Fixing Resurrection and True Resurrection

[Anubis]

Okay, what's up with this 10 minute casting time? That makes both spells COMPLETELY useless in battle where they're likely to be needed most. Why is it impossible to bring someone back during a battle? Heck, for those super-climactic battles, all resources should be usable. As such, I think the casting times for these spells need some adjusting.

Raise dead is good at 1 minute. It wouldn't be helpful in battle anyway due to the person coming back in bad shape with no power.

Resurrection should be lowered down to 1 round. This should be an option, albeit not the favored option.

True Resurrection should be lowered down to 1 action. This is a 9th-level spell and should behave as such.

 

[DreamChaser]

The point is that if you fall in battle, you should stay fallen. I don't think this needs fixing. Characters are too recycleable as it is, IMO.

DC

 

[Anubis]

I think for a truly epic fantasy game, death should not come so easily. PCs already have a disadvantage in that they have to face battle after battle without rest while monsters can unleash everything in a single battle. Nothing ruins a game faster than the PCs getting killed.

The reasoning is that, if a new character is made or whatever, how do you realistically tie the new character to the party, especially an advanced group? Without making some cliche reasoning on the spot, you have nothing. The core of a good campaign is having well-developed characters, not realism in death. There is a time for character death, but it should not usually be on the roll of a die. Character death should be meaningful when it does happen or at least should add to the campaign. The campaign is, after all, the most important thing.

 

[Wish]

There are a number of spells in the Miniatures Handbook and Complete Divine that fix this problem somewhat. They are castable in combat and immediately get the target up and running around again. They all have some sort of drawback. One of them, IIRC, requires that the target be dead no more than a single round. The other version is only a temporary raise, leaving the target prone to dying again in approximately 1 min/level.

Also, depending on interpretation, Wish, Limited Wish, and Miracle can all be used for this purpose. They can either duplicate the aforementioned spells, or duplicate raise dead or ressurection with a 1 action casting time. However, some DMs I've seen rule that when using these spells to duplicate a spell with a casting time greater than 1 standard action, they take that long to cast. That interpretation doesn't seem to be supported by the rules as written, but do remember that you'll need to have the material component handy. Finally note that one of the listed possibilities for a Miracle is to raise fallen allies to continue fighting. Since it's listed in the PHB description of the spell, and costs the caster 5000 xp, it's very unlikely that the DM is going to screw around with that particular use of the spell.

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

"Fixing"?

This s u c k s.What kind of an epic game is this when it doesn't matter how many times your character is going to die within a few rounds?
I thought this post was to make resurrection and raise dead more unique and encounter to use and to see in the game,
not turn them into magic missile.
Where is the fear that your character may die,or the feeling when one of your beloved characters heroically dies in the middle of an epic battle?

What u propose turns dnd into another hack n slash computer rpg game.

______________
The Wizard

 

[Ibram]

Change the casting time to 1hr and require that it is cast on hallowed/unhallowed ground would make it a bit more rare...

another solution would be to remove it from the player list entierly, thus making players find NPC's to cast it for them.

The durration should not be shorter, if your character goes down durring the big fight then that adds to the drama of that big fight... besides would you realy want the big bad dooing this to his followers as well?

 

[BSF]

Hey guys! I'm not a mod, but can we at least be civil to each other? Different playstyles for different folks and all that.

Anubis, you obviously have a different interpretation of how PC Death should occur than I do. Still, what you propose has some unexpected side affects. What if the Cleric only has one 9th level spell? should it be used to memorize True Resurrection or some other spell? When faced with the prospect of Storm of Vengeance of Summon Monster IX, you might find that your players still don't want to memorize True Res. Would you also consider making it available spontaneously?

It also begs the question of whether the NPC's will be doing that as well.

Instead, you might consider creating some one-shot magic items that your PCs could make to do the same thing. Perhaps even a rechargable item that they quest for.

The casting times are mostly there to limit their effectiveness in combat. So, if you want to change that, the affects will be relatively minimal. You are just upping the volume of the magic in a way. (But ours goes to 11. ) If it works for your style of game, more power to you. But I think there are quite a few people who believe any sort of raising magic is already too easy to obtain.

 

[DreamChaser]

I think for a truly epic fantasy game, death should not come so easily. PCs already have a disadvantage in that they have to face battle after battle without rest while monsters can unleash everything in a single battle. Nothing ruins a game faster than the PCs getting killed.

You are absolutely right on this. That is why a "challenging" encounter is 4 PCs of a given level against 1 NPC of the same level (A 4th level fighter, wizard, rogue, etc. is a CR 4 encounter). The PCs have to outgun the bad guys in order to win. It's the way the numbers work.

Games can suck when the PCs die. This can often be a DM issue. A balanced game with a reasonable DM should not lead to character death at every turn. Sometimes characters die despite the best efforts of the DM to run a balanced game and the efforts of the player to keep the character alive. That is why the raise and res spells exist: not to keep you going in combat but to make sure that when death does happen, it does not HAVE to be permanent.

DC