D&D 5E using a revenant

[pukunui]

My assumption was that they know who it is.

Yeah, that's true. This first time, the revenant was still in its original body, so it was easily identifiable. The next time? Not so much. So yeah, that makes sense. Even though it'll probably appear as an orc or something, they'll know it was still that half-ogre cleric they murdered in the peat bog.

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.

Sold. I'll make the changes for next time.

 

[pukunui]

So my players have decided they want to spend some downtime trying to figure out what's after them via research. The half-orc cleric wants to try communing with his goddess (or one of her servants), while the dwarf fighter is going to go and talk to the local temple (which is dedicated to a different religion than that of the cleric).

How hard should it be for them to find out information about revenants? How many days of downtime, do you reckon? I have no idea, as there simply are no guidelines for monster knowledge checks at all in this edition.

 

[GainVanquish]

Wow I want to play in your adventures lol. Great ideas guys brilliant

 

[Quartz]

How much do you want them to know? And how quickly? And are the PCs in the faith's good graces? Have they recently made large donations? You can easily have the sage or whoever say something along the lines of, "You will need to consult with my esteemed colleague, X of Y. You will need a letter of introduction... (expectant pause)"

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Revenants probably aren't super hard to find things out about. I mean, they pop up whenever somebody dies and then gets mad about it, basically, so not exactly uncommon.

A simple passive check in Int(Investigation), DC 10 at a library for maybe a day's worth of time should dig up whatever information that library has, assuming there's no other obstacles. Corpse gets up, chases down murderers, restless spirit hops into a new corpse if the old is beaten into pieces.

But how to make the Revenant stop trying to kill you? That sounds like an adventureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

[pukunui]

How much do you want them to know?

I'd like to give them the opportunity to know everything, but I don't want to just give it all to them for free, as it were.

And how quickly?

Doesn't really matter to me, other than needing to know how many downtime days to "charge" them for the information.

And are the PCs in the faith's good graces?

Not really. The cleric is of a rival faith. The dwarf is not a member of the church, either. They would definitely need to make donations in order to gain access to the church's holy texts and such. I'm also not sure that the temple in the PCs' town would have anything beyond the basics, either, so they probably would need to go to a city to find out more. Or find someone who knows a lot about undead.

You can easily have the sage or whoever say something along the lines of, "You will need to consult with my esteemed colleague, X of Y. You will need a letter of introduction... (expectant pause)"

Sure. But that doesn't help me determine how many downtime days they'll need to spend to even get to that point, let alone how many days it will take to speak to the sage and so on. As for the letter of introduction, I gather that's partially what the added cost of 1gp/day on top of lifestyle expenses is meant to represent.

Revenants probably aren't super hard to find things out about. I mean, they pop up whenever somebody dies and then gets mad about it, basically, so not exactly uncommon.

I'm not sure they'd be that common. I think some special circumstances are required. It's not enough for the dead person to be mad. There needs to be some sense of injustice. Like, in my case, the PCs killed the half-ogre despite the fact that he was trying to surrender. Furthermore, he wasn't actually evil. That seems like a good reason to have him come back as a revenant. But his dead orc minions? They might be mad that the PCs killed them, but I don't think they deserve to come back as vengeful spirits.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Hmm...You might want to decide how rare monster information is in general. Always start from the baseline DCs given in the DMG: 10 for Easy, 15 for Challenging, and 20 for Difficult. Note--these are based on a proficient adventurer--as the average person only has a 55% chance to make an easy check. DC 5 is good for something you really want 80% of people to know. So what percentage of the general population knows this? What percentage of 5th level clerics know this?

Myself, I'd say a revenant is a rather rare creature in my game. Probably close to 20.

A DC 20 means one out of 20 random people happens to have heard of it, while a typical MM priest (with corrected skill bonus) has a 55% chance to know of it. That works out about right. You might also say that proficiency bonus doesn't apply if it is a religion that doesn't pay attention to knowledge about undead at all.

So there is decent chance the first priest you talk to can give you a likely undead suspect. If not, he's likely to refer you to someone else, who is likely to know it (or maybe refer you again).

It was fun for me during Lost Mines of Phandelver (SPOILERS) when none of the PCs knew how to kill the flameskull, so they went to Neverwinter to look for info about it. The party's cleric of Kelemvor first went to his own temple, and his priest didn't know, but referred him to to the temple of Oghma, whose priest knew the answer.

Then later on they were trying to figure out how to cure the spectator of insanity. So they went back to Neverwinter and got sent to the priest of Tymora (who was high enough level to cast the relevant spell). He agreed to accompany them back and cast the spell, on the condition that they assist the acolyte of Tymora at the shrine in Phandelver (and I decided this priest was a Harper also).

I think my party quite enjoyed the interaction with the various temples and NPCs. So if your party likes that sort of role-playing and seeing various non-combat elements of your campaign, by alll means give them such opportunities to consult about rare information.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

I'm not sure they'd be that common. I think some special circumstances are required. It's not enough for the dead person to be mad. There needs to be some sense of injustice. Like, in my case, the PCs killed the half-ogre despite the fact that he was trying to surrender. Furthermore, he wasn't actually evil. That seems like a good reason to have him come back as a revenant. But his dead orc minions? They might be mad that the PCs killed them, but I don't think they deserve to come back as vengeful spirits.

Let's see, Monster Manual: 'A revenant forms from the soul of a mortal who met a cruel and undeserving fate. It claws its way back into the world to seek revenge against the one who wronged it.' pg259

So...I think it's any mortal? But only if they didn't 'deserve' it. So Evil Revenants are OK, but only if it was for something they didn't actually do.

Oh yeah, and it has to be cruel, but you argue that being murdered to death is good enough to check that box every time.

 

[pukunui]

I think my party quite enjoyed the interaction with the various temples and NPCs. So if your party likes that sort of role-playing and seeing various non-combat elements of your campaign, by alll means give them such opportunities to consult about rare information.

They do indeed enjoy that sort of thing. The thing is: since my campaign is episodic, I decided to use downtime days as a resource, like in AL games, so I want to know how many days I should charge them for this sort of thing. It's all a bit too vague.
[MENTION=6804638]NotActuallyTim[/MENTION]e: Let's see ... the PCs saw the half-ogre and his minions, automatically assumed they were evil, and tricked them into an ambush. When the half-ogre fell to his knees and asked that they give him a chance to speak, they refused and just cut him down there and then. Given that the half-ogre did nothing except fight them in self-defense, I'd call that "cruel and undeserving". He wanted to parley, but the supposedly good dwarf and half-orc were too blinded by racial prejudice and wouldn't give him a chance.

For the record, I'm not trying to teach my players a lesson in morality here. Just going with the story they're helping me to create. This seemed like a valid - and fun - consequence for their characters' actions.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Cool. I'm just saying, there's probably enough cruel and unjust deaths in a world to make Revenants not super rare.