D&D 5E The revival economy

[discosoc]

This reminds me of a setting concept that I've been toying around with. Basically, Raise Dead is fairly cheap to cast, to the point where entire armies will be brought back once a battle has been decided. There are social rules dictating it all, and fighting almost feels more like a massive duel where the wealthy elite are free to wage wars left and right -- provided they can pay for the post-war services. Then it got me thinking just how messed up in the head someone would have to be if they were a career soldier. The constant death and resurrection would have to leave a nasty PTSD scar. Resurrection doesn't really help with old age, and there'd probably be little funding for resurrecting unimportant people like Uncle Joe who was attacked by wolves. There would probably be an effort to increase the longevity of your best soldiers, so perhaps the commander of your army is literally a veteran of a thousand wars.

Anyway, just something I was thinking about and your post kind of reminded me of it.

 

[clearstream]

RAW, the spell does not require any amount of diamonds, only a value of diamonds measured in gp. It's the price of *gold* that matters here. If diamonds become more expensive, either because diamonds are in demand or because gold has become plentiful, you need fewer of them (or lower quality)!

Sure. The "weight" mentioned in my post is the weight of diamonds the deep gnomes may have been required to deliver to Menzoberranzan to secure peace. Not the weight of diamonds required for the spell.

 

[MarkB]

This reminds me of a setting concept that I've been toying around with. Basically, Raise Dead is fairly cheap to cast, to the point where entire armies will be brought back once a battle has been decided. There are social rules dictating it all, and fighting almost feels more like a massive duel where the wealthy elite are free to wage wars left and right -- provided they can pay for the post-war services. Then it got me thinking just how messed up in the head someone would have to be if they were a career soldier. The constant death and resurrection would have to leave a nasty PTSD scar. Resurrection doesn't really help with old age, and there'd probably be little funding for resurrecting unimportant people like Uncle Joe who was attacked by wolves. There would probably be an effort to increase the longevity of your best soldiers, so perhaps the commander of your army is literally a veteran of a thousand wars.

Anyway, just something I was thinking about and your post kind of reminded me of it.

Tie it into the longevity of some races. Elves become a de facto nobility because they make the best commanders, being able to be brought back again and again for centuries - but anyone who's experienced repeated revivals over that long a period develops some very peculiar behaviours.

 

[schnee]

...and the whole thing is being manipulated behind the scenes by an Eladrin Archdruid from a Feywild stronghold.

So, it's up to the young races to overwhelm the stagnant hierarchy of madness bolstered by power with their cunning, vitality, and clear-eyed perception of the situation.

I'm seeing a lot of villains with tremendous power but exploitable mental flaws.

/end spitballing

 

[discosoc]

Tie it into the longevity of some races. Elves become a de facto nobility because they make the best commanders, being able to be brought back again and again for centuries - but anyone who's experienced repeated revivals over that long a period develops some very peculiar behaviours.

Actually, the elves in this setting have mostly gone "feral" as a result of spending too much time away from the Fey (a place they've lost reliable access to). Dwarves are isolationists who's only presence on the surface is to act as the official banking house for whatever society happens to be in charge (they handle the minting and acquisition of outdated coin and bullion, which is considered both illegal tender and a rare collector's item). Halflings are nomadic wanderers after having played a fairly major role in the mass subjugation of the known world centuries ago (basically used as the military might of an invading alien species), and believed to be directly related to goblins. Gnomes somehow developed a hivemind intelligence in order to drive back the alien invaders mentioned above, and have since become very reclusive. The current human societies formed from the ashes of slavery (mostly at the hands of halflings), but remain pretty fragmented.

There's also rather large political and religious dynamic around the idea that the gods are living creatures that embody very specific ideals around which nations are lead and built.

Anyway, the whole feral elves thing keeps them from gaining any major power. Not all actually go feral within a normal human lifetime, but the reputation is enough that they are considered liabilities and rarely tolerated around humans. There is a bit of lore involving how, upon finding their connection to the Fey dead, various elves searched for solutions in their own ways. High elves assumed they could brute force their way back in via magic, and mostly stayed put. Wild elves chose to search for the original Waygates in the oldest parts of the world. Dark elves left to search the world's deepest places for answers, but where dramatically changed after going a bit too deep (something the dwarves warned them about). The average elf that's seen out in the world, including player characters, are probably rare exceptions or lone survivors.

 

[Geoarrge]

I tend to think that the gold value required for the diamond is a shorthand representing some actual minimum combination of weight and purity -- in other words, a 500 gp diamond doesn't become usable for resurrection through the act of rich widows having a bidding war over it.

Raise dead, resurrection, and clone all specify a single diamond of the required value, so the market for small diamonds would probably not be too vicious. Even supposing a city with actual leveled clerics at the temple, it's going to be a narrow set of situations where someone can be caught in time for revivify.

A big city temple might have its own morgue with a section reserved for corpses under gentle repose. The main constraining factor for capacity would be the number of times the cleric(s) can commit to casting gentle repose per day. Probably no more than half of their total 2nd level slots, which on a rotating schedule, supports that figure times 10 in preserved corpses. One tricky question here is what they do when they are filled to capacity. Do they kick the longest-sitting corpse out? Do they let rich families pay to keep their relatives in there indefinitely, even if that means turning others away? Or do they have other rules, like perhaps give preferential treatment to the youngest dead?

 

[MarkB]

A big city temple might have its own morgue with a section reserved for corpses under gentle repose. The main constraining factor for capacity would be the number of times the cleric(s) can commit to casting gentle repose per day. Probably no more than half of their total 2nd level slots, which on a rotating schedule, supports that figure times 10 in preserved corpses. One tricky question here is what they do when they are filled to capacity. Do they kick the longest-sitting corpse out? Do they let rich families pay to keep their relatives in there indefinitely, even if that means turning others away? Or do they have other rules, like perhaps give preferential treatment to the youngest dead?

Just have people pay per casting, with the clear understanding that subsequent castings may be constrained by manpower.

 

[cbwjm]

I tend to just not worry about that changing price of diamonds. If the spell calls for a 500gp diamond then the PCs pay 500gp for a diamond and then cast the spell.