D&D: Death & Dismemberment

[onedtwelve]

I've never allowed resurrection in my campaigns, and if I did, I'd handle it like this.

I'd make each of the other PCs sacrifice something significant from themselves (a finger, a eye, an arm) and I'd have them all, including the resurrectee, take a permanent loss to maximum hit points equal to maybe 10% (I'd make this a permanent percent, so they're always at 90% max instead of taking a loss of 5 when they had 50hp and always being down 5hp). Then, depending on the sacrifices of the PCs, I'd give a chance that the resurrectee didn't get resurrected. If the sacrifices were significant (as in larger or more important, an eye from the sharpshooter for example) enough, the PC will be resurrected every time.

I think that would be significant enough that only the most loved PCs would make it back from the dead.

 

[AeroDm]

Plot costs:
For many years I didn't have a method to bring the dead back to life. Then, one campaign focused on a dracolich attempting to come back to life to fertilize the last clutch of dragon eggs which he had been protecting for thousands of years. The villains efforts to return the undead to life were twisted by the PCs to bring the Raise Dead (and its ilk) spell into the world. This also had consequences, though, as thousands of souls being pulled from the afterlife back into the mortal world tore at the veils between worlds, polluting the land.

Mechanical costs
I like it to cost something, but not something permanent. I find that a permanent punishment just encourages people to get grumpy and the game (for me) is supposed to be about fun. I usually have some penalty related to the death that fades after about three sessions, can be overcome early, and, sometimes, can be turned into a benefit. For example, a player killed by goblins might be shaken whenever encountering goblins for the next three session (or three adventures, encounters, whatever unit makes sense), but if he solos a goblin of his CR or higher, permanently gains Favored Enemy Goblin.

 

[Hand of Evil]

We just take their stuff and leave the bodies Sometimes we get to kill them when they come back

.......



Okay, this has a lot to do with my world myth and house rules.

When a characters dies, they need to be given a "last rites", this does a few things, protects the spirit of the dead and also prevents the body from coming back as an undead.

The spirit is in a Transitive Plane, where they need to travel to their after life home. This plane is neutral in nature but has zones of protection within it, hot spots of shrines, temples and holy places in the material world. This plane also has some monsters within it that live off un-protected souls, this is how you get some undead.

The amount of time spent within the plane has a lot to do with the character level and how religious they were. This basicly is a way to put a time line to any resurrection.

Resurrection is handled as a side adventure for clerics, they sort of have a out of body experance, cross over, find the person in question and talk them into coming back.

 

[Bullgrit]

Re: Thread title
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/75569-what-does-oad-d-stand.html#post1335907

Bullgrit

 

[Corathon]

Raise dead is usually available if you have the coin and know a friendly high priest. Since I run 1E you need to get a (more or less) complete body to the cleric within the time limit, there's a chance that the spell doesn't work and the person is dead for good, and a point of CON is lost if the spell does work, so coming back from the dead is not exactly a walk in the park.

Resurrection doesn't need a complete body and can bring back someone dead for decades, but people who can cast it are very rare, it has the same chance of failure (and loss of CON) as raise dead and (since it ages the caster) nearly always requires a quest.

Of course, there's always reincarnation (a real crapshoot) or limited wish, wish, or alter reality (all likely requiring quests, all only castable by a few people).