Mechanical Features of Death

[Roman]

Yesterday, I ran what I think was one of our most interesting D&D sessions. To get to the point, however:

In a major battle, while saving a village from the depravities of a cult seeking ingredients for a powerful ritual, one of the characters died from pain itself and not from his wounds. Facing various obstacles along the way, the rest of the party raced to a major temple of the party cleric, to try to have their companion resurrected. Eventually, in a solemn ceremony, the resurrection was successful and we ended the session at that point.

I went out of my way to emphasize the significance of the occasion and of the death experience for the PC in question, but I would like it to have mechanical effects tied to the nature of his death too. For that purpose I have created two 'featues' that I would like to give the character:

Paintouched: The character has suffered pain that is unimaginable to most. This has desensitised his pain reception and inured him to mundane sources of pain that ordinarily plague mortals. Because the character no longer perceives pain so quickly and strongly, he has greater difficulty avoiding it. In mechanical terms, his AC and Reflex save both decrease by 1 point. Not being so susceptible to pain, however, has strenghtened his mind and body, so his bonuses to Will and Fortitude saves increase by 1 point, plus he gains an extra hit point per level.

Debt to the Skylord: The character owes a debt to the god of the sky, who was magnaminous enough to grant him a second chance at life. He gains a free use of Featherfall once per day, but is only able to survive without air for half the normal time and is unable to submerge voluntarily.

Are these mechanically neutral features in terms of balance? If not, would they at least make balanced feats?

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I think it looks ok, but playtesting will tell for certain. Treating them like feats is a good idea.

Not sure about the Debt one. Maybe you could swap the half-air thing for a favour that needs to be paid at some point, perhaps working it into the story instead.

 

[el-remmen]

I'm going to move this over to House Rules, where you are bound to get more response. . .

 

[Roman]

I think it looks ok, but playtesting will tell for certain. Treating them like feats is a good idea.

Not sure about the Debt one. Maybe you could swap the half-air thing for a favour that needs to be paid at some point, perhaps working it into the story instead.

Yes, the need to carry out a favor is implied, but I want a mechanical effect as well. Perhaps, I could require him to make a will save DC 15+1 per distance from the surface to willingly hold his breath, but give no actual penalty if forced to hold his breath.

 

[evilbob]

Honestly, the air/debt one just depends on the campaign. If you never really encounter situations where the character would need to go underwater, then it's not a big deal - negligible, in fact, to most campaigns. But if this were a water-based campaign, it could be a huge deal. It's up to you, as the GM, to decide how much of a penalty and how big of a reward you want it to be, since those are pretty much situational. Overall I'd say that is perfectly balanced - if neither come up frequently anyway.

The -1 AC and reflex for +1 fort, will, and HP/level is something I would worry a bit more about; as a player, I don't think I'd take that deal - but then again, it really depends on the character. Unless this is a character who already has a ton of AC, the -1 AC will come up a lot more often than the saves, and +1 HP probably won't offset it. If you're a fighter, it's probably not worth the trade. Then again, if the character is a mage, it'd be great: you shouldn't be getting hit anyway and your AC is already poor, so why not bolster your saves and have a couple more HP for when you do get slammed?

I like your flavor ideas, and they seem well-envisioned, but the fairness just depends on the character and how big of a gain/loss it is for them.