Today, I figured I’d talk about death in D&D, given the events of my last game. So, spoilers for that game, if that’s something you’re concerned about.
To cut a long story short, in my last session, my character, Spoon, died. He tried to be clever, and paid for it in the worst possible way. Which was kind of fitting, since that seemed to be happening over and over in the campaign. So, I guess it felt kind of inevitable.
Anyway, after Spoon died, I spoke with my group about what to do next. If you’re not too familiar with D&D, just know that death is hardly the end. Especially once you get to higher levels, death can be undone with barely a thought. All you need is a cleric and a ridiculous amount of money.
However, this capability brings with it the danger of trivialising death. Why are you going to worry about danger if you know that someone can just bring you back to life if something goes wrong?
Some campaigns, such as the one played in Critical Role, turn the casting of spells to bring someone back from the dead into a skill challenge. In casting the spell, the allies of the deceased must also convince their friend to return to the land of the living, and how well they do determines the chances of that happening. This method even comes with the caveat that the more times someone is brought back, the worse the odds of success become. This, I think, is the best way to handle resurrection in D&D.
But, for my group, I decided that I didn’t want them to try to bring me back, and I did it for three reasons. First, we’re such low level characters that we don’t have the ability to do it ourselves, meaning they’d have had to find a cleric powerful enough to perform the necessary spell, which also would have cost an exorbitant amount of money. Being so low level, I felt that we’re not at a point where it should be a feasible option.
Second, I didn’t think it fit our characters. Leo has, right from the start, been too concerned with his own skin (and the weight of his coin purse) to justifiably go to the trouble and expense. Hector is very pragmatic. Aelin made it very clear that she had issues Spoon. And Gad is very heavy on nature, and what’s more natural than the cycle of life and death? Not to mention, Spoon had barely known these people for a few weeks, and none of them knew him well enough to make a difference to him on whether to return.
The third reason, though, the one I’m most excited about, is what it will do to the other characters. I’m hoping to see them change as a reaction to Spoon’s death, although this is entirely up to the players. The thing is, though, only Spoon died, but it could easily have been another party member. Or several. We all came very close to death in that fight, and knowing that one of us did die should have an effect on the others. That’s my hope, anyway.
Next week, I’m going to talk about the process I went through with creating my new character, because I don’t follow the steps exactly how it lists them in the book and I think some insights into my process may be helpful to others who are working on their own characters. In the meantime, the next episode of Adventures in Talmar, starring my new character, will go up on Sunday. I’m very excited to see what happens.