Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tzarevitch" data-source="post: 981692" data-attributes="member: 1792">The primary problem I have with paying to return from death is why should any god care that you want to pay money to return from death? The clergy might need the cash but the god certainly doesn't and the deity is the one actually granting the return from death. It fundamentally turns deities into mere insurance brokers. ("Uh god, I have the final insurance premium payment, could you please restore Bob here.") In my current Rokugan campaign I use a Hero Point mechanic to avoid the Raise Dead spell problem. If you are affected by something that would have killed you, you may spend a Hero Point to be "left for dead" instead of trully dead (i.e. you at at -9 and unconscious). As far as my game is concerned death is THE END. Once you cease being heroic enough death is possible if you are careless. Raising the dead is strictly against the rules of the cosmos and even the Fortunes themselves can't or won't violate that rule. No mortal magic can restore a soul to true life.  Only violating the laws of heaven and using forbidden necromancy to convert to an undead will avert true death and only if done BEFORE the Fortune of Death passes judgment. The dead soul is judged by the fortune of death within the 21 day holding period mandated by cosmic law. The judged soul is either reincarnated (NOT the same as the druid spell) back into the mortal world, promoted to paradise or sentenced to any one of the 10,000 hells based upon the soul's deeds in life. (A reincarnated character is a new person. It has some vague memories of its past but it is a new character. It has none of the old guy's stuff or abilities.)I have found in this way that the Fortunes can show favor on heroic (and anti-heroic) characters with the cinematic "he didn't really die" trick, but the spectre of True Death always remains in the background if the characters don't continue to do great things worthy of heros. (As the cliche goes, "fortune favors the bold.")  It also allows BBEGs to be lasting foils for the PCs to test their mettle against and it means that  the general populace just dies when their time comes without the absurdity of paying god to bring you back.Tzarevitch</blockquote>

Verification