Raise Dead in your 4e Game

[S'mon]

This is a poll to see how other 4e GMs approach the Raise Dead ritual.

IMC it requires an intact body, though wounds will heal.

The WotC default is, I think, that it creates a new body from a pinch of the original taken post-death, going by a footnote in Dungeon Delve.

 

[Jack99]

Requires major parts, eg skull and torso, others regenerate

but IMC, Getting Raised from the Dead is a once in a lifetime happening and the ritual is not readily available. Maybe a handful in the world can cast it, and getting them to cast it will require at the very least a difficult quest by the other players.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

The character deaths in my campaign both happened on very low levels, so Raise Dead was out of the question. I think I'll take a gameist approach when this topic comes up in the future: whatever helps the game and the story.

Should a character death happen on a long underground trip and the players have managed to bring the resources along, I tend to allow a Raise Dead. If there is a "source" of fresh PCs nearby, I wouldn't allow for a far fetched resurrection (e.g. body missing, decapitation, etc.).

Another aspect is the question of the deceased character's part in the storyline. If she had to play a crucial role, I'd be more lenient.

 

[unan oranis]

IMC I require the ritual to be cast at a holy site, and with the permission of the characters patron diety.

If the character died well, as a decent martyr for the dieties cause then the answer is usually no.

I impose a hard limit of one death per tier.

In odnd, 1st and 2nd it was strictly forbidden in my campaigns - 3e I allowed the direct intervention of dieties perhaps six times over a ten year period in real life...

ps. no body required - though state of corpse might factor in depending on dieties fancy

 

[Dykstrav]

The rules as written say, "a part of the corpse." In my core 4E, default-points-of-light game, I require this to be approximately the size of a hand or so. Picking through bed linens for individual hairs seems a bit strange to me, and while technically by the rules as written, didn't sit well with me.

This exact situation motivated me to create a ritual specifically to deal with finding chunks of a body that are big enough to use for raise dead. Essentially, you cast this ritual and it points you towards the largest available piece of a body. <shamelessplug> Goodman games selected this ritual, unearth the mortal frame, for Azagar's Book of Rituals. I'm kinda looking forward to seeing how other players and DMs think to use it in a creative new way that I didn't think of when I described the ritual. </shamelessplug>

In my homebrew setting, I tend to discourage the liberal use of raise dead. Partially because the people of the setting believe in the power of fate and destiny (some heroes are destined to die valiantly in epic battles, some ignobly from slipping off their horse). Using raise dead is sort of an insult to the major deity of the setting, meddling in the time and place a given character was ordained to die. Sometimes it just doesn't work, and it's always treated with awe and reverence as a miracle, not a speed bump between encounters.

I designed my homebrew this way because I want a grittier, more dangerous feel to the world. I want players to sweat when they're bloodied and pick their fights.

 

[dangerous jack]

To be a little different: Raise Dead is free, doesn't require anything, and can occur immediately between encounters if the player wants. The caveat is that death changes the character. At least one significant encounter or daily power must change to be from a different class or race or use different keywords (or primary ability scores must change). No characters have actually died yet, but for example:

Half-Elf Paladin changes a feat to Deva Heritage with higher charisma
Dragonborn Cleric (multiclass warlock) becomes a Cleric / Warlock hybrid
Halfling Rogue becomes a refluffed Gnome

 

[Pour]

I told my players at the start of the campaign that death was death was final. I find that without the risk of permanent death the suspense and thrill of the game diminishes greatly. It's also a great way to introduce backup characters.

That all said, there are two major NPCs in the world that have the ability to restore life, one whose missing and the other whose basically across the continent. When a player died, the group kept the ashes and turned her ressurection into an overarching quest. It's been great fun.

Oh, and I've allowed it so warforged can be rebuilt even if they're torn apart. So that's basically cost-free raise dead if they can recover all the parts...

 

[the Jester]

Missing parts stay missing; but raise dead is not super common in my game, though it is available.

 

[weem]

As Jack99 said...

but IMC, Getting Raised from the Dead is a once in a lifetime happening and the ritual is not readily available. Maybe a handful in the world can cast it, and getting them to cast it will require at the very least a difficult quest by the other players.

..so it is in my campaign.

I play in two other campaigns though, and in one (in fact two nights ago) my favorite (4e) character died - not knocked out, but actually died.

The character is a favorite in the campaign and everyone seems to be all about getting him a rez. The DM is more than willing to allow it - in fact, we were going to skip the next scheduled game as I will be out of town, but now he says it's just good timing = he will run the game without me and it will be a game involving bringing my character back.

With that said, and despite him being my favorite character, I told him I was more than willing to let him go. That I would roll a new character because in letting him go it can give the campaign that feel that... if you die, you are gone, which I really like.

In allowing them to bring him back, you get the feeling that there is nothing to worry about in the campaign... you get knocked to zero? You will be back up after the encounter... you actually die? no biggie, you know you will get rezzed after a game. If it takes me losing my favorite character to instill a fear of death in the other players, I'm all about it

---edit---

We'll see what happens - he has kind of left it to me how I might come back, if at all.

 

[Victim]

We haven't been in a position where taking only a hair or something like that was the best we could do, so that hasn't come up. However, there have been no real restrictions regarding Raise Dead on players. Character attrition still happens because people want to try out something new - it hasn't really seemed like something that needs to forced IME (and perhaps the opposite has been true for us).