D&D and Death: How to Handle the Death of a Character in D&D

Suddenly, time seems to slow down. The arrows rain down like slow pebbles skipping across a lake rather than the hail of death they’d been seconds before. Lightning crawls across the sky, achingly slow, reaching for that next empty space. These demonlings rush about, and all the while, your eyes remain fixed on Eloin. You see her grip at her stomach, feeling around the blade that runs right through her abdomen. The demon facing her lifts his impaled sword so that Eloin is at his eye level. The demon laughs and then callously pulls her off his sword with one massive hand. He smiles a pointed grin and then tosses her behind him into the swarm of demonlings…

Dungeons and dragons is very fun game with very dynamic emotions and experiences. We all come to the table eager to experience things that we’ve never experienced. Sometimes we do experience things that we’ve been through before, and when that happens, there’s a 50/50 chance that the experience is nostalgic, or traumatizing.

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. Today, I’m your host, Justin Lewis, and I want to talk about a pretty hard subject; death.

In the real world, people generally avoid the topic of death. For most people it causes a lot of discomfort. In the world of D&D, our characters provide death for many an NPC, yet when faced with their own demise, our players plead and beg the DM to make it not so.

That can be pretty hard as the DM. Should you cave to your players’ desires and let them live on? Or should you let things play out. If they die they die. Still, other DMs decide to play the part of the villain and rain down death as those demons I was talking about did.

It’s all a complicated discussion so, without further ado, let’s get into it.

The Basic Rules of Death

In the Player’s Handbook, the rules for death state that when a character falls to 0 hit points, they fall unconscious, and begin death saving throws.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with how Death Saves work here’s a refresher.

The unconscious character maintains their spot in initiative, or an initiative is created.

Whenever their turn comes around they roll a d20. If their result is an 11 or higher, then that is considered a success. 3 success stabilizes their character, and they remain unconscious but are no longer dying.

If their result is a 10 or less, then that is considered a failure. 3 failures, and their character dies.

If their results is a natural 20, then the character immediately stabilizes, gains 1 hit point is conscious and can proceed with their turn (although there are many differing rules surrounding this particular part).

If their result is a natural 1 then that counts as 2 failures.

Obviously, there is a lot of room here for the addition of homebrew rules that can make death saves very fun.

One of my favorite homebrew rules is that the death saves have to be rolled privately between the player and the DM and that player cannot make the results known to the other players. They cannot speak in fact, because, they are dying. I heard this rule from an interview on Dimension 20.

But regardless of what you decide to do, there is an even more important question that you need to answer first.

Is Death allowed at your table?

Before your players even come close to dying, you need to decide whether or not character death will be allowed at the table.

You might scoff as you listen to this, thinking, “Well, of course my characters can die. There are no true stakes if they can’t die.”

Maybe, maybe not.

Death is a very powerful plot point. The Fellowship of the Ring would not have had half as much emotion if we all didn’t think that Gandalf had died halfway through. Anakin Skywalker might have had a harder time transitioning into Darth Vader had Padme survived. Death is a very powerful tool for the storyteller.

But with great power comes great responsibility.

One of the biggest responsibilities you have as a dungeon master is making sure that your players are generally happy.

Triggering Event

Because D&D can sometimes be a mirror in which we can see reflections of our normal lives, we sometimes must be careful as to what we put into the mirror (bad analogy). For example, if a loved one of one of your players has passed away recently, then having someone die in their D&D session might not be the right thing.

Before you make any sort of decision, ask your players what sort of things they want to have in their D&D game. They get to choose what happens just as much, if not more than, you do.

You can ask them about all sorts of topics and themes to include in the D&D campaign, but definitely make sure death in there.

Preventing Death

Assuming your players have opted to avoid the inevitability of death, you now have to do some fancy footwork to make the story believable and worthwhile.

On one hand, having a table that can’t die is fun because the players know that they have some pretty powerful plot armor. But that can quickly make the game boring. It’s not a big deal to fight a lich if you know that your player will not die.

So to make the stakes still high even though the mortality rate is low, here are a few things you can do:

1. Collateral Damage: Assuming your player characters are developed and have been able to form important relationships with other NPCs, those NPC can become the targets of your Villains malicious attempts. This is also known as “The Lois Lane” tactic. Superman is impervious, so Lois Lane, his lady love, often comes under the gun of Lex Luthor. Likewise with your  heroes, they can save the NPC in distress who really is just an innocent bystander… or are they…
2. Unintended Consequences: Another method you can try is to add tangential consequences anytime a hero “dies”. For example. Let’s say a particular Diety has decided to favor the party. This deity essentially prevents any party member from full dying. The death saves are still rolled, but if the character would die, the Patron God would step in and prevent them from dying miraculously. The God, however, gives this boon with some strings attached. Now the party has to do some sort of quest for the God in return for being preserved. Another consequence could madness. The more often a character should be dead but isn’t, the more insane the character becomes. You can spice this up with some fun voices that they can only hear and other things. Really your options for random consequences are endless.
3. Loss of limb or ability:  You could require that everytime a player would normally have died, they simply roll on a permanent injury table, losing a hand, leg, eye or just suffering some minor wound. This particular method only works for a short period of time because if it really was “long term” then after they lose a limb, combat would become harder, making the chances that they fall unconscious and do deaths saves again go up, which in turn would make them lose another faculty. It’s a vicious cycle.

Of course, there is nothing written down that you have to even do any of these methods. You could simply just decide that none of your player characters die. I think for very young groups, like maybe below 10, this would be an ok situation.

If you do decide that none of your PCs die, then you might also need to consider whether the enemies die as well. Will your game be one of all non-lethal damage?

I think for most tables, that just isn’t a situation that would please people. But it can be done.

So, now that we’ve talked about preventing Player Character death from happening at your table, we need to talk about letting it happen.

Allowing Death to Happen

After your table has decided that they do want to let nature be nature and those things that die will simply pass on to the next existence, you need to consider a few questions.

What type of Experience will it be?

You don’t really need to consult your players but if you want some of their input that’s fine. You need to decide what sort of gaming experience a character death will be. In video games, when you die, you usually revert to the last save or the start of the level. D&D usually isn’t like that (though, I suppose you could make an interesting game mechanic that reverts certain things if a character dies). Usually, the character dies, then in the next session, the Player introduces their new character in a fun and interesting way.

In some D&D groups, the player might just create a carbon copy of their previous character and call them a different name. Viva La Dirt League has a whole comedic sketch on this in their D&D Logic videos. Really, it’s up to the DM whether that sort of shenanigan will be allowed. For some players, it’s really more just about loving a specific class-race combo and playstyle that they want to emulate. For the most part though, players will create a new character when they die without problems.

You, as the DM, though, need to understand the mood of the table and the playstyle of the group, to correctly portray any individual death scene. For example, if your table is generally a table that laughs much more than they are serious, then making a death scene funny, might not be a bad thing. Even on a particular day, if the party seems to want to just goof off, then go ahead and goof off with them.

But….

If your party is of the more serious types, then you absolutely need to treat the character death with all the gravity that you can muster. We play these characters week in and week out. We know that they are not real and that they are just make believe, but surprisingly, when we play them, they start to feel a little real. We find ourselves doing things that “the character would do” that we would never do. So when a character dies, you need to be careful not to make light of the situation in case one of your players is not yet ready to let go of them.

Honestly, because it is a touchy subject, I would err on the side of being too serious rather than making light of a situation that could be difficult for one of your players. They could resent you, even subconsciously, and decide that they don’t want to play with you any more, which is a loss in my book.

Will I, the DM, actively cause Death

Another consideration that you need to make as the Dungeon master is whether or not to actively seek the destruction of your players. Obviously, whenever combat comes up, every DM does “their best” to kill the players, but this consideration is a deeper decision. There are times when one player goes down, and the DM needs to think about whether the enemy would continue attacking the downed player to finish the job or if they would divert their attention to other targets. In some instances, the downed player becomes a bigger target because they are downed. 

When a DM acts like this, players will naturally be angry. As a DM, you will need to understand the decision you make and be able to defend it. In my opinion. Only do this if you know your players would still play with you after. You don’t want to have to find another D&D group just because you thought a particular enemy would not hesitate to kill.

Resurrection

Now that we have killed your Player Character, you need to also decide whether or not that player can return to the game. In many games, the group can pursue resurrection of the downed individual. You need to decide if that is an option at all, and if it is how easy or difficult it is to make it happen, and how one might go about resurrecting a fallen friend.

For some campaigns, the only thing that is needed it the spell Resurrection, and the 1000 GP diamond that the spell requires. Once your players have access to this spell, can decide that this is all that is needed to revive a character that has died. 

Or you can make things a lot more difficult.

For example, if you desire, you can choose the ban the Resurrection spell from any player character’s spell list. You may decide that NPCs can still cast the spell, so now the PCs need to find an NPC that likes them enough to resurrect one of them. 

Or perhaps, you decide that only high ranking Clerical NPCs can cast resurrect. This would make the quest of finding someone who can perform the spell and is also willing to do so for the party, much more difficult.

Still, other DMs might choose to make resurrection the object of larger quests. You may decide to have your party seek after the Fountain of Youth, or seek divine favor with a hard-to-please deity. Or you can have your party try to find a magic item that restores life, much like the latest D&D movie.

However you do it, if you do decide to make bring a character back to life more difficult or engaged, I would encourage you to make a story arc or a quest out of it. In D&D resurrection should be a very theatrical and earned event, meaning that if you just give it to your players they won’t appreciate it. 

Make it an adventure, that way, when the player does come back, there will be many opportunities for roleplaying, both on their side and on the side of the other players.

New Character Creation and Introduction

Now, assuming that one of your player characters have died, and that they aren’t going to be resurrected anytime soon, you obviously need to help the player who lost their character make a new one.

Here again, you need to make some decisions. 

Are they the same level as the other players?

How will they enter the game?

How do you help them establish relationships with the other players?

Let’s talk about all of these and more.

First, Character Creation

For the most part, character creation after a character death is just like making any other character. Have the player try and think of something original. They may want to do the same class, and maybe even the same race, but encourage them to give their new character some different personality traits. You don’t want a carbon copy of the old character because that just makes things weird.

If your party has been adventuring for some time, then they may have accumulated some magical items. You’ll need to decide whether or not this new character will meet the party while already possessing some magical items of their own.

Lastly, you’ll need to help your player come up with proper motivations for their character that will lead that character to intersect with the rest of the party, and hopefully, stay with them.

Introduction

As I’ve said before, one of the hardest parts of D&D is getting player characters to meet and then decide to travel together, and hopefully become friends. I’ve also said that an easy way to mitigate this is to give the new character a connection or a tie to an existing character. Maybe they are cousins, or they grew up in the same town. The connection doesn’t need to be big, unless you want it to be. I would opt for a smaller connection that still allows the characters to have their own adventures and storylines, while making a sort of introduction to the rest of the party. 

If nothing else, you can always opt for a galvanizing event. Soon after the new character joins the party, have them all face some sort of danger together where their goals become the same by default. Facing down a large and dangerous monster qualifies perfectly. This should theoretically help the party become a team, if only to destroy a threat. However you do it, make sure that everyone feel included. An experience like this should align a lot of their motives and incentives so that they spend some amount of time together.

After that, you simply need to keep things rolling until friendships form between characters.

Other Outcomes that are Like Death

If you aren’t interested in death in your game, or even if you are interested, there are a few other outcomes that you can introduce into your game that will be similar to death in their scope and effect, but won’t necessarily be actual death.

For example, in my campaign I am running, my players faced a creature that could petrify them. I chose to make the process of becoming un-petrified a much more involved process rather than just allowed them to find someone who could cast greater restoration. 

In similar ways you could have an enemy who casts sleep on players that forces them into a deep sleep, or you could use banishment in a similar way. These are fun ways to have a “deathlike” experience with a character, while still allowing the player to reclaim the character in a way that is earned and fun for everyone at the table. When considering using methods like these, make sure your players are open to it, and that it’s either randomly directed, or if it is targeted to a specific character, then there is narrative reasoning behind it.

Well, we’ve certainly talked a lot about death, but as they say, Memento mori. As you go back to your D&D campaigns or start new ones, consider the consequences of death and what it would mean to your players. Make sure everyone is on board and having fun and remember to do everything for the purpose of a better story. Hopefully these tips have helped you. 

Thanks for joining me here on How to Be a Better DM, the official Podcast of Monsters.Rent.

Let’s meet back here next week for another amazing episode. 

Until then, let’s roll initiative.

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