D&D 5E Looking for unique suggestions on making player resurrections punishing.

[Sunseeker]

You know, I think the "willing" part might be hard.

"Trust me, there will be ice cream at the end."

I dunno, someone friendly to the party, aware of their heroic deeds might be willing to sacrifice themselves in exchange for a particularly heroic party member.

 

[evilbob]

Curse of Strahd has this idea:

When a humanoid who has been dead for at least 24 hours returns to life, either by way of a spell or some supernatural means, it gains a random form of indefinite madness... To determine how this madness is expressed, roll on the Indefinite Madness table in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Assuming the player wants the character to come back (I'd always let a player out of a character choice if they wished), there are a few options that haven't been mentioned that might make the consequences meaningful and interesting, but not punitive:

-- make the player re-write at least one of the personality/ideal/bond/flaw and in reference to the resurrection. If it happens again, they need to re-write another one; etc. Mechanically, the character stays as effective, but the player is committing to changing the way the character is played, in a way and to an extent that they find acceptable.

You could do more (using other 5e mechanics): e.g. -- any magic items attuned at the time of death can't re-attune after the resurrection. That would require the party to deal with the resurrection (shifting magic items among characters into an optimal allocation) [assuming, of course, that the players would share].

Those would be my suggestions.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

Harsh DM speaking: What? Did you think being resurrected came with just some sort of physical punishment? Hahahahaha, no. Your soul is eternally bound to the deity who put forth the power to bring you back to life. You will belong to Them when you die. Moreover, you are now effectively geased in perpetuity anytime said God requires your aid. Enjoy your new life as one of the Converted.

 

[Blue]

13th Age is a d20 OGL game with a similar philosophy to 5e. Here's their Resurrection spell (from their SRD: http://www.13thagesrd.com/classes/cleric)

Resurrection

Ranged spell; Special: You can cast this spell only once per level, and a limited number of times in your life. You must have most of the corpse available to cast the spell. There's no time limit on resurrecting a dead PC, so long as you have the corpse.

Effect: You can bring a creature back to life in more or less normal condition, with varying levels of recovery.

Limited Casting: The first time in your life that you use the spell, you can cast it with a single standard action. Using the spell removes one of your spell slots until you gain a level. (You get one less spell per full heal-up.) The person you are resurrecting comes back at roughly half strength, e.g. expending half their recoveries, being dazed (save ends), and, for each ability, having a 50% chance that it is expended.

The second time in your life you cast the spell, it takes at least three or four rounds and costs you roughly half your hit points and daily powers/spells. The person you are resurrecting comes back at something like one-quarter strength.

The third time you cast the spell it has to be as a ritual. The spell chews you up and leaves you with only a few hit points, then gnaws at the person you have resurrected, who takes days to recover well enough to qualify as an adventurer or combatant.

The fourth time you cast the spell it nearly kills you. The resurrection succeeds but the person you've resurrected is going to be a mess for a month or more, regardless of any other magic you use.

The fifth time you resurrect someone, that's the end of your story and you die. There's only a 50% chance that the resurrection spell works on the target. You've used up your quota of resurrection magic. You're not coming back via this spell, either.

Limited Resurrection: If the target of your resurrection spell has been resurrected more times than you have cast the spell, there is a 50% chance that the experience will play out using their higher number of resurrections instead of the number of times you have cast the spell.

 

[Blue]

If you want to make Resurrections rarer, mythically link it to rebirth. It can only be done at their birthplace, or on their birthday, or with their birth mother (or her grave). Without these the character will be a shadow of themselves until the next full moon (act as 1 or 2 levels down or some other long term penalty).

Perhaps your god of the death requires payment for releasing the soul, and gives each a quest they would not be against, but for the benefit of the god of death. If not completed in a set period of time, their soul is forfeit.

 

[Caliban]

So I guess in a sense its more punishing because it would be harder to set up the process and possibly even complete it, but perhaps I should have also thrown in also a focus on thematic/dramatic elements to make it less cut and dry.

Remove everything other than Revivify from the class lists. Make the various "raise" spells Ritual only spells with a casting time of one day per level, and they can only be cast by a high priest of a temple, and they will require a quest (either before or after raising the dead PC) to be completed by the PC's.

That way every death requires a significant investment of time and resources on the part of the PC's, but is also an opportunity for a new adventure.

 

[Quickleaf]

I probably misspoke, not necessarily the coming back more punishing, but the act of resurrection itself a more difficult process. Something more than just diamonds and spells. Maybe I can ground this idea more by pointing to various movies/anime where to bring someone back from the dead didn't just require you to bring some money to a guy and boom its done.

So I guess in a sense its more punishing because it would be harder to set up the process and possibly even complete it, but perhaps I should have also thrown in also a focus on thematic/dramatic elements to make it less cut and dry.

You should have led with that

I think what your intention in making "the act of resurrection itself a more difficult process" is giving greater narrative consequence to resurrection, rather than players cavalierly getting resurrected with reliable D&D magic lacking any sense of wonder or mystique.

If "yes", that's what you're looking for, then I have a system I once used you may be interested in. Note that in this system, there was a band of NPCs who the player of a dead PC could borrow a NPC from in the interim until their PC was resurrected.

In an experimental D&D game we added the following three requirements to any spells that resurrect/raise the dead:

1. Symbol of the Cause of Death. A sample of whatever killed the character. This had to be specific. If stabbed by a hobgoblin's spear, then a piece of THAT spear would be required. Sorta like identifying the snake that bit you to know which anti-venom to use. If this component was incorrect, then the resurrection failed, and the caster suffered the same wound that killed the character.
2. Symbol of the Unresolved Quest. A symbolic component of the dead person's unresolved quest, the REASON they would want to come back from the dead, was necessary to retrieve their animating spirit. In this system, it was possible to resurrect someone "against their will" IF you knew their psychology well enough to realize what would lure them back. If this component was incorrect, then the subject returned as corporeal undead.
3. Symbol of Charon's Boatman. A special coin minted in the Underworld was required to reach across the eternal boundary and retrieve the victim's soul. The coin was placed on the corpse's eyes, in its mouth, in its coat pocket, or in its hand. Such coins were rare and traded by temples of death gods & criminal organizations with ties to fiends. If this component was incorrect (e.g. forged coins), then the subject returned as incorporeal undead...or some kind of fiend or "soul stowaway" came back with them.

 

[Li Shenron]

But I'd just like to see what some other DM/players do or have seen done.

I don't do anything strict because nowadays I ask the player if she's fine with letting her PC die at all, or wants to continue, in which case we discuss together about what else can happen to the PC instead of being dead (captured, left behind, temporarily injured, or even nothing). I'll let the group go with standard resurrections rules if they want, but IMHO the whole "buy diamonds, destroy diamonds" thing is even more boring than just detracting the equivalent gp from the party treasure.

As for temporary injuries, I don't like numeric penalties which just mean more boring math, but rather hard restrictions like being unable to cast spells, to use your off-hand, to see/hear, to move more than 10ft per round, to take reactions etc. Easier to remember, and no need to make changes to your character sheet.

I also have a certain fondness for an old rule about losing a level, but these days most players would consider this a worse punishment than having to make a new PC.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I probably misspoke, not necessarily the coming back more punishing, but the act of resurrection itself a more difficult process. Something more than just diamonds and spells. Maybe I can ground this idea more by pointing to various movies/anime where to bring someone back from the dead didn't just require you to bring some money to a guy and boom its done.

Speaking to this requirement, first, assume a good aligned party. Make the god of death evil aligned; whichever god the cleric performing the resurrection follows, the god of death must still be appeased to release the soul of the resurrected character. This appeasement requires the ritual sacrifice of a sentient, good aligned being of at least equal level to the PC being resurrected. This creates a lot of possibilities. Even if the PCs only pay the bill, they know the price being paid to get their friend back. If they're required to help in any fashion it's much harder.