Death, But Make it Spooky

I've been in the process of putting together a players guide for my upcoming spooky forest game and I put into writing some fun death rules. My players tend to get attached to their characters and I've provided ways to avoid that unfortunate situation where a character dies midway through a session leaving one player benched for a couple of hours. Without further ado here is Death in the Bitterwood. These rules will likely be used for a 5E game but here's hoping I can add more weird curses to it in the future.

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DEATH

The Bitterwood is often very dangerous. Death might become common while exploring and you should be prepared for that. Resurrection magic is unseen in these parts but other options exist. After death, you may make a new character with a level matching the Party Level - 1. They will level up to Party Level upon surviving one session. When you die in session you have 3 options.

Change in Perspective. 
Take control of an NPC ally until the session ends.
(Easiest option, keeps the player involved and allows a possible permanent replacement to emerge.

Walking Dead. If your body can be retrieved, taken to a safe location, and your allies can perform a DC10 medicine check, you can be brought back to the land of the living temporarily. For the remainder of the session, you can play your character, who has been brought back with half of its maximum HP. You can’t be healed by magic in this state. If you fall unconscious in this state you die permanently. At the end of the session, the grit and bandages keeping your character alive run out.
(This one gives the character a chance to finish off lingering business without undoing the death. It also rewards players for retrieving the bodies of their allies).

Petition the Things in the Dark. If your body cannot be retrieved, your spirit can hold on at a price. You return to life whole of body and unsound of mind. You harbor a general curse and a specific curse and are always aware of them. The general curse is as follows:

• You cannot stray more than 6 miles from the Bitterwood or you will die (painfully)

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The specific curse is as follows (roll 1d10)

1. Hunger: Your body always needs more to eat yet you waste away. You require twice as many rations to avoid exhaustion. You have disadvantage on Constitution Checks and Saves.
2. Wolf: You are always pursued by a large, white wolf. You can fight it off but it always comes back within a day. Eventually, it will win.
3. Tether: Someone you are close to takes damage whenever you do. If you can’t decide, each day the forest decides for you. Those tethered see a ghostly string connecting them to you.
4. Faceless: Your face melts away leaving only vacant eye holes and a slit mouth. You have disadvantage on all Charisma Checks and Saves.
5. Gibbering: You are unable to speak any common language. You are at disadvantage to attack with your spells and creatures have advantage on saves against your spells.
6. Master's Call: Your mind becomes weak to suggestion. You have disadvantage on all Wisdom Saves and Checks. Any attempts you make to navigate will always lead you deeper into the wood.
7. We Are Many: Everyone looks like you now. Animals look like strange stretched out versions of you. Your allies look like you cosplaying your allies. Killing anyone that looks like you makes you go unconscious from the shock of it all.
8. Tar: You feel like you are constantly covered in thick tar. Your movement is stiff and speaking feels like drowning. Movement speed is halved.
9. Lies: Large crows follow you around. they insist on calling you “Maddened of the Woods” and spin tales of your awful debauchery to anyone that will listen. Like all good rumors, these spread like wildfire.
10. Changeling: You are actually a changeling pretending to be you. Healing magic hurts you and animals fear you. Your actual “corpse” is somewhere in the woods. If you find it and dispose of it no one will know of your true nature.

Dying after you’ve been cursed turns you into a creature of the night. Your character becomes an NPC under the DM’s control.

(The curses are meant to be more evocative than balanced. They show off the spooky sorts of things that could happen to those lost in the woods. I intend to apply a few of these to NPCs the players find to make it feel like a more concrete part of the world.)

Quaggoth of the Underdark

The Quaggoth are the white ape-like humanoids of D&D's Underdark. They are classically depicted as surface elf hating slaves to the drow. In my Underdark, many were no longer slaves and served as mercenaries and sailors in the underground body of water called the Inkblood Sea. They were constructed with a partial basis on the Bugbears found in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Included in the race are two subraces matching the two quaggoth Monster Manual entries (one melee and one psionic).

Originally believed to have been bred by drow magicians as a slave race, the quaggoth escaped and filled their own niche in the Underdark. The origin of the quaggoths was unknown. Some sages claim that they were once a semi-civilized race that dominated much of the Underdark through conquest and ritual sacrifice, until the drow, duergar, and other races broke their power. Now they are common throughout the Inkblood Sea as sailors and mercenaries. Others in the Underdark them as tough and uncompromising.

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Quaggoth traits. Your quaggoth character has certain characteristics in common with all other quaggoth.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2

Age. Quaggoth reach adulthood at age 16 and live up to 80 years.

Alignment. Quaggoth endure a harsh existence that demands each of them to remain self-sufficient, even at the expense of their fellows. They tend to be chaotic evil.

Size. Quaggoth are between 6 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 250 and 350 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in Darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in Darkness, only shades of gray.

Long-Limbed. When you make a melee Attack on Your Turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Quaggoth Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

Languages. You can speak Undercommon and Quaggoth.

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Subraces

Hunter

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Sneaky. You are proficient in the Stealth skill.
Surprise Attack. If you Surprise a creature and hit it with an Attack on your first turn in Combat, the Attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per Combat.

Thonot

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Thonot Fearsense. You are proficient in the Insight skill.
Thonot Psionics. You know the Mage Hand cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Featherfall spell on yourself once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Mirror Image spell on yourself once with this trait. You don’t need material components for either spell. You must finish a long rest to cast them on yourself once again with this trait. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Myconids of the Underdark

For my now completed D&D 5e Underdark game, I developed some fun setting specific player races. Here is the Myconid race available in my games. They make their home in the Rotted Expanse and two guest player had the pleasure of playtesting them to fun results.

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This race of sentient mobile fungi lives peaceful existences in the Underdark. They communicate through spores and are shown to be adept at magic despite a verbal language of their own.

Myconid Traits. Your myconid character has certain characteristics in common with all other myconid.

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Size. Myconids grow to 6 feet tall, weighing around 125 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Speed. Your speed is 30 feet.

Age. Myconids given enough nutrients can easily survive centuries with the oldest among them becoming Sovereigns of their people.

Alignment. They tend towards lawful.

Sun Sickness. You become poisoned if you spend more than 1 minute in direct sunlight. This condition ends when you spend 1 minute in dim or dark conditions.

Cast without Words. You have no conventional language, however, your magical nature allows you to cast spells that require verbal components.

Rapport Spores. All creatures within 15 feet of you with an Intelligence of 2 or higher that aren't undead, constructs, or elementals can communicate telepathically with you and with each other. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. You can suppress this ability at will.

Hallucinogenic Mastery. You know the Minor Illusion cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Blur spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a Long Rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Phantasmal Force spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a Long Rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these Spells.

Languages. You can read and write Undercommon. You cannot speak.

If you have any questions about playing a mushroom person let me know!