Help creating a death table.

[Roxxy]

I'm tired of death having no meaningful consequences in 3.5/PF. I'm not looking for something that'll cripple a character, but I am looking for something that'll make the character different than she was before death. I have a partial list, but I need some ideas to bring it up to 25 or more effects.

1-5: Hair turns white permanently
6-10: Irises turn pale permanently
11-15: Skin turns pale permanently
16-20: Sensitivity to Cold (-2 saves versus cold damage or cold enviromnents)
21-25: Sensitivity to Heat (-2 saves versus fire damage or hot enviromnents)
26-30: Blurred vision (-2 all vision based perception checks)
31-35: Hearing problems (-2 all hearing based perception checks)
36-40: Gain a smell of freshly dug soil (scent of the grave)
41-45: Cannot smell
46-50: Sensitive to sunlight (Dazed in sunlight, can be counteracted by covering up with robes and hood or doing something similar)
51-55: Register as undead for the purpose of magical detection effects
56-60: Develop taste for raw meat
61-65
66-70
71-75
76-80
81-85
86-90
91-95
96-100

[Aegis013]

Squeaky voice (-2 on intimidate) [scared by what they encountered beyond the grave]

Ghastly presence (+2 on intimidate)

Grave fatigue (fatigued and/or sickened for 1 day after resurrection)

Touched by Nerull (gain a strange mark somewhere on the body)

Flesh rot (resurrected at half health)

Maggots and Flies (-2 on diplomacy) (possibly until bathed, or they now are attracted to you because they think you're dead, so it's hard to get them all off)

Deathly contortion (+2 on tumble)

Rigor Mortis (-2 on tumble)

There's a few off the top of my head. Not sure how meaningfully consequential skill bonuses and penalties are though.

[Cruiser1]

61-65: Character speaks in flat monotone (-2 to all CHA checks)
66-70: Character has veins visible on face and skin (-2 to all CHA checks)
71-75: Character has minor physical deformities (-2 to all CON checks)
76-80: Character makes creaking sounds as they walk (-2 to Move Silently)
81-85: Character is partly translucent (like a ghost)
86-90: Character has bloodshot eyes (+2 Intimidate, -4 Diplomacy)
91-95: Character seems distracted (-2 initiative)
96-100: Character has traits of zombie (-5 movement speed)

[Anxe]

tone deaf -2 on perform checks.

[JonRG]

Animals are supernaturally afraid of the character. (-2 on Handle Animal/Ride checks)

[Roxxy]

These are good. Thanks.

[Roxxy]

1-5: Hair turns white permanently
6-10: Irises turn pale permanently
11-15: Skin turns pale permanently
16-20: Sensitivity to Cold (-2 saves versus cold damage or cold enviromnents)
21-25: Sensitivity to Heat (-2 saves versus fire damage or hot enviromnents)
26-30: Blurred vision (-2 all vision based perception checks)
31-35: Hearing problems (-2 all hearing based perception checks)
36-40: Gain a smell of freshly dug soil (scent of the grave)
41-45: Cannot smell
46-50: Sensitive to sunlight (Dazed in sunlight, can be counteracted by covering up with robes and hood or doing something similar)
51-55: Register as undead for the purpose of magical detection effects
56-60: Develop taste for raw meat
61-65: Voice becomes flat monotone (-2 to all checks in social situations)
66-70: Animals are supernaturally afraid of the character (-2 on Handle Animal/Ride checks)
71-75: Strong emotions are difficult to feel
76-80
81-85
86-90
91-95
96-100

[J-H]

-Permanent loss of 1 point of CON (hey, it's what they did in 2nd Edition)
-Permanent loss of 1 point of INT (brain damage)
-Penalty of 5' or 10' slower than normal running speed for the next (day/week/month)
-Nightmares (5% chance that a given spell will not be successfully memorized on rest)
-Hallucination-prone, -2 to saves against illusions

[Malimar]

You might consider consulting page 80 of Heroes of Horror, which has a table of 25 Resurrection Mishaps that you could mine for ideas. (Some of these might work even better if you rule that they also grant Traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm).)

In my campaign, the main side-effect of being resurrected (aside from the level loss) is that you age [1d20 minus your constitution modifier] years each time you're resurrected. (True Resurrection negates this effect. Reincarnate puts you in a Young Adult body, then ages you [1d20 minus your new constitution modifier] years.)

[GnomeGninjas]

Plants die as you approach them.

[DarkestKnight]

does plants include creatures with the plant subtype? while an awesome idea, I believe Treants would not like it if a druid had this trait.

[GnomeGninjas]

I think plant creatures would get a save or something so you can't just kill tons of plant creatures automaticly and get a ton of XP.

[Slipperychicken]

Troubled Sleep, effects as the PF flaw Insomnia, possibly replacing Fort saves to sleep with Will saves (as though against fear). After its brush with death, the creature has trouble sleeping, and often wakes up in a panicked sweat from its frequent, intense nightmares.


No longer feels pleasure or satisfaction from art (visual, auditory, or otherwise), foods, conversation, or carnal pleasures. Immune to fascination, but can not benefit from Hero's Feast, Bardic Music, or similar abilities.


Slow. Takes a -4 to initiative, reduces all movement speeds by 5ft.

[MesiDoomstalker]

You might consider consulting page 80 of Heroes of Horror, which has a table of 25 Resurrection Mishaps that you could mine for ideas. (Some of these might work even better if you rule that they also grant Traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm).)

In my campaign, the main side-effect of being resurrected (aside from the level loss) is that you age [1d20 minus your constitution modifier] years each time you're resurrected. (True Resurrection negates this effect. Reincarnate puts you in a Young Adult body, then ages you [1d20 minus your new constitution modifier] years.)

So....it rocks to be an Elf and sucks to be a Goblin? Unlucky roll and average Con and that goblin just lost a fifth of his lifespan. Unlucky roll and absolutly minimum Con of 1 and that Elf lost ~ 3% of his lifespan. Not exactly balanced.

On topic: depending on how bad you want the penalties I have one for high rolls (assuming higher rolls are worse). 90-100: Unnatural Body: Your body is no longer yours and your soul is difficult to stay attatched. Make a Fortitude saving throw/death saving throw (depending on edition) when you becom below half HP and at the start of your turn so long as you have less than halp HP (except the first turn following when your drop below half HP). DC equal to 10+character level (3.5) or 10+tier (4e). Each successful saving throw/death saving throw adds +1 to the DC, which stack with one another, raising above half HP will reset this. You take a -5 to this saving throw if your are at 0 or less HP. If the saving throw fails, your soul detatches from the unnatural body. You have one round, during which you are incorperal and ethereal, to reatatch to the body (Same DC +5 (3.5)/+2 (4e). If this saving throw/death saving throw fails, you die permenatly as your soul can not bind to any body ever again. If you die of other causes, you still die permanently.

[Telonius]

100 - Attract the attention of a passing Marut, and roll again. The Marut arrives in 1d4 days and has a starting attitude of Hostile. It is possible to negotiate, but the DC of the Diplomacy check increases by 5 for every time the character has been raised from the dead by any means, and an additional 2 if the character is currently under the "Death Ward" spell.

[Malimar]

So....it rocks to be an Elf and sucks to be a Goblin? Unlucky roll and average Con and that goblin just lost a fifth of his lifespan. Unlucky roll and absolutly minimum Con of 1 and that Elf lost ~ 3% of his lifespan. Not exactly balanced.

Think of it as "inherent resistance to aging effects is an elf racial trait", an addition to the short list of reasons to play an elf. (Though it's a pretty craptastic racial trait, even then; elves are much more likely to be casters, and are more likely to benefit more from advancing age categories.)

It's really only unbalanced if there are warforged around. If death and resurrection are excessively common in one's campaign and one uses this rule, one might consider it the straw that bumps warforged up to the +1LA they might already deserve.

[Elfinor]

Touched by Nerull (scarred for life) Fixed:smallbiggrin:

[Azoth]

Stiff joint -2 all dex checks/skills
Rotted muscle-2 all strength checks/skills
Half life -2 saves against necromancy spells
Astral mark -clearly visible to creatures on the astral plain and vice versa
Partial soul -astral/etheral creatures can attack you as if you were on their plane
Glimps of beyond -whenever you are at 1/5 max health or less make a will save or be dazed
Half dead -healing spells only heal half their normal amount
Grave touched soul -register as both living and undead for relevant spells
Graves claim -your body slowly begins to rot until a remove curse is cast on you
Undead soul -healed by half the damage of negative energy spells
Undead fortification -gain dr1 p/s
Decreased vitality- you exude the faint scent of the grave(-2 cha checks/skills) but only need to eat/sleep/breath half as often as normal for your race