Character Death in 5E D&D is Boring!

Character death is a staple of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons lore. In dark fantasy settings like Wildemount, Dark Sun and Ravenloft, character death is an ever-present looming danger. But sometimes character death is lame, or worse — boring. Today I’m sharing some thoughts and ideas on how we can mix up death in our 5E D&D games to keep things new and fresh (no pun intended).

5E D&D character death as a new beginning

This may be a bit of a hot take but part of what makes 5E D&D so special is the impact of death in our games. When I play a video game, I have a fair amount of confidence that death isn’t going to be permanent. Either the character can be resurrected, the death is predetermined in the plot (looking at you FFVII) or in some rare cases the threat of permadeath is part of the fun of the mechanics, such as in Fire Emblem.

But in D&D, death is usually a dismissal of a character and their untimely end in the truest sense. My character navigates no more dungeons, they slay no more dragons. Even if I don’t feel their death fits the plot it doesn’t matter — they’re gone. Granted, at higher levels resurrection is a thing, but even this is fairly limited.

With Critical Role now in a lull I was ruminating on deaths within the second campaign and I have to say death was handled really well in the campaign. Whatever your thoughts on the spoilers that shall not be named, Critical Role gave me some food for thought recently.

Into Ravenloft and beyond

One of the most obvious ways to spice up D&D death is with a planar escapade. In many 5E D&D sources the spirit leaves the body to another plane of existence. In these instances death is sort of like a first step into an unknown or alien landscape. While it’s all up for debate in our world, death in D&D often leads to other tangible afterlives. This is one of my personal favorite hooks for a Ravenloft campaign.

There’s nothing like TPK-ing, then sending characters to the Nine Hells or Ravenloft in all of its spooky enigma. If you intend to start a campaign this way you probably want to have a conversation with the players about it beforehand. And even if you continue after a TPK, it’s still probably a good idea to make sure all of the players are down for what happens next.

Still, the idea of exploring the actual afterlife is certainly a fascinating direction for a campaign. Things could get more exciting if you send the characters to an afterlife they’re not expecting or perhaps let them have a sort of intrigue of the gods campaign. Maybe hell isn’t so bad or heaven isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Reincarnation and legacies

If you’re more of an alt-aholic (like yours truly), then perhaps the idea of making a new character excites you. Maybe your Dungeon Master’s world works off of reincarnation and your character is reborn in a different campaign, such as in Legend of Korra. Maybe your character awakens to their true self by reincarnation.

Legacy characters are equally interesting, allowing you to flesh out more of your former character by introducing someone from their past. Maybe they have a child or a lover? Perhaps they have a beloved servant or someone else who went looking for them only to discover the character already died. Having a legacy character take up a quest or goal where the previous dead character left off can be a godsend for a plot-invested DM who needs a character to hook in the future.

Alternate timeline characters are another variant of legacy characters. Suppose two timelines intersect and a different version of your old character slips into the new world. This can be good for players who really didn’t want to make a new character, or perhaps they liked their character’s initial premise. It can be equally good for an alternative to reincarnation if perhaps the alternate version has a key event or two that sends them on a wildly different path in life.

Whatever your take on legacy characters for 5E D&D they make for easy inserts into the campaign because of their ties to previous characters.

Capture and revelation

Another option for when characters don’t see a body is capture and later revelation. Maybe after you introduce a new character the DM has the idea maybe your old character wasn’t actually killed but instead captured by the bad guys. When this happens the revelation of their remaining alive is intense and can bring a deluge of emotions.

Is it possible your old character is traumatized by the villain or somehow permanently changed? Maybe your old character becomes a villainous NPC. Before you pull something like this as a DM I would definitely get the consent of the character’s player and make sure this story beat isn’t likely to upset the other players possibly by referring to a pre-game survey about themes and plot.

Revealing that a once-thought-dead character is still alive and in the clutches of a villain can really up the ante for the other players, and depending on how dark you delve it can cement your villain for the evil threat you’ve painted them to be.

KO blackout

Another option for a TPK in your 5E D&D game is to take a new perspective on the “K” in the situation. Instead of Total Party Kill why not try a Total Party Knockout?

Batman has been doing this by conviction for ages. If you’re worried focusing on knockouts takes the zing out of your amazing campaign I’d argue that relying more heavily on knockouts makes death all the more impacting.

Shows and books like Fullmetal Alchemist get bloody and visceral yet characters die much less often than might be expected. Some shows like you to feel like no one is safe by killing characters to excess (looking at you Game of Thrones). However, the risk with such gratuitous violence and wonton killing is it cheapens life.

If your 5E D&D game relies on knockouts as the key danger then you can relegate the danger of death to the most severe or narratively significant fights (AKA boss battles). This gives your bosses more narrative weight and prevents a character’s untimely death at the hands of a rogue missile. The scenario becomes comical with the knockout, instead of disastrous with death.

Knock ’em dead

The goal in all of this is the make death interesting and impacting. If you’re into the 5E D&D meat grinder game that’s cool but I encourage you to ask if there are ways to make death more interesting than tossing one character sheet and pulling another.

Now we want to hear from you. What is your most memorable character death? Have you never had a character die? Let us know in the comments. If you liked this post then drop it a like and share it with your friends. If you want to connect with us you can tweet @Nerdarchy or visit our Facebook page. And if you’re looking for some spicy encounters ready to drag and drop into your own games check out Out of the Box Encounters.

*Featured image — A dark drama draws heroes into a web of intrigue at the Death Pit! A small town maintains a delicate balance with a nearby Necropolis and the Death Pit shared between them. The mayor of Blackwood puts out a call for adventurers when the risen dead become problematic but the real threat is the secret shared between the town and the Death Pit. The keepers of the Necropolis, the spectral guardian hound and the living collide with the heroes stuck in the middle.

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