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  1. #1
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    In posts of long ago, I bought into an argument that said resurrection seemed way too powerful and should either be eliminated or restricted. I decided to restrict it by only allowing each character to have one chance to be brought back from the dead (when the fall below -10 h.p.). What I did is a made the player fight the Shadow World shade of himself. The Shade had the h.p.'s and a.c. of the character but the rest of the stats were that of a shade. If the shade wins the character becomes a shade servant in the Shadow World for his Shadow World equivalent. If the character wins then the character gets the ability to sense shades from 60 feet away and they get to come back from the dead fully healed. The second time a person dies they are not given a chance to be brought back from the dead because their god/creator/force of nature will not allow it to happen. What do people think? My player whose character died didn't seem to like it very much but he went along with it.
    Lord Eldred
    High Councilor of the
    United Provinces of Cerilia
    "May Haelyn bring justice to your realm"

  2. #2
    Senior Member blitzmacher's Avatar
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    I like what you have done. Having to fight just to come back alive should make the character a little more careful with their life, and give a good tale for their friends. By not allowing anyone to be res. more than once keeps a more mystical feel to the game, and definately not something to be abused.
    If the PC doesn't like it they can always remain dead.
    Cattle die and kinsmen die,
    thyself too soon must die,
    but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
    fair fame of one who has earned.
    HAVAMAL

  3. #3
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    I myself prefer to allow the spell as is, but only allow it to be cast rarely, and never by PCs. Your method however, does have the desired effect of preserving the drama of the process, and keeping raising the dead from becoming a cheap party trick.
    "I did not pass through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving man untill the lightning falls!"

  4. #4
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    How do you keep it from being cast rarely? When you keep the spell as is any regent would be able to afford buying the spell to be cast from a high level cleric. Also on what grounds do you say an NPC can get the spell but a PC cannot? These were all questions that caused me to use the system I just implemented.
    Lord Eldred
    High Councilor of the
    United Provinces of Cerilia
    "May Haelyn bring justice to your realm"

  5. #5
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    If the god of the cleric in question needs/wants the character to be raised, then it happens. I simply don't allow clerics to mem it, and it can be cast spontaneously like other cure spells when it's granted. I only grant it when the character died in the middle of an important quest, or was killed by powerful magic/extraplanar forces that "interfered with his/her destiny". I prefer to retain direct control, rather then create rule, because sometimes I prefer to break my rules for the sake of the story. What if, for instance, you made one of the PCs intrinsc to the plot, and then he dies and is defeated by his shade, or dies twice before you can use him for what you need. However, if your system works, it works, and I can see how acheives the purpose of preventing abuse.
    "I did not pass through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving man untill the lightning falls!"

  6. #6
    Administrator Green Knight's Avatar
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    Don't like bringing back people from the dead. Quickly gets very silly. Placing a strict time limit, like 1 minute/caster level, for all such spells is on option that works rather well. Perhaps a realm verison of such spells could bring back people who have been dead for slightly longer. 1 day/caster level or something.
    Cheers
    Bjørn
    DM of Ruins of Empire II PbeM

  7. #7
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    In this case it was within minutes of his death that he was raised. I agree that it becomes silly if the same character has been killed 8 times and brought back to life each time. My system eliminates the silly nature of raising dead.

    I am also considering the chance that if the soul of the creature loses the battle against the shade and becomes it servant, the body does get raised but is undead and attacks the cleric who didn't allow the soul to join its creator. This would add an element of risk for the cleric.
    Lord Eldred
    High Councilor of the
    United Provinces of Cerilia
    "May Haelyn bring justice to your realm"

  8. #8
    Senior Member Lawgiver's Avatar
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    Orginally posted by Lord Eldred
    In this case it was within minutes of his death that he was raised. I agree that it becomes silly if the same character has been killed 8 times and brought back to life each time. My system eliminates the silly nature of raising dead.
    Do characters really die 8 times? I must be too weak on my players... I need to kill them off more often. :P
    Servant of the Most High,
    Lawgiver

    Isaiah 1:17
    Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

  9. #9
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    I prefer to play low to mid-level campaigns so I have never run into a problem with this issue.
    I would allow the PCs to get themselves resurrected but only at a high price. I never have NPCs sell spells for gold (unless they really need gold for some reason) but always demand some sort of service for casting major spells.
    I've never had PCs high enough level to cast Resurrection but if I did I would let them use the spell as written because if I didn't it would be unfair.
    If the campaign is a good one I don't think PCs will die often enough for this to be an issue and if for some reason the 20th level PC cleric wants to go around raising every peasant killed by the Pox I think his diety would have to take away his upper level spell abilities. After all if the priest isn't serving his faith and God with his abilities he's not going to be a priest for long. Which brings me to my final point. I don't recall any of the gods of Cerilia being gods of regeneration or rebirth in a way that they would encourage bringing back the dead. In fact the gods who's powers they inherrited died, why should humans be raised? I just talked myself out of my original point. I won't allow the raising of dead in my campaign the gods wouldn't have it.
    Regards
    Regards,
    Randy

  10. #10
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    What if the character was brought back via an artifact? This was the first time it was used and it has been in posession for 2 years now. There is also a strange connection between the god and the character. So much so that the character that resurrected the dead knows they are to protect him. Would this be a special case? I think so.
    Abbess Allessandra
    from the United Provinces of Haelyn
    "On your knees...to pray!"

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