where we work together to have fun and get him to explain how he thinks his actions improve everyone elses experience and why you don't feel that to be the case.

When you've had that conversation, take things from there. If he's only there for his enjoyment and doesn't care about others than asking him not to come back is a valid respone.

[RipTide]

There are two possible solutions i see here.

First there is the old standard, talk to the player out of game. Get to the root of why he wants to do this and explain to him that killing other players is not something you accept at your table.

Second, if all he really wants is to re-roll his character, let him. Change your rule so that if they die they come back 1 level lower as a punishment, but if they just want to try something new, they can have their character just walk off into the sunset and create a new character with no punishment. Everyone is playing to have fun and if someone isn't enjoying their character who does it benefit when you punish them if they want to change?

[MadBear]

No.
No.
And I'm so very much a punish the player type DM, btw.

To me, this is just good role playing. The player has thought of a play and is actively doing something....that is great. I wish more player could do that. I get so many of the ''I sit in the tavern and pretend to drink and be so cool...um..DM when does the adventure start? My character pretends to drink more!''

But even saying that, it's not like everything will 100% go according to the players plan.....

.....and once they kill of the planning character, they can't do anything about it...

actually this is where things can spiral badly. Sure the character's have no one to blame, but the Players know who killed their character, and know which character they're playing now.

I've seen groups where this all devolved into:

Player 1: Ha I killed your character, and now have a new character, you can't do anything

Player 2: My new character has a vendetta against your new character and will work to kill them

Player 1: Well, I'll retire this character and now you have no one to do anything about

Player 2: Nope, this character also wants to kill your new character.

Granted, this was decades ago, and I was in high school when this sort of shenanigans took place. The point, is that is other players aren't really on board for pvp, and the OP's player is just doing it to troll the group, he's being a jerk.

Now it's possible that the other players are ok with this behavior, and I've misread what the OP thinks of the situation, but in general, it's roughly the same as the rogue who steals half the loot and keeps it from the PC's. It doesn't make the game better, and usually makes it significantly worse.

[jscape2000]

I feel like the game he wants to play is not the game you and your others players want. If he just likes to troll the group and try out new class combos instead of develop one maybe he is not right for your group. Talk to him out of game about what you are trying to do with your game and how everyone should be having fun without ruining someone else's.

This.
He's not playing the same game as everyone else. Something has to give.

His plan has plenty of flaws in it. Even with a relic in hand, he shouldn't be able to hire evil NPCs significantly above his level. He shows up to make the payment, the evil ninja clan kills him and takes the relic instead. Now the rest of the group, with the new character, needs to defeat the clan to reclaim the relic.

I'd suggest adding a wrinkle to your rule: new characters must have a tie-in to the group. Whether they're the kid brother showing up to tag along or a villager they rescued from the marauding orcs, the new characters should have a reason to want to join this particular group of more established heroes.

[Maxilian]

Have him roll up a few combinations and make him roll at the beginning of combat to decide which one he uses. That way he can stick with the same character. Maybe even force him to rp the combo's differently from one another

I was thinking something around this lines, make him do a list of all the different combinations

1-Rogue/Wizard
2-Warlock/Paladin
and so on

Every now and then he will have to roll in the chart and his things will change appropriately (Also make it that his character doesn't really know how or why this happens, so he may be a Cleric and then find himself that when he wanted to cast Cure Wounds, he actually casted Hex on the target -Oh **** you're a warlock now-)

[ChampionWiggles]

It seems like this questions has been answered somewhat consistently in at least a few areas.

The fact that he's trying to get another PC killed already makes me dislike this player. That's only really acceptable if, for some reason, the 2 PCs have become mortal enemies and even then, that's a super slippery slope and can cause hurt feelings in the group and that's never good. He's planning to give this MacGuffin to the assassins as payment? Have the assassins send a newbie or someone around the target's level and turn it into an encounter. Like someone else said, have the assassin betray him and kill him too. You can turn the Assassins Guild having the MacGuffin into a side quest. The party now has to fight the Assassin's Guild to get it back or they try diplomacy and buy it back or trade it in for a favor. In fact, make so that his new character HAS to be the in and lead this side quest to get the MacGuffin back. Sorry pal, looks like you DIDN'T escape the consequences.

I'd change the rules on re-rolling the new character. Don't give a level decrease if they have to re-roll for dying. It's not necessarily their fault they died. As for willing serial character change? That's...a little different...to me at least. Personally, I'd give a couple of freebies or let it happen if the character changes were well spaced out, because I can understand just growing bored with a character or class mechanic. But if they're doing it like every level or two or something like that? That's when I'd enforce the level drop and the new character start with no magical equipment and that's more so to create an incentive for the person to stick with it. I look at a lot of guides on classes and have a lot of things I want to try, but I don't switch because I'm excited about the class flavor of the week, since I know that will cause instability in the group and can change the dynamic, especially if my current character fits a niche roll for the party. We had a guy play a Cleric in one of my campaigns and he was our go to WIS skill roller and main healer. He got bored of it (And he's known for willing serial character changed) and switch to a Sorlock, which made the party SUPER redundant in CHA skills with the Rogue and Bard that had stuck around since the beginning. Now our party has no one to cover WIS skills and that can be bad.

It should have to be your problem that this person didn't create a character interesting enough to stick with it for a while. That being said, if they consistently switch characters, maybe try to help them develop their next character to be more in-depth and have enough intrigue to want to stick with it. Though if the reasoning for re-rolling a new character is because this person wants to try out new class combinations, it sounds like they're more interested with battle mechanics than actual role-playing. But my window of impression on this person is very limited, so I could very well be wrong (and probably am *shrug*).

As for the new character, as DM, I'd tell them that a requirement is the character has the capacity and inclination to play nice with the party. They said it in Sage Advice "Saying 'because my character is Chaotic Neutral' is NOT an excuse to be a ****." Sorry, but when you consistently make characters that like to screw over the party or be a detriment to the party, your enjoyment is no longer something I prioritize, because it's now causing the enjoyment of the group to go down. As stated before Group fun > Individual fun. Hell, if I were DMing and saw this trend, I'd almost be inclined to have the requirement that this new character could not be evil alignment.
"But that's too restrictive"
Deal with it. Playing ONE evil character to try it out or whatever is fine. CONSISTENTLY making evil characters that screw everyone over is another thing.
"But I just like to play evil characters, so I can stab whomever I want"
...k. Have fun wondering why no one wants to play D&D with you then...also get therapy...

[Deleted]

I feel like I have a player who's cleverly abusing the re-roll character feature I've implemented (if your character dies, you may re-roll a new character who's level is one below your previous one). His current character has a major plot item (a piece of a demi-god) and is planning to give it to an assassin guild as payment for them to kill off another player, as well as possibly kill a major plot NPC, and then kill his character off and re-roll so he wouldn't have to suffer any repercussions for backstabbing the group. This can potentially lead to not only a party-wipe, but turn the game unwinnable for the players side.
Do you think this is a punishable move?
Would you punish such an action?
How would you punish it?

This is an OOC issues.

But, you don't have to punish the character in game.

Plot Twist: Different character, same soul.

Each player is playing a character who has had their soul broken up, the more of them that dies the more they meet up in the after life and combine. Eventually they will get powerful enough to contact their other selves and warn them about the "friend".

Perhaps they were once the champions of their deities but their souls got split up due to them doing something taboo. They must live brave and honorable lives in order to be put whole again.

[Darth Ultron]

actually this is where things can spiral badly..

Well, I was talking about the players plan. Like say the assassins double cross the character or just fail at their job or even something like the target gets brought back to life or fakes their death somehow. Well, the player killed off the character that had that plan, and the new character is free and clear of anything...so they can't just ''suddenly'' have the new character say ''oh, I'm going to do that plan''.

But sure players killing other Players characters can spiral badly....

[VertDeLion]

It seems like this questions has been answered somewhat consistently in at least a few areas.

The fact that he's trying to get another PC killed already makes me dislike this player. That's only really acceptable if, for some reason, the 2 PCs have become mortal enemies and even then, that's a super slippery slope and can cause hurt feelings in the group and that's never good. He's planning to give this MacGuffin to the assassins as payment? Have the assassins send a newbie or someone around the target's level and turn it into an encounter. Like someone else said, have the assassin betray him and kill him too. You can turn the Assassins Guild having the MacGuffin into a side quest. The party now has to fight the Assassin's Guild to get it back or they try diplomacy and buy it back or trade it in for a favor. In fact, make so that his new character HAS to be the in and lead this side quest to get the MacGuffin back. Sorry pal, looks like you DIDN'T escape the consequences.

I'd change the rules on re-rolling the new character. Don't give a level decrease if they have to re-roll for dying. It's not necessarily their fault they died. As for willing serial character change? That's...a little different...to me at least. Personally, I'd give a couple of freebies or let it happen if the character changes were well spaced out, because I can understand just growing bored with a character or class mechanic. But if they're doing it like every level or two or something like that? That's when I'd enforce the level drop and the new character start with no magical equipment and that's more so to create an incentive for the person to stick with it. I look at a lot of guides on classes and have a lot of things I want to try, but I don't switch because I'm excited about the class flavor of the week, since I know that will cause instability in the group and can change the dynamic, especially if my current character fits a niche roll for the party. We had a guy play a Cleric in one of my campaigns and he was our go to WIS skill roller and main healer. He got bored of it (And he's known for willing serial character changed) and switch to a Sorlock, which made the party SUPER redundant in CHA skills with the Rogue and Bard that had stuck around since the beginning. Now our party has no one to cover WIS skills and that can be bad.

It should have to be your problem that this person didn't create a character interesting enough to stick with it for a while. That being said, if they consistently switch characters, maybe try to help them develop their next character to be more in-depth and have enough intrigue to want to stick with it. Though if the reasoning for re-rolling a new character is because this person wants to try out new class combinations, it sounds like they're more interested with battle mechanics than actual role-playing. But my window of impression on this person is very limited, so I could very well be wrong (and probably am *shrug*).

As for the new character, as DM, I'd tell them that a requirement is the character has the capacity and inclination to play nice with the party. They said it in Sage Advice "Saying 'because my character is Chaotic Neutral' is NOT an excuse to be a ****." Sorry, but when you consistently make characters that like to screw over the party or be a detriment to the party, your enjoyment is no longer something I prioritize, because it's now causing the enjoyment of the group to go down. As stated before Group fun > Individual fun. Hell, if I were DMing and saw this trend, I'd almost be inclined to have the requirement that this new character could not be evil alignment.
"But that's too restrictive"
Deal with it. Playing ONE evil character to try it out or whatever is fine. CONSISTENTLY making evil characters that screw everyone over is another thing.
"But I just like to play evil characters, so I can stab whomever I want"
...k. Have fun wondering why no one wants to play D&D with you then...also get therapy...

I should expand a little on something as well:
The aggressor's character he's playing right now is already the second he's created. To make him more woven into the story, we've set him up as the adopted brother of the major NPC (The last crown Prince of the nation), and he's a member of the spyguild that controls information and assassins, making him one of the most active members in the group plot-wise. His character has an NPC handler that's telling him to gather information on another player (not the one he's trying to kill). In addition, as the party has killed two of the four demigod villains in the story so far, one character has the shard from the fire god, he has the shard of the ice god. This item has not revealed any importance as of yet, except it was the piece of a long dead god that was fused into a mortal to create the demigod of ice. Sending this item to the Skeleton Key will make it very difficult to retrieve, if even possible.
He wants the other player dead because when he was rifling around bodies to get loot, the other player attacked him and almost knocked him out without much reasoning. He explained his reasoning (the corpses were long-dead people of his race and he didn't want their corpses desecrated), but he explained this OOC without even a serious attempt at player-to-player interaction except when it came time to stick him with the pointy end.

I'm hearing what you're all saying, and I thank you for your replies. I guess now it's not so much about Punishing a player, but more like 'Concern about the overall health of the player-group'

[Larpus]

I should expand a little on something as well:
The aggressor's character he's playing right now is already the second he's created. To make him more woven into the story, we've set him up as the adopted brother of the major NPC (The last crown Prince of the nation), and he's a member of the spyguild that controls information and assassins, making him one of the most active members in the group plot-wise. His character has an NPC handler that's telling him to gather information on another player (not the one he's trying to kill). In addition, as the party has killed two of the four demigod villains in the story so far, one character has the shard from the fire god, he has the shard of the ice god. This item has not revealed any importance as of yet, except it was the piece of a long dead god that was fused into a mortal to create the demigod of ice. Sending this item to the Skeleton Key will make it very difficult to retrieve, if even possible.
He wants the other player dead because when he was rifling around bodies to get loot, the other player attacked him and almost knocked him out without much reasoning. He explained his reasoning (the corpses were long-dead people of his race and he didn't want their corpses desecrated), but he explained this OOC without even a serious attempt at player-to-player interaction except when it came time to stick him with the pointy end.

I'm hearing what you're all saying, and I thank you for your replies. I guess now it's not so much about Punishing a player, but more like 'Concern about the overall health of the player-group'

I echo the "talk to the player" thing, as this is an issue with the player, not the character.

Now, I don't know how good you make this Skeleton Key to be and how powerful demigods are in your setting, but usually people who can and have killed something with "god" in the name don't find it impossible to steal something from a bunch of humans, as skilled and organized as they can be, so if I were a player, I'd find it hard to believe that it wouldn't be "even possible" to retrieve an item from a guild of assassins.

As for the player's character situation in-game: is the character full-on CE? Because killing a companion is the most "herpa derpa CE" thing in the book? That reason is exceptionally lame to want someone dead, payback, sure, dead? No.

Btw, if the importance of the finger is not yet revealed, isn't it like....just a finger for all intents and purposes? Why would the guild even trust the word of this schmuck on that?

Sure, he says it's the finger of a demigod, but all I see and detect is a normal human finger, so for all I know it's a darned common human finger, I have like, up to 10 of those, why do I need another?

Speaking of which...why would the guild even accept this job? Sure he's part of the guild, but it's a dangerous job that might expose their plan. If they don't attack the PC in question, it's suspicious and if they do and end up killing or incapacitating him, it's also bad. How would him even explain why he need the PC dead "Yeah, he's totally seeing through my facade", "Well, maybe we should....'relieve' you of this job and let Steve handle it, no...?", that's what I see a serious assassin guild doing to someone who might blow their cover and fail the mission.

As for the player himself...he trolling the group can be good roleplaying....except he's doing it in the most meta "don't wanna deal with the repercussions" way possible, that's actually one of the worst roleplaying I've seen in a while, because it's governed by meta, or "off", it's literally no better than the guy who says "no, don't open that chest, because the DM smiled", arguably worse since he's doing it to the detriment of others (you as the DM who cooked up this story included, btw). Seriously, just what would his character gain from all of this? Brief satisfaction of causing mayhem before meeting his maker? Spare me.

The basic lesson to take from this is simple: this player simply cannot be trusted to keep a character going for long nor can he be trusted to be plot-relevant in any significant way, so I personally would never do that again until he redeems. Not as some sort of "punishment", literally just because he has shown himself to be unworthy of trust with that sort of thing.

But you do need to talk with him off-table. Why is he doing that?

Sure, great, he gets bored, but why take a dump on everyone else's plate (yours included)? Does he understand that RPG is not just a GTA sandbox where you can go on a random killing spree, evade the police for couple minutes and then go about it your normal life with zero repercussions?

Likewise, for a character to leave the adventure, shklee doesn't have to die, shklee can simply go off do something that takes shklim away from the group's path or just plain old retire.

If he's so disruptive as to essentially cause a game over for the lulz and shows no remorse nor desire to improve in that regard...then perhaps he's not a good player for your table, at least not for D&D, don't know what sort of bonds you folks hold with him, but it might be good to do like Elza and let it go, invite him over when you folks are playing Paranoia or Legend of the 5 Rings, where players are mostly encouraged to backstab and one-up each other.

Oh, and take off the level penalty, just spawning without magic items is usually already bad enough, especially if a certain player is still unsure what he wants to play, as you said "one level lower than his previous character", which means that he might be sticking around enough to level up only to kill himself and start over, which might even be where his destructive ideas stem from, but that by no means excuse him, crappy behavior is still crappy behavior, justified or not.

[Laserlight]

I tell people upfront: Don't play a character who will be a jerk to the rest of the party. You can be evil to my NPCs (as long as you're willing to take the consequences), but not to the PCs.

[dickerson76]

I like the above ideas about having the assassins turn on him. The party still loses a plot item they might have needed, but there should always be a way to recover.

If this player is going to want to swap out characters frequently, find a way to allow it without disrupting the game too much. Rather than try and make him more ingrained with the party, make him less. He is a hired hand the rest of the party picked up as extra muscle. His character is free to walk off whenever and they'll just grab some more muscle at the next convenient spot.

Once you know a player's tendency, it's best to try and find a way to fold that into the game rather than try and force them to act against the player's MO. The group dynamic is a relationship. It'll work best when everyone is free to be themselves. He wants to try lots of different characters. The group as a whole will be most functional if you can find a way to accommodate that. Just like you should be trying to accommodate the style of play that the other players want. And they should be trying to find a way to accommodate what you want as a DM.