How often are PCs raised?

[Trickstergod]

So do fireballs, but no one complains about fireballs being tossed everywhere in a town. (And fireballs are much more common in a D&D world.)

Quasqueton

Fireballs are just another way of dealing damage. They are not, however, a method to circumventing something so final as death. Fireballs don't trivialize dying.

And I'm curious how many people actually use the default magic setting, particularly among those who've answered this poll.

For my part, I don't, and didn't vote because of it. All the resurrection's in my game thus far have been cast by PC's. However, this is partly because PC's have refused trying to be raised in the past or derailing campaigns to go off in search of one.

 

[Romnipotent]

"raised" as in undead? I've done that a couple times
And the best was reviving, brainwashing, and sending after... Ahhh, they we're so happy to have him back, till he killed a couple of them.

Ahhh.... and the reincarnation of the things, as ogres, pulled back from death for menial tasks and guard duty.

 

[Gez]

Counting only tabletop play, I remember eight character death (speaking only of D&D campaigns).

A human monk, killed, not raised. Not one of my characters.
An elf ranger, killed, not raised. Not one of my characters.
An elf cleric, killed, not raised. One of my characters as a DM.
A halfling rogue, killed, raised. Not one of my characters.
A human rogue, killed, raised. Not one of my characters.
A dwarven bard/fighter, killed, reincarnated as an elf, killed again, raised. Not one of my characters.
A halfling rogue/cleric/fighter, killed, reincarnated as a human. My only character death as a player, in D&D.

So, as a DM, 0% of my PCs have been raised.
As a player, since (only in tabletop still) I have 6 other characters (that have not been killed yet), that makes around 14% of revived PCs.

Overall, the reviving rate in our group has been 5/8, and for "my" characters, 1/2.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Out of the last two campaigns, one as a player, one as a DM, I'd say about 80% death, 30% revival. Admittedly, raising the dead was more difficult in both games than in core D&D, but not impossible.

 

[werk]

I'd say 50% as a DM.
0% as a player. (if I die, I die)

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Hmmmm, in previous campaigns (pre 3e and dead 3e campaigns):

First campaign ever (1979-1980): Almost 100% (near TPK in G1, but the invisible thief took body parts back and I let them all get res'd). So that one's really about 87.5%.

First 3e campaign: 3 players dropped, of the final group of five players, only 1 died and was brought back. So, 20%. Then 4 PCs died and the one left alive turned evil so she wouldn't get us raised, or it would be 80%.

2nd 3e campaign: 4 players, 2 died first night and were raised. So 50%, but that group never played again.


Current campaigns:

The Eberron game I play in does not have such magic available (yet), but no one has died yet. So, 0%. For now....

The home game I run is standard, but the PCs are only 6th level. One person died and they used a scroll of Raise Dead they found (which I added since the player is a 10 year old kid and he was not there the day his PC died very heroically--I don't want to spend another hour making a 6th level PC with a 10-year-old ) So, 20%.

That leaves Living Greyhawk. My main PC has died five times. My other four PCs in that campaign are low level and have yet to experience death. Sure, it averages out to one per PC, but since it's only one PC (out of 5) that has actually died and been raised/reincarnated, I'd say 20%.


Wow--that's a lot of "20%" answers (3 out of 6 campaigns). I'll put 20% for my answer in the pool.

 

[Mokona]

You forgot "never". No one has ever been brought back from the dead in any D&D campaign I've ever played.

 

[Desdichado]

Same here.

We rarely have games that go above having 8th level characters, so coming back from the dead is rarely an option, especially as they spend their money on trinkets.

OTOH, since I rarely use the core rules straight up, and almost always remove resurrection as an option, the whole point becomes rather moot.

All of that is exactly true for me as well.

 

[ElvishBard]

I have only had 1 PC raised, but he had a paladin raised once and a rouge/barbarian raised twice. No one else ever gets raised because I can't kill them, especially one in particular, I swear that he sold his soul for the luck with dice he has.

I did kill another PC and he came back as a vampire, but I don't think that counts as raised.

 

[The_Universe]

In the last D&D campaign, 25% of the characters in the game were resurrected in one form or another. Of the characters who died, 75% were raised, resurrected, or reincarnated.