D&D 5E Next session a character might die. Am I being a jerk?

[akr71]

TL/DR - Should I throw a revenant at a party of level 5/6? One of the party murdered the revenant and now it seeks revenge.

A few sessions ago, the party encountered 3 acolytes of (NG deity of life/light) who were unconscious and injured. The necromancer decided to cast vampiric touch to heal herself, killing one of the acolytes. I ended the session there - these were supposed to be npc's that they were to rescue, not murder. The party was a little suspicious of the whole thing, thinking the acolytes were evil somehow. Obviously, I should have done a better job telegraphing who these unfortunate victims were.

In between sessions I asked the player of the paladin how she felt that the wizard murdered an unconscious person just for the lols. She wasn't too impressed - good! Next session I recapped, calling it murder. They took the hint, revived the other 2 acolytes, plaid dumb on how their colleague died and escorted them to safety.

Here is where I worry that I'm being unfair. The revenant is going to find them in the forest at night, hunkered down in their Tiny Hut. If they don't deal with him, he will just make noise, disturb their long rest and attract all kinds of nasty creatures in the process. He doesn't care, he just wants revenge on the necromancer.

If the party leaves the Tiny Hut to attack, he will single mindedly go after the necromancer. She will almost surly die, unless the party does a fair amount of damage first. However, RAW if he fails he will just come back again 24 hours later, and again, and again...

 

[iserith]

As long as you're telegraphing that the necromancer is the target of the revenant's ire and that it will return nightly to get it's revenge, you've done all you need to in my view. It's on the players to decide what to do in the face of this. As long as you adjudicate what they decide fairly and with an eye toward the goals of play, you're good to go.

 

[Krachek]

Revenant is CR 5. Party will be at full strength.
the odds are in favor of the party, and probably without any death.

 

[NotAYakk]

Use horror movie tropes instead of terminator.

The renevant is first going to stalk the party. As an undead, it hungers; so have brutally killed animals be found in the morning.

Disturb their sleep rather than attack first; scare animals or monsters to make noise outside. Exhastion is really powerful.

The renevant is learning. It does not know it is immortal; it just knows it must kill the necromancer. Have the first fight be a non-suicide charge, but a cunning one with foreshadowing. If that fails, make the next one different. Eventually do the terminator thing. When that fails, the renevant can recruit allies.

 

[Lanefan]

Revenant is CR 5. Party will be at full strength.
the odds are in favor of the party, and probably without any death.

Party won't be at full strength if they're being attacked in the middle of the night as they won't have finished their long rest or equivalent.

Also - not that it'll probably matter with a Revenant - the warrior types won't be armoured up, unless you rule that people can sleep in their armour.

Actually, this could give the DM a whole side-trek adventure here - the party are going to need to find a way to deal with this Revenant once and for all, and rumour has it such may be found in the old wizard's tower on Lonely Hill.......

I love it when players generate their own adventure hooks!

 

[Krachek]

Party won't be at full strength if they're being attacked in the middle of the night as they won't have finished their long rest or equivalent.

Also - not that it'll probably matter with a Revenant - the warrior types won't be armoured up, unless you rule that people can sleep in their armour.

Actually, this could give the DM a whole side-trek adventure here - the party are going to need to find a way to deal with this Revenant once and for all, and rumour has it such may be found in the old wizard's tower on Lonely Hill.......

I love it when players generate their own adventure hooks!

Party will contest their disturbance of their long rest, and it will probably result as a harder debate on resting than the fight with the revenant.

 

[Nebulous]

Party will contest their disturbance of their long rest, and it will probably result as a harder debate on resting than the fight with the revenant.

This is probably true. I'm going to introduce soon that sleeping in armor rule from Xanathar. In general, I'm finding ways to up the danger in 5e in every way, it's too easy . I think attacking with a revenant while they're down is a good idea.

 

[Oofta]

You might want to consider some option of atonement for this, because attacking every night is going to be boring.

Of course if this happened to my players they'd just knock the revenant unconscious and bury it or otherwise trap it.

 

[Arvok]

If the PCs killed a noble's child and the noble came after them, would you have the same concerns about being a jerk? Actions have consequences. In a magical world where people you murder might come back as vengeful undead or have high-level uncles who can use divination magic to find out what happened to their loved ones there are even more possible consequences.

 

[Krachek]

This is probably true. I'm going to introduce soon that sleeping in armor rule from Xanathar. In general, I'm finding ways to up the danger in 5e in every way, it's too easy . I think attacking with a revenant while they're down is a good idea.

It will take a few games before the players get paranoid, and then they will adjust, games be filled with overcheck, oversecure campement, oversecure exploration, and the situation will just return to safety for pc.