Outsiders and Death on the Prime Material Plane

[Maitre Du Donjon]

I always thought that a creature of the type "Outsider" when destroyed doesn't go anywhere really. It's a native of an Outer plane, for example it was born in Hell. Does it go to Hell when he dies? He was already there.

Ah. I've always thought it went like this:

If you die, you can only be raised / resurrected on your Home Plane. If you die anywhere else, you need a wish or miracle to be brought back to life.

Guess i'll read the MotP more carefully...

Maitre D

 

[Dr.Dan]

I'm slightly confused. The SRD says the following about Conjuration (Calling) and Conjuration (Summoning):

Calling: The spell fully transports a creature from another plane to the plane the character is on. The spell grants the creature the one-time ability to return to its plane of origin, although the spell may limit the circumstances under which this is possible. Creatures who are called actually die when they are killed; they do not disappear and reform, as do those brought by a summoning spell (see below). The duration of a calling spell is instantaneous, which means that the called creature can't be dispelled. (etc. . . .)

Summoning: The spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place the character designates. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or dropped to 0 hit points. It is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again.

Now look at the schools (and subschools) listed for the Planar Binding spells:

Lesser Planar Binding
Conjuration (Calling) [see text]

Planar Binding
Conjuration (Summoning) [see text]

I see a slight discrepancy here. Shouldn't they both be Conjuration (Calling) spells?

 

[Li Shenron]

Ah. I've always thought it went like this:

If you die, you can only be raised / resurrected on your Home Plane. If you die anywhere else, you need a wish or miracle to be brought back to life.

Guess i'll read the MotP more carefully...

Maitre D

I say you can really play as you wish in your campaign, in my opinion resurrection in a RPG is a very sensible matter, and no official rule is better than the DM decision. For example, free access to resurrection may turn the game into a repetitive computer-like game, while not having any kind of resurrection at all is possibly missing some fun (and DM's control over the game).

What I wrote before is how I think the rules go by the books. As a DM, my main concern is to have a clear distinction between mortals (native of material planes in our games) and immortals (native of the outer planes, i.e. Outsiders).
My decision -trying to stay as close to the rules as possible- was to give mortals a limited corporeal life and a soul which couldn't be destroyed (but there's still the open issue if this is gonna last forever or there's going to be some critical events such as doom's day for example), while immortals have an unlimited existence in which corporeal form and "soul" are the same thing, they can't die naturally but they can be destroyed forever, with an obviously great effort. Besides, this added my campaigns' Outsiders the lack of need for food, sleep and breathing air, but that's a personal specific addition, ok?

The WotC books give a lot of suggestions on the topic, but also they tend in time to disappoint me and trivialize everything. For example, I cannot suffer the idea that in Heaven there are communities of mortal Elves. The DM should and must make the world his own, and decides this kind of things by himself.

 

[Fedifensor]

Hmm. Doesn't the soul/spirit still return to the deity, by standard D&D cosmology? That would mean that the "dead" Solar would return to the deity, who has the power to restore a material body.

 

[MarauderX]

From the Summon Monster spell in the PHB, I always thought the critter brought into the plane was 'banished' for the day if defeated. I have always considered those who purposefully go to another plane to be able to die on that plane, and merely banished if they were summoned. I could be wrong, but those are my house rules until I have a campaign that needs it... anyone have the MotP handy?