So, after playing Dragon Age again, it occurred to me that there is something that might be useful to pull out of it. In Dragon Age, if a character dies during a fight, so long as someone from the party survives, they get back up once the encounter is over.
They don't get back up unscathed, however. They end up with some kind of injury that limits their ability to function, and that can only be removed with an injury kit or by leaving an area and returning to camp.
This actually got me to thinking. 7000 gold pieces (5000 gp plus 2000 gold pieces for two castings of Restoration) is a lot of gold if someone dies a low level, especially. So much so that it kind of makes the rest of the party less likely to be able to deal with appropriate challenges. On the other hand, it can really break the flow of the campaign to have a trusted companion replaced with a new character in the middle of the story.
Still, I wouldn't want to see the fear of death disappear from a d20 game, nor would I want to see spells like reincarnate or raise dead become essentially useless. I'm used to having a game world where higher level beings know such things exist.
This leads me to this thought process:
Party Survival
Any character that dies from having their hit points drop below a negative value equal to their constitution score does not die, so long as anyone from the party survives the encounter. Instead, that character is treated exactly as if they had been revived with a Raise Dead spell.
This means that the character gains two negative levels (or two points of Con drain if cannot have two negative levels), which can only be removed by using a Restoration spell. This also means that there is a 50% chance that the character looses prepared spells or spell slots.
The negative levels represent a serious injury that is beyond normal curative magic to easily heal.
If the entire party dies, they still die just as they normally would. If a character gains as many negative levels as they have character levels, they will die. Death effects will still kill the character. If someone is brought beyond their negative con score in a means that does not allow access to their body (such as being swallowed whole, or falling into a chasm that cannot be easily accessed right after an encounter), they die.
Familiars, animal companions, cohorts, followers, and other NPCs are not subject to these same rules, and will die normally according to the core rules.
Not only would this potentially keep from breaking up a party that works well together, or break the flow of an exploration of a dungeon or adventure site, but this might actually do something to differentiate death effects from other damage dealing spells.
So, let me know, where are the holes in this plan, what might come up that I haven't thought of, or if this makes any sense.
I actually already use this exact rule in my tabletop games. It works very well for me. Players still fear death, but I'm not having to pull punches, or worry as much about trying to replace characters that have become highly trusted by the party, and intigral in the story.
I actually already use this exact rule in my tabletop games. It works very well for me. Players still fear death, but I'm not having to pull punches, or worry as much about trying to replace characters that have become highly trusted by the party, and intigral in the story.
Hooray! The first step to knowing this isn't too crazy is to see that it occurred to someone else too. Regarding holding back . . . I don't think I coddle my players, but I have to admit there are some fights where I don't have villains do what's logical for the villain because I don't want to bench the player for a whole session and dock the party 7000 gold pieces.
Actually rather like this idea a great deal. It takes SOME sting of death out of the game though. A TPK is still a nightmare but getting the fighter killed is not a game breaker.
Now here is my question... in a roleplaying sense, what brings the dead PC back to life? Or was he just playing opossum?
I'd say that, rather than sustaining a deadly injury, the character took a really bad, long term, debilitating injury that brought them very near death.
They get knocked unconscious, and can't act, but their friends can take some time to check them over and rouse them. I toyed with the idea of attaching a heal check to the whole thing, but I don't really want to erase what you gain by using this if you blow the check.
Dragon Age, of course, has a whole long list of gruesome injuries like fractured skulls and pierced organs and the like that sound really bad but essentially boil down to "you takes negatives on X."
Actually rather like this idea a great deal. It takes SOME sting of death out of the game though. A TPK is still a nightmare but getting the fighter killed is not a game breaker.
Now here is my question... in a roleplaying sense, what brings the dead PC back to life? Or was he just playing opossum?
I'd say that, rather than sustaining a deadly injury, the character took a really bad, long term, debilitating injury that brought them very near death.
They get knocked unconscious, and can't act, but their friends can take some time to check them over and rouse them. I toyed with the idea of attaching a heal check to the whole thing, but I don't really want to erase what you gain by using this if you blow the check.
Dragon Age, of course, has a whole long list of gruesome injuries like fractured skulls and pierced organs and the like that sound really bad but essentially boil down to "you takes negatives on X."
Another way to go is to use the heal check to lessen the injuries. IE if they fail the heal check, they take extra negatives until they can be healed.
As above, I just consider it to be that the person suffered an injury that incapacitated, but was not mortal. This was much easier when I played Rolemaster, but it's not too hard to get creative. There are plenty of ways to take someone down and out of a fight without killing them.
Then after the fight is over, their friends can take a minute to take a look at them and bring them back around. I still have them wake up with 0 HP. So they still need some healing to get back on their feet and able to contribute, and they have the negative levels but at least they're still around.
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Mechanically seems to work (if party flees, probably should have death a consequence as well for those left behind). Appears 1st level characters wouldn't benefit as they die when they get the negative level.
Takes the dangerous sting out of an encounter, though, and makes me wonder if folks might throw caution to the wind ("we're immortal so long as one of us makes it").
For me, I've often run a 1st/2nd level adventure as a "get out of jail" free wherein the party has a chance to make a lasting connection with someone who could be sought out at later levels (example: party rescued a dryad at 2nd level and one later took a dirt nap at level 5. Party asked around and found sympathetic druids in the dryad's forest who were willing to cast a reincarnate for saving the dryad).
Dunno, I'm a hardass sometimes. Would have a hard time explaining how a rogue performed a coup-de-grace on the paralyzed fighter, slitting his neck or planting the dagger in his heart, and the fighter survived afterwards. My party expects (what's the word...versimilitude?)
Dunno, I'm a hardass sometimes. Would have a hard time explaining how a rogue performed a coup-de-grace on the paralyzed fighter, slitting his neck or planting the dagger in his heart, and the fighter survived afterwards. My party expects (what's the word...versimilitude?)
Well under those circumstances he would be dead....and your player would cry. :(
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I really like the wound concept which is similar to the critical hit deck. What about using the deck like that in an alternative to death so that if someone goes unconscious during combat and should’ve died they instead suffer a prolonged critical hit effect. The effect that cannot be removed except by spells such as Heal, Wish, Miracle, and so on. One could even introduce a new cure spell that removes prolonged effects. An alternative to spells would be extended recovery time combined with long term heal checks. So sucking chest wound might require multiple heals over a month’s time combined with continued bed rest and so forth.