TOPIC: Returning from Push Death

So, I'm not sure if we encountered this in the past, but I certainly don't remember it playing out like this before: if you get killed by push damage, you can't be brought back. At all.

Really?

Well, as far as I know, all of the items that bring people back from the dead require that you use them in the same room where that character died. There's a huge problem, then, being killed by push damage, if that counts as being killed at the very end of the previous room. About half of our party got killed by push damage from the Drow combat in the next-to-last room of Sable Combat (and a couple more would have, if not for the Cricket Figurines). So, the first thing we wanted to do in the final room was bring back our dead party members. The DM there told us we couldn't, because they had died in the previous room.

Is that true? Is that how it's always been? And, if so, is there ANY way to bring back someone killed by push damage?

Figurine of Power: Cricket to prevent the death in the first place?

Yeah, the Cricket worked great for those of us who used one. But that didn't even exist until this year, and I don't remember this being an issue before.

Also, are you only allowed 1 Figurine? Not a problem for me, since I'd never gotten any of the rather large collection of Purple UR Figurines. If this is the only way to avoid push death, though, the red Cricket might actually be better than any of the Purp Figs.

You can a second Figurine if you have Charisma 16+

Savior Stone essentially is time travel.

So, Savior Stone will flat-out prevent death from push damage, but do you have to use it in the room you got pushed from? Or, can you also use it in the room you got pushed to?

Jason Brown wrote: Also, are you only allowed 1 Figurine? Not a problem for me, since I'd never gotten any of the rather large collection of Purple UR Figurines. If this is the only way to avoid push death, though, the red Cricket might actually be better than any of the Purp Figs.

A Charisma of 16 lets you use a second Figurine.

Jason Brown wrote: So, Savior Stone will flat-out prevent death from push damage, but do you have to use it in the room you got pushed from? Or, can you also use it in the room you got pushed to?

Essentially the savior stone uses itself. Which is why it can prevent push damage death though from a meta perspective the player has to decide to use it in the room where the death happens. The idea is that you essentially time travel, the you of the past didn't actually make that stupid decision/non-decision that resulted in your death and instead is skipped forward to a point in the timeline where it didn't happen. At least, that's how I understand it. It's why it's the only thing that can counter things like sucked into the void or touches a sphere of annihilation or whatever.

Of course, the time travel explanation doesn't help with push damage, because it's not the result of a choice you made. You can jump back and not touch a sphere of annihilation, and you can jump back and not step through the door into the void, but jumping back to a combat you failed to finish or a puzzle you failed to solve (which resulted in you dying from push damage) still puts you back into a situation where you will fail and die. There is no single choice which you can make at that juncture which would result in an alternate outcome.

So, I don't buy the time travel explanation. I'm still pretty sure a Savior Stone will prevent push death (unless I hear otherwise). But the Savior Stone is destroyed - does it matter who you turn it in to?

Functionally the DM of the room you die in is supposed to mark death on the party card before he allows everyone to leave the room, so yes.

And of course the time travel explanation works. For instance, classic push damage is there's a hoard of lizard men chasing your party. When you take too long they catch up and engage and everyone takes damage. You drop dead. Your savior stone activates. Your body vanishes. 10 seconds later when your party has already fled into the next part of the dungeon you reappear perfectly healthy. Or at least healthy as you were before that last lizard man stabbed you in the face.

So, you go back in the past and skip to the future? Okay, maybe.

Can a Savior Stone get you a survivor pin if push damage causes a TPK? For that matter, can the Cricket Figurine make you a survivor, if you would otherwise be killed by push damage in the final room?

Yes. That was actually a ruling that a savior stone can make you a 'survivor' as long as the condition is anyone who lives survives. Sometimes the way the win condition is defined makes that impossible. LIke correctly solve puzzle = win woudln't help you. But survive final blast of damage = win would. I forgot who asked the question but we debated for a while when a completion token/survivor button would actually be worth blowing a savior stone.