Raise Dead in your 4e Game

[UngainlyTitan]

Has not arisen yet as the character that have died so far have stayed dead as hte players wanted to try new characters.

 

[brainstorm]

I used to not like Raise Dead (and Resurrection back in the day) because it just didn't seem very realistic. You die and you should be dead, right? Otherwise, you'd have people dying and coming back all the time, right?

A few years ago I came to the realization that it isn't realistic nor should it be. D&D is uber-fantasy; and unlike most novelized or tv/movie fantasy, it has a variety of power sources driving the world. Death is only permanent to the peasantry. If you have enough money, you can come back from the dead, provided you didn't die a "natural" death. Kings and nobility do it all the time. Peasants resent the fact that the wealthy can bring loved-ones back but they can't. Priests can't provide Raise Dead rituals on charity because every ritual costs more than the average church makes in a year in offerings and tithings.

However, as a balancing mechanic, I've also incorporated a Permanent Death ritual into my campaign, which prevents Raise Dead from working. It's more of a story-driver than it is a useful mechanic for the players, though it can be if they want to ensure that a bad guy they killed remains dead. It's exactly the same as the Raise Dead ritual in cost and time requirements and the effect is that the soul of the deceased is locked-out of the world of the living and can only return as an undead creature. This ritual is used mostly by assassins and necromancers.

 

[Dykstrav]

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.

When 4E came out, several people were complaining about the phrasing of raise dead. In previous versions of the game, disintegrate was really cool because it destroyed the body--thus preventing the villains from using a handy raise dead to get that villain back into the action. Many players felt that the ritual denied them a great way to keep a pesky villain dead.

Some players argued that they could use any part of a body, and hence left a clipping of their hair with a trusted temple or the like. In one case, a player argued that you could use raise dead on a single hair. This prompted my own campaign's guideline of exactly how much of a body was required.

 

[Starglim]

Some players argued that they could use any part of a body, and hence left a clipping of their hair with a trusted temple or the like. In one case, a player argued that you could use raise dead on a single hair. This prompted my own campaign's guideline of exactly how much of a body was required.

Pieces removed before death are not "a part of the corpse", so that unambiguously won't work.

For severed and missing parts, it depends whether the GM thinks that is a temporary or permanent condition for purposes of the ritual. A severed but present head should be OK, since the ritual heals fatal wounds.

 

[JeffB]

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.

This is how I've always done things, regardless of edition.

 

[Dykstrav]

Pieces removed before death are not "a part of the corpse", so that unambiguously won't work.

that was my take on it when I read it, we're on the same page there. It's an argument that I got tired of quickly. It seems symptomatic of new games/editions that people try to twist the literal wording of something to their advantage, and the phrasing of raise dead was one of the things that was rife for abuse in June of 2008 in my neck of the woods.

 

[drothgery]

Haven't actually had a character die in 4e yet. Came very close a few times, but didn't get the third strike...

 

[S'mon]

I'm interested to see that only a small minority take the 'creates new body' approach.

One thing I'm finding in 4e is that monsters who want to eat you are a lot deadlier than foes who just want to beat you, since they make off with the corpse.

 

[Jack99]

Haven't actually had a character die in 4e yet. Came very close a few times, but didn't get the third strike...

Come play with me, during my last campaign I had more than 12 PK's /flex

 

[Starfox]

I use hero points (extra lives) instead of raise dead - it raises too many in-world issues.