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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 1812051" data-attributes="member: 4036">I hate the Raise Dead mechanics as written.  In all the story hours I've really enjoyed, in the D&D fiction I admire most, a death is an event to be mourned.  But I find in my game it tends to just have my players complaining about the diamonds they are going to have to buy. I began to change this and add more depth to the game and the organizations and levels of power in various doctrines and beliefs and churches by making it so that only a priest of the god that a person follows can bring them back on the spot. Priests of other gods can reach into the afterlife and return the souls of the fallen, but only with preparation and on a day holy to their god when their god's power is at an apex and they can reach into the domain of another god and pluck up a soul to return to the living. And this is on the Faerunian calendar, so believe you me, there are a LOT of holy days. But this isn't enough in my game and sparked some serious out of game friction when due to the fact that travel was limited by Faerzess in the Underdark it actually took well over half a session to get a Player back into the game because she didn't want to take over as the NPC and she didn't want to retire her current character upon her death. It's gotten to the point where I absolutely have to change the rule.  Anyone else out there feel that insta-rez's cheapen the game or lessen the loss of death?  I mean, sure, you lose a level, and I guess you can equate that a little to the in-character play of it.  But that's not what tends to happen, despite intentions.  If someone in your party is walking around with a Raise Dead prepared at all times, and you wake up after a battle, how do you react to that in-character? Better yet, what is some alternate system (besides encouraging the players to prepare for battle a little better) that would make resurrection something other than the first choice, but still ensure the highest level of player uptime without cheapening the story?</blockquote>

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