Please give a new DM some advices

[birdinforest]

Hi,

I am a new DM and playing a Chaos Scar campaign with 5 experienced PCs. The gaming experience is very good, but now I get a problem. Please give me some advices.

In the lase session, two PCs dead in a encounter. I am thinking about giving them resurrections through a short scenario, and I hope the resurrections not only brings them new life but gives them some annoyances like forgetting a power or getting AC reduction.

But I think it will be better if the effects from those annoyances are kind of random and funny. For example, the PCs had been infected by the small shard of meteorolite which was found in the dungeon. So that they relived from dead but get a random insane which makes them might accidentally injure their adjacent allies.

Do you think that idea makes sense? Or you have some new ideas?
Please give me some advices. Thanks a lot!

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

You should make sure that whatever punishment/curse/aftereffect you apply, it goes away after some time (3 milestones is probably a good length). If the PCs come out of the resurrection with some permanent penalty that makes them weaker than other PCs of the same level, expect your player to want to retire their gimped PCs for regular ones at the first opportunity.

Possibly replacement PCs with the same race/class, and an iterative name like "Thorbald the Brave... II."

 

[Stumblewyk]

There's already a penalty built into resurrecting PCs: -1 to all attack, damage, and saving throw rolls until the character achieves 3 milestones.

Edit: Directly from the Compendium entry for the Raise Dead ritual...

The subject returns with a death penalty: –1 to all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws, and ability checks. This death penalty fades after the subject reaches three milestones.

 

[birdinforest]

Thanks for replays. I didn't know that rule and now I will think about that.

 

[Riastlin]

I agree, giving the PCs long term negative effects upon being raised without giving them some sort of extra bonus to offset those effects will likely just annoy your players and make them want to retire the characters. Also keep in mind that if the party comes to learn that resurrecting a fellow party member is likely to result in said party member trying to attack them at a later time, the party will simply be unlikely to resurrect anybody in the future. "Well, it sucks that you died Ted, but frankly, I don't want you trying to give me a shave with that executioner's axe of yours."