Death Penalty as "Transformation": Alterations to Raise Dead

[darkbard]

Rather than simply imposing the standard -1 to rolls for half a level when a character is raised from death, why not have the player rework the character with a new race that represents the harrowing experience of transitioning from life to death and back again? This might handicap certain very specific builds with regard to theme requirement or racial power, etc., but there are enough "returned-from-the-beyond" type races in the game that most classes should work just fine, if perhaps not with the fine-tuning of a CharOp character.

Revenant (DEX, CON/CHA), Vryloka (CHA, STR/DEX), Shade (CHA, INT/DEX) and even Deva (WIS, INT/CHA, "immortal in origin," after all) all provide stat options to match up with any class's primary stat (although not necessarily the preferred secondary). Heck, even Warforged (CON, STR/INT) could be reflavored as a shambling zombie type creature. And this provides a rather flavorful way of making character death and rebirth meaningful in mechanical terms as well as fictional.

Anyone do something like this or a variant thereof?

 

[Garthanos]

i see raised from the dead such a big thing that any sort of character morphing the player was interested in... ie mix in a brand new reincarnation to it if you like.

 

[MoutonRustique]

That's a game-defining concept - as in, this needs to be known by the players before the game.

On the other hand, having the dead character come back as a selection of Revenant, Vampire, or other would be an excellent approach in terms of world-building!

It explains a great deal about why it isn't "widely" used, it makes for inheritance situations much clearer, it sets a clear and obvious consequence to death - plus it's not a penalty per say, but it's still serious enough that it's not something that would be ignored or, planes-forbid, sought.

That is a great idea! (just make sure the players know of this before - unless their brand new players, then they have to expectation of being back from the dead with a wink-and-a-whistle ).

 

[Garthanos]

It explains a great deal about why it isn't "widely" used, it makes for inheritance situations much clearer, it sets a clear and obvious consequence to death - plus it's not a penalty per say, but it's still serious enough that it's not something that would be ignored or, planes-forbid, sought.

In the wheel of time they had an explicit in-universe character type ta'veren that amounts to well Player Characters these are people who are more strongly woven into the fabrique of time and destiny
How I play it in role-games the heros are the only ones who a resurrection would even have a chance of working on and that chance is the will of the Player.

I see no reason for me to assume players coming back from the dead says anything about the NPCs in fact I make it known also they probably cannot fix most oops I let an NPC die or killed the wrong one errors by using it either.

Death not having a consequence is meh for stories.

 

[darkbard]

That's a game-defining concept - as in, this needs to be known by the players before the game.

Oh, for sure. I presupposed that such a decision must be group consensus--and not just between a single player and the DM either!

 

[darkbard]

I see no reason for me to assume players coming back from the dead says anything about the NPCs

Absolutely. The separation of mechanics between PCs and NPCs is another thing that 4E really got right--especially in how it serves story, as you note.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I see resurrection etc as basically Flavor. What is going to happen? You're going to create a new character and resume play. What is being proposed here is.... creating a new character and resuming play! In other words, its just a way to create some character continuity, or narrative continuity and new hooks and etc. Death is just another transition in the story. Things go on!

 

[Garthanos]

I see resurrection etc as basically Flavor. What is going to happen? You're going to create a new character and resume play. What is being proposed here is.... creating a new character and resuming play! In other words, its just a way to create some character continuity, or narrative continuity and new hooks and etc. Death is just another transition in the story. Things go on!

Indeed you could also create a clone and call the character their brother if you prefer...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Indeed you could also create a clone and call the character their brother if you prefer...

Tribord VII? LOL, that's an old one from my 1e group.

 

[CAFRedblade]

Older editions had a spell called Reincarnation. While you were brought back from the dead, your race would likely change. You could look into that.
As for Raise dead spells, keep in mind that coming back from the dead requires the soul to want to return, or able to do so. Some options for returning could be very campaign/story specific.
PC having it's soul implanted into a Warforged body, or rising as a revenant or Vampire, and so forth.