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<blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 3370362" data-attributes="member: 5122">Having a return to life be easy -- and yes, 5000 gp and a fifth-level spell is easy -- simply doesn't feel like heroic fantasy to me.&nbsp; It feels like -- yes, I'm gonna say it -- a video game.&nbsp; &quot;Just pump in your quarters and start over at the beginning of the level, son.&quot;On the other hand, I also understand the other arguments: party cohesion, story coherence, the anticlimax of losing a character to sheer horrendous luck, and so on.So I gave it a bunch of thought and decided that if it's the feel of being brought back to life that I dislike so much, the smart thing to do is change that feel.&nbsp; Continuing to think on it, I decided to simply make it harder -- not by any means impossible, but definitely harder -- for characters to die.&nbsp; I approached it from a couple of angles:(1) I use Arcana Evolved's disabled and death rules.&nbsp; (0 HP down to negative Con bonus for Disabled; equal to full negative Con score is Dead.)(2) I use Action Points, a la Eberron.(3) I changed the life-returning spells from being mystical to being medical.&nbsp; Basically, a magical healer who gets to a &quot;corpse&quot; in time -- rounds or minutes after death, depending on the level of the spell -- can keep the soul from departing.&nbsp; Effectively, these spells bring back someone who, in our world, would be considered clinically dead.There are interesting implications to these changes that I also like a lot, starting with the fact that unlike with raise dead, the patient doesn't have a choice in the matter; and how do the gods of Death feel about it?Anyway, even with these changes, one character died in my last session, and one was barely brought back from the brink.&nbsp; (Who'd have though five 6th-level PCs would have such a hard time with one CR 8 Tyrannosaur?)&nbsp; I really like the changes a lot.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeff Wilder, post: 3370362, member: 5122"] Having a return to life be easy -- and yes, 5000 gp and a fifth-level spell [i]is[/i] easy -- simply doesn't feel like heroic fantasy to me. It feels like -- yes, I'm gonna say it -- a video game. "Just pump in your quarters and start over at the beginning of the level, son." On the other hand, I also understand the other arguments: party cohesion, story coherence, the anticlimax of losing a character to sheer horrendous luck, and so on. So I gave it a bunch of thought and decided that if it's the [i]feel[/i] of being brought back to life that I dislike so much, the smart thing to do is change that feel. Continuing to think on it, I decided to simply make it harder -- not by any means impossible, but definitely harder -- for characters to die. I approached it from a couple of angles: (1) I use [i]Arcana Evolved[/i]'s disabled and death rules. (0 HP down to negative Con bonus for Disabled; equal to full negative Con score is Dead.) (2) I use Action Points, a la [i]Eberron[/i]. (3) I changed the life-returning spells from being mystical to being [i]medical[/i]. Basically, a magical healer who gets to a "corpse" in time -- rounds or minutes after death, depending on the level of the spell -- can keep the soul from departing. Effectively, these spells bring back someone who, in our world, would be considered clinically dead. There are interesting implications to these changes that I also like a lot, starting with the fact that unlike with [i]raise dead[/i], the patient doesn't have a choice in the matter; and how do the gods of Death feel about it? Anyway, even with these changes, one character died in my last session, and one was barely brought back from the brink. (Who'd have though five 6th-level PCs would have such a hard time with one CR 8 Tyrannosaur?) I really like the changes a lot. [/QUOTE]

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