Death and dying in Eberron [Archive] - Wizards Community

Death and dying in Eberron [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
UberDuPer
01-22-06, 12:08 PM I remember reading either on these forums, in a dragon mag or one of the Eberron books about how death and dying are treated different than the standard D&D style settings but I cannot seem to find out where it was. If someone could reference any information that they know about in regards to death and dying from the perspective of how the pc’s will have to deal with it I would be very grateful. Please note I am aware of the more notable death cults and pursuits like the undying court and the blood of vol. I just want to know how it would be treated by the average successful mid to high level adventurer. Thanks
TheFounderPrime
01-22-06, 01:16 PM I think the only thing you might be referring to is with the orrery arrangement of the Eberron multiverse.

The only thing I can come up with is on page 95 of the ECS, where it reads: "When Dolurrh is remote, spells that bring back the dead do not function, and it is impossible to reach Dolurrh by means of plane shift. Only by journeying to Dolurrh (using astral projection, gate, or a permanent portal to the plane), finding the soul of the deceased, and bringing it back to the Material Plane can a deceased character be returned to life during this period.... Dolurrh is remote for a period of one year every century...."

That's a pretty serious issue for adventurers during that one year....
Bentley Mirrorshade
01-22-06, 01:34 PM A dying character may spend one action point in order to stabilize at his current hit points. This special action does nothing when the character is already dead.

That's all I can think of, at any rate.
ieattrollsforbreakfast
01-22-06, 01:49 PM There is also that fact that, given the rarity of high-level divine casters and even greater rarity of those willing to cast ressurections spells for cash alone, it's difficult to raise a character in Eberron unless you do it yourself.
Unlike in some other campaign settings, divine magic is not simply sold. Its is powered by faith, to be used to benefit the faithful. A church isnt going to cast raise dead simply because you drop a bag of gold in the collection box. You must earn your reward, and there is your plot hook for the next adventure.
Kinger
01-22-06, 01:53 PM The main difference is not so much a rules change but a flavour change.

Say you have your standard adventuring party out in your standard tomb-of-monsters-with-treasure, and the Rogue rolls a natural 1 on his save vs. the Slay Living Glyph of Warding. Damn, that sucker just died.

In some settings, it's quite possible to just have the Fighter pick up the Rogue and haul his dead deceased corpse back to Town, where your friendly neighbourhood Cleric of Lawful Good Faith will cast a Ressurection spell for the appropriate price.

In Eberron, there are only a handful of clerics capable of casting any sort of "bring back a soul from the great beyond" spells, and those that can aren't simply going to do it because you can pay them. One of them is the head of a whole faith, for example, and never leaves the city of Flamekeep. It's the equivalent of flying out to the Vatican to see if the Pope will bless your golf clubs if you paid him enough.

Ressurection is difficult to come by in Eberron. Your best bet is to have a cleric in your party who can do it, and can do it without appearing to break any tenants of her faith (which would remove any and all clerical abilities, after all).

Then there's the idea that if you leave a soul long enough in Dollurh, the plane of death, it forgets who it was and loses any and all desire to leave. You can't ressurect an unwilling soul, remember.

EDIT: One more thing. Death is an inevitable part of the universe, and as a result, has an Inevitable (see MM) tied to it. A Marut will quite possibly try to track down and re-kill anyone who's been ressurected, 'cause it's what they do. If you played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, it's the same sort of deal as the Dahaka. You were supposed to die, and no an unstoppable beast chases you. Enjoy!
talion09
01-22-06, 01:53 PM Check out the Ask Keith Baker FAQ for more in-depth answers, but basically:

A) With the Eberron demographics the way they are, there are few NPCs capable of casting Raise Dead, let alone Ressurection. I believe there are all of 3 such casters in the Sharn:CoT sourcebook, which details the New York equivalent of Eberron.

B) With all PC classes being more rare compared to NPC classes, there is also a far lesser amount of divine casters out there. Which in turn means that clerical magic is treated more as a gift from the gods than a commercial commodity to be doled out for the appropriate amount of cash.

A + B = A world in which there are far fewer divine casters capable of casting Raise Dead, let along Ressurection. And those casters are also far less likely to do for a random adventurer in exchange for cash/favors than they would be in other settings.

Now House Jorasco could use the Ressurection Altar listed in the ECS to ressurect adventurers for cash, which certainly does fit their merchantile mindset... but I believe that the Altars were supposed to be rare, and that there would be all kinds of problems inherent in actually getting to use it if the DM was so inclined. Think about the lineups and waiting lists to see the most successful surgeons and doctors in real life, than imagine what the waiting list would be for a doctor who could bring the dead back to life, but could only do one or two procedures a day.

---
Edit: I forgot to mention that there is a special rule for death in Eberron. Check out the section on the planes in the ECS, specifically Doluruth. Basically, dead souls have only a certain amount of time to be brought back to life before all their memories fade away. It's a Will save vs a DC that increases daily, so even a PC soul won't be around for long.
talion09
01-22-06, 01:56 PM " It's the equivalent of flying out to the Vatican to see if the Pope will bless your golf clubs if you paid him enough."

I like this analogy :D
treehouse916
01-22-06, 02:29 PM One nice feature (as others have mentioned) about making resurrection magic rare is, it encourages the DM to avoid constantly killing PCs. In a typical D&D campaign (that isn't based on a module written by Monte Cook) you see a PC death about every 10-15 sessions. In Eberron, they should be spaced out much more than that, and if possible should only occur in climatic encounters. Obviously, you don't want to fudge dice rolls to accomplish this, but you should steer things that way as much as possible. That way, death is significant (as it would be in a movie when one of the main characters is killed), and the quest for resurrection more emotionally charged. At the very least, create the illusion that resurrection magic is hard to come by. The PCs are extraordinary heroes, so they will have resources available to bring back their dead most of the time, but they shouldn't feel like that's true until they can provide for themselves reliably.

All that said, if you don't want that to be a feature of your Eberron campaign, feel free to ignore it (assuming you are the DM, of course :D) I could see a greedy cleric of Kol Korran providing pretty much any service for the right price. And, as mentioned before, there are the resurrection altars.

(edited for annoying spelling mistake)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
UberDuPer 01-22-06, 12:08 PM	I remember reading either on these forums, in a dragon mag or one of the Eberron books about how death and dying are treated different than the standard D&D style settings but I cannot seem to find out where it was. If someone could reference any information that they know about in regards to death and dying from the perspective of how the pc’s will have to deal with it I would be very grateful. Please note I am aware of the more notable death cults and pursuits like the undying court and the blood of vol. I just want to know how it would be treated by the average successful mid to high level adventurer. Thanks
TheFounderPrime 01-22-06, 01:16 PM	I think the only thing you might be referring to is with the orrery arrangement of the Eberron multiverse. The only thing I can come up with is on page 95 of the ECS, where it reads: "When Dolurrh is remote, spells that bring back the dead do not function, and it is impossible to reach Dolurrh by means of plane shift. Only by journeying to Dolurrh (using astral projection, gate, or a permanent portal to the plane), finding the soul of the deceased, and bringing it back to the Material Plane can a deceased character be returned to life during this period.... Dolurrh is remote for a period of one year every century...." That's a pretty serious issue for adventurers during that one year....
Bentley Mirrorshade 01-22-06, 01:34 PM	A dying character may spend one action point in order to stabilize at his current hit points. This special action does nothing when the character is already dead. That's all I can think of, at any rate.
ieattrollsforbreakfast 01-22-06, 01:49 PM	There is also that fact that, given the rarity of high-level divine casters and even greater rarity of those willing to cast ressurections spells for cash alone, it's difficult to raise a character in Eberron unless you do it yourself. Unlike in some other campaign settings, divine magic is not simply sold. Its is powered by faith, to be used to benefit the faithful. A church isnt going to cast raise dead simply because you drop a bag of gold in the collection box. You must earn your reward, and there is your plot hook for the next adventure.
Kinger 01-22-06, 01:53 PM	The main difference is not so much a rules change but a flavour change. Say you have your standard adventuring party out in your standard tomb-of-monsters-with-treasure, and the Rogue rolls a natural 1 on his save vs. the Slay Living Glyph of Warding. Damn, that sucker just died. In some settings, it's quite possible to just have the Fighter pick up the Rogue and haul his dead deceased corpse back to Town, where your friendly neighbourhood Cleric of Lawful Good Faith will cast a Ressurection spell for the appropriate price. In Eberron, there are only a handful of clerics capable of casting any sort of "bring back a soul from the great beyond" spells, and those that can aren't simply going to do it because you can pay them. One of them is the head of a whole faith, for example, and never leaves the city of Flamekeep. It's the equivalent of flying out to the Vatican to see if the Pope will bless your golf clubs if you paid him enough. Ressurection is difficult to come by in Eberron. Your best bet is to have a cleric in your party who can do it, and can do it without appearing to break any tenants of her faith (which would remove any and all clerical abilities, after all). Then there's the idea that if you leave a soul long enough in Dollurh, the plane of death, it forgets who it was and loses any and all desire to leave. You can't ressurect an unwilling soul, remember. EDIT: One more thing. Death is an inevitable part of the universe, and as a result, has an Inevitable (see MM) tied to it. A Marut will quite possibly try to track down and re-kill anyone who's been ressurected, 'cause it's what they do. If you played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, it's the same sort of deal as the Dahaka. You were supposed to die, and no an unstoppable beast chases you. Enjoy!
talion09 01-22-06, 01:53 PM	Check out the Ask Keith Baker FAQ for more in-depth answers, but basically: A) With the Eberron demographics the way they are, there are few NPCs capable of casting Raise Dead, let alone Ressurection. I believe there are all of 3 such casters in the Sharn:CoT sourcebook, which details the New York equivalent of Eberron. B) With all PC classes being more rare compared to NPC classes, there is also a far lesser amount of divine casters out there. Which in turn means that clerical magic is treated more as a gift from the gods than a commercial commodity to be doled out for the appropriate amount of cash. A + B = A world in which there are far fewer divine casters capable of casting Raise Dead, let along Ressurection. And those casters are also far less likely to do for a random adventurer in exchange for cash/favors than they would be in other settings. Now House Jorasco could use the Ressurection Altar listed in the ECS to ressurect adventurers for cash, which certainly does fit their merchantile mindset... but I believe that the Altars were supposed to be rare, and that there would be all kinds of problems inherent in actually getting to use it if the DM was so inclined. Think about the lineups and waiting lists to see the most successful surgeons and doctors in real life, than imagine what the waiting list would be for a doctor who could bring the dead back to life, but could only do one or two procedures a day. --- Edit: I forgot to mention that there is a special rule for death in Eberron. Check out the section on the planes in the ECS, specifically Doluruth. Basically, dead souls have only a certain amount of time to be brought back to life before all their memories fade away. It's a Will save vs a DC that increases daily, so even a PC soul won't be around for long.
talion09 01-22-06, 01:56 PM	" It's the equivalent of flying out to the Vatican to see if the Pope will bless your golf clubs if you paid him enough." I like this analogy :D
treehouse916 01-22-06, 02:29 PM	One nice feature (as others have mentioned) about making resurrection magic rare is, it encourages the DM to avoid constantly killing PCs. In a typical D&D campaign (that isn't based on a module written by Monte Cook) you see a PC death about every 10-15 sessions. In Eberron, they should be spaced out much more than that, and if possible should only occur in climatic encounters. Obviously, you don't want to fudge dice rolls to accomplish this, but you should steer things that way as much as possible. That way, death is significant (as it would be in a movie when one of the main characters is killed), and the quest for resurrection more emotionally charged. At the very least, create the illusion that resurrection magic is hard to come by. The PCs are extraordinary heroes, so they will have resources available to bring back their dead most of the time, but they shouldn't feel like that's true until they can provide for themselves reliably. All that said, if you don't want that to be a feature of your Eberron campaign, feel free to ignore it (assuming you are the DM, of course :D) I could see a greedy cleric of Kol Korran providing pretty much any service for the right price. And, as mentioned before, there are the resurrection altars. (edited for annoying spelling mistake)