Ymdar
Explorer
This could be a general question as well but let's go with 5e because it is the newest and most modern version of D&D.
So why penalize returning from death from a game design perspective? It used to be poorly defined 'loss of level' in previous editions, now it is only the gold cost.
In most games I've played (maybe it is a regional thing) if your character died and there was no option to somehow return them to life you just created a new character who would be at the same level as the others and would gain the appropriate starting money based on the wealth by level tables. So if you died there were two options:
So my question is: Why is the hassle needed to return from the dead? By dying you potentially lose a lot of game time spent building up that character also adventure hooks etc. It would be much more fun not penalizing character death to this extent.
Obviously I understand that sometimes you want to end playing with your character and move on in which case this rant is pointless because if the player wants their character die they don't have to continue playing with him/her.
So why penalize returning from death from a game design perspective? It used to be poorly defined 'loss of level' in previous editions, now it is only the gold cost.
In most games I've played (maybe it is a regional thing) if your character died and there was no option to somehow return them to life you just created a new character who would be at the same level as the others and would gain the appropriate starting money based on the wealth by level tables. So if you died there were two options:
- Raise you character from the dead: Lose a lot of gold (and perhaps levels) thus be weaker than other characters, be grateful to a random cleric (or your party's cleric) and even have an obligation to that cleric to go on a random adventure which may or may not distract the campaign. Additionally you might need to roll up another character anyway for the duration of obtaining a sufficiently expensive gem for the spell.
- Roll a new character: Who could have exactly the same stats, abilities, items and personality as your previous one with a different name, no questions asked.
So my question is: Why is the hassle needed to return from the dead? By dying you potentially lose a lot of game time spent building up that character also adventure hooks etc. It would be much more fun not penalizing character death to this extent.
Obviously I understand that sometimes you want to end playing with your character and move on in which case this rant is pointless because if the player wants their character die they don't have to continue playing with him/her.