If 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?
No such thing in my games. Maybe, just maybe, through the power of True Love...
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?
If the rules set assumes it, I often just let it be. In 3.X D&D, save or death gets a lot more frightening if you can't apply resurrection to reverse the condition. It was a bugbear for me with that edition.
In 4E and 5E, it's a lot less essential and I start wondering about whether people come back the same. Like Beric Dondarrian in Game of Thrones, the experience can change them and, even worse, something else might follow them back. That probably gets more likely if the same idiot keeps casting the spell over and over, letting a patient infernal lord just have to watch to get their chance . . .
Resurrection is insanely rare in my games.
It requires seeking out some sort of unscrupulous magician, as the gods don't do it in my settings and mortals shouldn't. Then it requires convincing said magician it's worth their time. Incredibly rare ingredients have to be found for said ritual/spell. Typically rare ingredients tend to be in dangerous places and I've actually had a PC killed trying to set up a resurrection.
If all goes according to plan and the party completes their herculean task then someone is raised from the dead. Of course this isn't a straight forward affair, their CON is negatively effected and there are often other nasty side effects.
For the most part my players bury their dead and move on. The one time a resurrection was performed it became a campaign all it's own and much fun was had by all.
If I was going to allow it at all it's going to be a mini-campaign... going to some other-plane to find the soul and then find a physical home for it (probably not the original body).
Most of the time the dead stay dead... though something else might step in to make use of the corpse.
I've never allowed Resurrection in any D&D game I've run. I've never seen Resurrection in any D&D game I've played, though I'm pretty sure at least a few of those DMs allowed Resurrection. I have seen Resurrection via Divine Intervention in Runequest, but that was only once or twice and the cost to the character was high. (In RQ DI, if it even works, costs permanent POW from the character's stat.)
It depends on if the PCs are high enough level to have acces to such magic themselves or need to receive such services from an NPC.
If the players can do it on their own, I just use whatever rules exist in the system for handling it.
If the party needs outside help then there will certainly be a quest involved and an entire adventure will need to be completed for such a service.
Precisely two PCs have been raised from the dead in the 37 years of my campaign.
Raise dead/resurrection has been very few and far between. Reincarnate was a more common option. But some choose death rather than the likelyhood of coming back as something useless and their career effectively over no matter.
The times we have gotten someone back from the dead its most often been for a price. A quest, or actually having to go visit the afterlife to pull it off.
As a DM I place the only spots where a raise is likely to be had only in major population centers. There was at least one in Specularum, another somewhere in Alfheim, etc. Sometimes too far to hope to make it in time.
But if a player is determined enough to drag the body all the way back then sure. Fork over some gold or get really persuasive, or prepare for ye-ol' quest. Put some effort into it and I am much more open to having stuff availible. It might still be a hassle. But its there.
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?
They can buy an extremely expensive license from the death cult or go on a Great Quest for a legendary location or item that can raise the dead. Being raised without one of these two means the person is an excommunicant and outlaw.
I make it very, very easy. I especially love it when the players don't have the 5000 gold it takes.
"Someday... and that day may never come... the Temple of Cuthboit will need a favor. And on that day, you will remember this."
:D
In the last D&D game I ran, there was only one NPC who could resurrect people. And she was of the wandering type, and as 'evil' as they come. Her services in that department was never wanted by the PCs. Probably because she had the tendency to cast Geas on people she resurrected...
1. Track down a cleric of sufficient level.
2. Bribe or persuade him or her into conducting the proper rites.
3. Hope the cleric's patron deity has no grounds to oppose the ressurection.
4. Roll on the ACKS "Tampering With Mortality" table.
It's bad enough that at most lower levels players will probably just choose to write off the character and roll a new one.
No resurrection in my games, death is final.
I don't like easily-occurring character death, but once it happens, it's the end.
The scales must be balanced. Any magic that raises the dead requires a human sacrifice. The more things in common between the sacrifice and the one being returned, the greater the likelihood of success. Failure can mean the person comes back as some thing, the caster dies as well, or something else equally dire. In 25 years, no PCs have successfully returned to life as they were. There was only one attempt sacrificing a condemned criminal because that was all the party could justify. Their "friend" came back but it wasn't him inside his body.
Sufficiently villainous spell casters realize that if you sacrifice multiple people, each with something in common with the deceased, it sort of adds up. And if they figure out a way to capture the essence of the person, they can perform the sacrifices in advance. So if you hear rumours of a string of ritualistic murders it's entirely possible it's part of an attempt to bring back someone or something really bad. There's also no time limit from when the person died, so a cult could be trying to raise some historical figure or the founder of their dark faith.
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.
[Dr. Evil voice] One thousand gold pieces. [/Dr. Evil voice]
Or sometimes more, depending on the game economy to date. Basically, a monetary sum large enough it takes the whole group to raise, if indeed that's what they want to do. Possibly a magic item in trade instead, provided it's valuable to the group and to the npc involved.