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Campaign Systems / Retirement

Relationship to the PCs

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 186
You need to consider your retired PC’s relationship with the remaining PCs, including your new character if you have one. If your PC left on good terms, the party members now have a friendly contact to call upon for advice or assistance. The retired PC can also serve as a convenient mouthpiece when the GM needs to relay plot-relevant information to the players. However, the GM should take care not to let your retired PC have too much of an active role in the campaign—the point of retiring is to retire, and if your old character is involved almost as much as your current character that means you’re getting twice as much time in the spotlight as the other players.

Your retired PC isn’t automatically best friends with your new character and shouldn’t be the source of free gold, magic items, or spellcasting (but see the Lineage section for information about handling inheritance from earlier PCs). You should think of your retired PC as an allied NPC—to keep things fair, you need to make Diplomacy checks to gain significant favors, and the GM is the final arbiter of how much assistance your old PC is willing to offer based on the needs of the campaign.