My Low Magic Game and Coming Back from the Dead

[Zhure]

I'm preparing to run a low-ish magic game, and am trying to structure the world accordingly.

The basic character building, applicable to NPCs as well as PCs, is the only allowed classes are those whose spell lists don't go over level 6. Bards, Adepts, Paladins and Rangers are the primary spellcasters. As healing will be challenging, I allow the Heal skill to work just like Use Magic Device when applied to curative devices.

I'm also allowing all magic items to be designed with a 50% cost modifier - only useable by the crafter. This means the BBEV can occasionally have an appropriate magic item without me worrying about it mucking with the campaign. I don't plan on over-using this option though. Maybe once or twice in the course of the campaign at most.

Reading the Raise Dead thread made me wonder if it will be too difficult to come back from the dead. As it stands now the only class capable of bringing someone back from the dead is a 17-20th level Adept. I'm also considering allowing a few sacred sites and holy relics be capable of resurrecting.

On the one hand, too many character deaths is bad for continuity, conversely too much immortality is bad for the low-magic feel I want. I'm looking for suggestions to make death not be the final curtain if the player really wants to bring a deceased character back.

 

[Telperion]

Plane hopping.

Your friend dies.

His soul flies of to the other worlds.

You want him back.

You go see a shaman (or anything else that is considered a know-it-all on otherworldly matters).

The Shaman tells you a great story, and you are once again motivated by the chance of finding your friend. (In the mean while the player who lost that character could take a NPC to play for a while)

You search for dimensional weak points and storm into the other worlds.

You find your friend's soul and bring him back, kicking and screaming if necessary.

Soul meets old body (preferrably kept fairly untouched by divine spells).

Resurrection!

This way you can keep doing it over and over again, but getting it done is by no means safe, easy or certain. Also, using the Manual of the Planes is somewhat questionable in a low magic world, but...what else are you going to do?

I suppose there could be a single cleric in the world with enough power to actually cast Raise Dead once a year. And he would require a quest in exchange for the resurrection.

...Well, there are options...

 

[Knightfall]

Reading the Raise Dead thread made me wonder if it will be too difficult to come back from the dead. As it stands now the only class capable of bringing someone back from the dead is a 17-20th level Adept. I'm also considering allowing a few sacred sites and holy relics be capable of resurrecting.

On the one hand, too many character deaths is bad for continuity, conversely too much immortality is bad for the low-magic feel I want. I'm looking for suggestions to make death not be the final curtain if the player really wants to bring a deceased character back.

Character deaths should be a springboard for more adventures, IMO. In my homebrewed campaign, World of Kulan, one of the main pantheons has Hades as its death god. No follower of the pantheon can be raised from the dead without the say of a Priest of Hades.

Other priest of the pantheon cannot raise the dead "nilly-willy". They can only raise a fallen member of their own church. Only Hades' priests can raise ANY pantheon follower and they will never raise the dead of followers from outside the pantheon.

It is the churches one, steadfast rule.

(And while Hades is also the wealth god in the pantheon, you can't buy "being raised" for non-believers. Buying "being raised" for other pantheon followers often works.)

Thus, getting a companion raised from the dead is an adventure in itself.

For your campaign, whether "Raise Dead" works or not, or is available to any priest (or adapt) of high enough level, is up to you! A god without death or repose as one of its granted domains shouldn't allow it's priests to raise just anybody.

Cheers!

KF72

 

[Steverooo]

1) Unearthed Arcana's "Armor as DR" rule - Scale Mail (+4 AC) reduces four points of lethal damage to Subdual, and provides four points worth of damage reduction to that non-lethal damage, as well... So a Fighter-1 who gets hit with a sword for 1D8+2, taking 6 HP of damage, takes two points of lethal damage, and four points of subdual, which the armor absorbs. (Sorry, not sure if Shield Bonuses work the same way, or not).

Were he lucky enough to find fullplate, he would have eight points of protection! Since you won't have much magical damage, this will greatly help in keeping armored PCs alive! (Also note that DR doesn't apply to fire, cold, acid, etc. It is not Energy Resistance; so breath weapons, etc., are not reduced!)

2) Nanorian Stones - Michael Moorcock, the author of the Elric saga, invented these magical heartstones, sometimes found in certain creatures from the lower planes, which had magical properties... Among their reputed powers were the ability to grant wishes, and bring the dead back to life!

In 1e, there was (IIRC) a 5% chance that any Balor with 101+ HP had one at its heart... Not much help to PCs in a low-magic campaign, but if they found one in a treasure hoard, somewhere...

Also, Bardic Knowledge might reveal where the great hero Cwm fell in battle against Scatha, and the PCs with a dead friend might quest to see if they can find one, there...

3) The Amber Solution - Zelazney's Amber was supposed to be the "one true reality", which all the others were reflections of... Travelling among the others, the Amberites sometimes met reflections of themselves, who were just (or pretty much) like them...

So, if a PC is a "Child of Prophecy", or somesuch, and dies, you can pop up another version of them from elsewhere. It's not really the best solution, but it might work.

4) Catman! - The PCs are (unknown to them) all scions of the King of Cats, and each have nine lives. At death, they disappear, reappearing (say) one week later, with no knowledge of what happened...

5) I Dream of Djinni - A PC saves the life of a woman being abused by a thug in the marketplace. Thereafter, she refuses to leave him, saying he has saved her life, and she has a "debt of honor" to repay. Try as they might, the PCs can't seem to get rid of her...

Actually, she is a Djinni Princess, and cannot leave until she has saved the life of "her" PC on three separate occasions. After that, she will POOF! She grants no other services, and saves all her magic for either defending herself, or her PC. She does not engage in combat.

6) We're Immortals - Highlander-style. The PCs can die, but they come back after a few rounds, regenerating. Unknown to them, there is a single way to kill each one of them, but it's never the same! One may need his head taken off, another require piercing the base of his brain, another can only be drowned, another burned, one takes acid damage, another electrical, etc. Whatever their weakness is, they don't regenerate from it...

The best way to do this is NOT to tell the PCs about it, until one of them dies! After that, when they get careless, let them face whatever it is that they are not immune to, and have to heal slowly. Keep them guessing about why some things hurt and others don't!

Not only does this keep them on their toes, but it also provides a reason for the group to be together... They're all special, in their own way, and want to find out how and why... Also, be sure to provide at least one NPC with the same power, and kill him off, at the appropriate time. It should be done after the PCs begin realizing that each has a weakness, and that they can be hurt... The NPC's death will come as quite a shock to them, and be a warning that any of them can die...

7) The Contest - Once a year, a spellcaster with the ability to raise the dead holds some sort of competition, of the GM's choice... It is a team event, and everyone who has a chance wants to enter! The winner, of course, gets a raise dead, usable then or later. This won't help, much, as it is only once/year, and even then, only one PC, and that's IF you manage to win!

8) Change the Rules! - Death doesn't occur at -10 HP, it begins at -10 (at first level, as a minimum), but when HPs rise above 10, it takes a number of negative HPs equal to your full positive HPs to kill you... You still pass out a zero, and you still bleed 1 HP/round, until stabilized. You can still die, and will likely spend days being unconscious, but will die less often.

9) Healing Plants - Make Profession:Herbalist more powerful, with a wealth of nearly magical healing plants that can be quested for... IF you know where to go looking! Maybe they can't raise the dead, but they can heal those still clinging to life! Donaldson had his Mirenna berries, Tolkien his Athelas, and I'm sure there are other examples.

Also, certain plants (if used correctly) can produce other "magical" results... Low-light vision from some extract of carrots, perhaps? The ability to breathe at high altitudes, immunity to poisons, brewing cloves of Thurl for a tea that cures 1D4 HPs, etc. There are several collections of such plants on the internet...

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Get them to play a ghost for a session or two, before being able to hijack a new body with no soul in it. Works well for PCs.

Other free willed undead can be amusing. Vampire - oooh - super tough and angsty, but sunbathing is no longer a viable hobby and dietry requirements have changed... although they're not necessarily evil. Make it difficult to become human again. Make sure you either a)trust the player a lot, b) nerf any spawn creation abilities, c)think of some way to mess with them if they make a spawn army.


Fate points from WFRP - earn them from legendary achievements (2-3 max at a time) - spend one - you survive... but they'll be a cost. Have a little table for physical injuries:

01-10 lost a hand.
11-20 hideous scarring -1 to charisma related checks.
21-30 etc.
...
91-100 end up with an unpleasant phobia/issue.

Or just pick something apt. to the way they 'died'.

If you want to make the things a little less unpleasant, but fixable with some RPG effort... finding the legendary giant smith to make you a new hand, etc, etc. For more low magic fixes - perhaps some of them can be put right with surgery or counselling..

I'd steer clear of permenant large 'crunchy' penalties - IME, they can put players right off a character...

 

[Buttercup]

Reading the Raise Dead thread made me wonder if it will be too difficult to come back from the dead. As it stands now the only class capable of bringing someone back from the dead is a 17-20th level Adept. I'm also considering allowing a few sacred sites and holy relics be capable of resurrecting.

On the one hand, too many character deaths is bad for continuity, conversely too much immortality is bad for the low-magic feel I want. I'm looking for suggestions to make death not be the final curtain if the player really wants to bring a deceased character back.

Could you provide a link to the thread in question? I'd like to read what others have said about this subject.

I'm in the process of designing a low magic campaign right now (it will be set in the Wilderlands, but all players will have to start out as warriors, experts, aristocrats or adepts). In my current campaign, I don't allow resurection, and honestly I can't imagine ever allowing it. I don't think it causes problems, but rather adds a touch of verisimilitude.

I must admit though, that the idea of a sacred site allowing resurection is kind of interesting.

 

[diaglo]

low magic can also mean harder to use/find magic....

so say raise dead will only work when Moon X and Planet Y are in the right alignment with the Sun.

or a secret ritual is needed to summon a long last shrine that restores the dead...very few sages know the rites or location. or it is protected by some secret cult..or yet another adventure.

maybe a certain ingredient is needed to get the dead to come to life. the lips of the corpse dampened with X water. and the body annointed in oil W. all of which are very, very expensive. and you still need the blessing of some divine being.

 

[thullgrim]

the solution I am going with in the world I am working on is only the priesthood of the god of death has access to 'raise dead' type spells. Making these spells available only to a specific group and then making that group reluctant to cast them makes the spells playable but limited. The pcs must have a really compelling reason, a really good bribe, or the priesthood must really need something from the pcs before they will cast the spells on the characters behalf. In some cases, depending on the target of the spell, the priesthood might refuse entirely.

Thullgrim

 

[A'koss]

In our low magic campaign there are only two resurrection-style spells, both very high level. As a matter of fact, one of them is epic level.

There are essentially two "death states" in our game. Mostly Dead... and Dead-Dead. So long as the subject to be resurrected is in fairly decent condition, the first spell will be able to revive him. Death in our game occurs at [- Con Score] HP and so long as the subject hasn't reached [- (2x) Con Score] HPs, he can be revived. If the target has been beheaded, disemboweled, eaten, rotted, incinerated - that is all she wrote.

Now if that happens it is still possible to temporarily revive a character with the epic level version of the spell. It's an idea I stole from Babylon 5 and used well in previous campaigns though I've changed it somewhat for our current Norse-flavored campaign. Essentially it summons the fallen's Einheriar, provided the fallen was a worthy hero in life. A divine spark allows the "revived" character to exist on Midgard, but only for a time.

In my previous campaign, all Resurrection-style spells only granted characters temporary reprieves. Raise dead would bring a character back for finish one last heroic task (eg. the adventure) or just long enough to set his affairs in order. Resurrection and "True" Resurrection could fan the flames of life for longer - 1 month/level and 1 year/level of caster respectively (to your maximum age).

And if you were slain and resurrected again, the spell used to revive you would function as though it were the next lower spell in the chain. For example, if you were True Resurrected once, then slain again - True Res would only function as Resurrection spell (life for 1 month/level) and Resurrection would function as a Raise Dead spell (life to finish 1 last task). Raise Dead would no longer function, and so on.

Cheers,

A'koss.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

If Raise dead isn't an option anymore, how about making reincarnation more popular? (yeah yeah no spellcasters with spell lists over 6th)

AR