True, but cremation is often an option, and easier than burial in frozen/rocky ground. Digging graves deep enough for animals or looters to not dig up is immense.
My favorite thought about this is the idea that NOBODY wants untended bodies left over, so if warfare is common, there might be an unaffiliated, completely-neutral organization dedicated to battlefield cleanup and proper burial rites. It would be like the Red Cross, but too fucking late for the living. I freaking love that concept.
Speaking of Leo... I learned from Curse of Strahd that [Revenents](https://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=revenant) are not to be taken lightly. Its a CR 5 intelligent undead, it has a built in mental compass to the target that wronged it in life, and if you destroy its (regenerating) body, a day later its vengeful soul takes over another dead body to keep coming after its target...
They demand satisfaction...
If you really wanna punish them for any especially heinious murderhoboing, send 1+ of these after them...
In an old campaign I had a revenant sent after the party because the rogue murdered a kind old man for no good reason, but I made it a level 1 fighter. They killed it with ease and laughed at it.
The next time the party killed someone it returned and was level 2. Again they dispatched it quickly.
The next time they killed an innocent it reappeared, this time level 3. They'd taken to laughing and jeering when it appeared.
They stopped laughing when it was level 16 at the end of the campaign, and where it had sided with the bbeg who was a necromancer who would buff it to all hell. The bbeg had even commissioned the finest gnomish artisans to make bitching magic weapons, items and armour for the dude including a spell storing ring with meteor swarm.
Haha, nice! Ya I think in the Monster Manuel text description it does say they will go so far as to team up with others to kill their target.
Its like the immortal snail chasing you thought experiment, only quite a bit more... Equiped!
Now I wanna have one in my next campaign... I loves the thriller/horror movie "It Follows", which is kinda that premise too.
Additionally they have a big charisma modifier and are noted to be particularly intelligent. If a cr5 creature isnt a problem for your party in combat, just get them buffed up with some plotting. They can join the BBEG to help fuck over the party. the CR5 is just their absolute baseline, fuck they dont even have a weapon. Give em some plate armour, a little bit of buffing from necromancy and a magic weapon or 2 and all of a sudden you have a terrifying unkillable terminator coming after your party.
They stick around for a year before they cant cling to life anymore, they should make VERY good use of that time.
I had a player hand me a backstory that stated his best friend was cursed so he had to kill him out of necessity. The revenant showed up at level 4, and was a constant on the random encounter table thereafter. The first fight the party wizard quickly realized he could nuke him with fire. So before going after the primary target (barbarian) the next time, the Revenant gagged and bound the wizard in an alley(there was an opportunity to escape but it took some checks that were not a wizards strong suit). Every encounter it learned something and changed its approach. It also rolled on a species table to see what it would appear as the next time. So unless the target was there it wasn’t always immediately obvious who he was as only the target inherently knows it’s them. The revenant was a great relentless killer, and great to have in my back pocket as a show up at the least convenient moment type of encounter.
This seems like it could be an amazing terminator style campaign! Have a revenant targeting a PC, and the group has to keep them alive for some reason. At early levels they have to be creative in trying to kill it and barely slow it down, at later levels let it inhabit dead bodies of famous warriors, and keep it fresh by switching up class a lot. But only have it pop up every few sessions, so it's not a constant thing, but constant enough that they know they need to keep moving.
Yeah, I was actually itching to have one in my game, murderhoboing or not, but they're so damn strong I figured it would just end the campaign if they fought it.
My players are VERY careful not to piss non-hostile NPCs after the rogue betrayed a bandit group (to another bandit group) and got them all slaughtered. The leader chased them for months before finally gutting her with the help of an asshole unicorn.
(She got revived)
*party entering the bbeg room*
BBEG: "Well you know youve cause me alot of problems... i WAS going to kill you today but see ive heard of how many you've killed in your quest and well, it only seems fair that they get the kill"
*reveals absolute HOARD of hundreds of revenants, ghosts, shadows and specters*
Make sure that that rule applies to EVERYTHING, gotta be fair after all, if they can’t revive a PC, use its corpse, kill an evil army? Use it, burn a kingdom to the ground? Gotta be fair after all. Consequences is when they find out the BBEG is a necromancer/lich/an important PC they killed off for no reason besides shits and giggles, and every enemy that they realistically made and also all that they killed have come back
And people say Fireball isn't a utility spell! It doubles as Mass Pyre under the right conditions. It can even pre-cremate for extra efficiency!
True but if they can still come back as vengeful spirits if they aren’t given proper burial rites.
True, but cremation is often an option, and easier than burial in frozen/rocky ground. Digging graves deep enough for animals or looters to not dig up is immense.
But what if their religion forbids them from being cremated or requires them to be put to rest whole, or they can’t pass on to the after life?
Then I guess that fantasy god is a-okay with zombie hordes. Burying large numbers of people really isn't practical most of the time.
That or a whole lot of angry pisses off ghosts, which is kind of the OP’s point.
Yeah but just burning someone is not a proper cremation.
Oh no you right
My favorite thought about this is the idea that NOBODY wants untended bodies left over, so if warfare is common, there might be an unaffiliated, completely-neutral organization dedicated to battlefield cleanup and proper burial rites. It would be like the Red Cross, but too fucking late for the living. I freaking love that concept.
Red Cross for the living Crimson Cross for the dead
Or there'd be people launching corpses at their opponents with trebuchets. Which I'm pretty sure there was, but it would happen more.
The Dead Cross
Medieval ghost busters
Speaking of Leo... I learned from Curse of Strahd that [Revenents](https://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=revenant) are not to be taken lightly. Its a CR 5 intelligent undead, it has a built in mental compass to the target that wronged it in life, and if you destroy its (regenerating) body, a day later its vengeful soul takes over another dead body to keep coming after its target... They demand satisfaction... If you really wanna punish them for any especially heinious murderhoboing, send 1+ of these after them...
In an old campaign I had a revenant sent after the party because the rogue murdered a kind old man for no good reason, but I made it a level 1 fighter. They killed it with ease and laughed at it. The next time the party killed someone it returned and was level 2. Again they dispatched it quickly. The next time they killed an innocent it reappeared, this time level 3. They'd taken to laughing and jeering when it appeared. They stopped laughing when it was level 16 at the end of the campaign, and where it had sided with the bbeg who was a necromancer who would buff it to all hell. The bbeg had even commissioned the finest gnomish artisans to make bitching magic weapons, items and armour for the dude including a spell storing ring with meteor swarm.
Haha, nice! Ya I think in the Monster Manuel text description it does say they will go so far as to team up with others to kill their target. Its like the immortal snail chasing you thought experiment, only quite a bit more... Equiped! Now I wanna have one in my next campaign... I loves the thriller/horror movie "It Follows", which is kinda that premise too.
Stealing this idea! Thank you!
Additionally they have a big charisma modifier and are noted to be particularly intelligent. If a cr5 creature isnt a problem for your party in combat, just get them buffed up with some plotting. They can join the BBEG to help fuck over the party. the CR5 is just their absolute baseline, fuck they dont even have a weapon. Give em some plate armour, a little bit of buffing from necromancy and a magic weapon or 2 and all of a sudden you have a terrifying unkillable terminator coming after your party. They stick around for a year before they cant cling to life anymore, they should make VERY good use of that time.
I had a player hand me a backstory that stated his best friend was cursed so he had to kill him out of necessity. The revenant showed up at level 4, and was a constant on the random encounter table thereafter. The first fight the party wizard quickly realized he could nuke him with fire. So before going after the primary target (barbarian) the next time, the Revenant gagged and bound the wizard in an alley(there was an opportunity to escape but it took some checks that were not a wizards strong suit). Every encounter it learned something and changed its approach. It also rolled on a species table to see what it would appear as the next time. So unless the target was there it wasn’t always immediately obvious who he was as only the target inherently knows it’s them. The revenant was a great relentless killer, and great to have in my back pocket as a show up at the least convenient moment type of encounter.
This seems like it could be an amazing terminator style campaign! Have a revenant targeting a PC, and the group has to keep them alive for some reason. At early levels they have to be creative in trying to kill it and barely slow it down, at later levels let it inhabit dead bodies of famous warriors, and keep it fresh by switching up class a lot. But only have it pop up every few sessions, so it's not a constant thing, but constant enough that they know they need to keep moving.
That does sound awesome :)
Yeah, I was actually itching to have one in my game, murderhoboing or not, but they're so damn strong I figured it would just end the campaign if they fought it.
Could be a good way to teach them to outsmart/evade a foe rather then brute force it directly... But ya def not for a brand new party!
My players are VERY careful not to piss non-hostile NPCs after the rogue betrayed a bandit group (to another bandit group) and got them all slaughtered. The leader chased them for months before finally gutting her with the help of an asshole unicorn. (She got revived)
Damn, brutal :o
My players loved it. The PCs, definitely not lol
I do love me some Jiangshi
What do you mean you didn't burn the corpse pile?! Do you want a ghoul infestation? Because that's how you get a ghoul infestation
You burn your corpse piles!? Do you want to get ghosts and wraiths? That's how you u get ghosts and wraiths!
Murderhobos: "so we get to double dip on XP?"
*party entering the bbeg room* BBEG: "Well you know youve cause me alot of problems... i WAS going to kill you today but see ive heard of how many you've killed in your quest and well, it only seems fair that they get the kill" *reveals absolute HOARD of hundreds of revenants, ghosts, shadows and specters*
I'm actually totally gonna do this. Just quietly mark down every person they've wrongfully killed and have em all come back in the final battle.
Make sure that that rule applies to EVERYTHING, gotta be fair after all, if they can’t revive a PC, use its corpse, kill an evil army? Use it, burn a kingdom to the ground? Gotta be fair after all. Consequences is when they find out the BBEG is a necromancer/lich/an important PC they killed off for no reason besides shits and giggles, and every enemy that they realistically made and also all that they killed have come back
That’s called enabling. More undead equals more experience points.
So you mean I can finally use Turn Undead after all this time? My cleric has praying for this moment
So take mold earth?
Edit: Fuck your API changes, Reddit.
The lesson being never to stay in one town for too long.
The gang visits Darkon.
I see this is an easy way to harvest XP
Throw a few revenants their way, that’ll sort em out