One of my PCs felt he lost connection to his character and wanted to roll a new one. He was completely flexible with how we did it and ended up doing the exit 'off screen' in our forum between sessions. Everyone was happy.
Shortly after, another player wants to start a new character as well, but kind of boxed me in on how to do it. He prefers it not be off screen, but wants me to look for opportunities for his character to die in an epic way in game. After a few more sessions, there just wasn't an opportunity without forcing it. So, I eventually enlisted a bit of his help and the current villain cast Gate through a mirror they were talking to her with and grabbed the exiting character from the party's location to her stronghold in the feywild. The player's new character was introduced later in the session. The group is now approaching the stronghold and most are assuming the old character is dead. The player really wants something more than finding his old character dead on arrival. Any ideas on what to do with him or create a thematic scene with the old character when they find him? Having him be dead is easiest mechanically as we don't risk the player running two characters and the spotlight for an entire session, but if dead, may be least memorable option. Having him be enslaved, brainwashed, etc. could be neat but I don't want the campaign to turn into the group feeling obligated to 'save' the old character if we are trying to move on.
The group is all mature adults, but he is the player I know the least well. Having a mental block on how to best handle this. I'm a pretty new DM. Thanks for any ideas!
You could try the old “corpse left as a warning to others”. What I’d be tempted to do, depending on the villain, is have the corpse have clues as to the villains ultimate intent, e.g. marks of experimentation, evidence of interrogation, weird tattoos that weren’t there before, etc.
Well, without much information on the villain to work with, it's a bit open ended on how this could be handled.
-As JCAUDM pointed out, you could do the "dead body warning" approach, it's quick, clean, and simple.
-You could do a Zen garden of statues where they find their friend petrified (as wood, stone, crystal, or whatever) and in an epic fighting pose.
-You could have them reach their dead friend as he's gasping his last breaths, the plants having all but completely consumed his body so nothing short of a True Resurrection or Wish could bring them back.
-Maybe they find the friend's gear in a lock box and beside it some charts and notes about strange experiments done to the body, with a big red stamp of "Failure/Death" on the docket.
-Their friend has been changed, by the villain or the Feywyld, and is now a thrall under the villain's control. The body is there, but the mind is not, they're forced to fight it to the death.
Just a few that crossed my mind, maybe a bit more information and we could really come up with something interesting.
I am loosely running Paizo's Kingmaker, but I am kind of running way off with the plot. The group is facing Nyrissa, the fey villain in her stronghold, in her plane (much earlier and at lower level than in the AP). She has been behind all the mischief and baddies as they established their stronghold (being built) in the wild frontier. The group was losing interest in the sandbox, so I pushed the plot up. When facing her, they could discover all or any of the following:
1) her motive was originally to bring her region the feywild into the material plane to either impress or overthrow the fey elders she resents
2) she has been increasingly frustrated and agitated by the party's ability to stop her minions and machinations
3) she has desperately made a deal with a powerful devil in exchange for more power/assistance
4) she is quickly become paranoid and desperate as she realizes the devil is more powerful than she believed and she is loosing control of the area
5) she might offer to bribe/plead for the party's help in fighting the devil's faction (or likely be killed off after revealing some of the above to get them on to the next villain. They have been facing a lot of fey, but did catch a glimpse of a hell-touched character behind some rebel rousing in their stronghold)
I always liked the idea of using an unwanted character as a new villain the group needs to fight. For the role playing people in my group they usually enjoy it because they can really play up the “toying of emotions” from having to fight someone that used to be part of the group. I did this with a paladin. Took the character sheet, added 5 levels and the oathbreaker class feature and is now a fallen knight the group has to face.
If the old character has been stuck in the Feywild all this time then perhaps time has been flowing differently for them. The players could arrive at the fortress and find a confused old person sitting at the gate. Slow realisation of recognition, deliver some plot point, crumble to ashes if necessary to prevent attempted rescue.
One of my PCs felt he lost connection to his character and wanted to roll a new one. He was completely flexible with how we did it and ended up doing the exit 'off screen' in our forum between sessions. Everyone was happy.
Shortly after, another player wants to start a new character as well, but kind of boxed me in on how to do it. He prefers it not be off screen, but wants me to look for opportunities for his character to die in an epic way in game. After a few more sessions, there just wasn't an opportunity without forcing it. So, I eventually enlisted a bit of his help and the current villain cast Gate through a mirror they were talking to her with and grabbed the exiting character from the party's location to her stronghold in the feywild. The player's new character was introduced later in the session. The group is now approaching the stronghold and most are assuming the old character is dead. The player really wants something more than finding his old character dead on arrival. Any ideas on what to do with him or create a thematic scene with the old character when they find him? Having him be dead is easiest mechanically as we don't risk the player running two characters and the spotlight for an entire session, but if dead, may be least memorable option. Having him be enslaved, brainwashed, etc. could be neat but I don't want the campaign to turn into the group feeling obligated to 'save' the old character if we are trying to move on.
The group is all mature adults, but he is the player I know the least well. Having a mental block on how to best handle this. I'm a pretty new DM. Thanks for any ideas!
You could try the old “corpse left as a warning to others”. What I’d be tempted to do, depending on the villain, is have the corpse have clues as to the villains ultimate intent, e.g. marks of experimentation, evidence of interrogation, weird tattoos that weren’t there before, etc.
Well, without much information on the villain to work with, it's a bit open ended on how this could be handled.
-As JCAUDM pointed out, you could do the "dead body warning" approach, it's quick, clean, and simple.
-You could do a Zen garden of statues where they find their friend petrified (as wood, stone, crystal, or whatever) and in an epic fighting pose.
-You could have them reach their dead friend as he's gasping his last breaths, the plants having all but completely consumed his body so nothing short of a True Resurrection or Wish could bring them back.
-Maybe they find the friend's gear in a lock box and beside it some charts and notes about strange experiments done to the body, with a big red stamp of "Failure/Death" on the docket.
-Their friend has been changed, by the villain or the Feywyld, and is now a thrall under the villain's control. The body is there, but the mind is not, they're forced to fight it to the death.
Just a few that crossed my mind, maybe a bit more information and we could really come up with something interesting.
I am loosely running Paizo's Kingmaker, but I am kind of running way off with the plot. The group is facing Nyrissa, the fey villain in her stronghold, in her plane (much earlier and at lower level than in the AP). She has been behind all the mischief and baddies as they established their stronghold (being built) in the wild frontier. The group was losing interest in the sandbox, so I pushed the plot up. When facing her, they could discover all or any of the following:
1) her motive was originally to bring her region the feywild into the material plane to either impress or overthrow the fey elders she resents
2) she has been increasingly frustrated and agitated by the party's ability to stop her minions and machinations
3) she has desperately made a deal with a powerful devil in exchange for more power/assistance
4) she is quickly become paranoid and desperate as she realizes the devil is more powerful than she believed and she is loosing control of the area
5) she might offer to bribe/plead for the party's help in fighting the devil's faction (or likely be killed off after revealing some of the above to get them on to the next villain. They have been facing a lot of fey, but did catch a glimpse of a hell-touched character behind some rebel rousing in their stronghold)
Thanks so much!
I always liked the idea of using an unwanted character as a new villain the group needs to fight. For the role playing people in my group they usually enjoy it because they can really play up the “toying of emotions” from having to fight someone that used to be part of the group. I did this with a paladin. Took the character sheet, added 5 levels and the oathbreaker class feature and is now a fallen knight the group has to face.
What is the old character?
If the old character has been stuck in the Feywild all this time then perhaps time has been flowing differently for them. The players could arrive at the fortress and find a confused old person sitting at the gate. Slow realisation of recognition, deliver some plot point, crumble to ashes if necessary to prevent attempted rescue.
Exiting character is lvl 6 tabaxi rogue swashbuckler. All PCs are playing non-traditional (i.e., monstrous) races.