"Whats going to be your replacement character?"

In our ongoing Eberron campaign using the official WotC modules, I started the game with a human artificer.  He was a tank, prepared to bust heads and take names via the use of his self-buffs.

That all ended while he was pursuing a vampire and encountered a weretiger.  Just one mighty slash and a failed save was enough to temporarily end Alric the artificer's career, as Alric became more interested in prowling the forests as a tiger than pursuing his adventuring career. 

He could have continued on, but at the time we weren't prepared for my character to gain 8 ECL, so I let that character go on a private sojourn and brought in a Elvish priest of the undying court. 

I thought it was better because the group didn't have any healing magic really, other than my artificer's scrolls and potions, which was breaking him money-wise because at the time the group wasn't contributing towards my costs. 

I took the phbII expanded cleric feature to have my cleric spontaneously cast protection spells instead of healing magic, took the feats from the phbII that allowed him to use turning checks to generate waves of positive energy healing everyone or increase the amount healed per die, and later on, had one of his arms grafted with the the essence of one of his "deities" a member of the undying court.  With a touch of his arm now, he could give someone fast healing 3 for 3 rounds every hour.

The elf was ripped apart by a troll one adventure later....  Luckily Alric, having cured himself, had pretended to work for the Emerald claw so was actually "ahead" of the party, and rejoined his comrades. 

Alric was a very different person, timid, afraid.  During his journeys he had lost his homonculous messenger Custos, and had crafted a new companion, Trappy, a cheerful packmate (walking treasure chest) able to carry must of Alric's gear, as well as throw alchemist's fire and what not.

So Alric was doing very well, rather than scrolls and potions, this time Alric had focused on his superior crafting abilities to create large amounts of armor, weapons, acid, alchemists fire, etc.  Alric had a pair of specially crafted gauntlets of blasting which were pricy, but would never run out.  Combine them with a few more standard eternal wands, and this Alric wouldn't become poor nor have to wade into battle.

Then the omnious words come from my wife (the DM), "What's going to be your replacement character?"

Ack! No, not Alric!  He managed to avoid the mummy's rot, avoided suffocating from the drowned, overcame the adversity of becoming something so sinful as a lycanthrope, managed to tie himself off when he heard water behind the next door so as to avoid being crushed by the impending tidal wave of water, survived the gargantuan scorpion god, only to face some doom in the last 7 pages of the adventure?  Oh wait, orcs don't have a level adjustment? Oh, ok.

Welcome Grugg, a member of the gatekeepers, a sect of Druids having received instructions from a green dragon millenia ago on how to overcome the threat of the aberrations and their creators, the god-like Dalkyr.  5 levels of druid, 2 levels of ranger, and all incredibly mighty orc!  A strength of 22, a wisdom of 14, and the feat that allows orc double axe to be considered a martial weapon, this is one druid you don't want to face in melee.  54 hit points, high AC from his magical dragonhide armor, and plenty of strong summoned pets via his augment summoning feat. 

I'm looking forward to this monster, the nature loving but savage orc, with his full attack routine of +10/+10 dealing 1d8+9 damage with his mw orc double axe.  I hope Alric survives, in which case I'll bring Grugg in on another adventure, but if he doesn't, Grugg should be a fun replacement.