Calico_Jack73 said:
True... however check out True Resurrection, Resurrection, and Reincarnation. Cut off a piece of hair from a fallen comrade as you flee and regular Resurrection will work. Reincarnate will work with a bit of hair too and is only a 4th level Druid spell (compared to a 7th level Resurrection or 5th level Raise Dead which requires a whole body). The point is that if you want to come back you can and it isn't that hard.
Well yes and no. If I want to keep playing, it's often even easier to create a new character. My comrades don't even need to provoke AoOs by cutting off a finger or whatever in order for me to do that. So, unless the DM goes out of his way to punish a
player for having a character die (can't play for x sessions, start at first level and just die again (so you might as well leave the group), etc), there's no particular reason for the
player to fear death no matter how hard it is to come back. Sure, playing and developing a character takes time and you grow to enjoy your role, but you'd enjoy playing a new role as well.
And, while there are spells that can bring a character back, they are often out of reach of the PCs. Resurrection is not practical (in terms of the cost) below level 10 or so and certainly isn't always available. (Even the FRCS version of Toril doesn't have 13th level clerics on every streetcorner). It's even less available "in the field" since the 3.5 material components are too expensive to keep on hand "in case they're needed." Heck, by the level that Raise Dead is available in the field (assuming you keep the material component on hand which isn't practical), you're already facing Slay Living, Disintegrate, etc--effects that can preclude either Raise Dead or Reincarnate. (Of course good old Death Knell and the Death Touch domain ability--available from day 1 just like the kobold cookpots--do that too.)
Reincarnation is a viable option if you have a druid in the party, but I don't like it. (Come to think of it, I don't much like druids either as they're normally portrayed). And, of course reincarnation does have that good old 1/2e chance of getting hosed (so let me see, my strength goes down because I'm a halfling/my con goes down because I'm an elf/now that I'm a dwarf my ranger/barbarian/rogue starts taking xp penalties/etc.)
It's quite possible to die and not have it be practical to come back. From level 1 to level 10, there's Death Knell, Death Touch, the wyvern or orcs that eat you after killing you, Enervation, level/stat draining undead, Animate Dead, etc. From level 10 on, there's Slay Living, Destruction, Finger of Death, Disintegrate, level/stat draining undead, enervation, energy drain, talismans of ultimate evil, weapons of life stealing, etc. Once you get into the high levels, the possibilities become endless. True Ressurection may fix most everything but that doesn't come cheaply and isn't widely available (in most campaigns) either.
Heck, given that most of the creatures on the chart for Reincarnation are pretty potent I'm suprised more people don't opt for it instead. The only abilities that change are physical ones and in almost every case except for the Goblin or Kobold you gain more than you lose. You don't lose any previous abilities. You could play a human fighter, get the bonus feat and extra skill points, die, and then be reincarnated as something with more abilites and lose nothing from before except a level that you'll make back soon enough and a Con point that may be more than made up for by your new race (You get +4 to your CON if you come back as a troglodyte).
Reincarnate also only costs 1000gp and no XP penalty to the caster.
"Oh poor me, I went from being a human with a lifespan of roughly 80 years to an elf. I'll live well over 350 years now."
As I said before, I don't like reincarnation. And while it could prove to be a boon for some characters, I don't think most characters would like it either--especially not if they ended up as a troglodyte or something.
