D&D 5E (2014) using a revenant

[spectacle]

If you're worried that the revenant is too tough for a 4th level party, wait until they reach 5th. It's just as fun if not more to have an old enemy thought defeated show up after a longer period of time.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking I'll do. I'll start off with some foreshadowing - dreams and stuff - and then introduce the actual revenant in a later episode.

 

[Eltab]

The revenant returns (the first time) for a knock-down-drag-out slugfest, and uses Vengeful Glare (as if VG were a reaction that triggers upon death) just as the PCs take it down.
The next time, it STARTS with Vengeful Glare and tries to get off its alpha strike.

It should get progressively more smart, and sneaky, and more powers displayed, based on how things went last time. 'Death' due to Crit damage? Learn to cast Bane. After several failed efforts at revenge, it should have all its spells back.

If the PCs keep ahead of it for the full year, the last time it shows up it says something like "I can't wait for you any longer" during its Surprise Round.

Sweet revenge: EVERY time the PCs are travelling through / near a swamp...

 

[Quartz]

Then have it come back as a Death Knight later.

 

[pukunui]

OK, so as they travelled back to the nearest town, I had the half-orc and dwarf dream about a figure following them. During the day, they kept feeling like something was behind them but they couldn't see anything. Then, while they were resting, they spotted something on a hill. Then it was closer. And then it was on the dwarf! Unfortunately, the dwarf chose to dodge, making it hard for the revenant to hit him. After several rounds of it missing or landing one hit, while everyone else pinged away at it from range, I decided to have it try using its Vengeful Glare, but the dwarf made his Wisdom save not once but twice.

I also completely forgot about its regeneration - I guess that'll kick in next time.

They cut off the revenant's head and then burned everything. I then let them have one night without any dreams (since it says it takes the revenant 24 hours to find a new body). This really freaked them out. Enough that the dwarf, who'd sworn that he'd never drink alcohol again because of something that had happened in the past, went straight to the pub and started drinking as soon as they got back to town.

I'm going to give them a bit of a reprieve when they're back in their home town. I'll tell them that the dreams ease up and they just have this sort of vague feeling that the creature is still out there, waiting for them. Then it'll catch up to them at the beginning of the next adventure, when they're out on the road.

 

[Quartz]

I'm going to give them a bit of a reprieve when they're back in their home town. I'll tell them that the dreams ease up and they just have this sort of vague feeling that the creature is still out there, waiting for them. Then it'll catch up to them at the beginning of the next adventure, when they're out on the road.

With horror, less is more, so perhaps wait until not the next adventure but the following one?

 

[Eltab]

I borrowed a MM and read the Revenant entry.

If the PCs manage to acquire a rival / nemesis (or get the attention of BBEG), that other person might find out about the Revenant. Then they can use the Revenant to track down the PCs. The Revenant cannot be deflected - not even by magic.
Set up a scenario where the PCs are fighting the Revenant and then "reinforcements" come in during the battle - BBEG's minions. 3-way fight, maybe? Or 'caught between two flames'?

 

[pukunui]

With horror, less is more, so perhaps wait until not the next adventure but the following one?

The adventure after next is going to be Christmas-themed. I'd prefer not to have the revenant show up for that one. So I think I'll have him show up next time and then again maybe during the first or second session of the new year.

I borrowed a MM and read the Revenant entry.

If the PCs manage to acquire a rival / nemesis (or get the attention of BBEG), that other person might find out about the Revenant. Then they can use the Revenant to track down the PCs. The Revenant cannot be deflected - not even by magic.
Set up a scenario where the PCs are fighting the Revenant and then "reinforcements" come in during the battle - BBEG's minions. 3-way fight, maybe? Or 'caught between two flames'?

Good idea. Thanks.

 

[abirdcall]

-The third time it shows up it will be in a new body, but keeping its original voice so they can recognize it. This should come as a surprise and convince them that this is a serious threat that they need to deal with. The bonus damage vs sworn target would likely come up here. If players ask about identifying this creature I would require a DC 20 religion check to know its name, DC 25 to know that it endlessly chases a sworn enemy, DC 30 to know that it only has a year to succeed. Further knowledge will require dedicated study.

Those DCs are ludicrously high.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

That being said, the entry on revenants does say that, "Regardless of the body the revenant uses as a vessel, its adversary always recognizes the revenant for what it truly is." I presume that to mean that its sworn targets know that it's out to get *them* -- and that it's an intelligent undead, not just a mindless zombie -- but not necessarily that it is a "revenant" and all that that entails.

My assumption was that they know who it is.

EDIT: By the way, I decided I'd leave the half-ogre's mental ability scores unchanged. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to have it suddenly become a lot more intelligent, wise, and charismatic than it was in life.

I absolutely would raise its stats. It is a totally changed creature--not just physically but mentally. Its alignment fades away into a neutral single-minded drive for revenge, it gains supernatural immunity to fear and charm, as well as resistance to psychic damage. It has a mystical sense of the location of its quarry. Plus, the text implies it is somehow imbued with divinely sanctioned power. Allowing its single-minded purpose to grant it a single-minded focused reasoning ability (Intelligence), its supernatural awareness and power to increase its perceptiveness and willpower (Wisdom), and its unrelenting sense of purpose and divine powers of retribution to increase the intensity of its presence (Charisma) seems highly appropriate.