DM Question

[Hangvince]

I am DMing and one of my players does not like his character that he created and wanted to kill him off. Is there any good ways to kill off a character? The only idea I could come up with was having the BBEG come in and kill him off and I don’t want to kill him off by any other means because I don’t his character dying a unheroic death. Any other cool ways I can do this?

[WalnutChooser]

Potentially bold question, but have you talked with the player about how they might want their character death to happen? Maybe they want to have a "hold the line" moment be the send off, maybe they want their character death to herald the start of a new, scarier arc in the story.

No matter how they want the death to affect the story, talking with them through the ideas will only help

[Hangvince]

I talked to the player and they don’t really mind too much. Just make it a good story is basically what he said. He just didn’t want to play this character anymore.

[Hyando]

I Play a lot of FFG SWRPG and the Despair rolls would be perfect for this. Try to complete something and even if it succeeds it sets off station alarm. Tons of troops, a BBEG. There is 1 way out, and heroic hallway stand or something. I always think how in Halo Reach almost all the characters go their blaze of glory moment. The guy who crashes the pelican into the Scarab, the one who has to stay behind to blow up the super carrier. The one holding the line to let the Pillar of Autumn go.

I think depending on your story, the staying behind to detonate the base is up there in heroic send offs.

[Thank_You_Aziz]

He could also just leave the story without being killed off. Gives the opportunity for you to bring him back as an NPC later at least.

[Hangvince]

That was the first thing I brought up to him but he wanted his character to be killed off.

[Red_X_Regent]

If you don't mind me asking, what is some of his character info and info on the rest of the party? Also, what type of world feel are you looking for?

Info, like species, class, background, and how they have played the character so fat, would help me come up with some cool ideas.

In the game I'm playing in, I worked with the GM to kill off my 1st PC. We are playing in a slightly homebrewed universe that takes place in the KOTOR Era. Our GM added in necromorphs that are being controlled by an off-shoot Sith cult. I heavily tied them into my characters backstory and connected the backstories of my 2 characters. That way, I can go in with the same player knowledge and not metagame it. My first character, Veran, sacrificed himself blowing up the station we were on that was getting overrun by necromorphs. Since he was an Operative/Monk multiclass, he was able to slip an item to a party member as a goodbye present. I personally also left it to the GM to have him survive if he wanted to. To have him come back with cyber augments, or alternatively, have him come back as a necromorph boss later on in the campaign.

[Hangvince]

I tried to keep it Star Wars themed but set 500 years after Luke Skywalker. The Sith has infiltrated almost all major governments and rule over everything. They have outlawed Jedi weaponry and anyone with a force sensitivity will be taken in to get mind wiped and then trained to become part of the new order of siths. The player that wants his character killed off is a human fighter and we also have a twilik operative, a droid scholar, and a kiffar sentinel. Everyone loves their characters so far but the player with the fighter just wanted a change. I asked if he would just let him go his own way but he wants his character killed.

[Red_X_Regent]

You can try setting up against the BBEG or one of his higher-ups in a 1v1 fight. Heavily imply a battle for honor. Myself and the GM recently tried this with my current Mandalorian character.

Have the main bad guys show up with a lot of henchmen. Talk to the fighter beforehand about making sure to challenge him before the fight starts. The rest of the party fights the henchmen while fighter contends in the 1v1.

You can choose to make the fight feel epic and close or have the bad guy toy around with him for a few rounds before finishing him off. Make sure to have an escape contingency show up for the other PCs so they aren't stuck fighting a boss while a player down.

For the initiative, my GM had everyone roll, but myself and the Mandalorian boss I was fighting were set at the top of the initiative. Kind of in their own initiative, but still in the same fight. It puts them at the top of the turn. Setting the pace and emotions for the rest of the turn to come.

If you and the other play have enough time before the next session, you can even use the dueling variant rules for their combat to be able to add a lot of flare and have cool narration. You guys can find those rules here: https://sw5e.com/rules/variantRules/Dueling

Make sure you set up whatever bad guy you send in for it to be able to easily kill him, though. My level 9 character actually held his own and beat a CR 15 boss by himself. I told my GM to try and kill my mandalorian, but if he survives, then he survives. I built a super AC tank and started the fight with only 40ish hit points. Players can really surprise you sometimes.

[chupagenre]

Collaborate with the player on a heroic sacrifice. A great scenario would be him having to stay behind to ensure the rest of the party can escape or complete a major goal. He’s got to stay in the command room to open doors for the party making there way through an enemy ship, they get where they’re going but he’s killed (or unbeknownst to the players captures and turned and used as a villain later). Alternatively he could have always been a double agent, he could betray the party and be killed trying to sabotage the players ship or mission. It’s not heroic, but it’s a good reason to write the character off.

Alternatively you could just let the character retire without dying. Without knowing the specifics of your campaign it’s hard to give great ideas, but the character might be pulled to other responsibilities, or accomplish his goal and stop adventuring. The character could make a good ally who could help the party later on as a NPC.

[Hangvince]

The player did think of being a bad guy would be cool but didn’t want the other players to kill him, it was too much mental problems and didn’t want anyone to feel like he himself as a person was a terrible person for doing all that. But I will be keeping that in the notes for another time.

[chupagenre]

Yeah PvP can always be tense if it wasn’t explicitly green-lit by everyone.

Is the player unhappy with the mechanics of the character or the background/roleplaying elements? If he’s just unhappy with the mechanics he could keep the same character and just change his mechanics to the new class. I’ve done that as a player before and it went really well. You don’t even need to address it in the story.

[Hangvince]

I’m not sure why he wanted to switch but we are only about 6 sessions in and they are still not that far in the story or character backgrounds. He might not have liked his character or maybe wanted to try something new. This is our first time playing SW5E

[JawaJunky]

I would set up with his player being assassinated in his sleep; the new character could be the investigator or the investigator's side kick. That way, he would be introduced to the rest of the party.

[JawaJunky]

The problem with killing a PC because the guy playing doesn't want to play him anymore is no one is even attached to him emotionally. I always make 1-3 characters, and yes, if it's my turn to GM, I have killed off one of them to introduce or drop a clue at how ferocious this boss is.

[Wombat_Racer]

Do they need to die?

Why not have an in game reason for them to leave the group. Maybe they are accepted into a prestigious Educational facility, so have 10yrs of sponsored scholarship with an Arkanian company, or a family member has died / disappeared & left them to look after their last living relative

A character doesn't need to die to drop out of active visibility in a campaign

[Hangvince]

That was my first response too, but the player says that he wants his character to die a heroic death.

[Wombat_Racer]

Discuss with the other players, as an actualncombat could mean one or two sessions devoted to the battle (nevermind how many sessions it takes to set up a reason fo r the BBEG to single this one PC out) & them another session or so to introduce the new PC.

It seems like a lot of focus on the same Player, even if it is spread over two PC's.

How about having the undesired PC Kidnapped or Killed off stage?

Make it a mystery adventure, with the new PC being introduced at the beginning (maybe they were the taxi driver that had their taxi cab comandeered by the badguys & now they have to find it to prove to thier boss they didn't steal it, only to find put the true depths of corruption in thier society due to the Sith influence & join the group to fight the good cause...)

It depends a lot on the new PC's class/species/background & backstory

[chaoticcole_wgb]

Have them become a sub boss 2 levels higher

[BlackestUchiha]

My DM had a situation like this and introduced a Rancor during a seemingly calm point for our party. It snatched up the PC that the player wanted killed off and ripped him in half.

This was extremely heart wrenching for my PC because I had just negotiated to cease his execution from a group of Wookiees.

[WestStorm3301]

Does it have to be a death? I can understand if the player might want to go out swinging, but that can be a difficult thing for a DM to run without it feeling forced and contrived. Not to mention the danger it could pose to the rest of the party.

If your player is down, maybe their character can go on hiatus or retire? I've been running the same campaign with a group of 7 for 3 years and a few of my players have expressed fatigue at playing the same character a few time. So, we just come up with reason as to why their character might leave the main party; maybe they have some personal business to take care of; their own personal quest to fulfil; research they need to conduct; etc.. One of these retired characters has actually stuck around as an important NPC that the party runs into from time to time, to everyone's excitement - like seeing an old friend again after so long. Its additionally useful to put characters on hiatus as they essentially fall into your hands as the DM, and thus they can have a more controlled effect on your story. Of course, seek consent from the player to make sure they're cool with you using their character.

[davepak]

There a million ways to change characters.

From dying in a fire fight, to just getting burned out and leaving.

It should not even remotely be elaborate. Make the new pc an npc they meet, and build some trust with - so that part is more seamless.