Death and Resurrection: How to make it meaningful

[RaynorReynolds]

I am a relatively new GM that just killed one one of his players. We are working our way through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they were picked on by the Perytons in the "On the Road" chapter of the adventure. They were the only human/elf/half-elf in the party and the two Perytons made quick work of their HP (dive attack bonus damage + surprise round).

Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

[Addaran]

I am a relatively new GM that just killed one one of his players. We are working our way through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they were picked on by the Perytons in the "On the Road" chapter of the adventure. They were the only human/elf/half-elf in the party and the two Perytons made quick work of their HP (dive attack bonus damage + surprise round).

Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

Have them do a quest to earn the right to resurrection? Especially if there is no church of Lathander in the town.

Or they need to go acquire the material component. ( X stole the jewelry shop, no more diamond in town or "they might still be diamond in the old mine near Y'').

Since you probably don't want the player not acting for a whole session, you should probably do the resurrection first, but with the promises from the team to do the mission after.


Another thing i love to make death meaningful is reincarnation. The player keeps his character, but there will always be some traces that he died (new race), it provide more RP opportunity ( is he happy with his new race? he hates it?) and he gets to try new racial abilities. The fact that the combo might not be as optimal as the old one is the penalty for dying.

[RaynorReynolds]

Have them do a quest to earn the right to resurrection? Especially if there is no church of Lathander in the town.

Or they need to go acquire the material component. ( X stole the jewelry shop, no more diamond in town or "they might still be diamond in the old mine near Y'').

Since you probably don't want the player not acting for a whole session, you should probably do the resurrection first, but with the promises from the team to do the mission after.

Another thing i love to make death meaningful is reincarnation. The player keeps his character, but there will always be some traces that he died (new race), it provide more RP opportunity ( is he happy with his new race? he hates it?) and he gets to try new racial abilities. The fact that the combo might not be as optimal as the old one is the penalty for dying.

I have thought about that, but the mission with the Cult of the Dragon is time sensitive. I do like the "go to abandoned diamond mine" quest option. I could run with that.

[PapaQuackers]

Keep in mind the longer you delay his resurrection the longer he cant play. Thats not fun for very long.

[Tallis]

I'd be inclined to tie the quest in to the temple doing the resurrection. Instead of just going to the diamond mine to find a diamond maybe they're looking for a relic of Lathandar that's supposedly hidden there or rescuing a priest that's been captured.

[AmayaElls]

I second using Reincarnation. My first death as a player was solved like this, and though it was quick and I came to life quickly there was a lot of good roleplay options after it. Especially since my character was a tiefling who had grown up hated and seen as a symbol of misfortune by those around her; becoming another race was amazing for her.

[Sigreid]

The priest could insist that one of the party members convert, possibly making them an pariah among devout followers of their old religion. "To return a soul, a soul must be given." or some such claptrap. Could make them real leery of dying very often too.

[DMBlackhart]

I am a relatively new GM that just killed one one of his players. We are working our way through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they were picked on by the Perytons in the "On the Road" chapter of the adventure. They were the only human/elf/half-elf in the party and the two Perytons made quick work of their HP (dive attack bonus damage + surprise round).

Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

Emphasis is mine, sorry just had to point out the same tired joke a million times but, heh good luck resurrecting them.

[Saeviomage]

Coming back could have side effects for good or ill. Permanent injuries, strange visions, hearing voices, a missing shadow, a hand that goes wandering at night, odd compulsions etc.

[JackPhoenix]

I like how they made resurrection meaningful in Eberron. First of all, there's almost nobody capable of casting spells that powerful. Yes, low level casters are commonplace, but anyone above about level 5 is extremely rare.

Second, even if you find someone capable of casting it, good luck convincing them: Sovereign Host considers death a natural part of life and resurrection almost as defying the will of the gods, Church of the Silver Flame preaches that the virtuous and devoted souls join the Flame after death and strenghten the prison keeping the Overlords locked. However, Blood of Vol actually performs resurrections whenever they can, as defying death is the core of their creed (though you may end up as an undead instead), and the Undying Court may be willing to bring young elves back if they feel their death was premature and they haven't yet reached their full potential... but neither of them would likely help someone who's not a member of their faith.

Even if you find someone able and willing (let's say House Jorasco enclave that does have access to someone with greater dragonmark and the extremely rare magic item that allows it to use resurrection, and you have enough gold to pay them), there may be complications: there was a table with possible effects like bringing in the wrong soul, having the character end up possessed by ghost or a demon, summoning bunch of incorporeal undead or giving the resurrectee a bunch of psychological problems.

But the best way to make death meaningful? Make it permanent, or, if you want to go softer on the players, give them some kind of limit on the number of times they may be raised. Negative levels aren't a thing anymore, but when we played DDO in a permadeath guild, one of the rules on reviving dead characters was that any character could be raised only their base Constitution/2 times...asuming they had someone capable of casting the spell in the first place, if your healer died or you were too low level and had to respawn at shrine, you were out of luck.

Giving them permanent levels of exhaustion could be harsh, and the result would likely be that the character would be retired anyway, but I think it drives back the "You died, you were brought back, but that's not how it's supposed to be... perhaps you should consider finding a safer occupation?"

Edit: also, look at the gifts of Dark Powers from CoS for ideas.

[Falcon X]

The simple fact is that the church can't resurrect everyone who has a little bit of money. Otherwise, rich people would live forever. Each church likely has it's own codes of making choices on who to resurrect.

Some ideas:
- The priest was given a single resurrect scroll when he became a priest and was told to save it for someone special. If you guys became local heroes, maybe that would be you.
- Already being a cleric of Lathander puts them in good standing in the church. If the case is made that they are on their god's mission, it might be enough.
- Make a deal with a devil for a resurrect. Always works like a charm :)

[MaverickOrig]

If I were DM, I would put a semi permanent penalty on the character being raised.

Example:
1d4+1 ability stats affected.
If 2 affected, roll D6 twice to determine which stat affected.
1 for STR, 2 for DEX, 3 for CON (etc)
For each affected attribute. That attribute is lowered by 2 points. (allowing for the possibility that a single stat is affected twice)
Recovery process: for every 2 levels the character gains, the character may fully recover one stat of choice.

Reason: it is a penalty, and not insignificant, but allows for some variability in the severity AND allows the character to choose their recovery path. (yes a melee character will prioritize str and con, but still be weak to mind spells) but it's the players choice.

You can also choose if greater restoration spell affects the stats, the cost to get it cast... Etc.
-Mav

[Balyano]

You could have them look around for a cleric to resurrect him, but the only one they can find is a real shady character that insists that you do a favor or two for him first. Don't stick to the RAR too closely. Have the discount cleric take some payment to ''get him half way there''. He is resurrected...sort of...as a rapidly rotting intelligent undead. This lets him continue playing and aid in his own resurrection quest. But he can't be healed, and each day his body gets a little more ripe. Stuff starts falling off, maybe he can pretend to be a leper for a bit. After a day or two his skin starts to come off, a day or two later maybe his jaw keeps falling off, maybe not all the way, still connected by some fleshy bits. Starts to take penalties...adds a little urgency to the whole ordeal. They need to get him resurrected while there's still something left of him. Starts to have hungers, has moments where he lapses out of sapience, make it obvious this is not something they can really take advantage of...well maybe a little in the right circumstances, but not anything long term.

[NecroDancer]

Make it so they can only be resurrected once and then ask each member of the party what they contribute to the spell, it could be a life themed spell, a magical item, perhaps swearing themselves to a deity of death

[RaynorReynolds]

I will probably combine some of these ideas. I can limit ressurections to one per person and make a table with ideas of what could go wrong. I like the idea of a bunch of undead following the characters spirit back to its body.

[caden_varn]

If you don't to delay bringing the character back while they do a quest, have the party owe the temple a big favour that leads to a quest later. Means the group can still make the time limit, and the resurrectee can contribute to the eventual quest too.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

The best way to make death meaningful is to tie it into the character. Things like alignment, bonds, and character class help.

Alignment: A Lawful Good character has very different experience dying then A Chaotic Evil character. Where did there soul go after they died? If you look at the planes in the Dmg, you will notice that they all have different optional rules to apply on that plain, maybe this PC is affected by them for 1d6 days. Also consider the forces who rule these plains and ask what will they want in exchange for this soul

Bonds: Who does this character meet on the other side? Maybe a long lost ancestor or vanquished foe? Perhaps he meets a celestial or a fiend. What comes of this encounter? Maybe he gets a new skill proficiency or a new flaw.He could even get into debt with a being of divine power. As long as it has a small effect on the overall power level of the pc, you won't have other charters offing themselves to get a boost


Class: Here are some examples of class based challenges you give the dead player before they are revived ( If you give me the PC's class and levels I can come up with something more specific)

Barbarian- you have been accused of dying a dishonorable death. If you cannot prove otherwise, you will be booted from the after life

Druid: You hear rumors that powerful beasts you have never see before

Rouge: you must make recompense for all you ever stole, by stealing something of course

Sorcerer: You magic fades away the longer stay on the plane your on, and your being hunted. (The magic returns to normal when raised)

Warlock: you sold your soul to your patron, now is a good time to collect

Wizards: a handful of imps want you to choose one of them as your guide and new familiar

One more thing to consider is politics. Review the characters past actions and ask yourself "Would these clerics raise this person, would this person want to be raised by these clerics?"

[RaynorReynolds]

The best way to make death meaningful is to tie it into the character. Things like alignment, bonds, and character class help.

Alignment: A Lawful Good character has very different experience dying then A Chaotic Evil character. Where did there soul go after they died? If you look at the planes in the Dmg, you will notice that they all have different optional rules to apply on that plain, maybe this PC is affected by them for 1d6 days. Also consider the forces who rule these plains and ask what will they want in exchange for this soul

Bonds: Who does this character meet on the other side? Maybe a long lost ancestor or vanquished foe? Perhaps he meets a celestial or a fiend. What comes of this encounter? Maybe he gets a new skill proficiency or a new flaw.He could even get into debt with a being of divine power. As long as it has a small effect on the overall power level of the pc, you won't have other charters offing themselves to get a boost


Class: Here are some examples of class based challenges you give the dead player before they are revived ( If you give me the PC's class and levels I can come up with something more specific)

Barbarian- you have been accused of dying a dishonorable death. If you cannot prove otherwise, you will be booted from the after life

Druid: You hear rumors that powerful beasts you have never see before

Rouge: you must make recompense for all you ever stole, by stealing something of course

Sorcerer: You magic fades away the longer stay on the plane your on, and your being hunted. (The magic returns to normal when raised)

Warlock: you sold your soul to your patron, now is a good time to collect

Wizards: a handful of imps want you to choose one of them as your guide and new familiar

One more thing to consider is politics. Review the characters past actions and ask yourself "Would these clerics raise this person, would this person want to be raised by these clerics?"

The character is/was a nuetral/ chaotic good cleric of Lathander.

[Vogonjeltz]

I am a relatively new GM that just killed one one of his players. We are working our way through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they were picked on by the Perytons in the "On the Road" chapter of the adventure. They were the only human/elf/half-elf in the party and the two Perytons made quick work of their HP (dive attack bonus damage + surprise round).

Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

Raise Dead is 10 days, Resurrection is 1 year.

The diamond required for Raise Dead can be worth only 500gp as well, not 1,000gp. I don't think it needs to be made more meaningful, other than the fact that diamonds worth that much money are fairly rare.

Actually, in point of fact, the earliest a diamond shows up on the treasure tables in the DMG is as a 5,000 gp gemstone. There are no 500gp or 1000gp versions even listed.

Cross-referencing this to the treasure hoard charts, a character would not encounter any diamond until they start seeing CR 17+ hoards, and even then there's only a 25% chance any given gem would be a diamond.

So shelling out 5,000gp to purchase a diamond once the party manages to even locate one would be pretty meaningful I'd think.

[Grixis]

In our campaign players get resurrected relatively easy but as per the resurrecation spell where their race is determined at ranfom. This gives a consequence to death but actually makes it really fun when players have to play as another race.

[eastmabl]

If the cleric raises the dead, first your friends are geased. The church gets to call in a magically compelled favor when it needs to do.

Not the dead character, mind you; he's dead. But with everyone else forced to do something, it could lead to a scene like in Full Metal Jacket where Private Pyle eats his contraband doughnut while the rest of the platoon does pushups on his behalf.

It'll learn the party to go off dying.

[Saeviomage]

Giving them permanent levels of exhaustion could be harsh, and the result would likely be that the character would be retired anyway, but I think it drives back the "You died, you were brought back, but that's not how it's supposed to be... perhaps you should consider finding a safer occupation?"

The problem with this is that the first permanent level of exhaustion makes you awful at anything that is not fighting monsters, since it's disadvantage on skill checks. So it's pretty much the opposite of what you're intending.

[Malifice]

I am a relatively new GM that just killed one one of his players. We are working our way through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they were picked on by the Perytons in the "On the Road" chapter of the adventure. They were the only human/elf/half-elf in the party and the two Perytons made quick work of their HP (dive attack bonus damage + surprise round).

There is no such thing in 5E.

I only mention it because you say you're a new DM. There is a good change that you're doing it wrong, and (in this case) killed a PC as a consequence.


Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

Up the price. And have the Cleric give the PCs a quest.

[CaptainSarathai]

I think that they make it 1000gp to help make it harder on new characters at low levels, but less of an inconvenience as the game goes on. Nobody wants a 15th level character to die and stay dead. But a 5th level character dying is just, "whelp, you're not worth the entire party's gold reserve, roll another"

[RaynorReynolds]

There is no such thing in 5E. I only mention it because you say you're a new DM. There is a good chance that you're doing it wrong, and (in this case) killed a PC as a consequence.

The round in which the characters were surprised*

[Malifice]

The round in which the characters were surprised*

Ah OK. Every single one of them failed to spot the Critters before combat started.

Howd this happen? Whats the set up for the encounter?

[ClintACK]

Anyway, the character died. They were a cleric of Lathander and the party is currently racing back to Baldur's Gate to try and find a cleric to bring her back within the 10 day period. I am wondering how I can make this more meaningful than "Pay 1,000 gold and the cleric at the temple casts a spell". I am just drawing a blank and need some inspiration. Does anyone have any ideas? What have you done in the past?

Depends what you mean by "meaningful".

- The "Critical Role" folks do a whole ritual where three party members contribute to the spell and then the DM rolls a skill check to see if the Raise Dead worked. If not, there's no do-over, the character is D-E-D dead.

- You could send the party on a "vision quest" in a divine dreamworld where they are tested by the gods to see whether the deceased is worthy of being sent back. Lots of fun to be had as a one-session one-shot there.

- Rather than giving a small actual penalty (like a loss of Constitution) you could give a cumulative chance of a large penalty. (5% on the first Raise, 10% the next time, and so on.) And make the penalty something fun (i.e. with RP potential) -- like the deceased's soul was waylaid by a night hag and it had to bargain (taking a Warlock level and a Pact) before it could return. Or perhaps what came back was something else entirely.

- If you just want death to not be trivial, it's not too hard to make the monetary penalty painful -- especially if the Temple requires something extra. And the -4 to all rolls is pretty serious, if the time crunch is bad enough that they won't get four long rests before the end of the module.

- After being surprise-killed by death-from-above, I could see a serious agoraphobia setting in...

[Gwiz]

If you have a warlock in the party with a demon pact or something, you could play it through that instead. Having the warlock perform some risky task or perhaps making a big sacrifice for the demon to fullfil his request. Just a thought