SoD can be used effectively if only one person at the table understands how to use it....namely, the DM.
I've been reading along, and I just have to interject, because my experiences with SoD are completely differently than what anyone else here has discussed.
I use SoD like any other attack in 3e, and I use SoD monsters like any others in 3e. No special treatment. In fact, PCs die to SoD left and right in my games. But, here's the real kicker - there has never, ever, in all my 3e games, been a
permanent death to any SoD ability or spell in my years of playing it. Every single time, the dead PC was raised.
I think everybody is looking at SoD in 3e wrong. You weren't meant to avoid it. You were meant to die! And, of course, be subsequently raised from the dead.
Well, at least that's how we played it, saw it, and that playstyle worked fine. It seems like SoD was built as only a minor inconvenience in 3e, which is fine, because I like keeping the same PCs through the whole campaign like the Death Flag guys. Of course, I never had to use a Death Flag in 3e to accomplish the exact same thing, since there was no need.
I assume 4e will work the same way.
I know we didn't do much raising in 2e, but I don't know if that was because about half the Factions had a "no raising from the dead" clause built into them. I know there was still raising going on in my 2e games when allowed, but that was Planescape, so I'm already outside the norm there.
