Being returned from the dead takes resources, and might not work. But that's as far as it goes for me.

Quote from: rawma;839442Being returned from the dead takes resources, and might not work. But that's as far as it goes for me.

That is one thing I miss in 5e. The rare chance that a raise would fail for one reason or another.

Quote from: Omega;839443That is one thing I miss in 5e. The rare chance that a raise would fail for one reason or another.

In OD&D your CON had a direct effect on  your chance of surviving being raised.  You bet it was important.

Are we separating Raise Dead vs. Resurrection?  

I do.

In my OD&D games, a Raise Dead of a recently slain ally (intact corpse) isn't that uncommon. It's a 5th level spell, so any 9th level cleric can do it for a price...and the dead must make a CON save vs. death or they are gone forever.

Sometimes NPC clerics have no interest in gold, instead the party must submit to a Quest for the temple before their friend is raised. The player gets to play an NPC priest from the temple sent along to help them.

However, if the body has been deemed destroyed (incinerated, only bits remain), then its beyond the ken of a cleric (my OD&D maxes at 10th level) and only the gods can resurrect...and the gods are very demanding.

Quote from: Ravenswing;839333Precisely two PCs have been raised from the dead in the 37 years of my campaign.

It's the same through Mass.  

In all groupings, I had it easier earlier in my games.  But since Celtricia started, (1983), 1 Ressurection, 2 Raise, and 1 fantastic reincarnation.

Quote from: Omega;839443That is one thing I miss in 5e. The rare chance that a raise would fail for one reason or another.

For me, 500 GP isn't really enough resources consumed, once PCs reach 9th level; maybe if it doubled every time you were raised from the dead. But I'd also prefer it if it always carried some chance of failing, like the constitution check in OD&D.

Quote from: Old Geezer;839452In OD&D your CON had a direct effect on  your chance of surviving being raised.  You bet it was important.

And Polymorph death. No one wanted to be polymorphed.

In my games generally resurrection is not something that comes up.  Most of my homebrew D&D stuff has the possibility of raising the dead being so remote as to not bother with.

The exception being my epic Mystara campaign.  In that one, the first person they tried to raise (when they were low Expert level) required enormous effort, a bit quest, resources, etc.
But later, when the party cleric got to the point he could do it himself, resurrection just became their version of resting up after a tough fight.

I my Crimson Blades campaign, a Dendrelyssi managed to recall the dead PC as his zombie servant (played very well by the player concerned!). Later on they tricked a stupid demon into finding the PCs soul and returning it, thereby kinda resurrecting him, albeit leaving him with an unsettling (deathly) aura, making animals and children (in particular) afraid of him.

I wouldn't allow PCs simply to go to a temple, pay a fee and have him resurrected.

Quote from: RPGPundit;839290If you allow raising from the dead at all in your D&D game, just what do the PCs have to go through to get it?

I don't allow it when running D&D. When running other games, I might, and some Fate concessions might well include being considered dead at least for a while.
I think I've allowed resurrection less than twice in the last 10 years or so. Once it involved dealing with the King Yama, and they had to kill off another PC even to reach him. It helped that said PC had killed the other in a fight that went bad, but then they sent him to bring the other guy back.

The other time I allowed it they were in train of rewriting the nature of reality anyway while fighting a demon for control, or rather, in order to guarantee he'd stop meddling. The character they got back was just the way they remembered her, though.
That's because she was the sum of their memories that they had willed into existence, of course. So I count that as more than a no resurrection, but less than a true resurrection.

Overall, resurrection in my games is fucking hard.

It's been done twice in my campaigns.

First time was in 2e. The party had looted a Raise Dead scroll in a previous adventure, and used it to bring back a bard. Said character had fallen to an ambush prepared by a necromancer (Darkness, Web, Summon Shadow, Cone of Cold). The bard left the campaign shortly afterwards, so the group kind of regretted "wasting" the scroll.

Second time was thanks to an artifact linked to the Goddess of Life and Hope. The character had become a paladin in a previous session, and died fighting a draconic monster while on a sacred quest to save the world from the God of Undeath.

I'm fairly sure we'll have a resurrection or two in my current Pathfinder game. Of course, people might not return exactly as they were...

I make them buy me a pizza!  

Oh wait, you mean in game?!
Hmm, depends on the game.

for DnD type games it really comes down to how much resource they have (I.E gold, valuable stuff) and where they are.
If resurrection facilities are available where or near where they are and they can afford it and the gameworld supports the idea of resurrection, sure no big deal.
It happened a fair bit in a Golarion/PF game I ran some years back, perhaps about 3 times over a couple of years campaign. but the party were pretty rich by then or had spells to allow resurrection.

For games like Stormbringer, SWN, Dragon Warriors, Other Dust, CoC and so on, then dead is dead and there's no coming back.

Quote from: JongWK;840030It's been done twice in my campaigns.

First time was in 2e. The party had looted a Raise Dead scroll in a previous adventure, and used it to bring back a bard. Said character had fallen to an ambush prepared by a necromancer (Darkness, Web, Summon Shadow, Cone of Cold). The bard left the campaign shortly afterwards, so the group kind of regretted "wasting" the scroll.

Jesus, that would be shitty.

In my games Clerics are the instruments of their Gods. Not just humans that run around casting arcane spells under the label of "Divine Magic". So resurrection/raise dead only happens if:

1) The Cleric is in good standing with their deity.

2) The character (I make ZERO distinctions between NPC/PC) is worthy of that particular deities favor.

3) Depending on how the character died there might be mitigating circumstances requiring a little extra.

4) The character in question must not be "claimed" by another deity. HOWEVER if this is the case and the character is particularly worthy, and the deity trumps in power the deity claiming the character, it can still happen. There will be ramifications, usually, depending on the relationship between the two deities.

5) It cannot take place in a region where the deity doing the resurrection has no sway. THIS can be overridden if it takes place under the domain of a deities portfolio. So if you're in the Mines of Hairy Horror, in a region claimed by the God of Beasts... and your god is the God of the Earth - your god of Earth has domain over everything below ground. This - falls technically under rule 4. There will be ramifications.

Sound rough. Good. It's supposed to be. Death is serious business in my games. You fuck up and die and expect a rez? Think again about acting like a tool to the Gods, punk.

Currently, the only game I run with a revive ability is ACKS. And instead of Resurrection, the entire culture uses only the spell Reincarnation.