Kingsmill Method of Death and Injury || DnD with Dael
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- Опубликовано: 27 окт 2024
- This time on MonarchsFactory we have more Dungeons and Dragons talk as I take you through my personal homebrew system for mortal wounds and how to handle death.
The Major Injuries Table should you need it: monarchsfactor...
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"I'm not a good DM, I just think a lot"
...That's.
That's exactly me.
What makes a good GM? Certainly thinking alot is a good quality.
i guess im asking the wrong place but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account??
I was dumb forgot my password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me.
"I'm not a DM, i just think a lot"
isn't that a Big Pun lyric?
My DM won’t let me watch your DnD videos because they use them for reference, lol
This is it. This is what the top of the world feels like.
As the DM- Yes yes it is.
Audrey King That's hilarious! LOL Apparently you're breaking your DM's rule, though... 😎😇
So what are you doing here in the comments?!
SanguineUltima That's what I'd like to know! 😸
See, it's Monarchs Factory... Because her name is Kingsmill.
Holy SHIT!!!
How did I never notice this????
@@atomictree5000 ;-)
Its phenomenal, realy
She should just use her real name as its awesome.
It can be fun to consider the systemic implications of mechanics like this. How would "soul pinning" change society? What would the black market do with it? Would there be weird denialist movements - "You don't come back, they're just puppets/zombies".
For starters, powerful figures would probably have a few clerics on hand in case of assassination. You could have cults where everyone deliberately dies and has their soul pinned by the cult leader. You could have intrigue plots where an infiltrator tries to kill AND resurrect a powerful figure to gain power over them. Certainly puts a twist on the old "assassinate and replace with a puppet" gambit.
There is so much potential there!
Oooohh! So COOL! Someone assassinating and resurrecting the same figure to gain protection from them? Genius!
The level of intrigue hinges on the mechanics of the resurrection of course - if it's easy to just kill the soul-pinner and get resurrected again by someone trusted, it doesn't make a very good plot device.
...and I'm just realizing this was kindof already done in the movie _Dragonheart_ . Dangit.
StubbornProgrammer Yeah, those are some great ideas! Lots of potential there to add complications to PCs dying and being brought back from the dead while also developing the depth and immersion of the world. 😎👍
StubbornProgrammer this is Alter Carbon all over again 😂
I am soooo gonna steal this
I had a Half Elf Battlemaster who found an eyepatch at like level two and just wore it to look cool. He also would switch which eye it covered for the hell of it.
I was DMing a game and one of my players is playing a pretty speedy monk. I had explained that (during combat) one of the foes were going to attempt to stab the monks eye. I had the monk make a dex save to “dodge” out of the way, and I was expecting them to be totally fine with a dexterity of 18. I was really surprised when the player rolled a natural 1. So then I ended up deciding that the monk would loose an eye.
I thought that an injury like this would warrant some repercussion. So I decided that for the next 2 in game days the monk would have disadvantage on attack rolls and perception checks. This being the case until the monk “got used to” their missing eye. After those two days I deemed that the monk has adjusted to their situation and could see “normally”.
Also the player was shocked at first that they lost their eye, but now I think it’s one of their coolest traits.
That's amazing!
Gotta be ready for what happens when you call for a roll. Don't think about taking an eye until you're ready for the implications. I don't blame you for allowing them to see normally after adjusting, but one eye typically calls for disadvantage on all sight checks. And adjusting to the use of only one eye while doing silly monk parkour tricks and flips would also likely take years, not a couple rests or days
My setting doesn't have a lot of magic. The Resurrection spell is non-existent. As my setting is very story-driven, with combat usually avoidable, it isn't as crazy as it seems. When a player dies their soul takes a number of weeks to slowly pass through nine gates of death. At each gate the dead sheds something specific. For instance, the first gate is the act of dying and the body is left behind. Other gates require the discarding of more and more of their personality, until at the final gate, nothing of their former lives remains--no memories, nothing--and they are truly lost. (This also provides reasoning for the animated dead having so little in the way of a personality.) For the dead to be saved, living players must journey into the lands of the dead, risking the permanent loss of their own bodies and minds in the process. Once the dead is located, the guardians of the place do not take kindly to outsiders pulling their dead back through the gates and will attack (or require negotiation or trickery). The death becomes an entire story arc of its own and very memorable. Given your interest in mythology, I thought my version of death may be of some interest to you. :)
Reminds me of Sabriel by Garth Nix, is that your inspiration?
It must be. I read the book decades ago and hardly remember anything about it, but the timing for inspiration is right. :)
that sounds fucking LIT
@@frazierclarke6262 I was about to say the very same thing
Other things that could be tansfered instead of eyes is like freckles or a strand of hair color maybe if the person was older the character then has visibly aged a bit.
Why not do it the old fashion way? Steal the soul back.
-- within a time span, the soul travels to the underworld, accompanied by grim reapers (or whatever fits) of CR appropriate to the creature they accompany (too weak, and the soul could escape, too strong ... is just horrible mismanagement of resources)
Ressurection spells allows your character to travel to this place, each character having a silver cord (like astral projection) and have one additional silver cord with you.
combat: kill the reapers (depending on where he/she died, you can make a hell-scape variant of the area with) Attach the cord to the soul you want to save ; and return.
This is the third time that I've watched this video because the idea of "soul pinning" keeps haunting me. What are the ethical implications of an elderly cleric resurrecting someone? Would they refuse to do so because they could only give a few extra years of life? Perhaps there could be some kind of pre-death ritual which would "lock" the resurrected people in place even after the cleric dies? Otherwise, would there be some kind of premium on young clerics, particularly clerics from long-lived races? Do shorter-lived races just give up on their cleric dreams? And how many times can an in-demand cleric cast resurrect before their own soul starts taking damage from the pieces being ripped off?
Also, if the party's PC cleric has resurrected everyone else in the party and they die, that's an instant TPK... EEP!
If you kill the cleric who revived you, you live on.
REZ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I was thinking about this as well, perhaps there could be a special ritual that could be performed to fully restore the persons soul to their body and allow the clerics soul to return to theirs thus removing the threat of the cleric dying and all their previous saves dropping like puppets with their strings cut.
There's a lot of room for DM's to experiment with various rituals to restore the soul fully or appeal to the god of death/god of some other health related thing to help the person.
Why not have un/hallowed left behind by high level clerics or saints that can take the place of a soul pin? I am a soft hearted DM who is reluctant to kill PCs but I also want PC death to be significant to my plot. Love this 💡
"you've got to tweak it and make it your own" THIS is exactly why Coleville sent us here. Dael - you're fun to listen to, and I enjoy hearing your ideas and using them as a jumping off point for my own game.
*Thieve's cant was brilliant - loved it, adapted it*
My resurrection rules are based on the Deity of the cleric and is a 2 part process. First the cleric has to convince his God to intervene in a major part of the normal flow of life, this is down to the cleric (can be aided by other players sacrifices etc). Then after the player is confronted by the god to see if they want to come back (the god can force them back against their will but requires a major reason). Then the player makes a Fortitude save and a level of debt to the god is determined. Factors include do they worship the god, how well they made the roll or even how badly they failed the roll etc.
Ooh, I like this a lot!
I've used the divine intervention part for years. I really like the confrontation, "save" to see if the soul really wants to go back, and the "debt" to the deity. Definitely good things to add in (consider them "borrowed")
I love my limb losses though, my legendary character (legendary in the Seth Skorokowsky sense of everyone loves and remembers them fondly) lost his hand in an emotional swordfight against his older half-brother and it became a lasting mark. In my current game I'm running, one if the PC's (also a knight type character) lost his leg and kept rolling well enough on con checks to stay conscious and continue contributing for two more rounds by holding himself up against a wall. The party paladin spent the next several days teaching him how to fight with his new false leg and now he's become a legendary general and badass even with his reduced movement speed and disadvantage on dex saves. You just have to approach those kinds of losses with the right attitude and they become amazing additions to characters
This non D and D player (Simply here to broaden my horizons a bit.) even learned something today: Always, *always*, ALWAYS stick around to the very end of the video.
Since watching and then forgetting about this video in the last 2 years, I've started using a similar thing where instead of "three strikes you're out" for death saving throws, you gain one point of exhaustion for every failure. Means things start to feel rough at the end of a big fight, and they're gonna feel it for the next few days.
Also, I'm pretty sure you could walk out of a room, put your hair up, and Clark Kent me.
"by the way, I'm not that good of a DM-- I just think a lot"
but you are. You're really good at articulating thoughts and even half-thoughts into words. I have learned a lot from you. Thank you!
Oh that cleric thing is really good, I really dig that idea. Also Dael stop it, I bet you are an awesome DM, so much so I bet that if you ran a game online there would be a line a mile long to play in that game!
I really like this wound mechanic. I might incorporate it. Thanks for the outro too. Much appreciated.
Ive been playing D&D for 2 years. Been Dming and while Ive run into much of these tips, they are so much more entertaining hearing them from you. Of course they are great reminders too.
Honestly I've been binge watching these videos for the last few days and among all the GREAT advice that I've heard the one piece of information that actually blew my mind was the concept of a pre-organized notebook
D&Dael would be a good title for the series (and we all love talking/hearing aboutD&D).
Resurrection are tough, the real issue is with the balance, since at one point characters are supposed to end up dead more than once. I personally prefere to make not mechanically too hard or punitive resurrecting characters, and using the fact that enemies can use them too the setback. In my character there is a villain that abuses it, since she can't die of old age, is an epic-level character and has NPCs dedicated to resurrect her when someone manages to kill them.
For injuries, I do something similar (1/3 of your HP in a hit or 1/2 in a round and you risk a scar and a temporary malus, 2/3 in a hit or all of them in a round and you get a scar and risk a permanent malus, 1/2 in a hit and you risk going to 0 and even to die for the shock), but I use the maximum HP as a treshold instead of the level, I like the flavor more.
@monarchsfactory these videos are tremendously fun to watch, you're doing a great job!
also the last bit, talking about magical healing being the temporary sort of "triage" that gets people up on their feet but doesn't necessarily fix or heal for real-- I like this concept and I might think about incorporating it into my game
A fellow Aussie Crit Role fan. Cool as. Love your eye colour idea, my friend. I'm totally nicking that. My mind immediately sprung to a shattered eye concept, where a part of their eye goes pale with each resurrection.
Thanks for the video
You have given me tons to think about i usually don't like resurrection because it destroys the weight of any risks but this gives me ideas on how to allow it and still have the threat of death looming. Btw I'm new here but i love your videos so thanks for making em.
Hey Dael, I just found your channel (love it btw), so I'm sorry for the comment on an old video.
I'm not sure if anyone else has brought this up before, but I could not find anywhere in the RAW where it says being unconscious results in losing remaining hit points. Dropping to zero hit points will result in the PC falling unconscious of course, but unconsciousness itself is just a status effect. I don't believe death saves and unconsciousness are mutually exclusive. The only time a character needs to make death saves is when they have zero hit points.
With that being said, have you ever considered having the PCs fall unconscious without dropping them to 0 and requiring death saves? I feel like this could still create a similar amount of tension without being too punishing. The PC would still be lying useless on the floor during battle and very much in danger (melee attacks against any unconscious target are auto-crits, etc.). An unconscious, still life-filled character, can dramatically shift the priorities of both sides during a battle. I feel that it gives fellow party members a more active role in saving their helpless friend. It also gives enemies an easy target to kidnap or someone to immediately hold hostage. Death saves are very much a solo player vs the d20 experience. Teasing the rest of the party with the chance to bring a still half-ish health ally back into the fray, albeit now in a compromised state, makes for a more party inclusive experience.
I love your injury ideas table and the concept of overwhelming pain causing the character to pass out, but dropping to zero hit points in addition to the other penalties seems a bit excessive. I can't think of anything more pathetic than a PC with a broken leg finally limping to safety behind a rock only to fall unconscious, fail one death save, then roll a 1 next turn for two additional fails and death. No one will want to retell that experience. However, a party would love recounting the epic story of how they fought to protect their unconscious, recently one-eyed wizard, who finally came to and was able to cast teleport on them just as they were being surrounded.
This was just a tweak I had to your idea that I was considering implementing it in my own game. Maybe the unconscious individual would need to make a CON check (with advantage if an ally helped somehow) to regain consciousness and reset the "fails until unconscious counter" to 1 instead of back to the initial 3? Again, just an idea I had after reading the RAW. Any thoughts or criticisms?
OHHH! You're so right! I never thought of that and I completely agree with this tweak - tweak stolen
Jameson Judy. I like your tweak. Alhtough I might tweak your tweak (what a bizzarre chain of words) and set a CON save to waking up quite high in the first turn and then reduce it every turn. It sort of makes the player feel more involved then a counter to conciousness and makes them feel super cool if they roll really well early on and you describe their character managing to tear themselves from unconciousness. Getting hit whilst unconcious could also give the player advantage on their roll as the pain rouses them but I'll need to think a bit more on that one.
I just watched this video (I'm new to this channel) and I had to check the comments to see if anyone else realised the same thing about unconsciousness and death saves.
The idea for the tweak is brilliant. I'm writing up a murder mystery thing atm and if the players do something epic maybe a brand new scar for someone can be a reward.
@@edwardnigma9756 Nice idea I am definetly stealling these ideas.
The cleric Hunting BB is an amazing story arc idea!
Imagine a character who’s backstory made them lose an eye rolling a 1 on the save
Excellent video! Wonderful food for thought. I intend to adapt these rules for my upcoming game. Thank you.
I have worked Friday night firefight's wound system into dnd. I like this as it makes the game more gritty and punishing.
I could sit and listen to you talk all day.
I have been a GM for a decade and a half but I sometimes like to watch GM tips type videos on youtube; you never know when someone will have some good insight and you can learn something from anybody. I just found your channel, but so far, from what I've seen, you have the best tips. You're not just going for the overly obvious thing that everybody should be able to figure out.
Love your ideas! May not agree with all of them but love your creativity and getting me thinking ;)
The res idea immediately made me think of Heros of Hammerwatch. If a player dies, another player can res them, but they become linked. Now, if either of them die, they both die. So if you have 3 players, two can die once, but then if anyone else dies everyone does. Similar to what you were talking about if the cleric dies, but it also goes both ways. If the cleric reses you, and you die again, you drag the cleric with you.
I think you would really like the Witcher Tabletop system. I'm enjoying it. It is more advanced than D&D but it has a lot of stuff you included to your games build in already. Injuries and needing time to recover, called shots, even big bads not being something you rush into as Witcher really rewards prep work and research. They have have investigation and social encounter / combat rules as well
I absolutely love the idea of a resurrected person having one eye that’s now a different color. It might be obvious or very subtle….
It could be a giveaway to the shady Strider figure sitting in the back of the pub, watching the group when they walk in.
This is amazing. I might have to use this. Wheels turning. Neurons firing. Great inspiration. Thank you.
I think I've found a kindred spirit. I am equally thinky and (in my opinion of myself) crazy and rubbish DM but I'm so jealous of your wonderful notes. Thank you for your wonderful videos.
I know this is 2 years old and someone likely mentioned it already, but I think for a crit fail it should be more vague, like "break/lose a limb(at GM's discretion)". The idea I'm getting at for this is that, even if you guard against it, the blow is so powerful that it breaks through your guard, possibly breaking your weapon or rending armor, and the blow continues through into your body, causing you great harm. So wrists would frequently break or dislocate, fingers would be severed, if you're playing a beastfolk/monster race, horns, tails, wings, etc. may be broken or severed, teeth will be knocked out, tongues will be bitten, etc., etc. I know people generally like iconic injuries, like missing eyes or missing hands or the like, but I like the idea of an injury being sustained from something foolish the player did that almost worked. Love the stuff anyway, keep up the good work.
I can already see Dael's party all having eyepatches, some even blind :D
I ran a campaign where the players were super invested in their characters, which was awesome, but they were extremely salty when a character would die or be knocked out of commission. My friend ran a campaign where it was very easy to resurrect a character, but his players became extremely careless and nonchalant that they would even kill/resurrect fellow party members to remove curses and the like. I definitely recommend discussing how to handle death with the player's during a zero session, if not to determine how death is handled, at least to let the players know what you want to do as a DM. I home-brewed major and minor drawbacks that the players can collect after being resurrected. I can share the list if you're at all interested.
The tips here (and in the other videos) are beyond great! Keep doing the great job because you are nailing it!
Keeping making quality D&D videos please
Okay, I just discovered your channel a couple weeks ago and OMG. Your D&D videos are amazing AND you know about the pokemon community. Damn. This is amazing.
Quick thought
Players with high con saves. If the dice number that was rolled is what is used determining injury will make some unable to get certain injuries, and if the total number rolled (with mods) will make front line fighters and the sort unable to sustain certain injuries.
Example: Paladin has an aura that gives +4 to con saves, and their normal con save is +6 (3 proficiency, 3 mod) so with a +10 to their con save they are unable to lose an eye, break bones, and more if the total con save is used, Or they will always lose an eye or have a major body injury if its the number rolled on the dice without mods
Perhaps having a second roll after a failed con save could be used to confirm the injury in a way. Roll a d20 afterwards and anything over a 10 or a 15 is just cuts and bruises. Makes it so that those who have good con saves don't ignore injury.
There are some optional rules for massive damage in Pathfinder that work a lot like what you described:
"If you ever sustain a single attack that deals an amount of damage equal to half your total hit points (minimum 50 points of damage) or more and it doesn’t kill you outright, you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. If this saving throw fails, you die regardless of your current hit points."
There's more for scars/wounds, but I don't think it's worth copying here.
I really like the ideas you've set forth in this video (just found your stuff today, really enjoying them). The "soul pinning" idea is fantastic and there's so much that can be done with that as many of your viewers have already stated in the comments. Personally I think the idea of the wounds is possibly more interesting because it's more likely to happen a bit more often. After listening to the full video I had one thought in regards to how to handle magical stabilization and healing during combat.
If I were to use this as a DM (and I probably will) I think I would narrate it that the magical healing or even a medicine check can essentially stop the bleeding but not fix a broken bone, punctured lung, etc on the battlefield. Think triage, you can cauterize a wound but that wouldn't repair the damage it simply acts a a way to stabilize a patient until proper medical attention can be provided. So using this a player can be returned to consciousness after suffering one of these wounds however it doesn't repair the damage. A lost eye is still a lost eye, a broken rib is still a broken rib, etc. without proper medical attention after combat these persistent issues will continue to cause problems for the player as well as a lasting physical impression.
Personally I would also throw in a few interesting twists to some of these injuries like a modifier to skills like persuasion/intimidation. A facial scar could result in lower persuasion but higher intimidation, a serious internal injury might make them more susceptible to poisons or toxins (or maybe lower their tolerance for alcohol if you want to be really mean, lol).
Anyway, I'm really enjoying the videos so far and will probably binge watch a bunch more before the week is out so thanks for all the thoughts and insights. Great videos!
We used to have a fumble rule where if you rolled a 1 on an attack you immediately had to make an attack against a specific armor class. (Situational modifiers applied, so it was harder on ice or close quarters, easier on a sunny day). This made it less likely to fumble with a weapon you were good with.
A great rule that I saw once (maybe in Creative Campaigns, 2nd E.) was using smaller dice for opposed checks. Say you have two characters who decide to arm wrestle. Armwrestling is almost always always won by the stronger person, so instead of having both players roll a d20 and add their strength modifier, have them roll 2d4 and add their strength modifiers (or 1d4, or 2d6, whatever you think will make it so the stronger person has a really strong advantage but isn't guaranteed. (Someone with an 18 strength should probably beat someone with a 17 strength 9 times out of ten unless one of them has points in armwrestling technique). Alternately you could double or triple their modifiers to get a similar result (or do both).
And, since you were kind enough to burp for us, I have burped for you. When in Rome.
Alright, I saw your videos come up from time to time and decided to check em out. You're adorable, weird, hilarious, and you have great ideas. I'll need to check out the others :)
Wow I just found your channel and every video I'm writing something down to use in my games! Love the ideas
This series is amazing! MOAR PLZ!
I really like your injury system!! I just started using it for my game, but I set the dc to be the amount of damage of the hit so that as players get to higher levels, if someone gets half their hit points taken then they pretty much automatically get an injury.
This reminds me of a time I played as a paladin who had a freaking sword go through his shoulder. Needless to say, he was one short rest away from healing the damage but it would have been cool to live with the effects of a big stabwound on his swinging arm.
"Im not that good of a DM, I just think a lot" Sums up my own DMing as well. Great episode!
I love this. Anything anyone can do to make 5E less soft and more challenging is great. Since it is almost impossible for a character to actually die in 5E the fact that you add in some stakes into you game makes me super happy.
I love all the harry potter references in your videos!
I really like this, it harkens back to the days of system shock rolls and there's a provision in the DMG for massive damage.
I updated the text to indicate "takes more than half of their max hit point worth in one strike of damage" which should remove ambiguity that it could be current hit points.
For resurrection, I like the soul bind idea as it leads to thoughts of: maybe only very young gifted clerics do resurrections and perhaps they are kept in a secured location. Otherwise old clerics doing resurrections is...problematic. Or perhaps instead of dying, if the cleric who raised you dies of natural causes as opposed to say, assassination, is fine. But a murder could have repercussions...like a necromancer could harvest that piece of soul as a means of control.
Regardless, really liked the "vague and evocative" prompts :)
@ 14:00 - I'd say let the healing spells stabilize and heal HP, but keep the injury and its specific debuffs. The healing spells could work in the sense of "mitigating the symptoms", as in they get you back on your fet, but unless you deal with the physical injury, you will go down again, it's just a matter of time.
For healing permanent injuries, what about, two possibilities.
Either they have to be healed to max hp within an hour of that injury happening
or
They have to be healed with magic at least once after already being at max hp, and complete a long rest
(and complete 3 long rests in this way with redundant magical healing before it is removed)
An aspect I am implementing in my pathfinder games is reincarnation (the pantheon in the realm I created allows for this). When a player dies, providing the character is on good terms with their respective gods, they get reincarnated. However... it comes with a price. Whichever class the player was playing as at the time, that class is reset to level 1. If they are able to get to their corpse within 1d10 days, then they are able to get their stats, etc back to what they were. Anytime after the amount of days, they get only half.
One possible outcome of this that makes me happy is the party's Diviner* using one of their prophecy-fulfilling dice to trigger an exciting failure.
It would be a nice moment of mentorly wistfulness that sometimes all you can do is guide the most noble and glorious failure possible.
*Although they'd probably use it on the original attack unless they're a drama-hungry teammate.
Great ideas! Death somehow hasn't come up in our campaign (they're level 8 so I'm either too nice or they're too good . . . ). The way I'm planning to deal with the ease of resurrection magic is not to put limitations on the magic itself but on the material components you need. Whole societies in my homebrew have sprung up and gained power around the monopoly they have on diamonds, they literally have power over life and death.
Dael You awesome :P Love the idea you show here...
Excellent video as always and explanation of your thought process!
I have an alternative suggestion that I may well implement on my campaign regarding wounds that cannot be healed by magic (like bones setting wrong). It would be cool to allow unconscious people with serious wounds to be brought back AND healed using magic, but they can't be fully healed. The consequences of having a broken collarbone that is on the mend, rather than constantly have disadvantage, would be that you lose out on max HP for the duration of your convalescence. Hardier characters with higher constitution should naturally suffer less from this than less resilient characters. This could look something like this:
Initial max HP - 1/2 the amount of HP lost when the wound was sustained + CON modifier.
Example:
Our character has 40 max HP, and a CON modifier of -1. They get hit for 30 HP in one attack, sustain a major upper body wound from their subsequent CON roll and fall unconscious. Having suffered this injury, they can now be healed to a total of 40-15-1=24.
The temporary negative max hitpoints can then be slowly alleviated by rolling hit dice. You add back 1 max HP for every hit dice rolled, adding an extra point if you roll the max number.
Back to our example:
If, during a short rest, our character rolls two hit dice ( let's say, two d8) and one of them is an 8. They get 3 max HP back. Our character now has a max of 27HP.
While this will make lower level encounters much more interesting, I'm a little unsure of how this would look in some higher-level encounters, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
I definitely love the rolling hit dice to win back hit points - great way to show the slow, bodily healing process, plus encourages people to use hit dice which is tricky as is
I have been looking for something like this, thank you!
I love the tables that say “you lose your weapon and are disarmed”. I used eldritch blast, did I throw my hand away?
I think it would be super cool to play in one of your games, I like your home brew rules.
Never knew your last name was Kingsmill. +10 points for your channel name now
On the major injuries the only quibble I have is with the amount of exhaustion you take after those 3 rounds are up. 3 exhaustion is half way to dead and has a lot of disadvantages stacked on. I would probably on give them one point of exhaustion so that there are still consequences but apart from that I think it's really well done.
I had a character die and come back, and had their shadow separate and come after them to try and bring them back
In my first time playing as Leroy Titus, the fire genasi bard, the warforged rogue of the party decided I was prattling too much in negotiating our party's contract, so to try to shut me up he made a roll to throw a knife past my face in that action-movie style where it, like, clips off some of your hair and what have you. Naturally, he crit failed the roll, so about five minutes into our first game I now have a gaping wound in my cheek. I went with it, giving myself a bit of a speech impediment as a result of Leroy's tongue occasionally lolling out the side of his mouth, but it was becoming clear to me and the DM that a major disfiguring injury wasn't necessarily the best way to start a campaign, so the DM cooked up a magical 'mud' salve at the local general store that would fuse with living tissue and provide a sort of hardened ceramic cheek for me. I had just written down on my character sheet the nickname "Mudface" when our druid decided to inquire as to what gave this healing mud its magical properties. The answer? Dryad shit. This has been the story of how my character instantly acquired the nickname "shitface" in the first game I ever played with him.
Go with the story. Just tell people that your character gets shitfaced after battle or goes into battle shitfaced. You can a shitload of fun with this one.
So much awesome in this video. We've not had anyone die yet in my (4th Ed) D&D game so I guess I've got a while to decide if I play resurrection like that but I love the idea. I *will* be bringing in the mortal wounds though. I *love* that.
P.S. I know 4th Ed gets a lot of stick, but I've got a lot of books for it and I'm not going to shell out for a whole new set any time soon.
Actually, about the resurrection mechanic you describe, something occurs to me
So, there's this book series called Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. If you're into worldbuilding, fantasy stories set in the stone age, and friendship with animals as a theme, you should give them a try. Anyway, in book one the main character, Torak, learns that he can speak to wolves. In book two, he learns that this is because he's a spirit walker - part of his spirit can leave his body and possess other creatures, and he can speak to wolves because he spirit walked in a wolf as an infant. Over the course of the books, he picks up traits from creatures he spirit walks in - another character describes it as "bits and pieces sticking to his souls". It would be interesting to adapt that for your form of resurrection and have the cleric slowly pick up personality traits, and even bits of knowledge, from players and NPCs they've resurrected.
The idea about injuries is great. D&D injuries always felt so all or nothing (either you're up and fighting, or you're on death's doorstep) (this is coming from an admittedly outside perspective on D&D, btw). This might lead to a deathspiral, but at least going down it will be more interesting. And it'll give players something cool - a scar with a story attached.
liked for that burp at the end in particular and the information in general :P
For long term consequences, you might consider allowing the player to take a drawback that gives them Inspiration if they choose to roleplay a disadvantage from the old injury.
This is a very elegant system, and I'm not just saying that because it's almost exactly what I came up with independently. I also decided that if the injured body part is protected by armor, it decrements or mitigates it. E.g. If you're wearing a helm, you don't get extra AC, but it protects your head! I also use it for specific hazards like falling rock traps.
This may be a bit longer: Dungeons & Dragos 5th edition has an optional rule in the DMG (page 273) which is called "Massive Damage". It's basically the System Shock rules from earlier edition reiterated and updated for 5th edition.
"When a creature takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half its hit point maximum, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer a random effect determined by a roll on the System Shock table. For example, a creature that has a hit point maximum of 30 must make that Constitution save if it takes 15 damage or more from a single source."
So they roll a d10 and if they roll a 8-10, they can't take reactions until the end of their next turn. On a 6-7, they can't take reactions AD have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the end of their next turn. On a roll of 4-5, they are stunned (as per the condition from the PHB page 292) until the end of their next turn. On a roll 2-3, they drop to 0 hit points but are stable. And on a roll of 1, they drop to 0 hit points and then start their death saving throws as appropriate.
Now, you also have an optional rule for lingering effects from injuries, also found in the DMG (page 272). It has a similar table as you came up with where the least thing that will happen is that the character will have a minor scar to the worst possible outcome of them losing an eye. Some of those effects have some mechanical repercussions. Like, losing an eye will give you disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight as well as ranged attack rolls (makes sense). But you can fix that by "regrowing" the eye with things like the Regenerate Spell.
As for the resurrection rules. You already have a cosmic rule (if you're basing your game in the Forgotten Realms, that is). Everyone has a cosmically predetermined amount of times they can be resurrected. If somebody tries to resurrect you past that number they will have an immediate and very personal (and probably very unpleasant) encounter with an Inevitable. Personally, I am using the resurrection rules of Matt Mercer while also treating the Revivify spell as a form of magic CPR and therefore doesn't require offerings and a group skill challenge. BUT, even with Revivify I mark down that they have been brought back from the dead. I rolled up a table where I keep track on how many times each player character can be resurrected, and reduce the number every time Revivify (or higher) is cast on them. I am absolutely looking forward to throwing Inevitables (specifically a Marut) at them once they reach their limit.
TL;DR: Massive Damage (DMG page 273), Lingering Injuries (DMG page 272), Resurrection Limit (Marut, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, page 213)
I also just realized how awfully late I am to this. Sorry about that. I only recently discovered your channel and I am still working my way through the archives. :o)
I may add this to my low-magic hexcrawl campaign because this is pretty cool. Though I probably won't require multiple long rests to heal mainly because I'm running longer rest rules (short rest = 8 hours, long rest = 5 days).
Love the mortal wounds idea.
I really like they eye color idea! It makes me think though, wouldn't it be neat if instead the ressurection ritual required you to offer an eye? Then if you want to to do it again you either have to commit to going blind or regenerate your eye. I think it would get some extra flavor out of why a hag or necromancer has a jar of eyeballs in their shelf.
The one thing I always think whilst watching your videos, I wanna play Talisman with you
there could be so much additional stuff added _if you want_ that could make such a wound more interesting after battle. Like, again an arbitrary number of long rests until your rib is _decently_ enough healed so you can fight properly again is very good. and until those rests are done, you make evry CON save with disadvantage. or maybe if you have a major leg injury, its disadvantage on DEX saves. Or maybe, if you lost an eye, you make every perception check with disadvantage until you have really learned how to deal with only one eye, maybe a month or so.
I would rule that magic is just accelerating your natural healing process. So it’s safe to heal a major cut once it’s closed or a broken bone once it’s set, but dangerous before, resulting in more serious permanent wounds.
I make resurrection in my campaigns very expensive, time-consuming, and taxing on both the cleric(s) and the resurrected. I have a 'chance' for permanent loss of 1 point for each of CON and/or WIS for the cleric(s) involved, and a 'certain' permanent loss of 1 point of CON and CHA for the resurrected. Then, those penalties double for each time you are resurrected! This essentially makes being resurrected more than three times nearly impossible to do without serious repercussions, and too risky for most clerics to even want to try.
I also use the 50% of HP in a single attack option, but I then include an 80% in a single round from all sources. Same DC. I like it.
Then, I also use what I call "aggravated damage" (stolen from Vampire) to include damage that doesn't heal normally, and magical healing only reduces the amount by 1 HP per spell level instead of the normal amounts, with the exception of Regenerate---but I make that spell take a lot longer to do its work! I also like to leave the injury descriptions vague to open it up to storytelling instead of being spelled out for you beforehand, but aggravated damage would be something otherwise permanently disabling and/or disfiguring, including loss of limbs or eyes, but also organ damage, brain damage, mangling of limbs rather than loss, etc. Then the spell Regenerate becomes more important over other healing spells in such cases. And then, of course, I have made a Feat for item creation allowing for weapons or other items (gauntlets, for example) that do aggravated damage (or at least a portion thereof) and is similar in difficulty and cost to crafting Masterwork items in 3.5.
Anyway, I like the vid, thought I would share some of my stuff too, if you don't mind! :D
Thinking about the death ritual by the cleric. It's a good idea so I took it further.
So perhaps the person could act to restore their soul fully without relying on the cleric's "band aid" method (which would still be useful for combat purposes but for obvious reasons would pose an issue to people resurrected by the cleric over many years. So
How this could be done is by doing a similar offering ritual as per ressurection (via critical role method) but casting a restoration or greater restoration to try and fully heal not just the body but the soul. Once enough vitality (or magic juice or whatever) is restored in this fashion the soul is either unaffected or partially/fully repaired.
Restoration as a ritual to the god of death might take on a different kind of magical "hue" upon a success, the effect might be shrouded in shadow. Or alternatively if the appeal is the god of "life or vitality" perhaps the magic is brighter/golden/silvery hues.
What might be required of this particular ritual would be an appeal to the god of death in your game + some personal plea or offering to act as a guarantor that you will help with this persons quest in such a way as to appease the god of death. In my mind you're essentially trying to negotiate a longer life or life extension to this person and you as the cleric might try to appeal to the potential for more good to enter the world or perhaps with some darker tones the cleric might try and appeal to the idea of sending more souls to the afterlife>specifically to the god of death as a way of paying homage to their act of benevolence.
(Perhaps on a successful ritual the god of death would appear either as an apparition or by proxy through a representative that would issue a series of demands to you in order to restore this persons soul. Kind of like begging for a loan from a bank to pay a debt?)
Lesser restoration having a lesser impact, perhaps requiring more rituals to get through this. (bonus to dice roll on next ritual +1-2?)
Greater restoration having a greater impact with the potential to repair someones soul in one go. (bonus to dice roll on next ritual +4-5?)
I would tie the ritual DC to the player level. Higher level players are gonna have a more roughed up soul right?
Levels...DC (using a D20 I guess but maybe a percentage based system would be more accurate idk)
1-5... 5
6-10...10
11-15...15
16-20...20-30 (Depends on how much you want this ritual story arc to last/if this particular individual is useful to the diety you are praying to)
And as a bonus if this person has to repeatedly die or come close to death you could simply forgo the personal plea and have the ritual automatically succeed, representing the god of death acting kind of like a mentor "oh you again, yes carry on".
Because the main narrative impact of this ritual has already passed, repeated rituals on the same person would be less interesting. And perhaps from the god's perspective they would get bored having to come to the same person to hear their pleas.
If players wanted to make a religion check to get some more info on the process well...the general idea would depend on your world mythos with the gods or whoever deals with departed souls and what they gain or lose by having more people pay homage to them.
I suppose it doesn't necessarily have to be toward the god of death, if perhaps the person in question has a different god for their culture they might appeal to that one instead and the tasks required might imitate those of a certain hercules.
Or indeed if the individual is against the idea of a god holding sway over their soul perhaps a story arc could be made to deal with the conflict here. Maybe they make a pact with some angel/devil to intervene and thus save them from having to repay the debt.
Or perhaps the person is so against the idea of even coming back to life they stay in some other dimension in the outer/inner planes able to be called upon if your party is in need of "Divine intervention". Perhaps elevating that character to an angel/agent/demon of their desired god/pantheon whatever.
There's a lot of ways you can spin it depending on the individual and how they feel about this
This is very similar to the system that exists in the DMG on page 272. There are actually a lot of optional rules that I love using out of the DMG. The only real cost of their use is time, but it's D&D. :p
Personally I just like making resurrections require checks.
A low check can result in a tear in the after life, this causes undead trying to kill you mid ritual, cursing the caster or desecrated ground.
Also being brought back causes a phobia of what killed them (DC 15 wisdom save to ovoid frightened)
I use my own modified version of the Diminishing Spirit rules that Critical Roll does when it comes to death in my campaign, but I like your method as well and I have decided to add it into my campaign as a separate thing known as a Soul Anchor Ritual. I've added to it a bit so the cleric who does this to revive someone must roll a d10 and the number rolled is taken permanently from his maximum hit points to represent the part of his soul he has sacrificed for this.
Other than the eye colour being the same as the cleric's, can the "tether" or soullink between the two people be noticed through magical means like with Truesight, Witchsight, or Detect Magic? Actually, I dont know if it should be seen through Detect Magic since the soullink is divinity based but possible Truesight
That would be super cool!!
I'm going to add on to this. Imagine that the soullink/tether interferes with Scry, Locate Creature or similar spells or magical effects. Or spells like Detect Good and Evil, and Detect thoughts.
What if the two players are connected even deeper. Like they combine their spell slots so if a cleric resurrects another magic user then they have double the spell slots but if either person uses one it uses it for the other player too!
More D&D! Definitely gonna try this in my next game
I like your injury system, I'll definitely introduce it to my player on my next game.
Awesome, love the cinematic feel. I'm stealing this for my Shadow Run game😁👍.
I really like the idea of a cleric giving a part of their soul to bring someone back. I would maybe add in the idea that for that reason a cleric can only do so many resurrections before they start to lose themselves. Also the Idea of a character who has been resurrected dying again would be something that the cleric would literally feel, no matter where they are, because a little piece of them is dying also.
It seems sort of strange in a sense to basically enforce a "leeches and laudanum > divine intervention"-policy in DnD. I can understand not removing a debilitating injury outright with anything less than Greater Restoration, but divine magic is sort of supposed to cure being turned to stone, permanent HP-loss, ability score loss and so on. In a game, that means regrowing limbs, healing scars, strengthening bone, sinew and muscle to normal after a lengthy coma, and so on. I can understand needing a little bed rest, and one shouldn't forget the psychosomatic problems that can pop up if you feel your arm getting torn off one day, and then wake up as if nothing ever happened. If you wanted to make something dramatic of a death, you could always just chop off the head and punt it off a cliff, or desecrate the corpse in some other manner. Now you suddenly have to travel the continent to find the greatest temple in the land, paying the head priest 30k to perform a true resurrection. If the cleric drops, it should be a huge "Oh shit!" moment for the party, so I'd generally advise targeting the healer instead of making him useless. My party cleric is the DM's boyfriend, and he just killed off her character in another campaign he DMs, so I've got a feeling some nasty critters will be out for priestly blood soon enough anyway. His cleric is also comically inept at physical combat. He hit a monster 30+ hours into the campaign, and everyone stopped in shock at him actually hitting something for the first time.
I love this... great resurrection mechanic. And the more D&D the better.
I like the injury idea!
I think you just made more trouble for my players! =D Thanks!
I think maybe letting a player spend down time to get used to the injury, like a lost eye or something like that, but until then they might have disadvantage on perception with sight or ranged attacks
THATS SOOOO COOL I LOVE THAT THE EYES COLOR CHANGE AND ONLY BE ABLE TO RES ONCE YESSS
Yay! More DnD. Really enjoy these videos :D