What It Does
Lenient Death is a server-sided mod for Fabric and Quilt that changes what happens when a player dies. Instead of the usual gamerule keepInventory, which is all-or-nothing, this mod lets a server owner decide which items survive death and which don't. It runs only on the server, so players don't need to install anything themselves, though the mod itself doesn't ship a client-side component.
Who It Suits
This is built for server admins running survival worlds who want death to sting less without turning it off completely. If you've ever lost a full inventory to a bad fall or an ambush and wished only your best gear stuck around, this fills that gap. Real talk, it works as a direct replacement for gravestone-style plugins, without needing players to hunt down a grave marker.
Main Features
By default, the mod filters what a player keeps on death using several methods at once: a manual list of protected items, rules based on item type, an ad-hoc soulbound system, and a chance-based roll. Items that do drop get a glowing outline so players can spot them from a distance. Anything that would normally despawn after falling into the void gets teleported somewhere safe instead. The mod can also put recovered items straight back into the slots they were in before death, and it logs death coordinates in chat so players know where to look. Every death also saves a snapshot of the inventory, which admins can pull up and restore later if something goes wrong.
Optional Extras
A handful of features sit behind toggles and are off until an admin turns them on. There are ready-made config presets you can load through a command instead of hand-editing settings. XP can be preserved in part or in full on death. Item and XP drop rules can be set per player rather than server-wide. Dropped items can be given a longer, or even infinite, lifespan so they don't vanish before someone gets back to them. And you can grant dropped items immunity to fire, lava, explosions, and cactus damage, so a bad drop location doesn't destroy what's left.
Setup and Compatibility
Configuration happens either by editing the config file directly or through an in-game command, and the mod is documented for both. It needs Fabric API to run and brings in a few supporting libraries on its own, including permission and translation helpers. The mod supports Minecraft 1.21.4, 1.21.3, 1.21.2, 1.21.1, 1.21, 1.20.6, 1.20.5, 1.20.4, 1.20.3, 1.20.2, 1.20.1, 1.20, and 1.19.4, and works with both the Fabric and Quilt loaders. It's licensed under LGPL v3.0, and its source is public, with a small API exposed for other mods that want to hook into its death-handling logic.
