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GameMastery Guide / Player Characters / The Life of a Party / Death of a Hero

Back from the Grave

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 67
Sometimes a group’s favorite character dies and for one reason or another can’t be resurrected. While there’s nothing preventing a player from tacking a “II” to the end of his character’s name and recreating him stat for stat, encourage your players to exercise a bit more creativity in making replacement characters.

A player looking for ways to get reinvolved in a game after his character’s death might look to individuals in his deceased character’s backstory, NPCs traveling with the group, or other story-based opportunities to add a new PC to the game. Ideally the player creates a new character distinctive from his last, but even if not, most character backstories provide reasons for such similarities. At the same time, a new character with his own unique reasons to pursue the party’s goals can mesh easily with an existing party and might have reason to know much of the plot of an ongoing campaign.

Forcing characters to cope with the loss of a party member, however, isn’t the only option to dealing with in-game deaths. If a character proves absolutely vital to a game, is the hinge that keeps a player invested, or was slain through an unfair technicality, the GM might consider finding a way to return the character to life. While openly ignoring the rules can feel weak and arbitrary, the GM might concoct a special deific favor or even an adventure-worthy plot to restore the deceased character. Doing so can strengthen a party, rewarding members for their reliance on and willingness to sacrifice for one another, and even give the group new reasons to adventure, but this tactic should be used sparingly lest a group lose its fear of death altogether.

Archives of Nethys

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Back from the Grave