Death penalty

Effect: Death Penalty reduces your maximum health and energy values by the current % amount of the penalty. Every time you earn a penalty, it is added to your current total; this total cannot exceed -60%.

Sources: Dying. Each death compounds your DP by -15%.

Removal: Killing enemies and Morale Boost. 2% is removed for each opponent slain by your team during PvP. In PvE the amount removed depends on how much experience you earn. In PvP you may earn Morale Boosts for achieving goals; these reduce DP by 15%. One death will erase all your morale boost, if you have the maximum boost of 10%, when you die, the 15% is subtracted from this and you have -5% penalty. Candy Canes, which where obtainable during Wintersday events, remove a character's death penalty.

Note: Commonly abbreviated as "DP". Certain deaths do not incur a death penalty, such as dying while still waiting for skills to recharge after a Rebirth, dying after being resurrected by Vengeance, and being crushed by a crusher in Sorrow's Furnace.

Tip: It is imperative that you be mindful of Death Penalty when choosing your skills. This is especially important for classes with low energy. A warrior with 20 maximum energy should not rely on several spells/skills that cost 10 energy, because with a DP of 60% he will not be able to cast any (his maximum will be dropped to 8).

Warning: Death Penalty is calculated against a character's maximum health before the effects of runes and weapon upgrades. Still, it is not possible for Death Penalty to set a character's maximum health into a negative number. But it will set it to 1, in which case that character cannot be resurrected except through the use of a Resurrection Signet or a Restore Life with Healing Prayers more than 14 (health more than 50% will be rounded up to 1 of 1). For example, a level 20 character has 480 hit points. If this character has three superior runes on, his/her maximum health will be down to 255 hit points (480 - 3 x 75 ). Still, should this character die four times in a row (collecting a death penalty of 60%) their health will decrease by 288 hit points (60% of 480). Since the character does not have that much health, their maximum health will be 1. If resurrected by Rebirth, Resurrect or Light of Dwayna they will stand up and immediately fall to the ground (health will be less than 50% so rounded down to 0 of 1). It will also not be possible for them to take off the armor pieces with runes on them nor can they gain experience to reduce the death penalty.