Bring 'Um Back Alive?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Monk would be a good class, as you can choose to deal non-lethal damage at no penalty. Rogue would also work, wielding a sap.

And non-lethal poisons.

 

[Dandu]

Not viable that early.

Let the incredibly rich king foot the cost.

Also, boring.

Boring, but practical.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Let the incredibly rick king foot the cost.

Fixed that for you...

 

[Dozen]

Let the incredibly rich king foot the cost.

And what are the chances of a cleric being willing to raise corpses for entertainment in trade of payment? That would be a sidequest per raise even with the most corrupt cleric of the realm who just so happens to hang around in the king's court.

Boring, but practical.

Awesome, yet practical>Boring, but practical. Not up for discussion, dear troper.

 

[radja]

raise dead requires a willing subject. Beholders may be smart enough not to be willing to live a life in capticity, they prefer to stay in their god's domain.

 

[Dozen]

raise dead requires a willing subject. Beholders may be smart enough not to be willing to live a life in capticity, they prefer to stay in their god's domain.

Uh, you mean the Great Mother and Gzemnid? Don't misunderstand, I'm thankful for supporting my side of the argument, but the old woman is a deity of Tyranny, Chaotic Evil, batshit insane, may or may not murder you at any moment, and her son(a god of Deception and master illusionist) is not a lot better. Serving them is one thing, hanging around their turf is another.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I've enjoyed where this discussion has been going.

Yes, Raise Dead is expensive and the King has the ability to front the cost. Yes, no doubt Clerics could be found that would perform the service. Hit or miss on the willing part based upon each creature, sure.

However, another aspect to consider is a King who's willing to commission a group of adventurers to fill his zoo would be willing to commission multiple groups of adventurers, and prefer to receive the goods from those employees who will cost him the least amount of money. Yes, Raise Dead might be an option, but if the king is willing to pay 10,000gp for a Beholder, that diamond is coming out of your cut. The other adventurers who put the thing to sleep, they get more cash and the King gets slightly less inconvenienced for being expected to procure a diamond.

I fully expect rival parties and road bandits, all looking to claim your captive, to be part of such an adventure.

EDIT: Hm... Odd. I read 3 pages worth of posts, and when I posted my own, it inserted my message within page 2. I'm commenting on posts that have been made after this one in the posting order. It says I posted at 7:46am, I know I posted this afternoon.

 

[Razjah]

Either way, I don't think the raise dead option would work. Perhaps you could find an evil cleric, but I doubt you could find a good cleric willing to cast this to stuff a sentient being into captivity.



Something to consider with the adventure planning is the necessary "gearing up" to take down certain monsters. Perhaps to fight the beholder you need a magic item that will create a zone of anti-magic that will stop the eye rays. Getting this into place before rolling the monster into a cage would be the fight (mind the teeth). Actually, turning the fights into puzzles would be awesome for this game. You don't want the party to kill the monsters, but they need to find a way to capture it. Since this seems to be a high-magic game, they could request/make/buy items that would be useful against a specific monster and then just wait until they need another. Or you could introduce side quests to get items for taking down specific monsters.

 

[Dandu]

And what are the chances of a cleric being willing to raise corpses for entertainment in trade of payment? That would be a sidequest per raise even with the most corrupt cleric of the realm who just so happens to hang around in the king's court.

I do not understand your logic. Are you saying that there are going to be no clerics in the OP's game world who would be at the employ of the court? That a cleric who serves the king must be corrupt? That there would be no god who would not care if his cleric helped a king set up a zoo? That finding enough diamonds would be a huge endeavor for a king who's best use of time, money, and effort is building an incredibly expensive zoo for exotic animals?

Either way, I don't think the raise dead option would work. Perhaps you could find an evil cleric, but I doubt you could find a good cleric willing to cast this to stuff a sentient being into captivity.

1) Neutral clerics exist.
2) Do you know something about the game world that the rest of us do not? Otherwise, how do you know what the distribution of clerics is?
3) So stuffing sentient beings in a zoo is bad. Why is the party doing it, and how did the king come by such a band of amoral scoundrels if evil people are so rare?

 

[Dozen]

I do not understand your logic. Are you saying that there are going to be no clerics in the OP's game world who would be at the employ of the court?

There propably is at least one.

That a cleric who serves the king must be corrupt?

Heavens, no. What nonsense.

That there would be no god who would not care if his cleric helped a king set up a zoo?

Finally we got to the point. Gods notwithstanding, Clerics of widespread religions(that is, those who are invited to court) want to be taken seriously. That's why they're widespread. They want respect, to appear powerful, unapproachable. Most people don't come to the cathedral for the joke of the week. That and similar you can get from clerics of Zagyg or the Exalteds. And not even the latters call the dead back from the grave for willy-nilly reasons. If that was how it worked, precious few above lower middle class would ever die permanently of anything but old age. No, they may accept payment, once or twice, for a friend, or a loved one, at the same church every few years, not bringing people or monsters you don't even know back, let alone commercially and on a weekly basis like a public service agent. What would happen to the image of your church if you've given your name to raising dangerous(never mind alignment), alien, unpredictable fey and aberrations from the dead for a flippin' petting zoo? It'd be a b*tch to pull that off as a publicity stunt. The risk is going to cost more for the party/king than a few thousand gold. Now, if they operated in secret, it's another story, but why make a zoo when no one can see it? Or more accurately, why would the DM have the king build the zoo in secret? So the party could approach the quest from a boring angle? There has to be more to his decision than a 'just because', otherwise I'm not buying it. A king whimsical enough to even think about this ridiculous idea might as well decide he doesn't care for what his people think of it.