Death Lesson

Death Lesson is a quality-of-life Forge mod that turns player deaths into useful recap reports.

Instead of only showing the vanilla death message, Death Lesson explains what killed you, what damage led up to the death, which source contributed the most, and what could have helped you survive. It is designed for survival worlds, multiplayer servers, and modpacks where deaths can come from many different sources.

Learn from the death. Fix the mistake. Survive the next one.

What does it do?

When a player dies, Death Lesson creates a report based on recent server-side damage events. The report can show:

The fatal damage source
A timeline of recent damage before death
The largest recent damage contributor
Gear and armor worn at the time of death
Main hand and offhand items
Totem placement checks
Status effects active at death
Practical prevention tips
Unknown and modded damage sources handled safely

For example, if lava dealt most of the damage but a skeleton landed the final hit, Death Lesson can explain that clearly instead of only showing the final death message.

Features

Tracks recent player damage server-side
Creates a death report when a player dies
Shows the final hit and recent contributing damage
Highlights when the biggest damage source was different from the fatal hit
Provides practical prevention hints
Includes a readable damage timeline
Includes a gear snapshot at death
Includes active status effects
Supports unknown and modded damage sources defensively
Sends a concise chat summary after death
Adds a clickable [View Death Lesson] chat action
Adds a Death Lesson button to the vanilla death screen when a report exists
Includes a polished client-side report screen when installed on the client
Works server-authoritatively in multiplayer

Prevention tips

Death Lesson gives conservative, practical suggestions based on what happened before death.

Depending on the situation, it may suggest things like:

Fire Resistance for lava or fire deaths
Feather Falling or Slow Falling for fall damage
Shields or Projectile Protection for arrows and other projectiles
Blast Protection or distance for explosions
Water Breathing or Respiration for drowning
Armor checks when important gear was missing or damaged
Totem placement reminders
Safer handling of magic, wither, poison, void, suffocation, and other damage types

The mod does not claim that a tip would have guaranteed survival. It is meant to help players understand likely prevention options.

Commands

Death Lesson includes simple player commands:

/deathlesson last
Shows your most recent detailed death report and opens the GUI when available.
/deathlesson summary
Shows a short recap of your most recent death.
/deathlesson clear
Clears your stored death report and recent damage cache.
/deathlesson debug
Shows raw technical report details for troubleshooting.

Config options

Death Lesson includes configurable options for tracking, display, and report detail.

Available options include:

trackingWindowTicks
How many recent server ticks of damage are tracked. Default: 400
maxDamageEvents
Maximum stored damage events per player. Default: 12
enableChatSummary
Enables the post-death chat summary.
enableDeathScreenButton
Enables the Death Lesson button on the death screen.
enableDetailedTimeline
Enables detailed damage timeline entries.
enableDebugDetails
Enables raw technical details.
enableDeathLessonScreen
Enables the custom report screen.
enableClientScreen
Allows the client GUI to open.
showCoordinatesInReport
Shows positions in timeline entries.
compactMode
Uses tighter GUI spacing.
useColorEmphasis
Enables color accents.
maxTimelineEntriesShown
Caps displayed timeline rows.

Damage types handled

Death Lesson can recognize and report many common damage categories, including:

Lava
Fire
Fall damage
Projectiles
Explosions
Magic
Wither
Poison
Drowning
Starvation
Suffocation
Freezing
Void damage
Contact damage
Anvils
Falling blocks
Mob attacks
Player attacks
Unknown or modded damage sources

Unknown damage sources are reported cautiously instead of crashing the mod.

Multiplayer behavior

Death Lesson is server-authoritative.

The server tracks player damage and creates the death report. Each report is only sent to the player who died.

Recommended installation:

Singleplayer: install on the client
Dedicated server: install on the server
Best multiplayer experience: install on both server and clients
Server-only: chat summaries and commands work, but the client GUI is not available
Client-only on a server without the mod: reports are not generated

Known limitations

Death Lesson is designed to be educational, not a perfect combat simulator.

Known limitations:

It does not perform exact survival math.
Prevention tips are suggestions, not guarantees.
Modded armor, accessories, and damage systems may affect outcomes in ways the mod cannot fully inspect.
Extra equipment APIs such as Curios, Trinkets, or Baubles are not directly inspected.
Unknown modded damage is handled cautiously and may have less specific advice.

Version info

Minecraft: 1.20.1
Loader: Forge
Forge target: 47+
Mod version: 1.0.0
Mod ID: deathlesson
License: MIT
Creator: Iljas

DL : DeathLesson