D&D 5E Are there any penalties from coming back to life in 5th edition?

[CapnZapp]

The point is: only the player knows what is a "fun" penalty, or what "challenge" is benign.

That's why I favor a penalty that is under control of the player, who gets to decide how often or how seldom it affects play.

The Flaw is such a solution.

Getting a permanent -1 is not. For some it's an appropriate reminder of your touch of the grave, for others it's an unfun burden.

The fact 5e shies away from permanent penalties like this, and tucks variants like Lingering Injuries away in the DMG, tells you where most people stand on this issue.

 

[Queer Venger]

I'm DMing 'Out of the Abyss' still, but this applies to any 5th edition campaign...

From what i can remember, back in the 3.x editions, a character would lose 1 point of CON when they died and came back to life.

Ive looked through the books and the forums online for an answer, and i dont think there is an official (or non-official) answer for what happens to a player that dies.

I mean, theres got to be some sort of penalty, right? Otherwise, players wont be afraid of dying if they knew that coming back to life had no repercussion....

Then again, it cant be too harsh, otherwise players will just roll up new characters without really caring if they live or die...

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance...

There has to?!? Really? In a world of dungeons, and dragons, and heroes that battle these?
If one of my players dies, and so far, running a 2 year campaign not one of them has died or failed a death save, that's where the gods come in ;-)

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Looting the corpse is the least of your worries. A party can get mighty, mighty hungry in Out of the Abyss.

Halflings roasting by an open fire, half-orcs gnawing at their toes ...

Cannibal murder-hobos? Holy low budget horror movie, Batman--that is great. I would have everyone whose PC participated roll a d20. On a roll of a 1, the character gets a new flaw: I really enjoyed eating my fallen comrade. On a roll of a 20, the PC gets the same flaw, but if the "meal" gets resurrected, he/she gets a new bond: I am glad my friends ate my corpse, and if I die again, I hope they do so again.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[MechaTarrasque]

You know what they say: what happens in the Underdark stays in the Underdark.....

On the other hand, it was OotA, so any excuse to make PC's a little crazy (ier). I have long thought that pushing unwilling cannibalism should be a big part of Yeenoghu's gig (he would feed off the horror and desperation of those forced into it, and for willing cannibals, he would feed off the horror when someone else found that their loved one had been desecrated [not just killed and eaten by a wild beast but eaten by a cannibal]*).

* I find that makes gnolls a little creepier, since they not only hunt you down and eat you, but they try to make a show of it in front of your friends. And then to make it worse, I let gnoll chainlocks (and all gnoll warlocks are chainlocks) get a specter of the last person they ate as a familiar as long as they save a body part to use as a fetish. When they eat a new victim, the soul of the last victim goes on to its final reward in the afterlife.

 

[werecorpse]

I vacillate between no return from death, serious mechanical consequences (because "death has to matter") and let the impact be primarily roleplaying, not mechanical.

I have played some games (not always) where the loss of the character has had a detrimental effect on the game. I don't mean the loss of a 7th level wizard has interrupted the power of the party but that losing Jenna the scheming politically savvy spellcaster has caused the group to lose focus. Suddenly half the reason the party was together is gone. The players new character (in trying to be something different) doesn't fill the gap - and some of the rpg magic is gone. (In other games the death of the character has benefitted the game - given the group a martyr etc)

For the moment I'm in the roleplaying effect camp. I am running a mixed up version of the shackled city ap (in 5e) and allowed one players bard character to return - she has woken up and discovered she can speak abyssal and memories of a voice in the darkness. When speaking abyssal to the ghost of an ancient demon worshipping culture she was asked who her patron was - she picked one - I'm not sure exactly where it's going but that moment of roleplaying was worth it. Had I given the character -2 con or whatever it would have cheapened the death IMO.

 

[Ancalagon]

The mechanical penalty could be smaller than say, a level or -1 con. It could be -1 (or 2, 3) to maximum HP.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Are there any penalties from coming back to life in 5th edition?

The smell.

Change your pants. Ew!

 

[Pauln6]

There was a fun article in Dragon about possible penalties but I think that role playing penalties are better than mechanical ones.

In my campaign, I apply no penalties to Revivify, since that's just magical CPR. Raise Dead and Resurrection can only be cast by priests of death deities (Nerull and Wee Jas in Greyhawk) and they extract a price. So Nerull requires a replacement soul (so you need either a volunteer, like Valeria in the original Conan movie or be prepared to murder someone else for your compatriot) while Wee Jas will likely require the sacrifice of a valuable magical item.

Further, the returnee will be marked by the deity so that everybody knows that they have died. This can have legal consequences (if anybody knows you have died then your heirs can claim your estate). The resurrected could set up trusts to will their money to themselves or their clones if brought back or to a substitute beneficiary if not but any clause would need a time frame so if your allies are slow you might still lose out.

Most importantly, titles do not survive death in most civilised nations, both due to the prejudice of the public and to avoid the resurrection of King Nutter III trying to reclaim his throne after a century. This means that a successful assassination can have political ramifications. Rulers might kill to keep their secret.

Other consequences could be not returning alone from the netherworld (a haunting or possession), mental trauma (could be a Wisdom penalty or possibly disadvantage on certain tasks that remind you how you died), or a loss of physical integrity (used to be -1 Con but -1 hit die of healing could be an alternative).