Is RAISE DEAD (etc.) too readily available in most D&D campaigns?

[Aust Diamondew]

From what I've read of other groups, and from our group use to play, and from what I've seen/heard of many others groups, I'd have to say yes.

Comming back from the dead should be a rare occurence, even for PCs.

 

[DragonShadow]

In the campaign I'm currently running, one PC is a 12th level Cleric of no deity. On several occasions, he has attempted to raise NPC's that have died, and the attempt has failed for the simple reason that they didn't want to return.

The one stipulation that the soul be willing solves all problems, as many souls aren't willing to give up their 'eternal reward' to return to life on the Material Plane (or other Plane, if that's the case). Most recently, a Temple of Pelor was essentially massacred wholesale, and our resident cleric took it upon himself to raise at least the higher ranking priests of the temple (judging by their garb, of course). One was raised, the other two (he had resources enough to raise 3, using the resource on hand in the temple itself) refused.

While I do think it's slightly too low in spell level, the spell itself isn't widely used both because of the cost, and the reason given above: who wants to come back? (And depending on your cosmology, or the plane involved in their eternal rest, the soul may even have already forgotten its previous life.)

 

[Lalato]

It's funny, I've never been in a 3.x game where Raise Dead was used... ever. So I would say no, it's not an issue at all.

--sam

 

[Nyeshet]

Dust, actually. You can crush dozens of diamonds if need be.

:blink: Wow, I guess it has been a while since I last had to read that spell description. And I wasn't thinking of Resurrection or True Resurrection. Those also require dust (albeit in greater quantity).

Maybe I was thinking of 3e Raise Dead?

. . . .

Okay, I just checked. In 3e you required a single diamond, although only True Res required a 5000 gp diamond. For some reason both Raise Dead and Resurrection required a 500 gp diamond. I think Resurrection likely was supposed to cost a 1000 gp diamond. In any case, this was a matter of edition confusion on my part. Sorry.


Yeah, if it only requires diamond DUST, then it should be raised a couple levels. Which I have, in fact, done, although I had forgotten the reason until I read the 3.5e spell description again.

 

[ThirdWizard]

My current campaign revolves around the PCs being able to (and needing to) go to places that other people are not able to go. Indeed, the PCs' ability to go to these places has been a source of amazement to others. In all the Planes, I believe there are a total of seven characters who can do this. The game revolves around these particular PCs with this ability. It might be possible for a new PC to gain this ability, but it isn't likely.

A permanent PC death would derail the campaign tremendously. And, they die. Oh they die. It's a 12th level game, after all. A failed save can end in death. I had one wizard PC death happen in round 1 before he even had a chance to act (scorching ray + dominate person the fighter). It happens. And it will just keep getting more and more common as they go up in levels.

Making PC death permanent just wouldn't work at all. As is, we gloss over the Rez for the most part. The PCs are movers after all. They know people who can do this sort of thing for them, just like they know people who can do all sorts of other helpful things.

The Players enjoy the game like that, so it can work.

 

[Maldor]

i would leave it as is. It is very costly and if death is so prement then you could easly find players not wanting to take the effort to do a indepth personalilty for a desposable character i mean if they are going to be dead in two or three games do you want to spent a week or two working out the childhood goals and quorks the a character has just to die because of a missed save on a CR 9 wail of the banish trap or a botch roll on climb.

 

[William drake]

How offten are you killing your players is the question? there are countless ways to whoop-on players, make the combat dangerous and gritty without killing them every other game. Siimply saying "Wow, ouch, yes..the Troll hit you, now your unconcsious so you can't see what happens." turning to the other players the Dm Says, "you see his body hit square in the chest, doubled over, then grabbed by the back of his shoulder and thrown out the cave, his shins snapping on the rocks before he vanishes." Now, when the combat is over, the players find out that the knockedout guy, is seriously wounded, and will take along time to heal natrually without magical or medical aide. This way, the knocked out player didn't get the Xp, or the gold, but didn't die, and ended upw ith alot of wounds that will cost him to fix. He'll be smarter for it next time.

orther ways are to break, or cut off players limbs: fingers, hands, forearms, legs, knees...w/e, this inflicts damage, and leave them alive. Also, leave the player with lingering damage, a cracked rib or swollen hand that wont go down, give them -'s to their stats for weeks of In-game play. I love the healing chart from WOD for a human, check it out and see if you can work it into the game so that the players know how long it will take them to heal, how much down time, and how much it might cost to get better.

ON the other hand, if your playing the game less serious, then by all means us the healing spells, and the Raise Dead as a sort of "new quarter effect" or a "last man save" thats cool, but for those who are playing a more serious game, keep the Raise Dead away, becuse, once the players learn that they can come back, I feel, that the play their heros with less realisim, and throw themselves into likely deadly situations withless thought.

 

[The Iron Mark]

In regards to the question, it really depends from campaign to campaign.

From the default view though, things are balanced that PCs will die, and that if you are willing to spend the GP, you can bring them back. Resurrection magic is one of the defining points of D&D IMO.

 

[IceFractal]

I kind of wonder, for those who advocate harsher costs, don't you think the likely result will be a parade of new characters joining the party? I mean, let's consider the choice:

"Hmm, I could make the group go on a quest to appease the death god, spend about 75% of their money on rare ingredients, and then come back two levels lower with several permanent curses and need weeks to recover. Or ... I could make a new character, no cost for the group, no curses, less level loss ... yeah, tough decision there."

I look at Raise Dead as a tool for character continuity, to deal with the higher lethality of higher levels.

 

[Jawar]

Revivify and Revenance really took the weight away from death, especially if one has a group with 2 clerics AND a Favored Soul, loaded with such spells. We have a redundancy that has kept serious and costly death away from our purses - throughout the Shackled City adventure path.