So in my setting, there are extraplanar forces that enforce the laws of the universe; Things like Time, Space, & Mortality.
It is not well known but when someone abuses the power of resurrection then a member of the guardians of mortality, "The Harvestmen", makes an appearance. The player are then marked with a curse until they balance the scales.
Mechanically what is the curse? I'd like it to be nasty enough to noticeable but not debilitating.
My first thoughts were things like Death Save DC becomes 12, Long rests only recover 1/4 hit die.
Maybe, while trying to balance the scales however that may be.
Shed the character hit point maximum by a certain amount that cannot be increased or restored.
If the character dies again maybe they become some spirit or are taken away by your Harvestmen I'd avoid the whole "Oops, you died again. RESET THE CLOCK!" in other words make dying again mean something much much more dier.
If the Harvestmen can be talked to or reasoned with, maybe they could allow a quest to remove a penalty. Defeating undead or a necromancer would seem a fair target to end the curse and would keep the party focused on the “good”. I think mechanically a penalty to hitpoints or to healing magic would be fair, so long as it’s not so bad as to make the character unplayable
That's an interesting take, does it apply to everyone or just the PCs ? Are you going to demonstrate the effect on NPCs ? By the way this is what was done in Tomb of Annihilation, to I think great effect.
The most difficult thing here is to find a real penalty ut something that does not cripple a character or make a player lose their sense of fun. And also something that does not make a new death more likely otherwise you might end up in an inescapable spiral.
Finally, how do the PCs "balance the scales" ? By killing lots of people to compensate ? I would not advise this as it would certainly bring bad behaviour, so I'm sure that you have other ideas.
Once I know the answers to all that, maybe I'll be able to give some advice about the "penalty".
If the Harvestmen can be talked to or reasoned with, maybe they could allow a quest to remove a penalty. Defeating undead or a necromancer would seem a fair target to end the curse and would keep the party focused on the “good”. I think mechanically a penalty to hitpoints or to healing magic would be fair, so long as it’s not so bad as to make the character unplayable
It definitely applies to everyone (Although magic higher than 3rd level is rare outside of the extremely wealthy and even with that diamonds are expensive).
I was thinking something similar in that they can remove it via some form of a quest; Tracking down a powerful undead or necromancer. Maybe helping cleanse a burial sight of corruption?
What;s the alignment of the harvestmen ? What are they trying to guarantee ? That overall mortality is conserved, a la Jaqen H'ghar, "one life for a life" ? Or that each individual mortal does not steal more "live time" than his allotment ?
Probably Lawful Neutral? They work to ensure that overall mortality is maintained. They are more interested in ensuring mortals do not steal more time than their allotment.
That's an interesting take, does it apply to everyone or just the PCs ? Are you going to demonstrate the effect on NPCs ? By the way this is what was done in Tomb of Annihilation, to I think great effect.
The most difficult thing here is to find a real penalty ut something that does not cripple a character or make a player lose their sense of fun. And also something that does not make a new death more likely otherwise you might end up in an inescapable spiral.
Finally, how do the PCs "balance the scales" ? By killing lots of people to compensate ? I would not advise this as it would certainly bring bad behaviour, so I'm sure that you have other ideas.
Once I know the answers to all that, maybe I'll be able to give some advice about the "penalty".
That was my first thought as well and went to look at the Death Curse 'features'. Yeah, it's a nasty bugger and even without the SoulMonger in place, some of those penalties are downright cruel.
Any humanoid on the planet that has been brought back from the dead begins to waste away. Its hit point maximum is reduced by 20 (1 for each day the Soulmonger has been active) and decreases by 1 every midnight until the Soulmonger is destroyed. If a humanoid’s hit point maximum drops to 0, it dies. Traveling to another world or plane does nothing to halt the wasting effect once it has begun.
A humanoid whose hit point maximum is reduced can’t increase or restore it. This is true whether the creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by the Soulmonger or by some other life-draining effect, such as the touch of a wight, wraith, or similar creature.
If a humanoid dies anywhere on the planet, its soul becomes trapped inside the Soulmonger. Only the destruction of the Soulmonger can free the trapped soul.
Any spell that breathes life into the dead (including revivify, raise dead, resurrection, and true resurrection) automatically fails if cast on a humanoid whose soul is either trapped in the Soulmonger or has been devoured by the atropal (see “Soul Devouring” below).
The Soulmonger does not affect the workings of speak with dead spells or similar magic. The death curse has no effect on preexisting ghosts or spirits.
People that come back from the dead should be ... changed.
Perhaps a -1 to a random stat? Weaker, slower, less healthy, stupider, foolish, or morose/less charismatic. all seem to make sense to me. Perhaps randomly choosen with 1 reroll.
What;s the alignment of the harvestmen ? What are they trying to guarantee ? That overall mortality is conserved, a la Jaqen H'ghar, "one life for a life" ? Or that each individual mortal does not steal more "live time" than his allotment ?
Probably Lawful Neutral? They work to ensure that overall mortality is maintained. They are more interested in ensuring mortals do not steal more time than their allotment.
This doesn’t help with the mechanics part, but maybe the ”allotment” is how they fix things. They need to find a way to prove they were taken before their time — that they didn’t get their full allotment. And leave it up to them to figure out how. The harvestman shows up and says “impress me.”
And if the harvestmen are neutral, that works great. A good character might need to go do something truly impressively good, while an evil one would need to do something unspeakably evil. A way to show that their work isn’t done.
Here is my idea for a curse... it sounds punishing, but mechanically, it isn't that bad if it only applies to a single individual. To that effect, I would say that instead of applying to everyone, it should only apply to either the person who did the resurrecting, or the person who was resurrected (Harvestman gets to decide to avoid the PCs from cursing someone else and leaving the area, heh).
The recently cursed individual does not feel... whole. It's like they are there, but something is still missing. The Harvestman's curse creates a kind of undeath-like condition to punish those who take someone from death's grasp.
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature is unable to benefit from healing by any means other than magical healing or healing from a long rest as the flesh starts to mimic the death state of a corpse (only visual effect is that until healed, cuts and gashes do not close, but do not bleed).
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature must sleep for a full 8 hours during a long rest without exception. The creature is unable to be awoken by any means until the long rest has passed as the curse mimics the unending sleep of the dead.
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature does not need to eat or breathe, and cannot gain any benefits or be subject to any conditions from the consumption of food or drink, natural or magical as the curse mimics the lack of need of the dead.
Edit: I'm intentionally vague on the use of drinking potions as "magical healing" and will leave that up to the DM to decide. If there is no party healer, you may wish for healing potions to be exempt.
I'm sure your going to get plenty of great advice, so I will just say that I absolutely love that concept. I think its one of the coolest method of measuring/balancing Resurrection I have seen for D&D in quite a while. Great idea, consider it stolen!
Thanks! I'm glad you like it.
Also thanks ya'll for the advice! I like the state of pseudo-undeath.
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So in my setting, there are extraplanar forces that enforce the laws of the universe; Things like Time, Space, & Mortality.
It is not well known but when someone abuses the power of resurrection then a member of the guardians of mortality, "The Harvestmen", makes an appearance. The player are then marked with a curse until they balance the scales.
Mechanically what is the curse? I'd like it to be nasty enough to noticeable but not debilitating.
My first thoughts were things like Death Save DC becomes 12, Long rests only recover 1/4 hit die.
Maybe, while trying to balance the scales however that may be.
Shed the character hit point maximum by a certain amount that cannot be increased or restored.
If the character dies again maybe they become some spirit or are taken away by your Harvestmen I'd avoid the whole "Oops, you died again. RESET THE CLOCK!" in other words make dying again mean something much much more dier.
Taking two points off of any healing
If the Harvestmen can be talked to or reasoned with, maybe they could allow a quest to remove a penalty. Defeating undead or a necromancer would seem a fair target to end the curse and would keep the party focused on the “good”. I think mechanically a penalty to hitpoints or to healing magic would be fair, so long as it’s not so bad as to make the character unplayable
It definitely applies to everyone (Although magic higher than 3rd level is rare outside of the extremely wealthy and even with that diamonds are expensive).
I was thinking something similar in that they can remove it via some form of a quest; Tracking down a powerful undead or necromancer. Maybe helping cleanse a burial sight of corruption?
Probably Lawful Neutral? They work to ensure that overall mortality is maintained. They are more interested in ensuring mortals do not steal more time than their allotment.
That was my first thought as well and went to look at the Death Curse 'features'. Yeah, it's a nasty bugger and even without the SoulMonger in place, some of those penalties are downright cruel.
People that come back from the dead should be ... changed.
Perhaps a -1 to a random stat? Weaker, slower, less healthy, stupider, foolish, or morose/less charismatic. all seem to make sense to me. Perhaps randomly choosen with 1 reroll.
This doesn’t help with the mechanics part, but maybe the ”allotment” is how they fix things. They need to find a way to prove they were taken before their time — that they didn’t get their full allotment. And leave it up to them to figure out how. The harvestman shows up and says “impress me.”
And if the harvestmen are neutral, that works great. A good character might need to go do something truly impressively good, while an evil one would need to do something unspeakably evil. A way to show that their work isn’t done.
Here is my idea for a curse... it sounds punishing, but mechanically, it isn't that bad if it only applies to a single individual. To that effect, I would say that instead of applying to everyone, it should only apply to either the person who did the resurrecting, or the person who was resurrected (Harvestman gets to decide to avoid the PCs from cursing someone else and leaving the area, heh).
The recently cursed individual does not feel... whole. It's like they are there, but something is still missing. The Harvestman's curse creates a kind of undeath-like condition to punish those who take someone from death's grasp.
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature is unable to benefit from healing by any means other than magical healing or healing from a long rest as the flesh starts to mimic the death state of a corpse (only visual effect is that until healed, cuts and gashes do not close, but do not bleed).
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature must sleep for a full 8 hours during a long rest without exception. The creature is unable to be awoken by any means until the long rest has passed as the curse mimics the unending sleep of the dead.
Until the curse is lifted, the cursed creature does not need to eat or breathe, and cannot gain any benefits or be subject to any conditions from the consumption of food or drink, natural or magical as the curse mimics the lack of need of the dead.
Edit: I'm intentionally vague on the use of drinking potions as "magical healing" and will leave that up to the DM to decide. If there is no party healer, you may wish for healing potions to be exempt.
Thanks! I'm glad you like it.
Also thanks ya'll for the advice! I like the state of pseudo-undeath.