By Jason Campbell

I’ve been running a weekly 5e campaign in Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting since January 2022, the player characters are currently 16th level. It can be difficult to run a 5e game with higher level characters while keeping the game challenging and the players engaged. This campaign diary series features notes from my players and I about the challenges of playing high level 5e.
This article follows the conclusion of an article describing an epic battle over two sessions.

To Perma-death or Not To Perma-death?

We began the session with one of the 5 PCs dead. The PC wasn’t allowed death saves and a Heal spell did nothing. This is because of the powers of the Shadow of Death, a creature from Tome of Beasts II, from Kobold Press.

If the shadow of death reduces a creature to 0 hp, the creature can be restored to life only by means of a wish spell.

I had already decided to amend this so that healing and Revivify wouldn’t work, but Raise Dead or Resurrection would. However I had wound the Shadow of Death into the lore of our setting, which the players will likely find out later. A villain bent on destruction had made a deal with a demigod of death in order to become a Shadow of Death. I had already written some not yet revealed background for the demigod of death that would become important.

Leaning Into Story

One of the party is a druid, who had over the years learned some necromantic spells and often used them to animate dead to help in their battles. She’s run into some opposition as the general attitude of their home city is that all necromancy is evil. I planned to have the druid come into conflict with this demigod of death who claims through her use of necromancy that the druid is now her follower.

When we began the session and got to the druid’s turn she declared she would cast Revivify. I was ready to tell her that spell doesn’t work, when I remembered that the demigod who was interested in the druid was also the one who gave the Shadow of Death its power. I decided that in this case, because of who the druid was, the Revivify would bring the dead PC back. Here’s how I described it

You see a dark cloud around him (the dead character). His soul didn’t linger, as when you’ve cast it before, it was somewhere else, in a realm of death. You feel something pulling his soul back into the death realm as you try to bring it forward. Then suddenly it releases and you hear “You. Yes, my child, take him. You are my true disciple, destroy her”, from a disembodied voice. The Shadow of Death’s eyes flash with fear and she takes a step back.

Conclusion

The PC was revived but the battle was still an epic struggle. At one point the Shadow of Death attacked the druid and nearly killed her. Since that druid was the only one able to Revivify anyone, that would have made things difficult. They did finally win, destroying the Shadow of Death and her minions.

The words of the demigod will linger, and the players are a bit spooked by how it all played out. In future games the druid will come up against the demigod, who will confront her and her use of necromancy. It will hopefully lead to some interesting social encounters as the characters have to make some roleplaying choices.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.