Yet another topic on death

[Badbelly]

I do not like the idea of raise dead costing more. Many good aligned characters feel compelled to raise the fallen often paying out of their own pockets. The costs as they are now are often a burden to pay for said good aligned characters. The ones who do have tons of coin are often the ones who die in the act of getting loot, so gold to them is not a issue not matter the costs of the raise.  I purpose a system that looks at a persons constitution and determines with that, how often a person can be raised from the dead within a given time period. If it was set at one raise minimum per week for every PC and then an additional raise allowed for their Constitution Modifier, for example a character with a +2 to his constitution can get raised three times per week, after that they have to pay for the full Resurrection or wait out the week until they can be raised again. I have no idea if such a system is practical from a scripter's point of view, but it would make a players stats dictate RP which is always a good thing. For PC clerics, i think they should give up one of their Raises for the week for every successful Resurrection they do, thus keeping players from avoiding the raise penalty by using a friendly healer.

[ThAnswr]

Honestly, I think all of this is a solution looking for a problem. 

[Vokan]

Honestly, I think all of this is a solution looking for a problem. 

Bingo.

[Smitehammer]

 
Ive always handled it like this:
If someone brings in a body pretty much intact im gonna rp as they are almost dead. If someone says no Bob's dead we checked im going to reply with sometimes only a skilled healer can tell or perhaps in your hurry you missed it.

Always ask yourself, "What would Miracle Max do?"

[Wids]

Maria got a DP for summoning a succubus to fly down and recover a body so he could be ress'ed.

Bai Shan wasn't dead.  She was almost dead and pretty banged up from the fall, but she wasn't dead.  But thanks for summoning the suckybus all the same. 

Or was this some other incident where someone plummeted and died? 

Using an evil or necromantic spell for good reasons is still a small chance of a DP, she just got unlucky on the roll.

Summoning a hellspawn definitely fits that category.  But Raise Dead and Resurrection don't, as far as I see.  It's usually a benevolent act to restore someone to life--since death's a real drag compared to life--and doing so also gives the Good people another chance to make the Demiplane of Dread a better place, while giving the Evil people another shot at finding redemption and turning their lives around.  So restoring the dead to life's all good.

Of course, the Dark Powers who fuel all the divine spells in the Land of Mists are all too happy to grant that wish.  "Well, that guy's dead.  I guess we can't torment him anymore...oh, wait!  Here's a sufficiently imbued Morninglord cleric who wants our help in bringing that guy back!  Yes, yes we will indeed help.  Okay, we'll just put on our Morninglord mask, go down there aaaaaand...we're back in business now.  Let's see how our newly revived plaything grapples with that brief interrim spent in Death's embrace, shall we?  Then we'll send him another pack of ghosts to deal with...."

But just because the Dark Powers are bastards doesn't mean that Raise Dead and Resurrection are evil spells.  Sometimes, good tools end up in evil hands, or vice-versa.  Way of the world.

As for the /many/ poeple that RP death as just being knocked out, it's cheesing.  They're dead, that's why you need raise dead or ress.

Knocked out?  That's a new one on me.  I always play it up as either still dying (and clinging onto life by a swiftly dwindling thread at -10 HP) or recently deceased but the soul hasn't drifted too far away and can still be revived.  As for deader-than-dirt guys like Virgil (who was dead for months, as I recall) getting restored to life, I guess I'd just have to up and admit that sometimes there is no "point of no return" for the dying...which tampers with my little personal worldview on death and revival a bit, but there it is.

Hmmm.  If some new system absolutely must be imposed, I wonder if there should be any sort of Dark Powers check for the person getting brought back, a chance which increases proportionately to the amount of time spent dead.  More time dead, more time spent taking root in oblivion, more trauma when those roots are ripped out and the soul is yanked back into the living world...that sort of thing. 

[failed.bard]

Maria got a DP for summoning a succubus to fly down and recover a body so he could be ress'ed.

Bai Shan wasn't dead.  She was almost dead and pretty banged up from the fall, but she wasn't dead.  But thanks for summoning the suckybus all the same. 

Or was this some other incident where someone plummeted and died? 

  Bolo fell and died, ending up in splattered body parts at the base of a cliff.  Maria summoned another succubus to get him.  She used all sorts of evil spells to rescue/save people that adventure.
  The end result of the spell is irrelevent, if using the spell is DP worthy, which in 1st and 2nd ed. Ravenloft it is (I don't have access to the 3rd ed. books, but I don't see why that would be changed).