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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4132582" data-attributes="member: 1054">Never had much of a problem with RD from a worldbuilding perspective.First, even the weakest of them is expensive. A typical expert earns a few silver a week. The vast bulk of the population will never come close to a 5000 gp diamond -- and how many such diamonds are there, anyway?But mid-level nobles, wealthy merchants, etc, can afford it. OK. Second part -- 10th level clerics aren't common. Thirdly -- the spell, and how it works, is common knowledge. Assassins know to take the head with them, or otherwise make the 5th level version unusable.So we get to Resurrection, which works from a fingerbone or a pile of dust. Well, again, 14th level clerics are even rarer. And PC nonchalance aside, they're not going to ask their gods to reverse death just because someone asked. Was the deceased worthy of continued life? Did they worship the cleric's god, or at least their pantheon? Were they close in alignment? And is there even that finger to be found? Someone powerful enough to be on good terms with a 14th level cleric will have equally powerful foes, foes capable of making sure nothing remains.True Resurrection requires an 18th level cleric and nothing but knowledge. If the cleric is determined to bring the person back, nothing on the prime material (except Trap The Soul, etc) can stop them. But there are still other issues -- what's happening on the Other Side? Does the soul want to return (if it's in a good place) or will it be allowed to return (if it isn't)? I find the whole "You have a special destiny, young Skywalker...er...Foeslayer" shtick to be unnecessarily ham-handed and gives PCs even bigger egos than they already have. "Woo hoo! I was Raised! I have a DESTINY!" (It also forces me to ask why their destiny doesn't manifest until they're 11th level. "Whoa, looks like the the Chosen One, He Who Would Defeat The Lord Of Burning Darkness, just got ganked by a kobold. Damn. Oh well, nothing we Gods Of Fate can do about that, we can only send souls back if they hit 11th level. So it goes.") There's plenty of ways to avoid 'revolving door afterlife' for NPCs without declaring them to be Destinyless Losers.</blockquote>

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