D&D 5E How common is resurrection in your game?

Zipster said:

A body missing limbs can be received, but that limb won't regenerate. Lose an arm and be revivified and you have no arm. Thus, lose a head and revivify will bring you back decapitated and that will re-kill the pc

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I feel like losing your head entails loss of an organ! But what does losing an arm mean, in game terms, without applying homebrew?

I'm pretty certain there isn't an official ruling on loss of limbs, making spells like regenerate hard. But according to the sword of sharpness, which does lop off a limb, the effect is chosen by the dm.

With how 5ths rules generally are, it'd be like a penalty to movement speed for legs, disadvantage to attack rolls for arms, and that tasks that require the use of said limb automatically fail.

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When I was a kid, resurrection was kind of cool. Now it is no more, so better you take good care of yourself.

No resurrection.

However I have allowed it once at great cost to those seeking to resurrect the individual as they had to appease the Spheres of Power, being Matter, Thought, Time, Energy and Entropy.

The Ritual required one permanent ability point from each category, 1 permanent hit point and 34 years of age (the age of the deceased). This had to be split amongst those partaking in the resurrection Ritual. There were other components (hair strand, saliva..etc) but those were inexpensive and where included more for thematic purposes.

Sadras said:

No resurrection.

However I have allowed it once at great cost to those seeking to resurrect the individual as they had to appease the Spheres of Power, being Matter, Thought, Time, Energy and Entropy.

The Ritual required one permanent ability point from each category, 1 permanent hit point and 34 years of age (the age of the deceased). This had to be split amongst those partaking in the resurrection Ritual. There were other components (hair strand, saliva..etc) but those were inexpensive and where included more for thematic purposes.

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Ouch, that's costly! How many characters deaths would you say you've had?

vonklaude said:

Ouch, that's costly! How many characters deaths would you say you've had?

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Up until that point we had had 3-4 deaths prior in a 5 year period. The paladin who was resurrected was in the service of a young Immortal (Mystara setting) who given her newness (and therefore no enemies) was able to negotiate a resurrection for her champion in exchange for favours promised to the Hierarchs, however the Ritual still had a material component cost. Two of the ability points were paid by the paladin's sister, an npc.

Since that time (4 years ago) we have had two TPK's and 1 death.
In the first TPK instance, a player screwed over the party badly during the ToEE adventure, he essentially provided the release of Zuggtmoy which resulted in a "TPK". This is not a strict TPK, but new characters had to be drawn up.
In the second TPK, also not technically a TPK, but an entirely new party was drawn up thereafter. The party made a run for it in the worst possible way - two were knocked unconcious and the others 'got away', but they were tens of miles from any form of civilisation or help. So the group decided to start afresh.

Our current campaign, if things go well will eventually see their characters find/release their first TPKed PCs from the Abyss (a little surprise for them). In the meantime Zuggtomoy may have sold one or two PCs to buy favours from other Demon Lords.

Sadras said:

Up until that point we had had 3-4 deaths prior in a 5 year period. The paladin who was resurrected was in the service of a young Immortal (Mystara setting) who given her newness (and therefore no enemies) was able to negotiate a resurrection for her champion in exchange for favours promised to the Hierarchs, however the Ritual still had a material component cost. Two of the ability points were paid by the paladin's sister, an npc.

Since that time (4 years ago) we have had two TPK's and 1 death.

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Something that surprises me is the low rate of death, and very low rate of revivals, in games. I'd expected both to be higher. The sense I am getting is that groups like death to count, so they want low rates of revival, but then they also don't want too much character churn. Especially of characters that make it out of tier 1. (It'd be interesting to capture the levels characters died at! I'd predict mostly low-level.)

Yet it seems to me that the game mechanics are set up for higher numbers of both. We have a spell whose sole purpose is preserving bodies for a later Raise Dead. We have five straight up revival spells (not counting wish, or spells that can summon entities that can revive). Per RAW the costs are high, but not overwhelmingly so at the relevant levels. A True Resurrection costs the price of building a Noble Estate with Manor, or running one for seven years. It's about what can be looted from a CR 11-16 treasure horde. But that's the most extreme case. The price of a Raise Dead would run a Guildhall for about 3 months, or make a small dent in the cost of building one. Loot from a CR 0-4 treasure horde could just about cover it.