When characters die?

[Kaamoz]

Do you never make up some story like your character has been healed
at a local church, but not fully. You have to reduce two levels from your characters. Or does the character dies and never raises again?

 

[Telperion]

Um...yes. I just used a storytool, which didn't allow the characters in my group to use clerical magic on their dead parents. There are plenty of spells to dig up all the necessary information (starting with how they died) if their parents' souls had been available.

Here's how I reason resurrection:

A character dies and a intermediary person (an outsider who works for the Deity the character was worshipping) takes him to his rightful place in the afterlife. This can be anything between heaven and hell.

Now, should a person not worship a god his soul isn't taken to the Outer Planes, where the Gods' domains are. Since the soul isn't there resurrection just doesn't work. The spell doesn't find anyone to resurrect.

Should different characters in a group worship different Deities, then there might be a problem as well. A cleric of an evil Deity wouldn't be allowed (by the good Deity) to tamper with the souls in the Good deity's domain (also works the other way around). So, should someone in the group worship an evil deity, then a cleric of a good deity wouldn't be able to resurrect him.

I usually allow clerics of good deities to resurrect anyone who worships a good deity. The reasoning is that Good trusts each other and can allow resurrection of souls by other clerics aside from their own. Evil, however, isn't so trusting. So, you probably won't be seeing evil clerics resurrecting anyone not of their own religion, because Evil deities are much more paranoid and distrustful of each other.

 

[Kaamoz]

ok. And when they are resurrected, do they continue with a level they were
before dead?

 

[Telperion]

No, of course not. The usual rules for resurrection apply. -1 level.

EDIT: The reasoning behind this is that even if a soul wants to return to its previous life the act of resurrecting someone isn't easy or pleasant. The soul in question has to expend part of its life force (XP) in order to return.

EDIT2: Another way of looking at this is that not everything goes along the trip when a character dies. Although the soul retains most of what it had in life something is always left behind, and lost forever, when a soul leaves its body. And re-entering said body doesn't bring that "something" back because its gone already.

EDIT3: Havent' decided if I want to go with option 1 or 2 yet, but I may never have to choose, since my players don't always ask the right questions .

 

[Gez]

In the game I DM when I canl; one character died, eaten by an ogremage. After slaying the ogremage in question (necessary to release the soul, for IMC, if ogres feast on flesh alone, ogremages also devour the soul of their meals), the PC searched for a cleric able to raise their dead comrade. However, they didn't found any, because there's religious strife and repression in their areas, and the only clerics they could find where not the kind of guys they wanted to deal with; while the more amiable clerics are well hidden or in far-away lands.

 

[Zappo]

Yeah, IMC raise dead and similar are available, though the characters often choose not to use them. If such a magic is used, the soul is picked up from whatever Outer Plane it's in, travels through the Astral (or more, if need be), and is shoven back into the body. When someone dies, bits of his soul (most notably memories) are stripped from him and left floating in the Astral; however, they fade with time and most spells aren't perfect in picking up all of them either, hence the level loss.

 

[tetsujin28]

Do you never make up some story like your character has been healed
at a local church, but not fully. You have to reduce two levels from your characters. Or does the character dies and never raises again?

They're dead, unless there's some way the players have to prevent it/bring them back.

 

[diaglo]

They're dead, unless there's some way the players have to prevent it/bring them back.

ditto.

but i think the point was after they are brought back.

i use a vague memory/ dream situation. the PCs remember seeing a light or place of pure joy based on their alignment. and then they are yanked back to consciousness.

 

[simmo]

Characters can be brought back from the dead via resurrection and reincarnation if the soul is willing. In the past I have made a party travel in to the underworld (Gray Waste in that instance) to release the trapped soul of one of their comrades.