What to do about PC death?

[acon360]

I'm a new DM (and player for that matter) with little experience.

So, if a PC dies but I don't really want to kill off the character entirely...what are some good ways to have the PCs bring the dead character back to life? What kinds of sacrifices could/should they make? Whats costs (not gp)? Possible undead ideas? I don't want to derail the campaign forever, so something kinda quick but *consequential* for the players...something that really makes them pay w/o overdoing it.

I would normally, just say go pay for a resurrection spell, but thats lame and not possible in current campaign situation anyway. I guess I'm looking for some story ideas and such; ways to incorporate it into the role play while also forcing consequences for bad player decisions.

 

[maddman75]

Well, you could always not kill them. Have them captured, have them lost and need rescued, etc.

One rules change I've contemplated is to say that going below -10 or death effect instead makes the character Mortally Wounded. Rename Raise Dead and Resurrection to Cure and Heal Mortal Wound. A mortally wounded character is permanently disabled. While they might be able to speak a bit or move around some they aren't going to be fighting. They might recover with months of natural rest, but otherwise they'll need powerful magics. If the campaign doesn't go that high, relegate this power to NPC clerics in powerful temples - "I can do no more for him - we must get him to the House of Elrond!"

This also allows for the Boromir rule. A Mortally Wounded character can act normally for several rounds making a heroic last stand, but after that they are truly dead.

All this really does is change the flavor text, but might be more to your liking.

 

[Ferret]

Good rules! And cinematic too!

 

[Merkuri]

I have a book called Ghostwalk that gives players options after death. Basically, they can take levels in a ghost-type class and continue adventuring until methods of resurrection are available to them, then when they come back to life they can slowly exchange their ghost levels for real class levels. I think it might be a 3.0 book, but it shouldn't be hard to convert.

You don't have to use all the ideas in the book, but it's a good place to start if you're looking to have characters stick around after death.

 

[shilsen]

Check out this thread about using an alternate death mechanic in D&D for a lot of neat ideas.

 

[acon360]

thanks for all the help and good info, does anyone have anything else?

 

[Stormborn]

We tend to use alternate death methods, as discussed in the thread mentioned above, to make PC death less likely - even darn near impossible. There are some other options:

- PC dies, has life after death experiance, revives and is marked by the experiance. Physical changes, say pale skin and white hair or weird eyes, indicating he was "Touched". This imposses a +/-2 circumstance modifer to most CHA based skill checks. YOu could further impose a -1 Con drain and a +1 Wis boost to indicate he reamins damaged fromt eh killing effect but somehow wiser for the experiance.

- Rather than death PC suffers some severe penalty as a "death curse" (say reduction in movement speed and cannot run or -2 to melee attacks and damage) but that can ultimately be healed with a Remove Curse or higher level restoration spell

-PC dies but the character remains as a disembodied spirit that haunts the PCs - player runs a temporary character until PCs can complete the quest to brign the dead back to life

-PC dies but rises as an undead version of himself, loosing a level in the process. He is warned that unless he can restore himself to life he will slow go mad and becoem a mindless zombie.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

Personally, I have always wanted to play a ghost in D&D. A character who dies and it becomes a minor inconvenience to him.

When I'm the DM, sometimes PCs die. It sucks for the player, but adventuring's a dangerous game. Characters die. Everybody dies. Live with it, I say.

 

[Numion]

For my players character death has been consequential enough with the existing rules. I don't know if it's the mechanical penalty that ticks them off, or is it the general feeling of failure.

PCs aren't usually resurrected more than two times on the wishes of the player - I guess the 'build' is deemed faulty at that point, and something better is deviced.

In any case they're seriously pissed off when I manage to kill a character - sometimes I even feel (only a little) bad about doing my DM victory dance after a PC kill