TwinBahamut
First Post
I'm fine with having Raise Dead spells/rituals/etc, but I wouldn't mind some major changes to how they work and how they are presented. Honestly, because of the nature of both why some people like it and why other people dislike it, some compromise is possible.
The biggest advantage of Raise Dead is that it lets a character return to the game after dying, which a lot of people like because they don't want to give up on using a character just because of a failure or major setback.
The biggest disadvantage of Raise Dead is that is undoing a major event of a campaign like a PC death cheapens the game for many people, making it feel like there is no penalty for failure and nothing on the line if they fail. It also causes all kinds of problems if you think too hard about how such magic would change the way society works, which can be a big hit to things like verisimilitude.
If you ask me, the best way to resolve everything is to leave a Raise Dead effect in, but change its concept so it no longer is some effect that "heals" or "undoes" death. It would be an effect that lets a PC return to play as they were, but doesn't change the fact that the character died and must suffer the consequences of that. Instead, you could think of it as an ability that borrows the PC from the world of the dead, or merely delays the inevitable effect of death. Basically, a revived PC is still ultimately doomed, but can still fight as a member of the party in more adventures of the campaign.
The above probably sounds a bit like necromancy, which might be fair enough...
The biggest advantage of Raise Dead is that it lets a character return to the game after dying, which a lot of people like because they don't want to give up on using a character just because of a failure or major setback.
The biggest disadvantage of Raise Dead is that is undoing a major event of a campaign like a PC death cheapens the game for many people, making it feel like there is no penalty for failure and nothing on the line if they fail. It also causes all kinds of problems if you think too hard about how such magic would change the way society works, which can be a big hit to things like verisimilitude.
If you ask me, the best way to resolve everything is to leave a Raise Dead effect in, but change its concept so it no longer is some effect that "heals" or "undoes" death. It would be an effect that lets a PC return to play as they were, but doesn't change the fact that the character died and must suffer the consequences of that. Instead, you could think of it as an ability that borrows the PC from the world of the dead, or merely delays the inevitable effect of death. Basically, a revived PC is still ultimately doomed, but can still fight as a member of the party in more adventures of the campaign.
The above probably sounds a bit like necromancy, which might be fair enough...