About Death and Resurrection

[Raith5]

The problem with ease of raise dead availability in prior editions was that it was sort of a balance againt pervasive save or die effects at high level. Without save or die anymore, I suspect that DMs can remove raise dead magic even from epic levels with little effect on mechanical game play.

Good point. It probably means there will be (healing) spells that intervene in the effects that lead to death over a couple of rounds.

 

[Jhaelen]

I hate to rain on people's parade, but I don't think that quote can be taken to mean that a rules based prohibition exists on raising heroic tier characters. It is an informal statement describing the norms of the game. It could just as easily mean that the spell "raise dead" isn't available until the paragon tier, and that the components necessary to cast it are not intended to be available to non paragon level characters.

Exactly! I don't see anything in that quote that says that there will be an actual rule against resurrecting low-level characters. I just take it to mean that it'll be pretty unusual if raising the dead is available at the heroic tier - which as others have already pointed out is not that much different from 3E assuming you're playing in a PoL setting.
Unless Higher-Level npcs are readily available, the first resurrections will happen as soon as the pcs have a high enough level to cast the spell themselves.

 

[Simon Marks]

The quote does talk about a 'Significant cost'

This could be Money - or it could be something else entirely. It may be a cost that Heroic tier characters are incapable of paying.

Paragon tier characters appear to be 'More than Human'.

 

[HeinorNY]

I hope only paragon and epic tier characters can be resurected.
The world is a just better place when normal people can't count on raising their dead.

Hero: I know farmer, you will miss your beloved wife, but don't cry man, you gotta be strong.
Farmer: I'm not crying because she passed away, *sniff* I'm crying because I don't have five grand to bring her back. *sniff* *sniff*

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

From Worlds and Monsters*, page 14

Death Matters Differently: It is generally harder to die than in previous editions, particularly at low level. When a heroic tier character dies, the player creates a new character. A paragon PC can come back from the dead at a significant cost. For epic tier characters, death is a speedbump. Being raised from the dead is available only to heroes, and it's more than just a spell and a financial transaction. NPCs, both good and evil, don't normally come back to life unless the DM has a good reason.

EDIT: Dammit! Beaten by John Snow!

WOW interesting... very interesting.... I am still waiting for W&M

 

[Protagonist]

I like the way Deadlands (classic) handles death. There is a change you come back and then there is a chance you bring something back with you aswell. There are also guidelines for how to roleplay the whole "bringing a character back from the dead" ritual that involves the dead player and the rest of the group playing a side adventure to rescue him

 

[Phaezen]

Paragon tier characters appear to be 'More than Human'.

Well some of them are elves, dwarves, tiefl . . . oh sorry thats not what you meant . . .

The Tier differentiation is one of the aspects that intrigues me the most. Hopefully even for Paragon characters ressurection is more than just a financial transaction.

Phaezen

 

[HeinorNY]

There are also guidelines for how to roleplay the whole "bringing a character back from the dead" ritual that involves the dead player and the rest of the group playing a side adventure to rescue him

That's something I always thought would be a great idea.
The characters go on a raid in Shadowfell to look for the soul of their fallen companion. In order to resurect him, they need to secure his soul in a life gem and then, back in the material plane, infuse that soul into his reconstructed body. But unfortunately for them, his paragon soul is being held by a lich and being used to enhance its magical power, so they need to deal with the undead necromancer before bringing him back to life.

Heroic tier souls are just too week and are just lost in the afterlife.

Epic tier souls are sought by even more dangerous and powerful creatures, or maybe just too powerful to be held in constrain.

 

[Reynard]

Exactly! I don't see anything in that quote that says that there will be an actual rule against resurrecting low-level characters.

Except the part about creating a new character?

I just take it to mean that it'll be pretty unusual if raising the dead is available at the heroic tier

Which is a completely unsupported interpretation of the text.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Except the part about creating a new character?

It didn't look like a rule to me. As Cadfan posted, it is an informal way of saying:
"This is what usually happens".

Like:
If a character in D&D 3.5 dies at 3rd level, the player rolls up a new character.
If a character in D&D 3.5 dies at 11h level, the parties Druid reincarnates him, or their Cleric will raise him, or the party gets an NPC Cleric to do it.
If a character in D&D 3.5 dies at 17th level, the parties Cleric casts True Ressourection to revive him.

That's certainly not what has to happen. The RAW supports it, but there is nothing saying that the DM is generous and lets some random Cleric raise the 3rd level character, or that the player of the dead 11th level character decides not to have his character raised (or there are no Druid/Clerics available at the moment) and instead rolls up a new one.