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.