Mortality is a powerful motivating force in real life and in fantasy gaming. D&D has methods for dealing with character death, but sometimes these seem mechanical, robbing the narrative of consequences for failure as quickly as just forking over a 5,000 gold piece diamond and 10 minutes. However, there are ways you can make this more interesting or engaging without making it just a quick fix solution.
Here are a few ideas you can use for allowing characters to return from death. Most involve varying or removing Raise dead, Resurrection, and True resurrection as spells, replacing them with actions or rituals as below. Quest to the Underworld Hearkening to Greek mythology, this option involves a metaphysical or physical journey, entering the realm of the dead to liberate their fallen companion. This journey usually needs some kind of bargain or offering and takes some great time, as well as overcoming dangerous enemies, to avoid this just being something routine. Like Orpheus' journey to recover Eurydice, this might even involve impossible tasks that test the willpower and resolve of those who choose to make the journey. Such a quest can be used to build the mythology of the world and the deities that inhabit it. Deal with Death In this option, the force of Death is personified, either as a deity or some other powerful creature. Those who die in heroic ways might be allowed to make an offering or trade, or as in the popular trope of playing dice against death for your life. If this is the case, it can allow the players something to do during their turns while dead or dying, as well as giving some use for the underutilised gaming tool proficiencies. Loss against death might render a character permanently dead or lead to some ongoing effects like level loss or penalties to Constitution. Returned, with consequences Some kind of ritual magic might be able to restore life to the deceased, but they come back changed somehow. Like with Buffy's resurrection following her death, they might have spent time in Heaven (or their version of it, at least), and returning to the mortal realms might leave them overwhelmed and bewildered for some time, or maybe until they would gain their next level. Such a development means there are still consequences for dying, and a heroic death still feels earned and appropriate. Exactly who returns them from death might be up for grabs- an enemy, an ally, or someone uninvolved, perhaps. Returned, to walk a different path The character is offered the chance to return to their allies, but at the cost of their soul or service. Becoming a cleric is always a classic here, but the paths of druidry, a paladin's oath, a warlock's pact, or some similar service works neatly. It might even be a mundane service- returning to an abusive family, agreeing to perform a service for the Thieves' guild, joining the college that has been trying to leverage someone's attendance. The essence of this path allows you as the GM to further a narrative- perhaps one for which you have laid groundwork earlier, or revealing a new threat. Returned, but changed The character is changed into something different- an undead or some kind of different creature like a lycanthrope. They might be able to be transformed back or helped to regain control somehow (another quest for your players to follow!), or perhaps this means having to lose some levels, in exchange for the additional powers of whatever creature they have become. Ritual return Matt Mercer's rules for resurrection (which can be found at Geek and Sundry) lock resurrection behind a mechanical roll that requires actual contribution, rather than just a spell slot. This option makes the resurrection track more with the rest of the game, which requires rolls for success. This still allows for magical restoration of the deceased, but can require research into the life and interests of the deceased to make it function. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 27 November 2021. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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