D&D: Death & Dismemberment

[steeldragons]

Ok, the title might be a bit misleading. This thread is about Death...but not Dismemberment. Sorry 'bout that.

Specifically...

How do you handle character Death in your campaigns?

In my game/world, there is a Death Goddess. She is "True Neutral." Thus, her clerics/priests/order is as well. She is one of those "judge the soul" type of Death gods, sitting in eternal judgement of whether a soul is sent to the higher planes or the lower...or left to wander in the "limbo" like domain.

I have worked out a good deal of ritual and rite for this religion and worked up various members of the order at various levels of their hierarchy, though I have yet to have a player choose to be a cleric in-game of this goddess.

The world has lots of magic. "Raise Dead" is certainly possible, though not at all "cheap" or easy to accomplish/find someone capable of casting. "Resurrectoin" even less so. Obviously, yes, the clerics of the goddess of death are one of the only orders capable of such magics (in fact, I believe there are only 3 deities I allow access to those spells).

Do you have, either play out or simply narrate, "death rites" or funerals for characters that aren't/can't be/[or in some cases] players don't want to "bring back."

How easy is "too easy" for raising the dead or resurrecting?

What kind of "price" do you exact for such spells?

Sure, a straight "spell = this much gp" is possible, but lacks....the flavor and color I like for my games. A "quest" or "geas" for the servants of the death goddess are all well and good....but strike me as a bit "boring/expected/over done".

But, well, just looking/asking what's out there...if anyone handles this kind of thing differently than just "Mark off X,000 gp. Ok you're alive again. The party goes on its merry way."

So...how do you handle Death in your games?

Have fun and happy raising.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Sir Robilar]

In a campaign I played in there were no high costs or XP penalties involved for resurrecting someone from the dead. However, meddling with the powers of life and death involved some dangers for the casting cleric. There was a chance that the cleric himself could be heavily damaged from casting the spells - the logic behind that was that channeling the powers of life and death through one´s body is too much for most mortal bodies. The DM rolled a %-chance that depended on the clerics level. I think there was a 20% chance minus the cleric´s level that something bad happened. Usually the cleric lost an arm or both (being the vessels through which he channeled the energies), but sometimes (I think on a 100) it was fatal. As a result, resurrection was very sparse and clerics were never easily convinced.

 

[Umbran]

How do you handle character Death in your campaigns?

I'm running Classic Deadlands at the moment - a game that doesn't give PCs the ability to bring people back from the dead. However, the game does include a way that characters may come back from the dead anyway - if they come back, they're a form of undead, with new powers and new problems associated with that state. I haven't seen much need to change the way the game handles this.

The game also has a way for handling dismemberment - the hit location system specifically allows for limb loss.

I don't have a hard and fast rule when I run D&D. I frequently have used one cost/control above and beyond those listed in the spells - not only does the character have to agree to come back, the god and/or divine power you are beseeching for aid has to want it, too. Most commonly, if the god doesn't think the character is a complete nozzle, they'll impose a geas/quest or equivalent upon the character - for the gods, breaking the laws of death has a cost, and they intend to recoup.

 

[Ahnehnois]

As far as handling death itself; I try to create challenges that don't directly map on to the PCs' abilities, and they die when the dice say they do. If this happens, they typically make a new character with the same resources as the current party, or they are resurrected or reincarnated in some way.

As far as resurrection, I have for some time used a rule from Heroes of Horror requiring that for each soul; brought back, one must be sacrificed. I also added a stricture that the sacrifice must have at least as many HD as the resurrectee to prevent obvious abuses, and in practice have enforced that they must be of the same creature type to prevent animal sacrifices. I find this adds a nice moral gray area, and explains why resurrection is not ubiquitous.

Reincarnation is a different, muddier situation.

 

[Jack7]

How do you handle character Death in your campaigns?

With a burial, unless the body can't be recovered.

 

[Roland55]

It varies, from world to world. In some, it's just not possible.

Generally, I make it reasonably easy to be returned to action from about Lvl 4 until about Lvl 10. Before that, it's too easy to simply start another character -- after that, I want to raise the tension level (and the players plus their character resources are significant enough to generally avoid death with solid play).

As to playing out the rituals, it really depends on the situation.

 

[FinalSonicX]

All of my campaigns have permanent death, though there are special rules for how we handle that, and special flavor for it as well.

In my campaigns, death is permanent with the exception of both holy and dark magic. Holy magic can be used for raise dead/resurrection but the catch is that this power is only used in certain circumstances where the gods feel it is necessary. This power is also imbued in several artifacts in my campaign world. All of them are in limited supply or guarded heavily by creatures or dangerous organizations. As a result, resurrection is only available when the plot calls for it or they undergo a quest to attain an artifact capable of bringing the dead to life.

Dark magic, however, is available to any cleric of the appropriate level (and while I refer to it as dark magic, it is not necessarily evil). This magic is far more risky because it is not guaranteed to work and there can be disastrous side effects. The cleric undergoes a ritual with the body and the DM rolls a d%. The result on the roll determines the effects. There's a decent chance the person is brought back with no significant issues other than an extra point of wisdom and one less point of constitution. There is also another chance that the soul is lost or snatched up by creatures that lie on the planes in between as the soul attempts to return to the body. The worst possibility is that a dark creature from the abyss takes the normal soul's place and inhabits the body, transforming it into an abomination capable of a great deal of destruction.

Due to the potential moral issues and the risks involved, dark magic is illegal on penalty of death in my campaign setting. Thus, my campaign keeps a lot of its internal logical consistency and it creates a lot of drama and potential future quests if a party member dies and the party is intent on bringing the member back to life.

As for flavor, my campaign setting has two separate goddesses of death. One is a neutral goddess which attempts to ferry souls from their body to their rightful destination. A soul's destination is determined by the God they worship. If a soul is faithful, a deity usually grants them passage into their plane/domain but many often decide different fates for certain specific souls (some evil gods allow worshipers to inhabit the bodies of undead or allow them to wander the earth as spirits). If a soul is not faithful or has upset their deity gravely, then that deity may choose to abandon their soul so that they become a ghost. If a creature did not have a deity in life or worshiped the neutral goddess of death and has not greatly offended any gods, then the neutral god of death allows them a choice as to where they would like to remain during the afterlife.

The other goddess of death is an evil goddess who often tries to steal the souls to return to her domain in the abyss, where the souls are hoisted onto a great wall where they exist in torment, bolstering her power. Souls can be rescued from the wall but it is not simple nor easy.

These two goddesses often compete and battle over "ownership" of the souls. Worshipers of the goddess of death often pray over the fallen, hastening the arrival of their goddess (ensuring their safe arrival to their destination in the afterlife)

This has been working out exceptionally well in all of my campaigns. The fluff and the mechanics complement each other and I always find players very involved when someone dies. Many find themselves more connected to their character's religion (or lack thereof) and often times individuals end up worshipping the neutral goddess of death and they often utter prayers over the recently dead. It really enriches our experience and I'm integrating all of these things directly into the RPG system I'm currently designing.

 

[Pentius]

I've taken to removing any kind of raise dead type spells in my games. They cheapen death, in my opinion, and make me wonder why any noble or rich person ever dies before natural causes.

Some of the 4e Epic Destinies have a built in way to bring yourself back from the dead, and I'm fine with that. It's suitably epic. I'd also be all for a player initiated quest to discover some long lost or insanely hard ritual to bring back a beloved PC or NPC. I just don't like the approach of "Oh, my brother's dead. I suppose that sucks. Grab his corpse, we'll pawn his weapons for a rez."

 

[FinalSonicX]

I've taken to removing any kind of raise dead type spells in my games. They cheapen death, in my opinion, and make me wonder why any noble or rich person ever dies before natural causes.

Very true and I've often thought the same thing. It's always bugged me when I play in a campaign world with freely accessible raise dead spells. Sometimes a party member would die and all it would mean is that we would have a little less gold on hand.

Assassinations would have a lot less meaning since anyone worth the trouble assassinating would probably have enough money and a support network that would be capable of bringing them back if anything bad happened.

 

[S'mon]

I treat it that Raise Dead can only rarely bring somebody back; the ritualist can determine this at the initiation of the Ritual, before using up the components. In practice that means that typically PCs can be brought back, while very few NPCs can be, but it's never a foregone conclusion either way. A major NPC villain could be Raised, while a PC could be unwilling to return, or (in theory) unable to do so.