Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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So I'm dming a campaign where one of the characters died. They were burning down a candy store, and long story short, they died. The party then proceeded to take the body with them inside a tent when they left the town. The next session, we introduced a new character for that player. However, they have stated they do not like their new character as much, since it is a hardcore campaign so we rolled a random character they weren't so attached to, because they wanted to play the same guy with a 2 at the end of the name or a different letter at the start. I want to revive their old character, but also kinda want to keep the new one. So how should i do it? I only have 1 solution so far, they share a body. The old character was a ghost race with wizard as their class, and the new one is a robot rogue. It seems like it would make sense for something to happen so the ghost would possess the robot, but partially and they would share control. So why would they get close enough to get possessed, how do they get possessed, and how would sharing the body work, and is their a better alternative? Please help me out.
You could change the character's species to a warforged (eberron: forge of the artificer.)
Having met a cruel and undeserved end, the character could return to the realm of the living as a Revenant.
I like the idea, but "undeserved"? They were burning down a candy store...
Sounds maybe at least a little deserved. :P
For OP: I think the "sharing a body" thing might get old after a bit. It will either be that the player controls both personalities, which might be fun for them or might be a burden, OR you control the "new" personality while they control the personality of their original character, in which case whenever the "new" personality takes control, you're taking away player control and agency. It sounds like a fun idea, but in practice is likely to not go over super well.
I like the idea of the Warforged or the Revenant. For the Warforged, it could be their soul was infused into the melted candy from the store, so instead of a metal construct, they are instead made of (magical) melted candies and sweets (no mechanical differences, just flavor. FLAVOR! Get it?!? Because it's candy.). Then they basically become the kid from Full Metal Alchemist with their soul trapped inside this candy construct.
Or, along this line of thought, autognome from spelljammer.
And to the OP, I agree with the others body sharing don’t work. Lots of players come on here and want to do some kind of Jekyll/Hyde thing. It’s always annoying and fiddly with how it would work.
I’m missing something, though. Why not just find someone who can Raise Dead on the character? You get a side quest to find the caster, who will then require some kind of non-gold payment, setting you up for another side quest.
Underserved according to the Revenant character lorewise...
Why not just admit that the "hardcore" method of forcing players to roll randomly to determine replacement characters was a mistake and let the player make a new character that's more in line with their tastes?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
You should be asking the players. The player that wants their old character back shouldn't have to compromise when they can take him to a temple and get a Raise Dead.
You should talk to the player about what they want. Do they want the new character around? Did they design the new character? Did you Design the new character?
Because if you designed the new one, you are not really going with the player's wishes, just your own.
The player might be amenable to your compromises, but they might not, so give them a chance to make the choice.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
I have just realized other players can just pay to revive them. Sadly, it's been over 10 days, so they need to find a 1000 gp diamond to cast the spell, someone who can cast the spell, and the money to pay them. The good news is they for some reason decided to keep the body in a tent so they won't need to go grave robbing. I will start a quest line to accomplish this, but what do I do about the new character. One suggestion the person who plays them had was to splash them with water and melt them wicked west of the west style, but do you guys have any ideas how to get rid of them. 2nd problem, the guy who died was a narcistic jerk who the other characters didn't like. I believe they would not pay any money to resurrect them. So is there a way to motivate them to do it?
A soul infused into melted candy!? This sounds like some thing that the master candy maker Willy Wonka might have devised.
( Oompah Loompah, zippity dee dee, if you are wise, you will listen to me.......)
We had a party with an elven Druid. After a few deaths and amazing luck with Reincarnate we now have 4 elves.
Reincarnate is usually fun!
I had a similar recent campaign. After we realised how Reincarnate works we had party members choosing it even when a Cleric with Resurrection was available. We did allow two rolls and choose the one you prefer as a house rule but it's definitely more interesting than just "you're alive again"
Typically, the player stays with the new character during the quest to revive the old character so they have something to do.
Then the new character gets called away for “reasons” to go do something in a different direction from the party.
It’s up to the players to figure out why their characters would want to help. Tell them to come up with something.
You should had made that more clear. You're back into a corner here due to conflicting interests among the party. At this point its going to be up to the that player to convince the other players why their characters would bring him back. I'm even more concerned that the Player in question wants to straight up merc the temp character, when just sidelining/retiring them is incredibly simple. That's an oddly unnecessary level of malice that's suggesting there are other problems with this player.
I think you need to ask the player that when their OG character is brought back, what would that character learn from that experience of being dead a second time? Because all other factors are currently pointing to that character should not come back.
I have found a resolution finally thanks to all your help. So I asked random hypothetical questions about how much the other players would pay to resurrect the character, and the other players said they would only pay the 1000 gp if they had 5000 gp. It seems they would not do it, because they need money for random shopping sprees. I absolutely love MaximusArael020's idea of their soul being infused in a piece of candy and them coming back as a candy construct (great pun by the way) since the ghost would not work since they are already a ghost (a homebrew race I made based off a videogame. I've put the link to it in this post ) The candy shop the character burnt down was owned by a Willy Wonka inspired NPC called Charles Wonka, a man in a purple suit and top hat. Anyways, I've planned for the party to receive an invitation to earn a "special something" from Charles during their current side quest. When they get back to town, the candy store will be rebuilt, and they can come on in. They can meet with Charles and he will make them a deal. He will give them said special prize, if they manage to beat 3 puzzles, all whilst carrying the body of their dead comrade. I haven't worked out the puzzles, and how it would be hard to bring the body with them yet, but when they reach the end, Charles will be there in his legendary Candy Crucible. He will congratulate them on passing his puzzles, and tell them to put the body in a giant mold to receive the prize. They will do so, then Charles will pull a lever and the mold will fill with molten candy, and be put into the kiln. He will then say something about how they're wondering what the prize is and well, how it was the friends we made along the way, as the kiln opens and the character steps out but made of candy, then he says a joke about how they literally made him. And then the new character will feel awkward and just decide to leave and pursue their true passion by getting an degree in liberal arts degree or something. Then Charles will send them off. So anyways now that I'm back on track, what should the puzzles be? I have one so far. The players need to make a layered candy. There are 9 different colored levers, each labeled with a different flavor, Vanilla, Mint, Lime, Lemon, Grape, Cinnamon, Orange, Blueberry, and Cherry. In front of the levers is a glass window, with several nozzles above a glass container. There is a large, caramel waterfall blocking the exit, which is clearly burning hot, with a large button on the floor, wider than a person in front of it. There is also a sign saying...
Nine sweet levers line the rack
Follow the notes to stay on track
Choose the correct combination or you'll meet your fate
And choose five true to reach the gate
There are papers scattered around the room that have the following hints...
Every non-citrus flavor (Blueberry, Cherry, Grape) is used. Exactly two citrus flavors are used.
Vanilla, Mint, and Cinnamon are volatile stabilizer agents.
Orange is only valid if paired directly with Mint.
Lime is loaded somewhere before Lemon, but Lime is never the 5th layer. Lemon must serve as the final seal.
Grape is loaded immediately between two berries.
Lime cannot be Layer 1 or Layer 2.
Cherry is loaded before Blueberry.
Once done, they must press the button to check if they did it correctly. If correct, the waterfall stops, if incorrect, the waterfall sprays on anyone who pressed the button or is near the levers, dealing some damage, and the candy is disposed of by rolling away. Then the puzzle is reset. The correct answer is Cherry, Grape, Blueberry, Lime, Lemon.
...
Well anyways please say any puzzle ideas you have.
I seem to remember that in the old movie with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, "Mary Poppins", the title character sang a tune about "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". Then, again, in the Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder, there is the song, "The Candy Man". It may be too late to incorporate those song ideas in the "resurrection" process or, there is that old rhyme about what little girls are made of, "sugar and spice and all things nice".
So, would the resurrected "candy character" change its internal alignment and become a character of sweetness and light, perhaps a wizard who douses opposing forces with triple decker ice cream cones instead of fireball?
The Reincarnate spell is ripe for hijinks, especially if you expand the options to any species you can find the rules for.