D&D 4E Do you limit or ban raise dead? Do you expect to again in 4E?

[Claudius Gaius]

Depends on the setting. In one world they had to burn bodies and ritually dispose of the ashes to keep them from coming back as something nasty, but raise dead worked fine if you could do it in time. In another they had to make pre-existing arrangements (usually a special talisman) to anchor your soul, otherwise it would depart beyond recall shortly after death. On yet another it was complicated, and thus rare, but doable. In a couple of worlds its been freely available, but rarely used: the cautious characters rarely died and they mostly thought the incautious ones were crazy and rarely wanted to get them back. In another, once you're dead you're dead - although having your body animated and being mystically bound into it is an option. There are always ways to make death permanent of course, but they normally don't come up without warning. Whether or not the character thinks that something is important enough to risk it is up to them.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I don't limit it or ban it, but I DO make liberal use of having NPC's refuse to return from death, almost - but not quite - eliminating it as a useful spell for anyone but PC's.

 

[the Jester]

I DO make liberal use of having NPC's refuse to return from death, almost - but not quite - eliminating it as a useful spell for anyone but PC's.

Ooh, I do this too- though certain npcs are happy to come back, especially if they are the pcs' arch-foes.

 

[Tyonisius]

I put limited it a little. I primarily do this as follows.

1) Death causes a permanent loss of 2 Con that cannot be regained.

2) Players can create new chars at the exact same exp as the character who died.

With these two in play people rarely want to be rezzed more than once or twice at most.

 

[Quartz]

Basically as normal, but with the addition of reversing Death effects if cast very soon after (during or immediately after the combat). "He's not dead, he's only resting." Or, "It's only a flesh wound." No level loss from such a usage, either. I rationalise this as the life force still lingering around the body. If considerable time passes before the character is resurrected then the normal rules apply.

 

[Switchblade]

Never allow it or it's ilk. Death should be permenant or it all gets silly. I will bend the death at -10 rule to avoid PC's dieing too common but once dead it's new charcter time. There is a name for things that return after they die, it's undead.

Have only played in one game where it has happened and that was due to the GM bringing back the PC rather than the players.

We cremated him with all his non magic gear as grave goods, not even contemplating bringing people back was allowed. He was rather miffed to come back to find he had no clothes or armour and his weapons had been warped by the heat though

We never trusted him after that, even after turning undead didn't work.

 

[Switchblade]

Dunno about 4th ed, after the £ spent on 3/3.5 I doubt I'll bother but if I do I can't see that changing my mind about raising the dead either

 

[Greg K]

I limit raise dead and resurrection to the only deity with the life domain

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

In the Summer of 1978 (pre-AD&D PHB) I banned raise dead and resurrection with the approval of most of my players in the game at the time. Since then, very few new players have complained at the loss.

In the Summer of 1987 I brought back raise dead and resurrection but made them empathic and vampiric. Meaning that each spell required another person (victim or volunteer) to give up their life in exchange. It was only one occassion (c. 1996) that a PC volunteered to lay down their life. It was for a much beloved NPC semi-retired paladin nobleman. However, the duke failed his resurrection % roll (or system shock, I forget) and thus I ruled that the PC knight did not lose his life.

In 1994 I introduced the pacifict PC class who could cast non-empathic cure and raise spells. However, I boosted the spell levels and kept the non-empathic versions limited to the pacifists.

Today in 3x, Resurrection is 8th level and Raise Dead is 7th level. There is the non-empathic version available for pacifists and the the empathic/vampiric for priests of Hades/Pluto and evil necromancers.

 

[cmrscorpio]

I limit it via having a very low population of npc clerics of 9th level or above. Once the pcs can do it themselves, more power to them, but until then...

ditto