clearstream
(He, Him)
I was thinking over how characters at a certain point start looking toward revival (Gentle Repose, Revivify, Raise Dead, Resurrection, True Resurrection). How is revival "gated"? What are the consequences of choices about that in terms of world, story and character motivations?? First here is my current thinking (costs are component + cast e.g. True Resurrection costs 75k)
Spell.......................Component.................NPC Cast (includes Speak with Dead)
Raise Dead.....................500gp......................1000gp
Resurrection.................1000gp......................2000gp
True Resurrection.......25,000gp...................50,000 gp
Why these numbers, and what are the expected (or desired) consequences? First we know that the component cost can't be the whole story. The queue to be revived must be long! And the number of casters capable of reviving few. Depending on how we construct our world, perhaps fewer than 1/50,000... or 1/500,000 for True Resurrection. So setting aside personal friends who have no other calls on their relevant spell slots, anyone want to be revived is bidding for a place at the front of the queue. That is, I suggest this is a demand driven economy with a very narrow supply and numerous bidders for that supply.
At the prices above, untrained labor - earning 2sp/day of which half goes to lifestyle - essentially cannot afford revival. Skilled workers might be able to afford it using their whole savings over the better part of a decade. Still, what price a loved child or loyal husband? Regardless, their bidding power for places in the queue will be weak. The wealthier classes, and especially aristocracy, will be able to afford to bid for a Raise Dead or Resurrection, but even they will struggle to pay for True Resurrection which must surely be the reserve of powerful heads of polities. Kings, Archbishops, etc. That is to say, the bidding prices are assumed to reflect affordability. They're guessed to float to the level where the number of people who can afford them completely consumes the number of casts available. For example, if 100 casts are available per period, then the costs should be such that only 100 people can afford those casts in that period. I guess this implicitly assumes demand is absolute: every available cast of revives is always consumed. So the price moves to the maximum.
Gating revival by cost in turn impacts what heroes should be expected to do for one another. If revives are difficult to afford, a funeral pyre and hearty send off may be best. After all, your friend is now at the side of their deity. If revives are cheap, then it would be a callous friend who didn't lug corpses from settlement to settlement to find a caster! Players may find it easier to engage with a replacement character, if they aren't in the back of their mind hoping for a revival. Curiously, the existence of the "Resurrection" spells possibly also causes people to keep relics of friends for decades - perhaps a finger - preserved in case happy chance gives an opportunity for revival.
Finally, for me this sort of thinking pushes me toward favouring Gritty Realism due (in part) to the controlling effect that will have on some of the economic implications of spell casts.)
(Undeath plays and interesting role in this, in that if a necromancer animates your friend, only a True Rez will bring them back! No doubt ensuring necromancers have few friends and many enemies! I have an idea that undeath involves a twisted soul from the Shadowfell being summoned to possess the corpse, defiling it. Perhaps relating to the Prime Material as a source of souls that then migrate out to other planes: hence no revive will bring back those dying of old age.)
Spell.......................Component.................NPC Cast (includes Speak with Dead)
Raise Dead.....................500gp......................1000gp
Resurrection.................1000gp......................2000gp
True Resurrection.......25,000gp...................50,000 gp
Why these numbers, and what are the expected (or desired) consequences? First we know that the component cost can't be the whole story. The queue to be revived must be long! And the number of casters capable of reviving few. Depending on how we construct our world, perhaps fewer than 1/50,000... or 1/500,000 for True Resurrection. So setting aside personal friends who have no other calls on their relevant spell slots, anyone want to be revived is bidding for a place at the front of the queue. That is, I suggest this is a demand driven economy with a very narrow supply and numerous bidders for that supply.
At the prices above, untrained labor - earning 2sp/day of which half goes to lifestyle - essentially cannot afford revival. Skilled workers might be able to afford it using their whole savings over the better part of a decade. Still, what price a loved child or loyal husband? Regardless, their bidding power for places in the queue will be weak. The wealthier classes, and especially aristocracy, will be able to afford to bid for a Raise Dead or Resurrection, but even they will struggle to pay for True Resurrection which must surely be the reserve of powerful heads of polities. Kings, Archbishops, etc. That is to say, the bidding prices are assumed to reflect affordability. They're guessed to float to the level where the number of people who can afford them completely consumes the number of casts available. For example, if 100 casts are available per period, then the costs should be such that only 100 people can afford those casts in that period. I guess this implicitly assumes demand is absolute: every available cast of revives is always consumed. So the price moves to the maximum.
Gating revival by cost in turn impacts what heroes should be expected to do for one another. If revives are difficult to afford, a funeral pyre and hearty send off may be best. After all, your friend is now at the side of their deity. If revives are cheap, then it would be a callous friend who didn't lug corpses from settlement to settlement to find a caster! Players may find it easier to engage with a replacement character, if they aren't in the back of their mind hoping for a revival. Curiously, the existence of the "Resurrection" spells possibly also causes people to keep relics of friends for decades - perhaps a finger - preserved in case happy chance gives an opportunity for revival.
Finally, for me this sort of thinking pushes me toward favouring Gritty Realism due (in part) to the controlling effect that will have on some of the economic implications of spell casts.)
(Undeath plays and interesting role in this, in that if a necromancer animates your friend, only a True Rez will bring them back! No doubt ensuring necromancers have few friends and many enemies! I have an idea that undeath involves a twisted soul from the Shadowfell being summoned to possess the corpse, defiling it. Perhaps relating to the Prime Material as a source of souls that then migrate out to other planes: hence no revive will bring back those dying of old age.)
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