Ruling Clarifications & House Rules

Summary

This is a living document of rulings that have come up at the table that required subsequent/further clarification or GM interpretation. The purpose of this document is to help enforce consistency and provide a singular source of truth for rulings.

2026-08-25, Increased Stakes on Death

Status: Table Review Outcome: Pending

Context

• Some players have raised a desire for going unconscious/death to have higher stakes.
• It is a common issue that once a party has ample access to Healing/Revivify that death is trivialized in D&D. This is amplified by the usual size of our table(s).

Proposal
Adopt Critical Roles’ “Fading Spirit” Rules. These rules restructure the lore behind death; it’s effects on mortals who suffer it, and the mechanics behind resurrection spells - with the goal of making the chance of permanent death more likely without feeling “cheap”.

Lore:

• Death is a violent and disruptive experience to any individual that experiences it; returning from it comes with some unseen cost. This compounds if a character experiences it multiple times.
• Resurrection Magic is not absolute; the spirit’s wishes and some luck are required to perform it succesfully.
  • Failure to perform a resurrection spell locks that “tier” of spell from being used again. Future attempts must use higher level resurrection magic.

Mechanics:

1. To be resurrected; a character’s spirit must be “Willing” to return. Regardless of the power of the resurection magic; an “Unwilling” spirit can never be successfully resurrected.
2. Revivify; or any spell that can revive a target with a casting time of 1 Action or less, the caster must make a “Rapid Ressurection” Check (D20 + Spellcasting modifier). This check has a DC of 10 + the number of times the target has been successfully revived.
   • On a success; the target is succesfully resurrected.
   • On a failure; the target’s base resurrection DC increases by 1, i.e. (10 + times resurrected -> 11 + times resurrected). Additionally; the target may no longer be resurrected except by using spells with a casting time greater than 1 Action.
3. Spells with a casting time greater than one action that are not 9th level spells; Raise Dead, Resurrection, Reincarnate, initiate a Resurrection Ritual that culiminates in an ability check made against the target’s Resurrection DC. This DC is determined by player contributions to the Ritual.
   1. The Resurrection Ritual may have up to 3 participants. Each participant makes a relevant skill check based on their specific contribution to the ritual. The baseline DC for this skill check is 15; but can be altered at the GM’s discretion based on the sincerity/relevance of the given contribution.
      • On a success; the target’s Resurrection DC (for this specific ritual) is decreased by 3.
      • On a failure; the target’s Resurrection DC (for this specific ritual) is increased by 1.
   2. After the completion of all; if there are any, contributions to the Ritual, The GM makes a final D20 roll against the target’s Resurrection DC.
      • On a success; the target’s is resurrected.
      • On a failure; the target remains dead and can no longer be resurrected without the use of 9th level magic.

• Spells like True Resurrection and Wish bypass the above ritual and restore the target to life.
• Gods may also instantly restore a character to life without a ritual.

Links:

• Resurrection In Exandria

2026-06-27, “Humanoid” spell targets.

Status: Clarified Outcome: Accepted

Context

• It was raised that characters like SHAI are not affected by spells like Hold Person as they specifically target “Humanoid” creatures. SHAI being a Changeling means he is a Fey and not a Changeling, exempting him from the casting criteria.
• There is some grey in previous editions of D&D that rule any creature with “Human-like” form to being classed as “Humanoid”
• RAW; this is a valid and clear ruling, however it adds complication during combat and opens the door to weird behaviours - especially since SHAI oftens disguises himself in a Humanoid form.

Decision
Rules As Written is clear. Spell that specifically target a Humanoid are clearly worded as to refer to the creature type of Humanoid.