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How do you handle death?
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<blockquote data-quote="Yair" data-source="post: 3623180" data-attributes="member: 10913"><p>I follow the core rules. Doesn't anyone do that anymore?</p><p></p><p>In low levels, <em>raise dead</em> is just too expensive to be an option, so death matters. At higher levels, death means losing a level which hurts very much - I've had players prefer not to be raised, instead drawing up a new character. (At very high levels death doesn't even lower your level.) I don't think this "diminishing" of death is a problem, it isn't in my game. There are still plenty of ways to truly die for me to scare the PCs with if I want to (barghests are a favorite), there is still the looming threat of a TPK, and so on. The players have by this point invested a lot in their characters, and I don't think it's a stretch to let them come back from the dead - if they want to, and the rest of the party can arrange it (finding a high-level cleric, bringing him the body in time, paying the money...). [There are plenty of Churches out there that would be willing to help the PCs out - old allies, members from the party cleric's church, deities that care more about the money and favors the PCs will owe them, and so on; so finding a high-level willing cleric isn't generally a problem.]</p><p></p><p>My next campaign will be a low-magic one. No resurrections, period. But I'll also have no obligatory character deaths, period. Instead, I'll use something like the following rule:</p><p></p><p>Deathbed Conversion: If you want to, you can refuse to die. You're instead only unconscious and severely wounded, and will recover to a stabilized state at fully-negative hit points [-10] after a few hours. Work with the DM to decide what effects dying had had one you, however, based on the manner of your death. Here are some guidelines:</p><p>* Death from bleeding (failing to stabilize) will probably not leave a physical mark, but may scar you emotionally. </p><p>* Death from some attack that directly takes you to death [-11 to -19 hp] will lead to scarring and physical marks. If the fireball sends you to -15 hp, for example, you'll probably suffer at least some permanent burn marks.</p><p>* If the attack lowered your hp far below the minimum, to -20 hp or less, a disability might be in order (perhaps you lost an arm, or an eye, or maybe the wounds lower your Con). </p><p>* In some cases, death may be unavoidable. I for one can't think of a manner that someone will survive being quartered, for example.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yair, post: 3623180, member: 10913"] I follow the core rules. Doesn't anyone do that anymore? In low levels, [i]raise dead[/i] is just too expensive to be an option, so death matters. At higher levels, death means losing a level which hurts very much - I've had players prefer not to be raised, instead drawing up a new character. (At very high levels death doesn't even lower your level.) I don't think this "diminishing" of death is a problem, it isn't in my game. There are still plenty of ways to truly die for me to scare the PCs with if I want to (barghests are a favorite), there is still the looming threat of a TPK, and so on. The players have by this point invested a lot in their characters, and I don't think it's a stretch to let them come back from the dead - if they want to, and the rest of the party can arrange it (finding a high-level cleric, bringing him the body in time, paying the money...). [There are plenty of Churches out there that would be willing to help the PCs out - old allies, members from the party cleric's church, deities that care more about the money and favors the PCs will owe them, and so on; so finding a high-level willing cleric isn't generally a problem.] My next campaign will be a low-magic one. No resurrections, period. But I'll also have no obligatory character deaths, period. Instead, I'll use something like the following rule: Deathbed Conversion: If you want to, you can refuse to die. You're instead only unconscious and severely wounded, and will recover to a stabilized state at fully-negative hit points [-10] after a few hours. Work with the DM to decide what effects dying had had one you, however, based on the manner of your death. Here are some guidelines: * Death from bleeding (failing to stabilize) will probably not leave a physical mark, but may scar you emotionally. * Death from some attack that directly takes you to death [-11 to -19 hp] will lead to scarring and physical marks. If the fireball sends you to -15 hp, for example, you'll probably suffer at least some permanent burn marks. * If the attack lowered your hp far below the minimum, to -20 hp or less, a disability might be in order (perhaps you lost an arm, or an eye, or maybe the wounds lower your Con). * In some cases, death may be unavoidable. I for one can't think of a manner that someone will survive being quartered, for example. [/QUOTE]
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