Page 119 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

alternative
oPtional ruleS of critical role
resurrection rules

For those who have watched along with our adven-
tures, you may see some of these optional rules as
familiar. Many of the elements included in this Character death can often prove to become a minor
chapter are based on or retooled versions of the house inconvenience in some campaigns once the adventuring
rules we tried within our own campaign. Some have party reaches a certain level, with spells being available to
undergone a number of changes for balance as we try return fallen comrades from the afterlife with temporary
new things and learn from our experiences. For those setbacks, robbing a small element of danger and threat
that are curious, the ones we utilized within our own to future conflicts and challenges within the story. If you
game are Rapid Quaffing and Multi-Spell. wish to elevate the gravity of character death, you can
introduce any of these optional rules.
a taxing return
multi-spell
This rule calls to the old D&D rules where every time a
At around 8th level, gift the Spelldriver feat to your play-
character is restored to life, the process corrodes a fraction
ers. This will allow spellcasting classes more options to
of their vitality, slowly consuming the body until it can no
aid themselves and the party at higher levels without a
longer sustain life.
comparably sluggish per-round ability set, spending their
Each time a character is brought back to life via a spell
solitary action on a bonus action spell. This would also
or ritual, that character suffers a permanent loss of 1 point
apply to enemy spellcasters, leading to additional chaos
of their Constitution ability score. This loss cannot be
and challenge.
restored outside of a carefully worded wish spell. Use of
the spell true resurrection to restore a character does not
accelerated downtime impose this loss of Constitution. Characters that reach a
Constitution ability score of 0 are permanently dead and
cannot be resurrected.
Certain adventures thrive on the adrenaline of the chase,
or the ever-present fear of ambush. As it stands, the need didn’t come bacK right
to take a short rest can prove difficult during long dungeon
crawls, and this lends itself to a nice tone of personal stress Within this rule, the process of dying and being pulled
back into your body is a harrowing experience. The magic
and risk-vs-reward. However, sometimes a rest is necessary
for the party to even continue, but the current rush of the itself pulls you from beyond the dark veil of death, taking
its toll on your body and psyche each time, leaving you
story’s clock won’t allow for a standard short rest. You could
consider lessening the required time to complete a short less and less the person you were.
When a character is brought back to life via magic, that
rest to 30 minutes or less for the moment, or your entire
campaign, as an option. Another possibility is to allow the character must make a Wisdom saving throw, DC (22
- level of the magic used to return the character to life).
party to take an Arduous Rally if they so choose.
A failure on this check inflicts long term madness (see
arduous rally DMG, p260), except that the duration is measured in days
rather than hours. A lesser restoration or remove curse will
The party spends 5 minutes to rally their resolve in the
alleviate the madness itself, though it returns any time
face of coming peril, the adrenaline fueling their need that character drops to 0 hit points or awakens from sleep,
to push on. The party benefits from the completion of a
until its full duration has expired.
full Short Rest, but all healing gained by spending hit
didn’t come
dice is halved, and all rallying characters suffer 1 point of
Exhaustion (p. 291 PHB). bacK right (advanced)
For additional consequences and player difficulty, you can
implement a further stage of corruption. If a character has
died a number of times equal to their Constitution
modifier, and they fail their Wisdom saving throw
upon being brought back to life, they instead suffer
an indefinite madness (see DMG p.260). Any
“Like all of the great rites of passage in life, death subsequent deaths inflict an additional indefinite
changes us, and simply returning to the world of madness with each resurrection. A greater restoration
the living does not undo that change, nor is it at all
spell can temporarily suppress a type of indefinite
simple. Those who have passed beyond the veil are
madness, with it returning anytime that character
marked by it, even if they manage to find their
drops to 0 hit points.
way back.”
—From “On the Price of Death and
Resurrection,” by the sage Narrel