Depending on the story you are writing, and its intended length and content, personally I feel like it's best to have an overarching static goal with smaller evolving goals to support it. Those smaller evolving goals should, in some way, push the character(s) towards the main static goal most of...
I think it’s also important to be mindful of how that character’s death continues to affect the surviving characters. That death should create a hole in the characters that knew or loved them, and it might be a long time (if ever) that that hole can be filled or healed. The loss of the character...