Bringing a Character to Life...or Death...

It's been a rough week for Armond the Paingiver. His barbarian rages are all but spent, he's bloodied, his nice loincloth is ruined (those stains will never come out), and with a glance, he can see the bard, lying in a pool of blood with empty heal potion bottles all around him, the wizard has climbed a tree and is down to 1 hit point and no spell slots, and the rogue? Well, she never showed up for the final battle, as she got herself locked in a rope trap hanging upside down and within spitting distance of a Roper after she split the party... never do that. 

It's his turn, and the barbarian swings! His blade cuts through the air! He's so sure he's got this - he rolls a 1. Fumble. The sword goes flying out of his sweaty hands, and with a murmur under his breath of 'oh shit' and a knowledge of what's to come, that big beast the party walked in on, throws down a heavy hit smashing the last hit points out of him.

He's down. He lies there, unconscious... bleeding bad.

The clocks ticking. He tries to feel his body... mind blocking the pain... or is it?

Gra-Hilda battling a skeleton dog. Art by S. Armstrong

This is either a great relief, to a player, as that character they loathed to play and hated their stats finally meets their grisly end, or it's the worst night of your tabletop rpg in years. How death and life is handled in 5e can be a fun and challenging situation for both the player and the DM.

5e's official rules are thus: Once you reach 0 Hit Points, you roll Death Saves. You roll a d20, and if you roll a 10 or higher, you were successful, if not, you fail. You keep doing this on every turn until you get three of a kind. But wait, did you roll a 1? That counts as two fails! If you roll a 20, you regain a Hit Point.

Lucky for the barbarian above, the cleric wasn't in the heat of battle, so is able to revive our buff friend with a Cure Light Wounds spell.

When a character dies, there are a few ways to bring them back, such as resurrection, or if you're a necromancer, turn him into an undead zombie, that's always fun. But for me, it can also be fun to send those that died into a whole new world between worlds, and see if they can escape, or return to their bodies, especially if it was a TPK (Total Party Kill).

Why not give those players that died, a chance to play their character as a ghost? The party must now preserve the body in a temple and find a way to return the player to their body. Or, if the player wants to stay a ghost, that can also be interesting! See: Ghost (5e Race).

Then there's also the connection to their deity. They arrive in the heart of their Deities domain, and have to find their way back into the Material Plane, either by circumventing everything in that realm, or pleading with their deity.

Back in 2015, the YouTube channel Nerdarchy had an interesting back and forth chat about this and I recommend a watch!

Do you have any great stories to share? What happened when your players crossed over? Are you a player? What's the best thing that's happened to your character? What would you like to happen? Would you rather just re-roll a new character, or see what happens after the fall?