Raising the Dead in your FR [Archive] - Wizards Community

Raising the Dead in your FR [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Charles Phipps
10-29-07, 10:31 PM An Age old Question for your games. How common is it?

But yes, I had this answer at my table when it was asked tonight.

How Common is Raising the Dead in the Phippsverse?

In my games, Raise Dead is a spell that is very rarely given out to priests in the Realms even if people can cast it. In my Realms, there's like 15 guys in the whole FR who can st it. Most of these Fifteen are the Patriarchs or Matriarchs of their faiths in question. Of these fifteen, furthermore, only the Lathanderites will cast it without question because it's an article of their faith. Everyone else needs exceptional convincing in order to do so.

3 of the guys who CAN cast it ARE Lathanderites but they're usually booked solid. Dead children, lost lovers, and so on are all being appealed to all the time. Their families throw together the money or the Church does a freebie because they're genuinely nice people. This is what a lot of church tithes oddly goes to amongst the Lathanderites and they have their own diamonds mines. They're located in Suzail, Calisham, and Tethyr.

2 of the guys are worshipers of Kelemvor. They primarily limit their raising of the dead to Great Heroes and Champions of the Faith. If you're interested in slaughtering the undead or demons, are positively SURE that the Dead Guy has unfinished business, and are willing to cough up the cash for the spell components then they'll do some auguries and probably raise him. They're located in Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate respectively.

1 guy is Fzoul Chembyrl and he uses his power to resurrect Banites who are loyal to him. This includes Zhents that have been dead for decades, Wizards, and so on. This is why the Zhents are so damned feared.

1 guy is Cadderly and the Priesthood of Deneir takes a serious boost from the fact that he does it. Cadderly primarily does children and ponies up the cash himself whenever possible but first checks with auguries to make sure that they're going to come back. However, he's often willing to help heroes of the true and blue variety.

The patriarch of Waukeen is a special case because he actually does it for money. He'll resurrect anyone, short of some obscene evil (and that's only if it'll interfere with business), for pure cash. If you pay for the diamond, travel expenses, living expenses (he has very rarefied tastes), and the money in the DMG then he'll raise your dead friend.

Quilue also can raise the dead, she does it so the Goodly drow don't die out. She also is often brought in as "Larael" to raise particularly important Mystran champions or allies of the Chosen.

The remaining seven guys are the Patriarchs of Shar, Tyr, Sune, Chauntaea, Tempus, and Oghma. They're mostly known to resurrect priests of their flock and fallen champions of the faith and that's it.
Suin Bahhar
10-30-07, 09:28 AM In my realms the large organisations and powergroups have a reserve of resources devoted to raising their dead agents. There are even several Lathander and Finder Wyvernspur fatihs who actively quest for slain bodies of major heroes they get to know of. The major necromancer groups like Velsharoons clergy and the Cult of the Dragon are known to hunt these bodies for a different purpose, creating more powerfull undead servants. The Harpers play a large role in the passing of knowledge of the locations of the hero corpses. Most of the time this is held as a closly guarded secret as the goodaligned clergies try to protect heros from falling into the wrong hands. This is a pretty obscure and unknown business to the mayor populace of fearun who cant have acces to raise spells unless the family is very wealthy or willing to bankrupt itself.

If you dont join an organisation then bringing a body and spell components to a friendly church with the means to raise dead (í.e. a cleric of at least 9th level) should do it most of the time. The goodaligned souls in fearun usually refrain from coming back to fearun as their afterlives are pretty nice places. To not waste components usually a speak with the dead or an augury spell is cast before raising so as to inquire or convince the soul to come to the material once again.
Stigger
10-30-07, 10:03 AM Its a spell in the PHB... I tend to treat it as fairly common, if expensive, and don't really stick impediments on its use. But then again, most of my players limit themselves rather than have me do it, since they view it as pulling someone out of their deity's bosom, which shouldn't ever be done lightly. Never had an issue with it from them so... yeah.
Another Gnome
10-30-07, 11:26 AM Raising people from the dead is a straightforward process because it's necessary, and for any given church it's pretty damn good business.

It's hardly easy to come up with the necessary resources though, even for wealthy adventurers, and mechanical effects aside, getting back with a simple raise dead is a very traumatizing experience both mentally and physically; unlike with resurrection, you won't get a new body, so while raise dead sews you back into one piece, you're almost certain to be missing a thing or two and have a whole bunch of nasty scars as a reminder. And that's provided you at least get raised before decomposing starts to show.

Really, when the average adventurer (not counting those who never make it past their first battle anyway... which is most of them) ends up looking like Freddy Kruger after a few deaths, they need some serious dedication to ever want to come back.
Suin Bahhar
10-30-07, 11:47 AM I see reincarnation as slightly more common than actual raise dead and rezz spells. Always fun to have a great warrior reincarnated as a goblin or orc , hating it and forming a disciplined army out of an evil humanoid tribe he stumbles upon. Good villains.
createvmind
10-30-07, 05:35 PM Children are rarely returned to life in faerun, something to do with their soul not being strong enough to not be overwhelmed by the transition and continued soul-journey. Exceptions are children of very wealthy nobles and merchants and perhaps a few royal families.

This has it's own consequence which is the other deterrent besides cost, the need to cast enduring spells to ensure the child doesn't recall such trauma's later on in life.

Reincarnation would be far rarer than raise dead as it's a druid spell and death is part of the natural cycle which most druids wouldn't interfere with especially not on the behalf of people, especially non-nature loving people.

As stated ealier, larger organizations have more resources for such a thing.
BadCatMan
10-30-07, 08:06 PM It's a common spell that every dead PC expects to get a hold of. So rather than fiddle with things or think about it too much, or have a character angst about their death, I prefer to treat it as more like a high-powered heal spell.

Essentially Raise Dead becomes expensive specialist medical treatment, available to those who can afford it in the right location. Death becomes less of a final end and more like a stay in hospital, in a coma with some bad injuries and hefty medical expenses.

D&D tends to make a lot of amazing stuff common as muck. It's easier to adapt than put up with it or try to change things.

The Resurrection spell I would consider rather rarer and more special though.
Owlperson2007
10-30-07, 09:10 PM Children are rarely returned to life in faerun, something to do with their soul not being strong enough to not be overwhelmed by the transition and continued soul-journey. Exceptions are children of very wealthy nobles and merchants and perhaps a few royal families.

This has it's own consequence which is the other deterrent besides cost, the need to cast enduring spells to ensure the child doesn't recall such trauma's later on in life.

Reincarnation would be far rarer than raise dead as it's a druid spell and death is part of the natural cycle which most druids wouldn't interfere with especially not on the behalf of people, especially non-nature loving people.

As stated ealier, larger organizations have more resources for such a thing.

Since I don't play (any more) I will offer my purely philosophical opinion.

Native cultures in this world believe intensely in reincarnation, as do I. The normal idea is some kind of karmic justice, that, say a human who has been evil in this life will return as a bird - my mother-in-law will if she's not careful, I'd like to turn her into a huge black raven and banish her to the other side of the sea for what she did to Louise this summer, but sadly I can't do that stuff yet, I'm only a first-year at Hogwarts :(. However the truth as I see it has less to do with karma and more to do with destiny - that an animal spirit will take on human form in one life and live as a human for the rest of its spiritual existence. Don't laugh - I know at least one person who was a raven in her former life, I was married to her for thirty years (two ravens :( are enough for one lifetime, even as human beings). About 8,000 years ago I was a big fat snowy owl (think Hedwig in Harry Potter: hence the screenname) and Louise was a crow, but then we are not coming back again at all as humans or otherwise.

As for the original idea, I would strongly tend towards Charles' idea about the Raise Dead spell. If you know you can't be brought back to life, you appreciate it much more and would stop to think before you rushed in. Although I do believe we all live many times, we do it as different people, and I haven't finished with this body yet, it's served me pretty well so far and God won't let me come back if/when I perish. So your heroes should be encouraged to judge each situation as if there was no such thing. Reincarnation as a spell would be more widespread, but since I believe that most spirits want to come back to life at some point - being dead is very boring - it would not really be necessary unless some evil witch wanted to force the soul of a human or elf into a goblin or orc body. Magic(k) and life/death/rebirth are something that should never mix.
Charles Phipps
10-30-07, 10:22 PM My take on Reincarnation, divorcing it from Real World considerations, is that its somehow "Okay" in the Druid faith. Specificially, they believe that it fulfills some ecological and magical niche rather than violates regular principles of life/death.

I also tend to go with the idea that reincarnate spells do have some kharma involved in what form you take.
Stigger
10-31-07, 08:09 AM Really, having thought about it, I don't actually have a problem with it at all, abused or not. On one hand there's the idea that its a precious gift from the gods that's not given lightly. On the other hand, there's the idea that it's common enough spell for a cleric who can cast 5th level or better spells, so denying it to the party's cleric once he can cast it simply to achieve some end strikes me as bad DM'ing that doesn't take into account the parties capabilities, or nerfs them to achieve some story-related goal. Either way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Its there on their spell lists, they should have access to them, so long as they keep in line with their deity's goals and ethos... and if they're not doing that, they aren't playing in my group long enough to ever cast spells of those levels.

Dunno, maybe I've just been fortunate with my players, as its a problem that's never come up for us, but I tend to blame myself more than them when that sort of problem rears its head.
Voran
10-31-07, 08:54 PM In terms of NPCs, I'd say its fairly rare, as the number of NPCs that can cast it, compared to the number of NPCs who want it, is a crazy crazy ratio. Plus, unless they're a 'story' or 'plot' NPC that has 'character shields', generally speaking they don't have enough gravity to their souls or causes of life to warrant being returned to life, even if the call was made.

If Joe the Butcher bites it, and is sent to..I dunno some CG afterlife, even if his family ponies up the dough (actual or equivalent) to get him raised, its not likely he'll come back. Consequently, if Joe the Evil Butcher bites it and is sent to the Blood War or something, the "powers that be" aren't likely to let him go back.

PCs, as in many other cases, are that rare exception. Unless the Player wants their character to stay dead, if the party has access to such spells within the party, I'd say let em come back.

Good PCs are allowed back due to some metagaming reasoning that the god handling their soul notes they've got a higher calling to serve, may have more benefit to the god to have this worshipper returned to earth, etc etc.

Evil PCs are allowed back cause the evil powers that be feel the evil PC will further their cause by being alive again.

As mentioned, its sorta metagame reasoning, applies to PCs, otherwise you'd get things like "Well why doesn't the evil god dude just allow the Evil BBEG whacked earlier to come back to life?" Answer is "Well, unless it furthers the plot somehow, or makes the game more fun to play, its not going to happen".
Another Gnome
11-01-07, 07:43 AM Essentially Raise Dead becomes expensive specialist medical treatment, available to those who can afford it in the right location. Death becomes less of a final end and more like a stay in hospital, in a coma with some bad injuries and hefty medical expenses.

I think that's a good way to look at it too. Kinda reminds me of how in Star Wars Saga it's an application of the Treat Injury skill to revive a dead character, though admittably that requires a medi-kit (probably including a portable defibrillator, adrenaline shots, etc.) and is obviously meant for a "modern" setting... not to mention it's the only way to bring back a dead character in SW.

Anyway, even the core D&D has varying degrees of death, as evident from how raise dead doesn't work on a person killed by death effect. While raise dead does have obvious fantasy elements to it in the extent of damage it can repair and by having a deadline (no pun intended) measured in days rather than minutes or hours, it's indeed quite viable to see the spell as merely resuscitating a clinically dead person, it just happens with magical healing instead of intensive care in a modern hospital.
ClobberinTime
11-01-07, 04:52 PM Interestingly there is a scene I just read this morning, in 'Road of the Patriarch' by Salvatore, one character loses a friend (Olwen's buddy Mariabrone), and two of his friends comment on his trying to get Mariabrone ressurected. You can almost feel the social pressure not to do this, the assumption that the friend was acting irrationally, and attempting to meddle with the natural order of things in an unnatural way. It was a great scene, and I am thinking that most goodly religions are very much against raising/resurrecting the dead.

This idea really fits Eds realms nicely, adventurers are a breed apart, even the LG are to some extent free from the strictures of society in that they would not hesitate to use whatever means are available to them. Its why the cautious call them 'Meddlesome'.
Alrunic Silverfyre
11-02-07, 02:03 PM Its a spell in the PHB... I tend to treat it as fairly common, if expensive, and don't really stick impediments on its use. But then again, most of my players limit themselves rather than have me do it, since they view it as pulling someone out of their deity's bosom, which shouldn't ever be done lightly.

Well said. That's pretty much how it is run in my game as well. We have been playing for the better part of a decade and if that, you end up with a LOT of characters between four people. So, as a group, we had a lot of clerics that had the spell and raise dead was beginning to be an answer to a lot of problems for one of our players, although it was not that much of a problem. Thusly, we came up with the idea that a single character's soul could only be raised three times, that's it.

We had it occur "in-game" by having Kelemvor hand down a decree to help balance the Realms by saying that "Three is the sacred number and only thrice shall the soul return. After this time, the soul shall return to whence it belongs, for better or for worse." Worked like a dream and now the characters take death seriously, as it should be.

But, it never was a deal with the more pious ones for they didn't want to leave their deities any time soon...at least, the good ones didn't!
Blibbering_Humdinger
11-03-07, 02:15 AM In my world, there are gods. Instances of resurrection are really demons taking over corpses and walking the world in the guise of men and dwarves. :devil: In my world, the gods are merely fronts for a vindictive and manipulative Satan who plays the world like a massive collection of action figures. :evillaugh

So there's no raising the dead, not really. Evil Ao doesn't do that--he just pretends to. ;)

*Disclaimer: This is a joke. I don't actually do this when I play... mostly because I've never played before. :embarrass

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Charles Phipps 10-29-07, 10:31 PM	An Age old Question for your games. How common is it? But yes, I had this answer at my table when it was asked tonight. How Common is Raising the Dead in the Phippsverse? In my games, Raise Dead is a spell that is very rarely given out to priests in the Realms even if people can cast it. In my Realms, there's like 15 guys in the whole FR who can st it. Most of these Fifteen are the Patriarchs or Matriarchs of their faiths in question. Of these fifteen, furthermore, only the Lathanderites will cast it without question because it's an article of their faith. Everyone else needs exceptional convincing in order to do so. 3 of the guys who CAN cast it ARE Lathanderites but they're usually booked solid. Dead children, lost lovers, and so on are all being appealed to all the time. Their families throw together the money or the Church does a freebie because they're genuinely nice people. This is what a lot of church tithes oddly goes to amongst the Lathanderites and they have their own diamonds mines. They're located in Suzail, Calisham, and Tethyr. 2 of the guys are worshipers of Kelemvor. They primarily limit their raising of the dead to Great Heroes and Champions of the Faith. If you're interested in slaughtering the undead or demons, are positively SURE that the Dead Guy has unfinished business, and are willing to cough up the cash for the spell components then they'll do some auguries and probably raise him. They're located in Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate respectively. 1 guy is Fzoul Chembyrl and he uses his power to resurrect Banites who are loyal to him. This includes Zhents that have been dead for decades, Wizards, and so on. This is why the Zhents are so damned feared. 1 guy is Cadderly and the Priesthood of Deneir takes a serious boost from the fact that he does it. Cadderly primarily does children and ponies up the cash himself whenever possible but first checks with auguries to make sure that they're going to come back. However, he's often willing to help heroes of the true and blue variety. The patriarch of Waukeen is a special case because he actually does it for money. He'll resurrect anyone, short of some obscene evil (and that's only if it'll interfere with business), for pure cash. If you pay for the diamond, travel expenses, living expenses (he has very rarefied tastes), and the money in the DMG then he'll raise your dead friend. Quilue also can raise the dead, she does it so the Goodly drow don't die out. She also is often brought in as "Larael" to raise particularly important Mystran champions or allies of the Chosen. The remaining seven guys are the Patriarchs of Shar, Tyr, Sune, Chauntaea, Tempus, and Oghma. They're mostly known to resurrect priests of their flock and fallen champions of the faith and that's it.
Suin Bahhar 10-30-07, 09:28 AM	In my realms the large organisations and powergroups have a reserve of resources devoted to raising their dead agents. There are even several Lathander and Finder Wyvernspur fatihs who actively quest for slain bodies of major heroes they get to know of. The major necromancer groups like Velsharoons clergy and the Cult of the Dragon are known to hunt these bodies for a different purpose, creating more powerfull undead servants. The Harpers play a large role in the passing of knowledge of the locations of the hero corpses. Most of the time this is held as a closly guarded secret as the goodaligned clergies try to protect heros from falling into the wrong hands. This is a pretty obscure and unknown business to the mayor populace of fearun who cant have acces to raise spells unless the family is very wealthy or willing to bankrupt itself. If you dont join an organisation then bringing a body and spell components to a friendly church with the means to raise dead (í.e. a cleric of at least 9th level) should do it most of the time. The goodaligned souls in fearun usually refrain from coming back to fearun as their afterlives are pretty nice places. To not waste components usually a speak with the dead or an augury spell is cast before raising so as to inquire or convince the soul to come to the material once again.
Stigger 10-30-07, 10:03 AM	Its a spell in the PHB... I tend to treat it as fairly common, if expensive, and don't really stick impediments on its use. But then again, most of my players limit themselves rather than have me do it, since they view it as pulling someone out of their deity's bosom, which shouldn't ever be done lightly. Never had an issue with it from them so... yeah.
Another Gnome 10-30-07, 11:26 AM	Raising people from the dead is a straightforward process because it's necessary, and for any given church it's pretty damn good business. It's hardly easy to come up with the necessary resources though, even for wealthy adventurers, and mechanical effects aside, getting back with a simple raise dead is a very traumatizing experience both mentally and physically; unlike with resurrection, you won't get a new body, so while raise dead sews you back into one piece, you're almost certain to be missing a thing or two and have a whole bunch of nasty scars as a reminder. And that's provided you at least get raised before decomposing starts to show. Really, when the average adventurer (not counting those who never make it past their first battle anyway... which is most of them) ends up looking like Freddy Kruger after a few deaths, they need some serious dedication to ever want to come back.
Suin Bahhar 10-30-07, 11:47 AM	I see reincarnation as slightly more common than actual raise dead and rezz spells. Always fun to have a great warrior reincarnated as a goblin or orc , hating it and forming a disciplined army out of an evil humanoid tribe he stumbles upon. Good villains.
createvmind 10-30-07, 05:35 PM	Children are rarely returned to life in faerun, something to do with their soul not being strong enough to not be overwhelmed by the transition and continued soul-journey. Exceptions are children of very wealthy nobles and merchants and perhaps a few royal families. This has it's own consequence which is the other deterrent besides cost, the need to cast enduring spells to ensure the child doesn't recall such trauma's later on in life. Reincarnation would be far rarer than raise dead as it's a druid spell and death is part of the natural cycle which most druids wouldn't interfere with especially not on the behalf of people, especially non-nature loving people. As stated ealier, larger organizations have more resources for such a thing.
BadCatMan 10-30-07, 08:06 PM	It's a common spell that every dead PC expects to get a hold of. So rather than fiddle with things or think about it too much, or have a character angst about their death, I prefer to treat it as more like a high-powered heal spell. Essentially Raise Dead becomes expensive specialist medical treatment, available to those who can afford it in the right location. Death becomes less of a final end and more like a stay in hospital, in a coma with some bad injuries and hefty medical expenses. D&D tends to make a lot of amazing stuff common as muck. It's easier to adapt than put up with it or try to change things. The Resurrection spell I would consider rather rarer and more special though.
Owlperson2007 10-30-07, 09:10 PM	Children are rarely returned to life in faerun, something to do with their soul not being strong enough to not be overwhelmed by the transition and continued soul-journey. Exceptions are children of very wealthy nobles and merchants and perhaps a few royal families. This has it's own consequence which is the other deterrent besides cost, the need to cast enduring spells to ensure the child doesn't recall such trauma's later on in life. Reincarnation would be far rarer than raise dead as it's a druid spell and death is part of the natural cycle which most druids wouldn't interfere with especially not on the behalf of people, especially non-nature loving people. As stated ealier, larger organizations have more resources for such a thing. Since I don't play (any more) I will offer my purely philosophical opinion. Native cultures in this world believe intensely in reincarnation, as do I. The normal idea is some kind of karmic justice, that, say a human who has been evil in this life will return as a bird - my mother-in-law will if she's not careful, I'd like to turn her into a huge black raven and banish her to the other side of the sea for what she did to Louise this summer, but sadly I can't do that stuff yet, I'm only a first-year at Hogwarts :(. However the truth as I see it has less to do with karma and more to do with destiny - that an animal spirit will take on human form in one life and live as a human for the rest of its spiritual existence. Don't laugh - I know at least one person who was a raven in her former life, I was married to her for thirty years (two ravens :( are enough for one lifetime, even as human beings). About 8,000 years ago I was a big fat snowy owl (think Hedwig in Harry Potter: hence the screenname) and Louise was a crow, but then we are not coming back again at all as humans or otherwise. As for the original idea, I would strongly tend towards Charles' idea about the Raise Dead spell. If you know you can't be brought back to life, you appreciate it much more and would stop to think before you rushed in. Although I do believe we all live many times, we do it as different people, and I haven't finished with this body yet, it's served me pretty well so far and God won't let me come back if/when I perish. So your heroes should be encouraged to judge each situation as if there was no such thing. Reincarnation as a spell would be more widespread, but since I believe that most spirits want to come back to life at some point - being dead is very boring - it would not really be necessary unless some evil witch wanted to force the soul of a human or elf into a goblin or orc body. Magic(k) and life/death/rebirth are something that should never mix.
Charles Phipps 10-30-07, 10:22 PM	My take on Reincarnation, divorcing it from Real World considerations, is that its somehow "Okay" in the Druid faith. Specificially, they believe that it fulfills some ecological and magical niche rather than violates regular principles of life/death. I also tend to go with the idea that reincarnate spells do have some kharma involved in what form you take.
Stigger 10-31-07, 08:09 AM	Really, having thought about it, I don't actually have a problem with it at all, abused or not. On one hand there's the idea that its a precious gift from the gods that's not given lightly. On the other hand, there's the idea that it's common enough spell for a cleric who can cast 5th level or better spells, so denying it to the party's cleric once he can cast it simply to achieve some end strikes me as bad DM'ing that doesn't take into account the parties capabilities, or nerfs them to achieve some story-related goal. Either way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Its there on their spell lists, they should have access to them, so long as they keep in line with their deity's goals and ethos... and if they're not doing that, they aren't playing in my group long enough to ever cast spells of those levels. Dunno, maybe I've just been fortunate with my players, as its a problem that's never come up for us, but I tend to blame myself more than them when that sort of problem rears its head.
Voran 10-31-07, 08:54 PM	In terms of NPCs, I'd say its fairly rare, as the number of NPCs that can cast it, compared to the number of NPCs who want it, is a crazy crazy ratio. Plus, unless they're a 'story' or 'plot' NPC that has 'character shields', generally speaking they don't have enough gravity to their souls or causes of life to warrant being returned to life, even if the call was made. If Joe the Butcher bites it, and is sent to..I dunno some CG afterlife, even if his family ponies up the dough (actual or equivalent) to get him raised, its not likely he'll come back. Consequently, if Joe the Evil Butcher bites it and is sent to the Blood War or something, the "powers that be" aren't likely to let him go back. PCs, as in many other cases, are that rare exception. Unless the Player wants their character to stay dead, if the party has access to such spells within the party, I'd say let em come back. Good PCs are allowed back due to some metagaming reasoning that the god handling their soul notes they've got a higher calling to serve, may have more benefit to the god to have this worshipper returned to earth, etc etc. Evil PCs are allowed back cause the evil powers that be feel the evil PC will further their cause by being alive again. As mentioned, its sorta metagame reasoning, applies to PCs, otherwise you'd get things like "Well why doesn't the evil god dude just allow the Evil BBEG whacked earlier to come back to life?" Answer is "Well, unless it furthers the plot somehow, or makes the game more fun to play, its not going to happen".
Another Gnome 11-01-07, 07:43 AM	Essentially Raise Dead becomes expensive specialist medical treatment, available to those who can afford it in the right location. Death becomes less of a final end and more like a stay in hospital, in a coma with some bad injuries and hefty medical expenses. I think that's a good way to look at it too. Kinda reminds me of how in Star Wars Saga it's an application of the Treat Injury skill to revive a dead character, though admittably that requires a medi-kit (probably including a portable defibrillator, adrenaline shots, etc.) and is obviously meant for a "modern" setting... not to mention it's the only way to bring back a dead character in SW. Anyway, even the core D&D has varying degrees of death, as evident from how raise dead doesn't work on a person killed by death effect. While raise dead does have obvious fantasy elements to it in the extent of damage it can repair and by having a deadline (no pun intended) measured in days rather than minutes or hours, it's indeed quite viable to see the spell as merely resuscitating a clinically dead person, it just happens with magical healing instead of intensive care in a modern hospital.
ClobberinTime 11-01-07, 04:52 PM	Interestingly there is a scene I just read this morning, in 'Road of the Patriarch' by Salvatore, one character loses a friend (Olwen's buddy Mariabrone), and two of his friends comment on his trying to get Mariabrone ressurected. You can almost feel the social pressure not to do this, the assumption that the friend was acting irrationally, and attempting to meddle with the natural order of things in an unnatural way. It was a great scene, and I am thinking that most goodly religions are very much against raising/resurrecting the dead. This idea really fits Eds realms nicely, adventurers are a breed apart, even the LG are to some extent free from the strictures of society in that they would not hesitate to use whatever means are available to them. Its why the cautious call them 'Meddlesome'.
Alrunic Silverfyre 11-02-07, 02:03 PM	Its a spell in the PHB... I tend to treat it as fairly common, if expensive, and don't really stick impediments on its use. But then again, most of my players limit themselves rather than have me do it, since they view it as pulling someone out of their deity's bosom, which shouldn't ever be done lightly. Well said. That's pretty much how it is run in my game as well. We have been playing for the better part of a decade and if that, you end up with a LOT of characters between four people. So, as a group, we had a lot of clerics that had the spell and raise dead was beginning to be an answer to a lot of problems for one of our players, although it was not that much of a problem. Thusly, we came up with the idea that a single character's soul could only be raised three times, that's it. We had it occur "in-game" by having Kelemvor hand down a decree to help balance the Realms by saying that "Three is the sacred number and only thrice shall the soul return. After this time, the soul shall return to whence it belongs, for better or for worse." Worked like a dream and now the characters take death seriously, as it should be. But, it never was a deal with the more pious ones for they didn't want to leave their deities any time soon...at least, the good ones didn't!
Blibbering_Humdinger 11-03-07, 02:15 AM	In my world, there are gods. Instances of resurrection are really demons taking over corpses and walking the world in the guise of men and dwarves. :devil: In my world, the gods are merely fronts for a vindictive and manipulative Satan who plays the world like a massive collection of action figures. :evillaugh So there's no raising the dead, not really. Evil Ao doesn't do that--he just pretends to. ;) *Disclaimer: This is a joke. I don't actually do this when I play... mostly because I've never played before. :embarrass