Critical Death [Archive] - Wizards Community

Critical Death [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Denomic
04-17-06, 05:12 PM During an adventure a party member got hit w/ a tripple crit dealing 63 damage to him. He only had 21 hp at full health. Are we able to ressurect him or does he need to re-roll his character? Ressurecting him would be bringing him to a temple to have him ressurected I assume.. Where would I be able to read up on ressurection a dead player and is there any situations where a PC cannot be ressurected?
TheChilliGod
04-17-06, 05:40 PM Well, you can take a look at the resurrection spells in the players handbook, as well as a section in the DMG about page 40-something, that deals with character death.

The thing about resurrection is that, by RAW, it doesn't matter how many hp the fella is below 0, you can still be resurrected.
There are situations, though, where you can't be resurrected by anything short of a wish spell, such as when your soul dies instead of your body. But anything that does that would mention it somewhere in it's description.
Mitchell
04-18-06, 01:51 AM Yeah, generally speaking, dead is just dead. You can't really be "more dead" than another dead guy, undead being a totally different story, of course.
As an effect, I may detail something if someone gets knocked down to dead in one hit (beheading or whatever, based on the type of damage).
In any event, most weapons are incapable, by themselves, to do so much damage to a body that it isn't suitable for a raise dead or resurrection spell. It would normally require an energy effect or spell of some sort to do that, unless it was a blender trap and they got liquefied by the blades. :)
Gedrin
04-18-06, 01:59 AM The only possible problem you'd run into with recieving three times your HP total in damage is that the DM would be totally justified in ruling that the body was no longer considered intact. This wouldn't make sense if it was a backstab that did the damage, but if a hill giant used the PC as a golf tee...yeh...you've probably had a character spread as a fine red mist across the county.
For all practical purposes, this means that you need Ressurection or greater to bring back the PC. Raise Dead requires the body be intact.
Bulletproof_Condom
04-18-06, 04:36 AM During an adventure a party member got hit w/ a tripple crit dealing 63 damage to him. He only had 21 hp at full health.
He's dead, Jim.

If nobody in the party has raise dead, ressurect, or true ressurect, then it's entirely up to your DM whether he can be res'd or not (i.e., it's up to him to decide if there's an NPC with any of those spells, where he's located in the world, how willing he is to help, etc). But that has nothing to do with the amount of damage he sustained. Once he's below -10 hp, he's dead. -10, -12, -157, it's all just dead. If death is working differently based on "how dead" you are, that's a house rule.

Be advised, the material components for those spells are costly.
Mav_Rick
04-18-06, 05:03 AM What I do as a Dm: When a Pc die, he an be raised with "Raise Dead" or the likes unless he's been dipped in acid, burned to crisp, etc (those needs a Ress)

BUT, when a PC dies with a -50 or more.. I usually tend to be creative..
No pc can be deader than dead :/.. but I mean cmon , -60 must really hurt compare to -10 don't you think? A few missing limbs or crushed skull is in order.. For me -100 is sliced in 2 with organs flying around or something..

It's all up to the DM after all.. This is where you find out if your Dm is truly evil, or just the diet coke of evil!
Ankharan
04-18-06, 07:55 AM The idea that, if you get hit with something like 20+ points of over kill to degrees of dead.

While dead is dead just the same...

A body that falls in the water and dies and someone revives them, may have been dead but perhaps only sustained say... to -11.

However, a body that was in a parked car and a semi doing 70 MPH slams into the back of it with a fully loaded trailer of concrete... Well... that is a bit different, or even having been decapitated.

As a DM, depending on the method of the characters death and the amount of hit points below zero taken, such as... a lightening bolt dealing out that kind of damage... the character would be ash and need a lot more than a raise dead.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Denomic 04-17-06, 05:12 PM	During an adventure a party member got hit w/ a tripple crit dealing 63 damage to him. He only had 21 hp at full health. Are we able to ressurect him or does he need to re-roll his character? Ressurecting him would be bringing him to a temple to have him ressurected I assume.. Where would I be able to read up on ressurection a dead player and is there any situations where a PC cannot be ressurected?
TheChilliGod 04-17-06, 05:40 PM	Well, you can take a look at the resurrection spells in the players handbook, as well as a section in the DMG about page 40-something, that deals with character death. The thing about resurrection is that, by RAW, it doesn't matter how many hp the fella is below 0, you can still be resurrected. There are situations, though, where you can't be resurrected by anything short of a wish spell, such as when your soul dies instead of your body. But anything that does that would mention it somewhere in it's description.
Mitchell 04-18-06, 01:51 AM	Yeah, generally speaking, dead is just dead. You can't really be "more dead" than another dead guy, undead being a totally different story, of course. As an effect, I may detail something if someone gets knocked down to dead in one hit (beheading or whatever, based on the type of damage). In any event, most weapons are incapable, by themselves, to do so much damage to a body that it isn't suitable for a raise dead or resurrection spell. It would normally require an energy effect or spell of some sort to do that, unless it was a blender trap and they got liquefied by the blades. :)
Gedrin 04-18-06, 01:59 AM	The only possible problem you'd run into with recieving three times your HP total in damage is that the DM would be totally justified in ruling that the body was no longer considered intact. This wouldn't make sense if it was a backstab that did the damage, but if a hill giant used the PC as a golf tee...yeh...you've probably had a character spread as a fine red mist across the county. For all practical purposes, this means that you need Ressurection or greater to bring back the PC. Raise Dead requires the body be intact.
Bulletproof_Condom 04-18-06, 04:36 AM	During an adventure a party member got hit w/ a tripple crit dealing 63 damage to him. He only had 21 hp at full health. He's dead, Jim. If nobody in the party has raise dead, ressurect, or true ressurect, then it's entirely up to your DM whether he can be res'd or not (i.e., it's up to him to decide if there's an NPC with any of those spells, where he's located in the world, how willing he is to help, etc). But that has nothing to do with the amount of damage he sustained. Once he's below -10 hp, he's dead. -10, -12, -157, it's all just dead. If death is working differently based on "how dead" you are, that's a house rule. Be advised, the material components for those spells are costly.
Mav_Rick 04-18-06, 05:03 AM	What I do as a Dm: When a Pc die, he an be raised with "Raise Dead" or the likes unless he's been dipped in acid, burned to crisp, etc (those needs a Ress) BUT, when a PC dies with a -50 or more.. I usually tend to be creative.. No pc can be deader than dead :/.. but I mean cmon , -60 must really hurt compare to -10 don't you think? A few missing limbs or crushed skull is in order.. For me -100 is sliced in 2 with organs flying around or something.. It's all up to the DM after all.. This is where you find out if your Dm is truly evil, or just the diet coke of evil!
Ankharan 04-18-06, 07:55 AM	The idea that, if you get hit with something like 20+ points of over kill to degrees of dead. While dead is dead just the same... A body that falls in the water and dies and someone revives them, may have been dead but perhaps only sustained say... to -11. However, a body that was in a parked car and a semi doing 70 MPH slams into the back of it with a fully loaded trailer of concrete... Well... that is a bit different, or even having been decapitated. As a DM, depending on the method of the characters death and the amount of hit points below zero taken, such as... a lightening bolt dealing out that kind of damage... the character would be ash and need a lot more than a raise dead.