Every now and then an NPC must die. Fact of life, especially if it's critical to the story.
If they witness this some of my players will do a healing spell, or use a healing potion to try and bring that NPC back to full health.
This is really annoying haha, have I missed something in the rules? Can you bring back someone in the final throws of life to vitality using a healing potion, or a spell like lay on hands?
If you can, how do you resolve this as a DM, if you need an NPC to die or remain severely injured (so they can't get up and join the PCs in their quest for instance)?
This is really annoying haha, have I missed something in the rules? Can you bring back someone in the final throws of life to vitality using a healing potion, or a spell like lay on hands?
Of course. If they're in their final throes they're not dead yet. Magical healing will fix just about anything short of losing body parts.
If you can, how do you resolve this as a DM, if you need an NPC to die or remain severely injured (so they can't get up and join the PCs in their quest for instance)?
Stop planning your adventures so that NPCs dying is critical to the story. The sooner you accept that you can't 100% control the direction the story is going to go, the better.
If you really need to take an NPC out of the action and you can't think of a better reason why they might not want to go with your players, you're going to have to go for limb loss or gouging out their eyes. That type of damage requires Regenerate or similar high-level magic to fix.
Stop planning your adventures so that NPCs dying is critical to the story. The sooner you accept that you can't 100% control the direction the story is going to go, the better.
Thanks... I mean I don't do that routinely, so don't get the wrong impression. Just that sometimes there are some elements to a story that need to be fudged, not many folks are good enough to have literally zero idea of what the game plan is and just improvise 100% a good game ;)
If you really need to take an NPC out of the action and you can't think of a better reason why they might not want to go with your players, you're going to have to go for limb loss or gouging out their eyes. That type of damage requires Regenerate or similar high-level magic to fix.
Even if your fated for death NPC gets fully revived and is physically 100%, there's nothing stopping you from giving them a healthy dose of reactionary PTSD. Sure, they *want* to help your players on their quest to (destroy lich king, exterminate goblin nest, save princess, etc...) but they find their knees buckle and their hands shake when they even think about picking up their sword and shield.
Alternatively, you could also just rule that the NPC was too far gone for the healing ability to take effect on their soul as it yeets itself into the afterlife. Describe the body's wounds healing as the light leaves their eyes, and watch your friends fall into despair as they realize they need to blow through more resources to squeeze all the info they needed from their beloved NPC.
Healing spells don't work on the dead, if the NPC drops to 0 hp then you can just say they are dead, no death save, no unconsciousness, no coming back without high level spells like resurrection.
IIRC the lowest level spell is raise dead which give the players 10 days but you can make it so that's not an option by trapping the soul.
None of the healing magics or health potions can bring someone back from the dead. If you simply apply the rule that NPCs don't get death saves then if they die then the party will have to either deal with the death or make an entire adventure of finding that one person to raise the dead on that NPC.
You could always have them poisoned first by the offending NPC, or some other way in the game that prevents healing.
Remember, you are the DM, they are the players. If you want to introduce rules on healing NPC's, do it. Make them make a medicine check.. but they know their allies well enough they don't need that. Or something.
If they are a cleric, perhaps their god won't heal this person (have a GOOD reason, don't just use it as an escape)
Many many ways, with prep work, to make an NPC death function.
If you need them "mostly dead, but not quite dead" for purposes of relaying information, or playing with their feels, you can also have them maimed (head removed, that sort) beyond repair, and have them have a note on their body that is a letter to the party in case this happened (assuming everyone knew they were walking into a bad situation).
Tons of ways to handle this... you just have to ask yourself "How are my players most likely to react, and can I/should I do something preemptive to interfere"
If you want the "death note" not to feel like a "last second" cop out.. have it printed and physically hand it to them, with blood stains and such on it... it has weight.
Also consider that some things can occur in "the background" or you know when the players are not around. If the idea is to have a tragic situation, them wanting to get revenge or something like that. They can feel all those things when they return to the town or go visit said NPC just to find him/her dead lying on the floor
You are the DM. If you want the NPC dead, the NPC is dead. Dead is easy in combat, the blow was fatal. Severely wounded and stays that way is much harder. Healing magic is a thing in D&D and pretty much no one stays hurt for long. PCs recover all hit points after a long rest, NPCs might be expected to do the same. Certainly a healing potion or spell is going to require some serious explanation if it doesn't restore health and well being.
Given the mechanics of the game it might be be easier to write plots that don't require the death or incapacitation of key NPCs.
The Chill touch prevents healing for 1 round, you could give a monster an ability it weapon that had that effect and maybe even with a longer duration, just remember to use it on a player first so they'll know what's happening when the NPC gets hit. An alternative is for the NPC to get cursed it something like that, ghosts are able to age a creature, you could also let them de-age a creature, whichever one of more likely to cause the NPC to be unable to fight, and again, use it on a PC first, probably an Elf since an extra 50 years is meaningless.
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Howdy folks,
Anyone encountered this, or have any advice?
Every now and then an NPC must die. Fact of life, especially if it's critical to the story.
If they witness this some of my players will do a healing spell, or use a healing potion to try and bring that NPC back to full health.
This is really annoying haha, have I missed something in the rules? Can you bring back someone in the final throws of life to vitality using a healing potion, or a spell like lay on hands?
If you can, how do you resolve this as a DM, if you need an NPC to die or remain severely injured (so they can't get up and join the PCs in their quest for instance)?
Cheers
James
Journeyman DM
Journeyman Adventurer
Of course. If they're in their final throes they're not dead yet. Magical healing will fix just about anything short of losing body parts.
Stop planning your adventures so that NPCs dying is critical to the story. The sooner you accept that you can't 100% control the direction the story is going to go, the better.
If you really need to take an NPC out of the action and you can't think of a better reason why they might not want to go with your players, you're going to have to go for limb loss or gouging out their eyes. That type of damage requires Regenerate or similar high-level magic to fix.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Thanks... I mean I don't do that routinely, so don't get the wrong impression. Just that sometimes there are some elements to a story that need to be fudged, not many folks are good enough to have literally zero idea of what the game plan is and just improvise 100% a good game ;)
This could be the money :)
Journeyman DM
Journeyman Adventurer
If you want NPCs and (PCs for that matter) to actually have a real risk of death, switch to using the old 1E and 2E rules... :)
Even if your fated for death NPC gets fully revived and is physically 100%, there's nothing stopping you from giving them a healthy dose of reactionary PTSD. Sure, they *want* to help your players on their quest to (destroy lich king, exterminate goblin nest, save princess, etc...) but they find their knees buckle and their hands shake when they even think about picking up their sword and shield.
Alternatively, you could also just rule that the NPC was too far gone for the healing ability to take effect on their soul as it yeets itself into the afterlife. Describe the body's wounds healing as the light leaves their eyes, and watch your friends fall into despair as they realize they need to blow through more resources to squeeze all the info they needed from their beloved NPC.
Make all your NPCs old, or battle-damaged, or pregnant, or as Nixxolas says, maybe they mentally/physically just can't even.
Healing spells don't work on the dead, if the NPC drops to 0 hp then you can just say they are dead, no death save, no unconsciousness, no coming back without high level spells like resurrection.
IIRC the lowest level spell is raise dead which give the players 10 days but you can make it so that's not an option by trapping the soul.
Thanks everyone for the ideas :)
Journeyman DM
Journeyman Adventurer
One option is poison
The thing that they were hit by was poisoned, and ends up making them die even if healed
None of the healing magics or health potions can bring someone back from the dead. If you simply apply the rule that NPCs don't get death saves then if they die then the party will have to either deal with the death or make an entire adventure of finding that one person to raise the dead on that NPC.
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You could always have them poisoned first by the offending NPC, or some other way in the game that prevents healing.
Remember, you are the DM, they are the players. If you want to introduce rules on healing NPC's, do it. Make them make a medicine check.. but they know their allies well enough they don't need that. Or something.
If they are a cleric, perhaps their god won't heal this person (have a GOOD reason, don't just use it as an escape)
Many many ways, with prep work, to make an NPC death function.
If you need them "mostly dead, but not quite dead" for purposes of relaying information, or playing with their feels, you can also have them maimed (head removed, that sort) beyond repair, and have them have a note on their body that is a letter to the party in case this happened (assuming everyone knew they were walking into a bad situation).
Tons of ways to handle this... you just have to ask yourself "How are my players most likely to react, and can I/should I do something preemptive to interfere"
If you want the "death note" not to feel like a "last second" cop out.. have it printed and physically hand it to them, with blood stains and such on it... it has weight.
Also consider that some things can occur in "the background" or you know when the players are not around. If the idea is to have a tragic situation, them wanting to get revenge or something like that. They can feel all those things when they return to the town or go visit said NPC just to find him/her dead lying on the floor
You are the DM. If you want the NPC dead, the NPC is dead. Dead is easy in combat, the blow was fatal. Severely wounded and stays that way is much harder. Healing magic is a thing in D&D and pretty much no one stays hurt for long. PCs recover all hit points after a long rest, NPCs might be expected to do the same. Certainly a healing potion or spell is going to require some serious explanation if it doesn't restore health and well being.
Given the mechanics of the game it might be be easier to write plots that don't require the death or incapacitation of key NPCs.
The Chill touch prevents healing for 1 round, you could give a monster an ability it weapon that had that effect and maybe even with a longer duration, just remember to use it on a player first so they'll know what's happening when the NPC gets hit. An alternative is for the NPC to get cursed it something like that, ghosts are able to age a creature, you could also let them de-age a creature, whichever one of more likely to cause the NPC to be unable to fight, and again, use it on a PC first, probably an Elf since an extra 50 years is meaningless.