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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3331529" data-attributes="member: 143">I disagree with your first premise, that Death Ward is a "simple" spell. Zosimos cannot cast Death Ward, obviously. Valus could have, but he has 4 4th level spell slots (3 if you exclude the domain spell). Divine power is pretty much a given for a battle cleric like him, and he had orders from his sect to "report back" on what he found in RA (especially with Varo there), so sending was also required for plot reasons. That leaves his restoration spell. From our 20/20 outside-of-the-story perspective, of course death ward would have been a better choice, maybe even the logical choice, for self-defense. He had Knowledge (religion) +12, so I agree he should have known what the priests of Orcus could do (although it's worth noting that almost none of the priests of the Father have actually faced a servant of Orcus in battle in over a hundred years). Maybe he was arrogant, or maybe he just made a stupid mistake that cost him his life. As for why Varo wouldn't have cast the spell on his allies, I hope that's self-evident. If he did have the spell memorized, he would have cast it on those more critical to his plans (starting with himself). As for arcanists, it just happens that there haven't been many in this story, and those that have been were non-core characters. Given the tone I have been setting in this story, the mortality rate among non-core characters is going to be high. Heck, I don't think I'm quite done killing off "core" characters, so don't be surprised if it happens.</blockquote>

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