Quick Links
Resurrection can be one of the trickiest scenarios to run in aDungeons & Dragonscampaign.
This can sometimes leave resurrection feeling hollow or broken.
Heres how to run them for your campaign.
There are a handful ofspells in Fifth Edition that can revive or resurrectplayers.
These range from incredibly overpowered to helpful only under the right circumstances.
That creature revives with 1 Hit Point.
Lesser Restoration by Martin Mottet
The creature returns to life with 1 Hit Point.
This spell also neutralizes any poisons that affected the creature at the time of death.
Reincarnate
You touch a dead Humanoid or a piece of one.
Lesser Restoration by Martin Mottet
Roll 1d10 to determine the bodys species, or the DM chooses another playable species.
The creature returns to life with all its Hit Points.
This spell also neutralizes any poisons that affected the creature at the time of death.
A Time of Sorrow by Alexandre Honoré
This spell closes all mortal wounds and restores any missing body parts.
The creature is revived with all its Hit Points.
The spell replaces damaged or missing organs and limbs.
If the creature was Undead, it is restored to its non-Undead form.
However,there are no DCs to clearwhen it comes to these spellsas written in the Players Handbook.
What Is A Death DC?
Raise Dead by Polar Engine
The biggest difference with Critical Role’s resurrection rules is what’s known asa Death DC.
This applies toboth ritual spellsand instant spells like Revivify.
Check out these tips!
This is where things get really interesting.
Before The Resurrection Ritual
Before the resurrection ritual begins, there is anassistance phase.
During this time,three creaturescan offer uptheir assistanceto the ritual.
Each time a creature contributesto the ritual,the DM calls for an ability checkwith a thematically appropriate skill.
Then,the DM determines a DCbased on the strength of the player’s roleplay.
If we look at the examples of assistance offered,here are some examplesof thematically appropriate ability checks.
As you do,adjust the overall Death DCfor the target creature like so.
On a success, the resurrection works!
This createsa sense of dramatic finalityand prevents any game-breaking attempts at more revives.
The only spells that can circumvent these rules areTrue Resurrection and Wish.
Here’s how to build a defensive bastion in D&D!