How often would the average Adventurer die?

[Yunru]

So The Adventurer's Guild in this world I'm building gained a monopoly by, among other things, guaranteeing free resurrection, via a system they set up using Glyph of Wardings. They pay for this expense (plus profit) by basically charging life insurance.

But in order to work out how much the set fee would be, I need a figure for how often adventurer's are expected to die.
So... any ideas?

[Dr. Cliché]

So The Adventurer's Guild in this world I'm building gained a monopoly by, among other things, guaranteeing free resurrection, via a system they set up using Glyph of Wardings. They pay for this expense (plus profit) by basically charging life insurance.

But in order to work out how much the set fee would be, I need a figure for how often adventurer's are expected to die.
So... any ideas?

Surely the figure should be based on the individual risk?

[PhantomSoul]

1 permanent death per adventurer; revivification and other resurrection magic makes you ineligible for life insurance payments until a permanent death is suffered (and if you are revived or otherwise resurrected after having claimed life insurance payments, then those payments are due back in full with additional interest.

[LibraryOgre]

1 permanent death per adventurer; revivification and other resurrection magic makes you ineligible for life insurance payments until a permanent death is suffered (and if you are revived or otherwise resurrected after having claimed life insurance payments, then those payments are due back in full with additional interest.

On average, once. I mean, sure, some people get revived, but that's a lot rarer than not, so the average isn't much above 1.

[Contrast]

FYI Glyph only lets you store up to 3rd level spells but you can obv have it work however you want in your world/have them have developed a special one so whatever. You still need to actually cast the spell though so costs for doing this are important.

In order to be able to guarantee it we're looking at Resurrection rather than just Raise Dead.

If there are a lot of 13th level bards/clerics in the guild all well and good, you're just looking at 1000 gold a pop. Otherwise you're going to need to be buying in spell scrolls though and according to Xanathars a 7th level spell scroll takes 16 weeks and costs 25,000G to make. This would seem to be somewhat prohibitive.

Perhaps the membership sigil could be a ring enchanted with 1/day Gentle Repose :smallwink:

[Yunru]

FYI Glyph only lets you store up to 3rd level spells but you can obv have it work however you want in your world/have them have developed a special one so whatever. You still need to actually cast the spell though so costs for doing this are important. You can upcast Glyph to use it with higher level spells.



Perhaps the membership sigil could be a ring enchanted with 1/day Gentle Repose :smallwink:Aaaand stolen!

[NineInchNall]

But in order to work out how much the set fee would be, I need a figure for how often adventurer's are expected to die.
So... any ideas?

You have to decide on two things: typical encounter lethality and typical number of encounters per "adventure". For NPCs, you determine how often they go on "adventures". From there, it's just a simple probability calculation.

For example, if we assume that each member of a 4-person party has a 90% chance to survive a one-fight "adventure", then there is a 65.6% (0.94) chance that the whole party survives that "adventure".

[LordEntrails]

So if death had no consequences, i.e. someone guarantees my resurrection, then probably once per week? I mean I'd be doing all sort of dangerous and stupid stuff. Trying to sneak into dragon lairs, king's vaults, etc. Pretty much I don't see much reason to be cautious so you might as well try taking on the most profitable jobs.

If you say something like you owe the guild for every resurrection, fine, you keep doing the same hoping for the big score where you can pay off your half million gold debt and walk away with another million or two, or end up with a ring of wishes, or...

imo, the only way it works is if you make the members pre-pay the costs.

[Gilrad]

Maybe think of it like Extreme Car Insurance - the more expensive guild insurance services you end up needing (including things like Regeneration for lost limbs and Remove Curse for unfortunate souls with a Girdle of Gender), your premiums (monthly payments) go up. There could even be a no-nonsense investigations unit to determine liability on the field. "This is our third Remove Curse on a magical sword we have performed on you this year. Either you need to follow proper looting procedures or we will have no choice but to deny you coverage for future de-cursings."

[Spamotron]

Part of the problem figuring this out is that almost all games you could extrapolate from are "fair." Even DMs who say "the world is the world. Level 1s can run into a CR 30 encounter if it makes sense." Have it so that such overwhelming threats can be learned about and avoided by proper scouting and information gathering or even be overcome by diplomacy or stealth. In a "real," world that isn't fair adventurers can get in over their heads and perish without warning no matter how intellegently/cautiously they behave.

[Clistenes]

I would say:

1.-You are eligible for resurrection only after your yearly earnings are equal to a tenth of the cost of a Raise Dead spell (500 g plus the Cleric's fee); there is no point in paying to get you back if you won't be ever able to repay the cost to the guild...

2.-There are two options to choose:

2.1.- The first option is to create a Resurrection Account. You put as much money as you wish in it each month. If you ever die, the money is used to raise you back. If the account doesn't have enough money, you are indebted to the guild. If there is money left when you retire, you may take it back, or you may keep to account in place in case you need a resurrection, as a courtesy of the guild towards veteran members...

If you die repeatedly, and you are unable to repay your debt, your assets may be seized, or you lose the right to benefit from another resurrection next time you die...

2.2.- The second option is a life insurance contract: You pay a fixed amount, and you never recover the money. You start paying a 100 g per year, but the amount you pay gets raised by a 50% every time you die. On the other hand, every year you don't die, the amount gets reduced by 10 g.

If you never die, after 10 years you stop paying altogether, and you gain the right to a free Raise Dead spell. But, if you die after 10 years, you start paying 50 g again (your payments still will get reductions of 10 g every year you don't die in the future...).

If an adventurer never dies, they have lost 550 g.

If they die before 10 years, they are paying less money than it would cost them to get raised by a Cleric.

If they die too often, they will end paying more that it would cost them to just have a friend pay for the raising.

IF you choose to end the contract after a string of deaths, you pay a penalty of 250 g per death.

[ad_hoc]

This is something only you can answer.

What is an average adventurer differs from campaign to campaign.

It sounds like your average adventurer must be quite extraordinary compared to what I think the majority of campaigns would have. In a standard D&D setting I think adventurers would die regularly and they certainly couldn't afford resurrection magics. Most wouldn't even be able to afford healing potions for that matter.