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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 4268761" data-attributes="member: 43283">I agree with Aus_Snow, but perhaps in a slightly different fashion...Some people like the idea of character death in D&D and others don't. Pick a side.But actually _pick_ one. Don't waffle back and forth. Either eliminate Raise Dead mechanics entirely or embrace them.I've been playing rpgs for 20 years, and the _first time_ I ever had a GM that allowed _any_ kind of coming back from the dead was a short-lived game group I found when I moved here to New Jersey 2 years back.Yeah, that's right... 20 years of perma-death, except for one recent and brief game.Personally? I think death sucks. When I _run_ games though, it's an option the whole group decides on. If everyone wants death to be on the table (i.e. an option), then they get the option for it to be permadeath or not.If they go for the option of being able to come back from the dead, then that's it. I don't make a big production out of it, although I do make sure that there's an option for permadeath to NPCs.Every time I see someone go on about wanting to "limit" the options for Raise Dead/Ressurection, it always makes me shake my head. As I see it, all they're really trying to do is have the appearance of allowing characters to be able to come back from the dead, but really wishing they didn't have to and hoping that none of their players will be willing to jump through all the hoops to get their character back.It's not hard to "balance" people coming back from the dead, at least in terms of what happens in the world. People can only be dead for X amount of time, damage to [x], [y], and [z] parts of the body means it can't be brought back (brain/head, heart, and spine are good ones), it costs money, you've got to have an actual body to bring back to life (not just pieces of it), casters are able to place a spell on a body to block it from being brought back to life before the time limit is up, there's weapons out there that destroy/trap the soul.They're you've limited coming back from the dead.Not everyone can afford it, it's possible to inflict damage that gets around it, and people can still be assassinated.If you want some sort of mechanical slap in the face, simply assign a cumulative -1 to all actions for every [hour] /[day] / [whatever] that someone is dead. The penalty goes away at the rate of 1 per every day of rest. Can't be changed or sped up. There, now you've got a mechanical penalty.If the people kicking around forums are to be believed, the cleric doesn't _need_ any kind of anything to make up for taking away their ability to bring people back from the dead. They're already over-powered as it is.Personally, I just toss the standard D&D cleric out the window. It's a god-powered Fighter/Mage that's got healing, utility and combat spells, stuff for dealing with the undead, and bringing people back from the dead. If you're interested in "balancing" things, make people multiclass to get all that power.</blockquote>

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