I don't mind players switching characters, but then you have 3 choices: 1. the PC dies, 2. the PC retires (leaving the game world entirely), or 3. the PC becomes an NPC under my control and you lose 100% of all control over it. If you don't want 3, then kill it off or retire it.
What I don't allow, and I agree you shouldn't, is for the player to effectively have 2 characters: the new PC, and then somehow control the old one (and in your case, worse, have him become king). One player can't have 2 characters when everyone else gets one.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I can understand the desire to maintain verisimilitude and the narrative ya'll forged, but I'd recommend that you embrace the fact that this is a game and just handwave the character switch. You can create a reason after the dungeon is cleared and keep on trucking. Heck, your player may change their mind again and go back to the bard.
If this kind of thing keeps happening, then you may need to have a discussion about the game expectations again.
I couldn't agree more here. All the extra work to "preserve the sacred timeline"(watch Loki on Disney+) just sounds psychotic...
So assuming everyone is on board with the swap, why not have the cleric searching the temple for the party since I assume the people in town know where the party went? Obviously the cleric will be highly capable since it's an incoming PC so it would be reasonable for them to be able to fight or run from trouble during the search.
Edit: after rereading your intended timeline, the cleric could show up at/in the temple at any time, if most of the danger is cleared all the better. Also since the main threat inside is undead it's thoroughly reasonable for a cleric to have handled any of the low end threats that may be behind the party(there's always hidden rooms the party "didn't find" to explain where a zombie or three came from)
So as I expected the party finished and left the Temple by the end of the session, the player decided to sit this session out and has told me he will be present next session where first thing, as the characters are sat in the Inn the Cleric will be introduced, the Bard will go on his way and all will be sorted. There is a lesson for me here about communication, I think a lot of this could have been resolved better through a quick call vs pinging messages back and forth, but the player has also apologised to me for reacting as he did accepting that he had told me several times he was happy waiting until the encounter was complete. So all is sorted.
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OK, yeah. I agree with Geann then.
I don't mind players switching characters, but then you have 3 choices: 1. the PC dies, 2. the PC retires (leaving the game world entirely), or 3. the PC becomes an NPC under my control and you lose 100% of all control over it. If you don't want 3, then kill it off or retire it.
What I don't allow, and I agree you shouldn't, is for the player to effectively have 2 characters: the new PC, and then somehow control the old one (and in your case, worse, have him become king). One player can't have 2 characters when everyone else gets one.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Nothing yet :)
I couldn't agree more here. All the extra work to "preserve the sacred timeline"(watch Loki on Disney+) just sounds psychotic...
So assuming everyone is on board with the swap, why not have the cleric searching the temple for the party since I assume the people in town know where the party went? Obviously the cleric will be highly capable since it's an incoming PC so it would be reasonable for them to be able to fight or run from trouble during the search.
Edit: after rereading your intended timeline, the cleric could show up at/in the temple at any time, if most of the danger is cleared all the better. Also since the main threat inside is undead it's thoroughly reasonable for a cleric to have handled any of the low end threats that may be behind the party(there's always hidden rooms the party "didn't find" to explain where a zombie or three came from)
So as I expected the party finished and left the Temple by the end of the session, the player decided to sit this session out and has told me he will be present next session where first thing, as the characters are sat in the Inn the Cleric will be introduced, the Bard will go on his way and all will be sorted. There is a lesson for me here about communication, I think a lot of this could have been resolved better through a quick call vs pinging messages back and forth, but the player has also apologised to me for reacting as he did accepting that he had told me several times he was happy waiting until the encounter was complete. So all is sorted.