Raise Dead penalty cumulative?

[touc]

The way I read it is that the -4 penalty is cumulative when raised, but I don't want to screw over my players if I'm missing something. Had a player raised 2x in a short period of time. She's looking at a -6 cumulative penalty to all d20 rolls, making her effectively useless in a scenario where time is of the essence.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Eh, I would rule that it resets the penalty to -4. Based on the spell description the penalty represents the difficult ordeal of coming back from the dead, not a penalty imposed the spell itself. Either method would be supported, however.

If you decide to go the -6 approach, however, I'd probably rule that both penalties would reduce after a long rest. So it it would go -6 (-4+-2) --> -4 (-3+-1) --> -2 (-2+0) --> -1 --> 0.

 

[5ekyu]

The way I read it is that the -4 penalty is cumulative when raised, but I don't want to screw over my players if I'm missing something. Had a player raised 2x in a short period of time. She's looking at a -6 cumulative penalty to all d20 rolls, making her effectively useless in a scenario where time is of the essence.

Without reading the spell in 5e the penalties from ongoing effects are not cumulative if they are the same named source.

That said-4 is likely pretty close to useless anyway compared to -6. The character should try things which dont require checks- help actions, buffs, etc best they can.

This is just the downside of persistent penalties in an rpg. It can lead to problematic player-side issues.

From a practical side, is there an npc ally that you could perhaps allow them to run while their PC is in the "un-fun penalty box"?

 

[Harzel]

If you care how Crawford would rule...
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/04/13/__trashed-21/

 

[touc]

Thanks Harzel, that clarifies. Didn't come up on a basic search when I looked earlier.

 

[Horwath]

If you need two raise dead spells back to back, cumulative penalty is the least of your characters problems