Is it normal to come back from the dead?

[Aust Diamondew]

While most of my dead chars would jump at the chance to come back. Most never did. And I prefer it that way, coming back from the dead should be rare IMO.

Generally I myself (void of what my character would do) would like PCs to come back to life if I feel it would be good for the story or if I feel a lack of resolution.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I personally can never understand why someone wouldn't, I mean, even if you get tired of a character, you can just have him retire or something.

You don't even recognise that, perhaps, the character would have an authentic reason to want to stay dead?

 

[Abraxas]

I personally can never understand why someone wouldn't, I mean, even if you get tired of a character, you can just have him retire or something.

I've never tired of a character but in my entire gaming history I've had exactly 2 characters brought back from the dead. However - I don't think that means much. The situation where the death of my character hasn't been part of a TPK or near TPK has been extremely rare. So, the campaign usually ends at the same time that my character dies.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

In the spring of 1978 my players and I decided to ban Raise Dead and Resurrection. Since then I've ran many campaigns with lots of different players but kept the ban. Only of handful of the players ever complained. The vast majority were fine with it.

As a player, I refused offers of Raise Dead and Resurrection. Without death, lifes loses meaning.

Who wants to live forever?

 

[Hussar]

I do. Heh.

I've had cabal's of druids who used Reincarnate as a form of immortality. When they reached old age, they'd get together and the oldest one would commit to a ritual suicide and the others would then reincarnate him in a nice new young body.

Makes for one heck of a plot line. Besides, you should see the look on player's faces when that kobold walks up to them and introduces himself.

Why make a big deal about death as the DM? I leave it up to my players. If they want to be raised and have the cash to do so, fine. If not, here's the dice. To me, it's their character and their choice. What I want doesn't really enter into it.

 

[Dracomeander]

The poll just doesn't have the options needed for my vote to apply.

It really depends on the character and campaign specifics. I've had some characters raised or resurrected in one circumstance refuse to come back in another circumstance. The problem wasn't financial - the characters in question could afford and were offered True Resurrection. It was that the characters decided that it was time to join their patron in the outer realms and leave the mortal coil behind.

I realize this can sometimes disrupt campaign plots and make more work for the DM, but that is when the player and the DM need to communicate to make the transition less disruptful.

One the characters mentioned above was a cleric of Selune in a FR campaign with the Moon domain. The current situation was dealing with an uprising of the People of the Black Blood - a lycanthropic organization - when the character died again and chose to stay dead. Obviously, having access to the Moon Domain would have made the rest of the adventure easier, but the old character had adventured from 1st level up to 14th level without ever dying. Then he died and was resurrected three times in one adventure when they were in an alternate material plane cut off from Selune. When he died in the first combat of the adventure back in the Realms, he chose to stay dead so that he could continue to serve Selune since it was obvious that his time as an adventurer was past.

 

[Aaron L]

I voted always.

In order for the game to be challenging there must be a serious risk of death. If there is a serious risk of death PCs will die with some frequency. If every time a PC died they stayed dead, that would lead to a constant change in the PCs which would be highly detrimental to campaign continuity.

I understand players getting bored with a character from time to time and wanting a change but that should be kept to a minimum.

To the people that answered 'depends on the character', why would you create a character that hurts the game by refusing resurrections? It's much the same as creating a character that refuses to join the party.

Because characters develop after initial creation and may get a different outlook on life? Because "campaign continuity" is less important then accurately portraying a character to some people?

Lots of different reasons.

 

[The Thayan Menace]

Vultan Agrees!

Who wants to live forever?

"Who indeed?"​

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Haven't heard of Morganti blades then?

No. Are they some "anti-resurrection" weapon? If so, then I'd rather keep Raise Dead away than introduce some counteraction.

I prefer for a sense of mortality to remain in my games. As a player and as a DM, I like the feeling of, "If I make a wrong decision, then I can't play with this character anymore." It will, for example, help a player choose to let some injustice fester until the PC is better able to deal with it. It means that discretion remains the better part of valor. It means that plot lines can remain in place for longer. As for unfulfilled plotlines, well, they exist in the real world, too. I've never had a problem introducing a new character into a campaign who needs to form new connections. Incidentally, I also don't have characters die very often--maybe once a real-time year. The extra caution created by mortality adds significantly to the atmosphere, in my opinion.

Maybe part of my attitude is because of my low-level focus. I don't think I've ever played or DM'ed a game in which the PCs were above 8th level, and I've played for about 20 years. This is more because the campaigns remain short than anything else.

 

[drothgery]

No. Are they some "anti-resurrection" weapon? If so, then I'd rather keep Raise Dead away than introduce some counteraction.

In Steven Brust's Drageara, a Morganti weapon destroys the soul of a person killed by it, and so prevents them from being revified (roughly equivalent to a D&D raise dead, without the level loss); it also means that they won't reincarnate by natural means (which happens in that world). It should probably be noted that revification is about as common as raising dead characters in high-level D&D; among power players, if you don't make it permanent, it's safe to assume someone you killed will be back.

Since there are other ways of keeping someone from being revified (and they're about what they are in D&D -- destroying the brain or spine, destroy the body entirely, keep anyone from revifying the person for three days, use certain spells prevent revification), and for various other reasons, the use Morganti weapons is very rare, but does happen.