Player wants to switch his character at lvl 4 - should I kill old character?

[swoop_ds]

A fighter among my players wants to switch to a Paladin. Do most people just hand waive this? Or not?

My current plan is to introduce the new player at the start of next session and then run the old character as an NPC until they party encounters a Remorhaz, which will proceed to eat him.

Does that sound reasonable? What would you do?

[Honest Tiefling]

Killing old PCs is typically frowned upon, as it can carry connotations of pettiness. I don't think this is your intention at all, but the player could have bad experiences with this. So I'd avoid it, especially if your intention is just to get rid of the fighter from the story.

Railroading the PCs into a sacrifice is VERY hard to do without the players discovering the rails. The fight might not go as intended, and other players may feel cheated if they can't save the NPC no matter how hard they try.

What I would do is just have the fighter go away. Maybe they check on their home village for a bit. Maybe they stay behind to protect a trade caravan or help train a militia.

[swoop_ds]

He actually wants me to kill his old character. I'm just worried that it'll seem contrived to the other players.

[Honest Tiefling]

He actually wants me to kill his old character. I'm just worried that it'll seem contrived to the other players.

Oh. Well, ignore that then. Does your group do cut-scenes or the like?

If not, I propose the following: Don't have it be a monster, but a bounty hunter tries to kill the fighter, and the fighter only. See, this bounty hunter (and possibly others) have confused the fighter for a powerful and very good aligned mark. So they ONLY want to kill that person, and will focus fire on killing THAT person. Especially if a few of these bounty hunters have a personal vendetta against the good aligned character, such as them helping their marks escape or destroying the people they wanted to turn a bounty in to.

If someone needs more time in the spotlight, try to have the bounty hunters jump them in town with only characters that need more of a spotlight, so there's an even better reason for the fighter to die.

As a paladin of presumed goodly alignment, this could be a plot hook if they ever encounter the NPC fighter that got confused with their fighter.

[Typhon]

I say, if you get a chance, have him become seperated from the group. Say he gets snatched by slavers attacking some random target. The paladin is part of the group attacked and offers to join the party to retrieve their friend. Cut to the end, His former character was killed as an example for the rest of the new slaves.

You get the jist. Have however he goes out be something that drives the rest of the party forward and integrate the Paladin as his replacement.

[Desamir]

Here's what I would do. I'd either A) retcon it--he's only 4th level, after all, or B) find an in-character reason for him to leave the party. Killing him off seems unnecessarily complicated.

[Typhon]

Here's what I would do. I'd either A) retcon it--he's only 4th level, after all, or B) find an in-character reason for him to leave the party. Killing him off seems unnecessarily complicated.

But the OP said that the player wanted his character to die. Far be it from me to deny a characters last wish.

[Matrix_Walker]

Go with your gut.

If your group all knows the situation, come up with a death scene you think would be fun...

If the group doesn't know the situation, you might have some fun with them ;)

If the player likes, you could always let him say his fighter found an oath and the existing character goes poof and is a paladin (ala AL)

But whatever feels right to you.

[Desamir]

But the OP said that the player wanted his character to die. Far be it from me to deny a characters last wish.

Yes, but he's also worried about his players thinking it's contrived. Maybe he has really picky players, and that complicates things? If I were him, I would go for the most painless way, but of course he knows his group best.

Killing off the character is certainly an option. Either way, I'd tell the players out-of-game what's happening so they can support the narrative.

[swoop_ds]

Hmm okay. I'll have some thinking to do!

[furby076]

Have him leave the group. He wants to strike it out on his own, or difference of opinion, or just decided adventuring (or the group) is not for him.
a) He leaves happily, the party may run into him in the future. We did that once, it was fun. One of my fellow players retired character became the leader of one of the artificers guilds and was a contact for us.
b) He leaves happily, the party finds his dead husk later. Some of the parties previous adventures caused the party to get some enemies. When they got wind the fighter is alone, they ganged up on him and killed him. It's not contrived - it's reality. Your players pissed off some NPC or their friends/family. Now the party is saddened by this and decides to find out who killed him and get revenge (side-quest). They want to retrieve his gear and send it back to the dead fighters family, who would want closure and may need his equipment to sell so they can support themselves.

Alternatively, if he is with the party, and there is a battle then it will be hard to make sure that he dies. That will look contrived, because for some reason the monsters are out to get him, and ignoring the rest.

[Temperjoke]

Well, no matter what, it's going to be contrived. But, that doesn't mean it needs to just be a throw-away death. I'm going to assume that your campaign has a BBEG of some sort. I recommend having the old character be separated from the group. There are any number of ways, like he's injured or poisoned and needs to stay and recover, while the rest of the group goes on. While they continue on the current adventure, they're left with the impression that he's just recuperating. While they're away, have the village be decimated by the BBEG using whatever method would be appropriate to the BBEG. When the party returns, they discover what has happened, and find the old character's body, along with clues pointing to the next step in the campaign. Instead of something cheap, it now becomes an EVENT to the party. It may take a session or two to properly set things up, but this adds to the overall story.

Assuming your group cares about such things, that is.

[djreynolds]

You keep the fighter and use him as NPC, or kill him and make him a revenant who wants to kill the paladin. Keep the fighter's history unknown, but give clues here and there

[MrStabby]

My normal hierarchy would be:

1) Keep the character and explain the change. Taking an oath and swapping a few abilities isn't a big deal. Character finds god, channel divinity is tiring and is what second wind gets used for - fighting styles etc. remain. If the PC doesn't want this then its onto:

2) Make the character an NPC. An NPC that the party knows and trusts is always a good thing to have in your pocket. Someone who can be investigating and feeding in important information along the way. If they don't want this:

3) Make them go away permanently. It is the only other choice. Either have them flee or die. Fleeing is better as it removes the question of resurrection.

My suggestion would be to subject them to a crippling curse. Lifting it gives a potential plot hook, it can give the party a reason to hate an antagonist and it leaves that character around in the world as an NPC to provide information to the players.

[Sigreid]

My group follows what I believe to be an AL rule. Up to level 5 you can change your character in any way you want and we'll just pretend that was the way it always was.

[gameogre]

Take a page from Hackmaster and don't give the player any promises. Once he is abandoned play him as a npc but have his attitude change. He becomes power hungry and greedy and then when the moment is right betrays the party and grabs the goods and makes his escape.

No enemy is hated and dangerous as one that used to be called friend. Maybe even stoke this fire by having the npc not turn on the party but lead the characters towards betraying him with breadcrumbs made of treasure.

After all with the player playing a new character they will probably be looking for a excuse to get rid of this extra exp/treasure Hog!

If you can get the pc's to betray him you have the makings for a GREAT Villain.


My Job as a DM is make sure the characters live in interesting times and I don't throw away anything.

[Kirkdent]

If the player wants you to kill him off, why not kill him off in spectacular fashion? It may seem contrived, but so is a player switching characters and adopting that new person into the party. It's just a game, so make it as fun as possible, logic be damned.