D&D 5E Game of Thrones-style Resurrection *spoilers*

[pukunui]

Hi folks,

In 5e, both raise dead and resurrection maintain that being brought back to life is an ordeal and impose a numerical penalty that reduces over time to represent that mechanically.

Personally, I find that penalty kind of naff and boring. My players don't really like it either - they always try to find a way to make it so their character doesn't have to do anything for four days so they can just get rid of the penalty. [Which is not to say that I always let them, but then they grumble about having to remember what the penalty is and when to apply it and so on.]

What if, instead, being brought back from the dead worked more like it does in Game of Thrones? That is, you would still have the scars showing how you died, and you'd "lose a bit of yourself" every time. Reading through the various related spells, it seems like raise dead already does this to a certain extent, since resurrection specifically states that it restores any missing body parts (which implies that raise dead does not). The harder thing to model would be the losing a bit of yourself.

We know that in the books, when Catelyn Stark is raised and becomes Lady Stoneheart, she a) still has a slit throat and b) becomes completely obsessed with getting revenge against the family who broke hospitality and murdered her and her son Robb.

The other example we have, from both the books and the show, is Berric Dondarrion. He gets raised several times, and while he comes across as less single-minded and zombie-like than Catelyn, he does talk about losing some of his memory, and it does seem like he's become a bit obsessed with being a Robin Hood-style outlaw.

In D&D 5e terms, I'm wondering if maybe the madness rules could work as a fitting substitute. So if someone is subjected to the raise dead spell, they come back to life but still bear the scars of how they were killed - eg. if they were killed by dragon fire, then they've got burn scars all over their body; if they were stabbed through the eye, then they're missing an eye, and so on - and they suffer some kind of indefinite madness or something.

Resurrection would restore their body but would still impose some kind of madness.

True Resurrection would restore both body and mind whole.

Not sure about reincarnation. Obviously the physical side of things wouldn't apply since you get a new body, but what about mental effects? I imagine it would be a rather jarring experience to find yourself in a shape you're not used to.


What do people think?

 

[GlassJaw]

Spoiler alert!!!!

 

[pukunui]

Spoiler alert!!!!

Oh come on! That's been all over the internet for how long now?

 

[Gadget]

That sounds like an interesting proposition; though I personally like the resurrection penalties, I admit that they can be 'gamed' around by the PCs (we spend the next few days at the temple resting and recharging, etc) unless the DM takes a hand to force the story/plot. I could see your idea working better with some groups that wouldn't wand to walk around with a slit and sewn up throat (Frankenstein style) and having to role play a 'madness'. Other groups might not tend to focus so much on such 'cosmetic' details and tend to hand wave the role playing issues, so it might not be such good fit for them.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I remove raise dead, resurrection and revivify from the party spell lists from the get go. Getting raised from the dead is almost impossible in our game. Death should not be a speedbump in my view.

 

[pukunui]

Most of my players are into the roleplay side of things. I think they'd enjoy it. I know they *don't* like the numerical penalty. I suppose scars and such could technically have numerical penalties too, going by the Lingering Injuries options in the DMG, but those tend more towards disadvantage than a straight -4 or whatever.

And if they don't like the way they look or the way their brain isn't working properly, then they can go on an adventure to seek out magic strong enough to heal them properly.

I remove raise dead, resurrection and revivify from the party spell lists from the get go. Getting raised from the dead is almost impossible in our game. Death should not be a speedbump in my view.

I forgot about revivify! If Thoros of Myr were a D&D cleric, that'd probably be the spell he was using to raise Beric. So I'd impose the scars/missing body parts and mental problems for that spell too.

This makes death less of a speedbump too, although I suppose the danger is that most players might just opt to make a new PC anyway, rather than continue to play a maimed one.

 

[Jester David]

Oh come on! That's been all over the internet for how long now?

It's been all over the internet for A Song of Ice and Fire. By using "Game of Thrones" you imply you're only referring to the damn show (or the first book).
Been all over the internet or not, I hadn't heard. It was news to me. YOU spoiled that twist for me.

Go back and add a spoiler tag to your damn post, it'll take 5 seconds.

I have other things to say on resurrection and penalties but dammit I need to walk away and go cool off for a few minutes.

 

[pukunui]

Been all over the internet or not, I hadn't heard. It was news to me. YOU spoiled that twist for me.

What twist? Lady Stoneheart isn't on the show, and Beric was several seasons ago now.

 

[Sunseeker]

Alterations to a character's appearance and behaviors is always something that should be handled delicately and should be agreed upon beforehand by the table. It's clearly not going to work for everyone. Since it is entirely crunch, I think players should have a hand in determining what sort of madness or scars their character comes back to life with. A simple flaw can be taken to the extreme, revenge, paranoia, greed; etc. As for "not feeling whole" that's going to be something a little trickier to do, perhaps you could represent it with memory loss. Not total amnesia, but something important to the person that they used to treasure as a child and now they seem to know they're missing something, but since they've lost it and all associated memory-connections they can't quite put their finger on it. They're not "whole" because they've forgotten a piece of themselves.

I'd also like to add that as a person who hasn't read the books, that was very much a spoiler for me, though since I doubt I ever will, I'm not worried about it, but clearly some people are and it would be polite to spoiler-tag those parts of your post.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't think it is fair to complain in thread about game of thrones resurrection that there is reference to the resurrections in Game of thrones....