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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bendris Noulg" data-source="post: 1431438" data-attributes="member: 6398">'Ello. Got it.  Long before it was out, though, I had already made a few changes over all. First thing to understand is one of environment.  The game focuses on role-play (read: storyline development, character interaction, and problem solving).  Smackin' mooks around occurs semi-regularly, but actual combat encounters where the PCs are exposed to a true threat of death occur (on average) every 3-4 sessions.  Or, to ratio it out, my games about 50% RP, 45% Skills/Problems, and 5% extreme bloody violence. So, while I've made changes that make combat a bit grimmer (less magic, less healing, W&V-derived system, etc.), those changes don't really threaten PC death on a "daily" basis. Within this environment, the spells themselves have received several changes, most of them related to frequency.  To begin, there is no "standard" Cleric spell list, as there aren't any actual Clerics, although several Prestige Classes exist for the pious to obtain (some Paladin-like, others Cleric-like), with each Prestiege Class having its own Spell List. Reincarnation: I've never liked this spell.  Over all, it's always just produced wonky results.  As such, I've been removing it from the lists since 1E.  For d20, rather than removing it, I took a clue from Relics & Rituals by making it a Druidic True Ritual in which the Druids ask for someone to be reincarnated, as the term is defined in the real world (i.e., by the end of the night, someone, somewhere, has become pregnant with the reincarnated soul.  This, of course, takes the spell from being a death cure to a plot device, but is that really a bad thing? Raise Dead: The most common death cure available, and for most of the divine Prestige Classes, the ultimate healing spell available.  Again, a True Ritual, the only real reduction in potency with this spell would be in the chance of failure (the Ritual Casting check).  Another change is that of "level loss".  I don't subtract any levels from a raised character, but rather remove just the Experience Points.  The effect is that it takes longer to level up (as the lost Experience Points must be regained), but the character doesn't loose any abilities. Resurrection: Thus far, only five Prestige Classes have had this spell added to their spell list, and that as a 9th Level spell (as it's their uber-healer spell).  More likely will get it, just haven't developed those specific Prestige Classes yet.  However, most of the Prestiege Classes that have gotten it aren't exactly intended as combat-machines in the same manner that Clerics are (i.e., their balanced as religious icons within their community, not as adventuring crusaiders).  Resurrection comes at a price, being that you loose Experience as described for raise dead, and it's also a True Ritual (with its chance of failure), and the character retured "bonded" to the divine caster that cast ressurection; Think if it along the lines of, "I, the god of [what ever], will send you back.  But a part of your life belongs to me.  You will serve [Divine Caster] in my name until the debt of life is paid."  Again, there is no actual level loss, but until the PC has regained the lost Experience Points, he is effectively quested to serve the NPC that cast the spell.  Agreeing to this is a condition of the spell; don't agree, don't come back. True Resurrection: To date, only one Prestige Class has this spell on its spell list, being the setting's "penultimate healer".  It is 9th Level for this Class, and is a True Ritual as the others, and functions as resurrection is described with one primary difference: The character looses all Experience Points and is bonded until such a time as having regained all of this Experience in the service of the religion/deity/priest that provided the healing. By these changes, I don't remove the spells from play (except reincarnation), but I make access more problematic, with a long term cost to the "upper two" having impact on story line and providing plot hooks that can take the game in new directions. Again, though, this becomes less problematic once a PC has teleport, and irrelevant once a PC can cast the actual spells themselves, which is primarily when the "cheese factor" can kick in for this aspect of the game. Now, this is actually the opposite of what I've done; This effectively requires a quest of friends and allies prior to the casting, where I have a quest for the actual beneficiary after the casting.  Amounts to the same thing, although your method has the target PC out of play for that little bit longer time. I, too, enjoy a group with a similar style.  Then again, there is the case of required ratio; Having (on average) less than one fatality per year on average, and with only about half of them "permenant deaths", the restrictions made are more about maintaining world consistancy than anything else (for instance, while the players know that PCs might not come back from a fatality, they also know that a slain villain will most often stay slain...  In fact, I've yet to have a "return of [NPC they had killed earlier]" session or adventure because that's part of the cheese factor I seek to eliminate.). I've not gotten Conan yet (it's on my short list of near-future purchases), but I have seen some of the preview material, so I'm not sure how different it is.  I don't think the environment (as I know it, anyway) will prevent character-focused story lines, but it may likely change the way these story lines are presented. As for the episodic-campaigning, yeah, that makes sense.   I've considered similar for Midnight, but I'm too wrapped up in other projects to give it a whirl.</blockquote>

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