D&D 5E Death PTSD

[randrak]

First and foremost, I like to make death meaningful. When a character dies I want more than "I cast Rez, let's go." which is pretty much what starts to happen by now that my players are level 10.

As such, I already use Matt Mercer's resurrection rules (resurrection is this whole big ritual that can fail). But I also wanted to add something else, like some form of PTSD.

I was thinking that, if the character that dies encounters the one that killed them or is in a similar situation, I'd have them roll a Wisdom saving throw. On a fail, they become frightened of the creature or event that killed them. This would be accompanied by things such as nightmares (each night they have to roll a wis saving throw). With three passes, they are "cured".

What do you guys think? And what should the DC be set to? 15?

 

[Imaculata]

How about just asking the player to play out how his character feels about coming back from the dead?

One of the things I've done in my campaign to make death more meaningful, is that a resurrection earns you a notation in the book of the god of Death. He takes note of anyone that disrupts the balance of life and death. Plus the deceased must also want to return. They cannot be resurrected against their will.

In my campaign there are also consequences to dying at sea. Due to the fact that an evil entity has taken over the realm where dead sailors go, they become lost in the Eternal Depths, and their soul may become food for this evil entity. There is no coming back from that.

My players have visited this realm once, and simply by the way I described what it was like, they were able to role play their characters in a realistic way. They were traumatized, but I did not have to tell them that they were traumatized.

 

[Leatherhead]

You could make it so that death automatically causes the person suffer a serious injury (as per the injury tables in the DMG, or your own tables)

Regenerate is still a level 7 spell, after all. Even when they are able to cast it themselves at level 13, it is still a "once per day" kind of event.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

A neat Idea. I would make it a charisma saving throw though.

 

[Hathorym]

I understand wanting some sort of after effect from death, but that should come from the player's imagination rather some arbitrary roll. But adventurer's are hardened. If they were going to suffer from PTSD, it would be more likely to come from battle with aberrations and fiends, rather than a momentary loss of life.

Edit: If only real PTSD could be "cured" so easily, my life would be so much easier. For me D&D is a way for me to cope with PTSD, I wouldn't want to experience it in game as well. Death tends to happen only once. PTSD is your whole life. I hope that you can appreciate my concerns.

 

[jgsugden]

D&D is a game, not a simulation. There are many things that sound like they could be interesting to add to the game, but you really do run the risk bringing up painful triggers for your friends or your friends' families if you incorporate those elements into the game. That is a reason why Concepts like addiction, rape, PTSD, lingering injuries, and other effects that would reduce the capability of a person permanently are not part of the core game. While it is easily possible to add some of these elements to the game, the gamble that you're not going to run afoul of something in the personal life of someone in your game, or someone associated with someone in your game, it's not worth the marginal benefit of including it.

 

[Henry]

Resurrection is one of those things (like gaining five levels in a month of game time) that has to be considered in a metagame context - that is, considered in the light that we're playing a game. Resurrection is a rule, along with any related rules, that need to be discussed with the whole group to get buy-in.

That said, it doesn't sound too harsh, but i would make it lower than 15, because most characters other than clerics or druids are only going to have a +0 to +3 on that roll, meaning they fail most of the time and NEVER get better. Maybe DC 10?

 

[Imaculata]

Psychological traumas are actually part of the Call of Cthulhu rules. But I personally feel such rules do not really fit the spirit of D&D. Of course you are free to give what ever flavor you want to your campaign, but I tend to lean more towards fun heroics, rather than mental traumas.

You also have to ask yourself if more rules make the game better. If your goal is to make the death of a PC matter more, you could also accomplish that through your own storytelling. And there is merit in simply leaving it up to the players themselves to decide whether they want to play out a psychological trauma for their character. If you add rules for it, you force them to do it... and I can see how that could put some players off.

 

[Psikerlord#]

First and foremost, I like to make death meaningful. When a character dies I want more than "I cast Rez, let's go." which is pretty much what starts to happen by now that my players are level 10.

As such, I already use Matt Mercer's resurrection rules (resurrection is this whole big ritual that can fail). But I also wanted to add something else, like some form of PTSD.

I was thinking that, if the character that dies encounters the one that killed them or is in a similar situation, I'd have them roll a Wisdom saving throw. On a fail, they become frightened of the creature or event that killed them. This would be accompanied by things such as nightmares (each night they have to roll a wis saving throw). With three passes, they are "cured".

What do you guys think? And what should the DC be set to? 15?

Hmm you could roll on the Low Fantasy Gaming rpg Injury & Setbacks table (free PDF: https://lowfantasygaming.com/ )

Edit: I prefer to remove raise dead altogether

 

[iserith]

First and foremost, I like to make death meaningful. When a character dies I want more than "I cast Rez, let's go." which is pretty much what starts to happen by now that my players are level 10.

As such, I already use Matt Mercer's resurrection rules (resurrection is this whole big ritual that can fail). But I also wanted to add something else, like some form of PTSD.

I was thinking that, if the character that dies encounters the one that killed them or is in a similar situation, I'd have them roll a Wisdom saving throw. On a fail, they become frightened of the creature or event that killed them. This would be accompanied by things such as nightmares (each night they have to roll a wis saving throw). With three passes, they are "cured".

What do you guys think? And what should the DC be set to? 15?

I don't pretend to know the content and difficulty level of your game, but my guess is that if your game is anything like mine, this rule would come into effect so rarely that it probably isn't worth implementing it. Not because I don't have PCs dying in my games, but rather because the trigger seems unlikely occur. In some cases, I could see it triggering a lot, depending on one's interpretation of "similar situation."

Raise dead and similar spells are really just D&D's answer to iteration time, that is, the time it takes to get a player with a dead character back into play. The party effectively earns a faster iteration time because the player playing the caster has gained the requisite number of levels.

"Meaningful deaths" also means something different to each person, so without knowing what you consider a meaningful death to be, it's hard to say whether this house rule achieves the goal it is designed to achieve.