So I my group want to add a player to my recently started Homebrew campaign but he has been upfront about not being able to make EVERY session but will make the games he can. In an old campaign he did this because he was going to school and was only around on breaks and holidays and at the point the DM had him just rolling new characters and writing them into whatever shenanigans we were currently up to.
I was thinking of a different approach and thought somehow of killing him right off the bat and having his characters soul embedded is some sort of trinket the party can carry with them and sort of summon the PC any time he was able to make a sesh. Im looking for ideas to smooth this idea out and was hoping you lovely people might be able to suggest a few fun ideas. Currently the party is searching for a man who has a vendetta against a coven of witches. This man comes from a very closed off superstitious village who are completely against the use of magic but this one man decided to break those superstitions and dabble in magic with the goal of defeating magic. He is rolling an Eldritch Knight. Unbeknownst to the party this man will turn out to be the Occasional player.
They will find this man in the witches lair imprisoned.. how should I go about this?
Hmm an interesting idea but also going to be hard to manage in ways of character development and levelling etc.
The trinket is an interesting idea, maybe have the witches experimenting with an empty Efreeti bottle or Djinn ring, the Eldritch knight could get sucked in during a ritual which the players interrupt and foul up by accident. The ring or bottle glows when it has enough magic to allow him to exit but just like a true Efreeti or Djinn he is now trapped into service of whoever holds the bottle/ring but with much more freedom, i.e. he has to travel with the players and generally assist them but he still has free will and can refuse to do most things should he want to.
Another idea would be to get a horn of summoning, make his character a solo hero type who goes off to find his own path but gifts the players a mystical horn which will allow them to summon him to their aid?
Final idea i have would be to go almost a revenant type route, his character does indeed die but his spirit lingers on believing he has a debt to pay to the party and when he is available to play his spirit possesses a nearby corpse/random passerby to rejoin the party and assist them in their efforts, this could make for some very interesting interactions and if the player is good at roleplay could cause some hilarious situations to arise.
This is a common phenomenon, particularly as you get older. Don’t overthink it. When the guy is there, he plays his character, when he’s not there, his character is standing in back not doing anything (doesn’t attack, doesn’t get hurt, is mute). Have him level at the same rate as the rest of the party so he stays relevant. Don’t worry about why the character didn’t help in that fight last week. He didn’t, but he can help this week.
The real issue can be making sure you know when he is going to show or not, so you can keep the encounters balanced. Best to have plans on how many monsters you need to add or subtract if you get surprised.
My brother is away for work for about three months at a time but still wants to get in on my D&D game when he's back in town for a bit before heading off again. What we have done is literally made his character just a reoccurring adventurer that the party is on good terms with an occasionally crosses paths with when they are on various adventures. I just level up his character to whatever level the party is when he's in town, and let him and the group work out why he happens to be in whatever dungeon or town the party find him in while they are out on a job. Maybe he's looking into something for a local patron, or just happened to be passing through the area when he got caught up in whatever the party is doing for some reason.
It seems to work for us.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
So I my group want to add a player to my recently started Homebrew campaign but he has been upfront about not being able to make EVERY session but will make the games he can. In an old campaign he did this because he was going to school and was only around on breaks and holidays and at the point the DM had him just rolling new characters and writing them into whatever shenanigans we were currently up to.
I was thinking of a different approach and thought somehow of killing him right off the bat and having his characters soul embedded is some sort of trinket the party can carry with them and sort of summon the PC any time he was able to make a sesh. Im looking for ideas to smooth this idea out and was hoping you lovely people might be able to suggest a few fun ideas. Currently the party is searching for a man who has a vendetta against a coven of witches. This man comes from a very closed off superstitious village who are completely against the use of magic but this one man decided to break those superstitions and dabble in magic with the goal of defeating magic. He is rolling an Eldritch Knight. Unbeknownst to the party this man will turn out to be the Occasional player.
They will find this man in the witches lair imprisoned.. how should I go about this?
do what they did on critical roll and have this pc just go off and do their own thing when the player is unable to show up,and then re group with the party when they are available.
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Hi there!
So I my group want to add a player to my recently started Homebrew campaign but he has been upfront about not being able to make EVERY session but will make the games he can. In an old campaign he did this because he was going to school and was only around on breaks and holidays and at the point the DM had him just rolling new characters and writing them into whatever shenanigans we were currently up to.
I was thinking of a different approach and thought somehow of killing him right off the bat and having his characters soul embedded is some sort of trinket the party can carry with them and sort of summon the PC any time he was able to make a sesh. Im looking for ideas to smooth this idea out and was hoping you lovely people might be able to suggest a few fun ideas. Currently the party is searching for a man who has a vendetta against a coven of witches. This man comes from a very closed off superstitious village who are completely against the use of magic but this one man decided to break those superstitions and dabble in magic with the goal of defeating magic. He is rolling an Eldritch Knight. Unbeknownst to the party this man will turn out to be the Occasional player.
They will find this man in the witches lair imprisoned.. how should I go about this?
Hmm an interesting idea but also going to be hard to manage in ways of character development and levelling etc.
The trinket is an interesting idea, maybe have the witches experimenting with an empty Efreeti bottle or Djinn ring, the Eldritch knight could get sucked in during a ritual which the players interrupt and foul up by accident. The ring or bottle glows when it has enough magic to allow him to exit but just like a true Efreeti or Djinn he is now trapped into service of whoever holds the bottle/ring but with much more freedom, i.e. he has to travel with the players and generally assist them but he still has free will and can refuse to do most things should he want to.
Another idea would be to get a horn of summoning, make his character a solo hero type who goes off to find his own path but gifts the players a mystical horn which will allow them to summon him to their aid?
Final idea i have would be to go almost a revenant type route, his character does indeed die but his spirit lingers on believing he has a debt to pay to the party and when he is available to play his spirit possesses a nearby corpse/random passerby to rejoin the party and assist them in their efforts, this could make for some very interesting interactions and if the player is good at roleplay could cause some hilarious situations to arise.
Hope one of these ideas might help :)
This is a common phenomenon, particularly as you get older. Don’t overthink it. When the guy is there, he plays his character, when he’s not there, his character is standing in back not doing anything (doesn’t attack, doesn’t get hurt, is mute). Have him level at the same rate as the rest of the party so he stays relevant. Don’t worry about why the character didn’t help in that fight last week. He didn’t, but he can help this week.
The real issue can be making sure you know when he is going to show or not, so you can keep the encounters balanced. Best to have plans on how many monsters you need to add or subtract if you get surprised.
I really like the Efreeti Bottle idea, thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate it
We just go with: if the player can't make it, their character is doing other things. Downtime research, drinking, going to the pudding store, etc.
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My brother is away for work for about three months at a time but still wants to get in on my D&D game when he's back in town for a bit before heading off again. What we have done is literally made his character just a reoccurring adventurer that the party is on good terms with an occasionally crosses paths with when they are on various adventures. I just level up his character to whatever level the party is when he's in town, and let him and the group work out why he happens to be in whatever dungeon or town the party find him in while they are out on a job. Maybe he's looking into something for a local patron, or just happened to be passing through the area when he got caught up in whatever the party is doing for some reason.
It seems to work for us.
do what they did on critical roll and have this pc just go off and do their own thing when the player is unable to show up,and then re group with the party when they are available.