When Is It OK to Kill a Player Character and What Do You Do Next?

3 Wise DMs

Player character deaths happen in all Dungeons and Dragons games and other TTRPGs … don’t they? Should you be worried about killing PCs, or is it fine to let the dice fall where they may? When is it OK to kill a character and how do you make sure the player is still into the game with their new PC? Is it even the DM’s choice?

These questions come to us from a reader, but they’re not as simple as they may first sound. Sure, let the dice fall where they may and if characters die, so be it … But is that always the best thing to do? We think of ourselves as “if it dies, it dies” DMs, but at the same time, we really haven’t killed many PCs in any of our 5E games.

Listen in to hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle character death and when/how/why it is OK to kill a player character.

1:00 Listener question: Is there ever a good time to kill a character? How to move forward after that?

2:00 Whether or not a player dies is not up to the DM, it’s a consequence of the situation

4:00 Have any of us actually killed a character in 5E? Well, one of us has

10:00 It is hard to permanently kill a player in 5E

17:00 Will D&D 5E remove short rests from the game?

21:00 Do players want their characters to die more often? Is that the environment you want in your game?

26:00 Is PC death the most interesting thing that can happen in this situation?

31:00 The issue with undoing too many deaths: There need to be problems magic can’t just solve

34:00 When is it OK to kill a PC in a way that can’t be undone (i.e., Finger of Death or Disintegrate)?

36:00 The fear of character death is more useful than actual player character death

43:00 Before you kill a character “for plot reasons,” make sure their player is on-board with the plan

49:00 What do you do after a player character dies?

56:00 How do you introduce the new character?

59:00 A process for fitting new player characters into existing campaigns

101:00 Is there ever an appropriate time to TPK a party?

65:00 Final thoughts