Back from the Dead: Seeing the "Other Side"

[steeldragons]

I have a PC who has, for a while now, been brought back from the dead via a Raise Dead spell/ritual.

It was costly for the party, but they persevered and were determined to bring this character back to the land of the living.

From the get-go, I stipulated (through the priests of the death goddess) that this character (a simple human fighter/swordsman returning to life at the start of 3rd level - 1e style) "might not be the same as the person you once knew."

This was initially done for story/fluff and the fact that a good month/month and a half would have passed between his death and his raising.

I decided to give him a few "powers" from his extended stay in "limbo" (note the small "L") in the underworld/presence of the goddess of the judgement of souls.

One is a nondescript (and uncontrolled) "sense" of the presence of certain undead/undeath in general. (note: my world has a separate goddess of disease and undeath, she and the goddess of Death/Judgment of Souls are mortal, or rather IMmortal, enemies)

The other, which has not come into play yet, but I was thinking of was a prescience of "impending" death for those close to him...whether delivered via dream or waking vision. Like, either the night before or even a round or two before another a PC might die, he would receive a vision.

I've also toyed with the idea that he could remain conscious and fighting into negative HP (maybe only to -3 or -5). But I'm not sure if that would be too powerful/unbalanced.

SO, thought I'd throw it out into the EN-ether and see what other things might be possible for this character...Not necessarily now, but perhaps some added powers that come up or how to increase the powers he has as the character gains in XP/level.

What/how would you make a Raised PC "different" than the character he/she was before their connection to the Other Side?

Thanks, as always, in advance.
Have fun and happy gaming.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Umbran]

I don't usually give powers to characters who come back from the dead in D&D, if only because revivification is easy enough to come by that soon everyone would have the powers, and they'd thus be less special.

I do often add something to the cost of returning to the land of the living - in order to return, the character has to accept a Geas/Quest from the deity whose power was used to raise him or her. Frequently, the Geas comes with a "you cannot discuss this" clause, just to make it a roleplaying challenge.

In Deadlands, there is no magic the PCs have access to to bring folks back from the dead. However, there is some chance that a PC will spontaneously come back, their body reanimated by an evil spirit. The PC gets some powers for this, but in return they are constantly in a struggle or wills with said spirit, and if they lose control, their powers and abilities are in the service of evil until they can regain dominance, which can be difficult.

 

[LurkAway]

How about the wrong soul is returned to the body. Essentially a different person, player gets to customize his PC accordingly (new mental skills, maybe different alignment, but same physical stats). Different paths to go from there?

 

[Dausuul]

This is something I think about fairly often. I hate easy, cheap, straight-up resurrection; but I'm a big fan of resurrection where you "come back wrong." The problem is figuring out how to translate that concept into roleplaying terms, without having to ride herd on the player.

Here's one idea: After being resurrected, your alignment changes to evil for rules purposes. You don't have to change how your character behaves, but you are nevertheless an unnatural thing, a spawn of darkness. Holy items burn you, alignment detection pings you as evil, etc.

Another is to give the resurrectee some "unnatural" traits. These should be net neutral or negative, not beneficial. For instance, the character might gain darkvision at the expense of being blind in sunlight.

 

[LurkAway]

"I can see dead people."

C'mon, someone was going to say that sooner or later.

 

[fba827]

i'm a fan of story developing part of the characters in tandem with player build choices, so i like this idea. but having said that, i'd shy away from it being something beneficial but instead should be neutral or negative. else, you might end up with other players who are jealous that they lived which seems like an awkward thing to not reward as much.

Here are some random ideas off the top of my head.


* Called back to the dead.
When dying something accelerates the pull from dying to dead as the spirit is more closely linked to limbo and therefore easily pulled back there

* Whispers of the dead
After every sleep, some sort of endurance-style check to see if he got a peaceful sleep despite hearing whispers from the dead all night. AND once in a while the whipsers actually give some hint of what is about to come up in the adventure (representing some small bonus or clue for the current adventure)

* ability to sense undead

* ability to sense areas that have strong emotional echos (i.e. there was a family slaughtered in this room / there this locket belonged to a woman who felt strong and intense love / this dagger echos with a sadness )

* he is a little crazy (or at least everyone thinks he's gone a little crazy -- perhaps he really is seeing ghosts, but no one believes him and therefore thinks he's crazy)

* is able to bypass resistances of undead BUT also takes double damage from undead creatures

* is under a strong compulsion/gaes to reunite someone (living) with a spirit that he met while in limbo (i.e.a minor quest... reunite lovers... kill the other to bring them together? or find a way to raise the dead one? etc).

* takes a penalty to endurance and diplomacy but bonus to intimidate due to a slightly sickly appearance


(Note that the exact mechanics of any of this sort of depend on what system you're playing. But the concept is what's important first...)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I would not do the 'character knows when someone is fated to die' bit. D&D combat is far to swingy for that.

 

[Stormonu]

Some interesting things you could throw out:

* "You are my reaper" - Death has returned the character, realizing the character's profession will reap him more souls. The character is no longer allowed to show mercy to his opponents; he must kill them.

* "A soul for a soul" - In order to revive the character, someone else near and dear to the PC must take his place in the afterlife. The character must deal with the consequences of "trading places".

* "When I die again, I'm not going back there". The character has seen his ultimate fate after death and has thankfully, been rescued from it. Now, the character either intents to fly right, or ensure he doesn't otherwise return to that miserable existence.

* "Life means nothing, I was happy there". If the character is left to dwell on his current existence, he becomes morose, perhaps suicidal, desiring to return to that peaceful afterlife. There is also the fear, perhaps, of doing something that will strip that reward away.

* "I have unfinished business". The death experience has jolted the character into fulfilling some task or duty before death returns to claim them. This business takes precedent to all other concerns.

* "I am not who I was". The character didn't really return from the afterlife, instead some other soul has taken up residence. It doesn't have to be malicious, it could be an unquiet individual with some unfinished business or simply wasn't ready to move on and found a second chance at life.

* "You've only a little time". The character has been returned to finish the quest, but will be recalled once again, after his goal has been completed. The character is literally living on borrowed time.

* "You have given up your place". By returning, the character has given up his rightful place in the afterlife. Upon his next death, he is condemned to a bleak afterlife of non-existence.

* "I see dead people". The character has an unusual connection to the spirit world. Undead sense something unusual about the character, and the character can sometimes sense their presence. In certain cases, he and undead may find they have an affinity, while other times his presence may drive them mad.

* "Death isn't what you think it is". The character has peered behind the curtain of the afterlife, and it has given him unusual understanding into the mortal world. He sees or knows things other do not, but he also knows terrible secrets that mortal minds were not meant to contain.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Once a character dies that first time, does his or her body immediately go into limbo? Or, does it go straight to where ever his or her deity considers the afterlife? (Valhalla, Heaven, etc)

We had this question come up when a PC in our group was raised from the dead - was he in his deity's afterlife? (he was not an avid follower of this deity - more like, paid homage to the deity.) Was he in some sort of limbo? Was his soul controlled by the god of death? What happens to him in the afterlife? Does he even remember what happened?

Lots of questions. I think it's one of those "what answer is best for the player and your world?"

 

[kitsune9]

I had a player whose character was very shallow. She was only in adventuring for profit and paid lip service to her god. She gave no offerings, no prayers, nothing when things were going good for her, so when she died, an evil god came to her and offered her power in exchange for resurrection. However, making a "deal with the devil" cost her big time. She would be under a geas which would be revealed at a later moment and her physical appearance change to represent a more likeness of the god who raised her (essentially, he did a very nice, "Property of Evil God." with beautiful draconic glyphs and tattoos, changing skin tone, physique, and eyes). It made the other player characters nervous when they discovered that she was resurrected (she was originally disintegrated) and completely changed.