Death and Resurrection

The Fading Spirit
This campaign uses a modified version of the resurrection rules from the Critical Role setting. This rule set is designed to add an element of party roleplaying and narrative to the resurrection attempt, as well as introducing the threat of permanent death to a character.

Resurrection Time Limitations
In this setting, resurrection is limited to a short window after a creature’s death. When a creature dies, its soul remains in the ethereal plane, tethered to its body until the next Prime Zenith (i.e., long rest), after which it departs, traversing the Divine Gate into the afterlife. A soul that has departed for the afterlife cannot be returned to the body with resurrection magic.

The resurrection, true resurrection, raise dead, reincarnate, and gentle repose spells are all modified as detailed in Modified Spells. These modifications are summarized below:

The resurrection and true resurrection spells do not exist in this setting. They cannot be learned by player characters, nor can they be replicated by the wish spell or channel divinity.

The raise dead and reincarnate spells, or any other spell or magic effect that restores a dead creature to life, cannot be used to resurrect a creature that died before the completion of the most recent long rest. In other words, after each long rest, any creature that died prior to that long rest cannot be resurrected with magic.

The gentle repose spell can only be used to preserve a creature for resurrection if a long rest has not occurred since the creature's death.

Under extraordinarily narrow circumstances, it might be possible for a wish spell or similar magic to resurrect a soul that has departed for the afterlife. Such feats are the stuff of legend, and cannot be accomplished with a simple casting of the spell. Resurrecting a soul from the afterlife will almost invariably require some degree of extra sacrifice, a difficult quest, or the direct intervention of a deity.

Resurrection Challenge
If a creature is dead, and a return from death is attempted by a spell or magic effect with longer than a one action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 creatures can contribute to the ritual via skill checks. Each creature makes a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful or impactful the DM feels the contribution would be. For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require a Religion check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require an Intimidation check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty.

Resurrection Check
After all contributions are completed, the creature performing the resurrection rolls a single, final resurrection success check, using their spellcasting ability modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 2 for each previous successful resurrection the creature has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to its body). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 2, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1. Upon a successful resurrection check, the resurrection succeeds. On a failed check, the resurrection fails, and the creature is permanently unable to be resurrected by resurrection magic.

Quick Resurrections
If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The creature casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 2 for each previous successful resurrection the creature has undergone. On a failure, the creature’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails, and the DC of any future Resurrection checks increases by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this creature to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.

Consequences of Death
Even after a successful resurrection, death takes its toll on the body. A resurrected creature will usually suffer some type of permanent ailment or disability as a result of their death, generally associated with the manner of their death. For example, a creature that died by inhaling poisonous fumes might have permanent lung damage and difficulty breathing, or a creature that died from a blow to the head might develop chronic migraines and difficulty sleeping. The DM determines these effects based on the cause of a creature’s death, and such an effect cannot be cured by any means short of a wish spell or similar magic.