Death and Dying

The Sword Coast is full of dangers, and while adventuring your character may find themselves getting kicked down to an inch of their lives. Don't be alarmed, however, as that is often not the end for such prestigious adventurers!

In BGTSCC, once a character drops below a certain treshhold of HP, they will "die". That is, they'll be transported to the Fugue where they have a couple choices of how to continue their journey: Either accepting the death as a true death and retiring the character, waiting to be rescued by a friend or kind soul, or speaking with Kelemvor and being resurrected to the land of the living - at a cost.

A character is encouraged to treat their "death" as a knockout instead of a true death, unless there's further reason for why actual death is warranted.

Characters do not recall anything that happened in the Fugue, and in many ways it is an "OOC" zone; Sending in character tells from the fugue plane is also frowned upon as meta-gaming. In the event that your character met their demise at the hands of another player in a PvP situation the no-memory rule extends further than the stay in the Fugue. It means that your character cannot recall or remember how they died and what immediate events led up to their death.

Resurrecting Others

When a PC stumbles on the body of another PC, there are a few things that can be done to help them, some, however, are limited by the amount of time the person has been dead/KOd:

Up to 5 minutes after being downed, a use of the spell Stabilize or the Bloodstaunch consumable may be used to bring them back.

Up to 10 minutes after being downed, the use of Recall Spirit or Revivify may be employed.

After 10 minutes have passed, players must use Raise Dead, Resurrection, or an NPC priest in order to raise the downed PC, each of those options have their cost.

Recovery System

The cost for a character to choose to "self-rez" through Kelemvor is the "Recovery System", implemented in mid 2023;

When you respawn, your character receives a temporary debuff reducing their combat effectiveness. This debuff cannot be cleared by anything short of DM intervention, and its duration scales with character level. Respawning while affected by the debuff replaces it with a harsher debuff and resets the timer. Spending time in the Fugue or offline pauses the timer.

Minor Recovery - Debuff lasts for 1 minute per character level. Level drain equal to 1/8 of character level, rounded up. -2 to all ability scores.

Exhausting Recovery - Debuff lasts for 2 minutes per character level. Level drain equal to 1/4 of character level. -4 to all ability scores.

Severe Recovery - Debuff duration is unchanged. Level drain equal to 1/3 of character level. -6 to all ability scores.

Traumatic Recovery - Debuff duration is unchanged. Level drain equal to 1/2 character level. -8 to all ability scores. Keep in mind that although there is no debuff tier greater than Traumatic Recovery, the timer will still reset every time you respawn.

If you've died

If your character has died they cannot recall anything that happened in the fugue or his encounter with Kelemvor, or any players there. Sending in character tells from the fugue plane is also frowned upon as meta-gaming. In the event that your character met his demise at the hands of another player in a PvP situation the no-memory rule extends further than the stay in the Fugue. It means that your character cannot recall or remember how they died and what immediate events led up to their death.

Heretics, Faithless and worshippers of Demons, Devils and Dead Gods

Characters who serve a heresy, dead god, archdevil, demon prince, or who are Faithless can no longer self-rez by default, and they cannot be resurrected with the Raise Dead or Resurrection spells by default. They can still be brought back with Stabilize, Bloodstaunch, Revivify, or Recall Spirit, up to the maximum of 5 minutes (Stabilize/Bloodstaunch) or 10 minutes (Revivify/Recall Spirit) after death.

Heretics with the Heretic of the Fallen Feat, dead god worshipers with the Servant of the Fallen Feat, archdevil worshipers with the Disciple of Darkness feat, and demon prince worshipers with the Thrall to Demon feat can self-rez and be resurrected normally. Faithless characters can never self-rez or be raised if dead longer than 10 minutes. This only affects heretics/dead god worshipers/archfiend worshipers/Faithless characters, characters who follow all other gods continue to play normally.

Wish and Miracle can be used to bring back heretics/dead god worshipers/archfiend worshipers/Faithless characters who have died after the 10 minute maximum, with DM support.

Permanent Death

Baldur's Gate does not have forced permanent death for characters. Dungeon Masters will never pursue such a thing unless a player consents. In that case it may be possible for the Dungeon Masters to organize some events leading to the character's permanent demise / retirement. At this point you can then delete the retired character via the RCR NPC in the nexus.