Resurrection Survival Returns!

[basaipete]

In the 15+ years I have been running the same D&D campaign I have always used the same rule regarding character death and ressurection. When a character is brought back to life they lose a point of CON. This provides an explicit limit on the number of times a player can come back to life as well as a practical limit. Once the players CON gets too low it just is not practical to do dangerous things anymore and maybe they should retire.

I do not limit a players options when it comes to improving CON via ability adjustments due to level or Wish/Miracle but in most cases it is not a good investment. I dont regularly kill players unless they bring it on themselves by stupid actions so this is not a big deal but it does add some element of danger to the big fights.

 

[Grazzt]

Cool, interesting to hear you took the exact same path. My campaign also uses "system shock" for all those things, I set all that stuff at an even Fort DC 10 save.

For the original posters benefit, at one point I also considered having resurrection be a straight Constitution check, DC 6. This almost precisely matches the probabilities from 1st Ed., but folds it into the 3E mechanics. (Still listed on my website, here: http://superdan.net.home.comcast.net/dndmisc/house_rules_1st_ed_flavor.html )

Great minds I guess.

We tinkered with the idea of setting Res. Surv. at Fort DC 6 (like you said, it equates to the probabilities listed in the 1e PHB), but in the end we just set it and left it.

And we use the same Fort DC 10 for System Shock, though initially thought about setting it at something like DC 5 + spell level or DC 5 + 1/2 monster's HD for monster's that can alter a person's form/makeup using a supernatural ability. In the end though, DC 10 is easy to remember and its clean/streamlined. So far, no problems in the game with it (it doesnt come up that often actually), and the players are cool with it (even those that didnt really ever play 1e or 2e)

 

[Whitemage Bishieboy]

now heres a topic i understand.

back in the days of 2E charecter death was actully pretty rare,i give one sole reason.save or dies.yes they existed in 2E on the other hand by the time you got them every one saved on a "2".thus no one wasted there time.
in 3e every round is a barrage of save or dies.i by 17th level can easily slaughter 2-3 pcs per fight,AND THOSE ARE THE MOOKS!im sorry but i cannot condone all my players makeing a charecter every fight or two,and level 17 pcs at that.