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Message: <blockquote data-quote="amethal" data-source="post: 2715688" data-attributes="member: 22784">Banning Raise Dead and ResurrectionBanning Raise Dead and Resurrection (but not Reincarnation) was, like so many of my house rules, something I blundered into without giving it much thought.My campaign world has the Force of Life/Death/Rebirth as one of its "deities". The second edition Complete Priests Handbook had suggestions for having clerics serve forces and philosophies, as well as standard deities, and it sounded like a good idea to me.I decided that one of the consequences of the existence of this Force was that the life- death-rebirth cycle could not be circumvented. Reincarnation was fine. Raising the dead wasn't.Overall, I am happy with my decision.I feel that there is a tendancy to treat death as a minor inconvenience at medium to high levels of D&D. Parties generally have a cleric, or are friendly with a NPC church, and so finding someone willing to cast the spell is quite easy. Characters are often extremely wealthy - and if the victim happened to have died on a church-sponsored quest to save the world, then it is not unreasonable to expect the church to stump up the cost anyway.The DM can rule that the character hasn't been found worthy of raising, but if some characters are deemed worthy and others aren't then it can look like favouritism.The campaign complications of important NPCs being raised on a regular basis can be quite mind-boggling, and its a complication I can do without.However, there is an unexpected drawback. The party are now 14th level, and have come a long way on a quest which in some respects they began in their very first adventure. A few unfortunate character deaths could derail the entire plot, as the replacement characters would have little or no connection to the quest. They may never find out how that particular story ends - and more importantly, neither will I.I'm worried that it is causing me to become a soft and timid DM. Last week I turned down a perfectly good, 100% success guaranteed, opportunity to kill a character - and it would have been entirely the player's own fault as even if your rogue does win initiative it is not generally a good idea to charge solo into melee with a group of 4 fighters who have been intended as a challenge for the entire party.The player doesn't know I backed off - he has no way of knowing the NPCs were able to cause electrical damage every round, but instead chose a much less effective tactic.However, I may find myself pulling my punches in a much more obvious manner the next time it happens - and my hard won reputation as an evil DM will be lost forever.[Please add me to the list of people who'd like Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns.]</blockquote>

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