Originally Posted by
Catullus64
To say a few more words on why I think there's a problem in need of solving: the problem, as I perceive it, is how the 'standard' approach to character replacement can cheapen the experience of leveling a character in a high-lethality game.
The reason I value high lethality in a lot of games is that I feel it makes those characters who do survive to high level feel all the more precious; their increased power feels earned in a way that it doesn't in a game where survival and leveling up is the expected norm. But as characters do level up, player death presents more and more of a challenge.
On one hand, you can replace them with new characters of the same level. There are narrative troubles associated with that, but more significantly, I feel it cheapens the richness of having a character survive to that level in the first place.
On the other hand, you can have players start over with 1st-level characters. In a lot of systems, that imposes challenges on adventure design. Mixed-level parties are not impossible to design around, but they are difficult, the more so the wider that level gap is.
This is the problem I'm mainly seeking to address. It's actually why, on more reflection, I'm probably leaning more towards Henchmen-as-backups than I am towards the Understudies as described in the OP: a sense that, at least indirectly, you have earned that higher-level backup by keeping them alive through your adventures.