Who else hates seeing enemies Raised / Resurrected / Wished Back?

[SkredlitheOgre]

I have done this once back in my 3/3.5 game. The party fought tooth and nail to beat the bad guy and finally killed him. The plots were still in motion, though. They decided they were going to get to the REAL head of the Evil Empire!

Complete with James Bond chair swivel, they found the same guy sitting there. Though, I did leave out the cat. Anyway, the characters were cheesed because they had already killed the guy! So, out come the weapons and spells. One hour, forty-seven minutes later, he was dead. They took no chances and sent his body to the Elemental Plane of Fire, where it essentially disintegrated. No chance of him coming back. They took his gear (again) and destroyed it too, just in case.

They enjoyed it in that 'We really effing killed him this time!' kinda way.

 

[NewJeffCT]

The way I look at it, higher level PCs and NPCs can teleport without error, travel to other planes, fight against demons, devils, daemons from the outer planes, stop time, make wishes come true or perform miracles, create undead or become a lich, kill somebody with a word or a bunch of people with a scream, send them to an extra-dimensional maze, trap or bind souls, restores levels and limbs cause them to implode. What is death compared to some of those things?

Additionally, to me, what is a lich without Finger of Death or Circle of Death, or a lich's lair not protected by a Symbol of Death? It's not really a lich.

Plus, early in the campaign, my players accused me of going too easy on them, so had requested that I not hold back.

 

[CL_meister]

If every major villain kept coming back, that would probably get annoying. But once in a while, if it made sense, I'd be for it.

If you dump the villain in an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere, I'd expect it to take some high level magic to bring him back. If the PCs really take care to properly dispose of the body, it shouldn't be possible short of True Resurrection.

If you leave the villain on the floor of his fortress, and he has allies/superiors who might want to see him return, there should be a good chance he'll return (minus and level, and maybe his replacement equipment won't be as good).

 

[eamon]

I'd say don't overdo it in general, but in specific cases, I could imagine even breaking that rule. Just as long as it fits the story.

When the PC's encounter Stan the Immortal, and he takes inadvisable risks or even takes a PC with him off a cliff all while seeming rather unphased, then when he comes back, that's part of the mystery the PC's need to solve before really defeating him.

Or perhaps a cult has a seemingly unkillable leader; but it's actually a charade: whoever leads the cult must take on the identity of the ancient leader by illusion/shapechange/whatever, but it's just a scheme to seem more imposing to their enemies.

Of course, if it "just happens" because the DM just wasn't quite finished with the villian, it's cheesy.

You could probably even make it standard in a setting; but then you should think carefully about it and make sure the repercussions are felt throughout, not just for the one villian. That kind of thing would totally change the way factions fight and are organised, so you'd be stepping a little further away from fantasy trope.