Blasted Screwy Afterlife/Undeath!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Blasted Screwy Afterlife/Undeath!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Arthur_Pendragon
03-27-04, 03:11 PM I'm struggling along in working on my present campaign setting, and could use some help. My issue is, is that I'm hunting for a specific kind of feel (what feel that is I'm not sure yet . . . yeah I know annoying).

The following is explanation, if you wish you can just jump to the heading called "question" at the end:

However, I can explain what I'm not after first. I'm trying to stay away from angels/demons/devils in the afterlife, keeping the afterlife more dark, spooky, supernatural, but lacking in demon/devil/angelic forces.

When I create settings I tend to want to sepearte the evil portion of the afterlife into either "demons/devils" or "undead" and not mix the two (as I feel their "feel" or "Flavor" is really different from each other). I previously worked on a demon/devil kind of oriented setting, but I ended up giving up on it, and leaned back toward undead.

As to the campaign itself. The world is fairly young, humanity still lives in caves and worships animal spirits. While Elven culture has risen to great heigth (including the creation of High Magic (wizards in this setting are kinda a cross between sorcerers and wizards). And this is an Evil campaign. (Please note additional note concering my group, in my signature).

So, my character, was an elven wizard who is cast out (exiled) for using high magic rituals to necromantic ends (he is very interested in death and undeath). I was thinking perhpas that elven religion is rather druid-like and generally ignores the afterlife (saying that things merely return to the earth, or are reborn, reincarnation perhaps?). However, Galen (my character) wasn't satisified and wanted to understand more (so he delves into forbidden knowledge). My wife's character is a human (or maybe elf she is still deciding) rogue (going eventually for assassin). My own character will probably be heading for becoming a Lich (since his people cursed him with a shortened lifespan) probably one of the earliest, if not first, liches in this campaign world.

However, my problem is sorting out, exactly the nature of the afterlife world. I'm trying to avoid the ideas of a heaven or hell type places. That creation (in the world and in the afterlife) is more nature oriented and neutral. But I struggle for a real idea of the world after the living. I also know I want to avoid the idea of something like just some giant negative or positive energy plane (in fact I want to throw out postitive and negative energy from my campaign, and instead use Restoration Magic (which covers healing, etc.) and life draining energy (which restoration magic has nothing to do with at all, it can heal it via Restoration, but not actually counteract it, so no positive energy healing spells with which to hit undead). Life draining energy, however, I still need to nail down more. . . I want it to effect the living and undead as Negative energy ususally does, and have it come from the realm or one of the realms of the dead, but I'm unclear what realm or if to have several realms.

Summarized questions:

What to do about the afterlife realms?

What to do about the source of Life Draining Energy?

What to do about spirits, gods etc. where do they live, exist, etc.?
Tisner44
03-27-04, 05:00 PM This is an interesting thought. If healing isn't a positive energy ability, then it should work on all creatures. Positive energy is usually considered diety specific or in general clerical. If you toss out positive and negative energy then what is the difference in the power of divine and arcane magic?

They could be of the same type, this would give all spellcasters access to all spells...this could work if you went with a generic caster class and dumped the caster core classes. I don't think this would hurt your world too much with the dislike for necromancy. You can even limit it to little to no healing spells since healing is technically necromantic in nature.

This would mean that the dieties have little place in the daily lives of the people or you could make it a partial monotheistic area. The Elves only believe in one true diety and will discourage others. This specific diety does not like healing magic and considers death just a part of life...so deal with it.

The savage tribes could have shaman type casters which are an insult to the elves. This could cause some interesting stories. Then your character wants to make dead things walk...um bad:eek:

The after life realms are considered permanant to most elves... each of the human tribes may have different ideas for this and could even give the PCs access to resurect for a high price.

Life draining energy could be just that. Do you want the undead to still be immune to it... they are still dead right?
You don't have to make it negative energy it is just energy stolen from them... actually I've always considered level draining the taking away of life experiences and what was learned from those.

Hope this helps.
Arthur_Pendragon
03-27-04, 08:17 PM Well I had already planned to have Restoration magic (healing, cure disease, etc. all fall under it), that is Restoration restore things or heals things. I am planning so that any spell caster can cast from restoration magic (so mages get healing magic), however I still plan to keep clerics as a separate class.

As to restoriative magic while some additions might place it under necromancy, I don't really like that feel for this campaign, so I tend to keep is separate (and the god/gods are ok with such magic then). Plus this way, the party can get healed, even though they'll probably anger every religion on the planet (I'm not fond of having evil gods in my settings).

As for Life draining energy being, life energy drained from other things, sounds like a good idea.

Of note, I'm thinking about altering the setting further (though I still need help on this part). Because I keep feeling like elves, wouldn't persue lichdom, as their lifespans are already so long, I keep feeling like that is something a human would do (since their life spans are so short by comparision. Even if an elf had his lifespan shortened. . . It still can't see them rushing to lichdom for immortality like a human would. . .

*sigh*...I HATE when I can't make up my own mind and sort things out! :banghead:
Tisner44
03-27-04, 09:50 PM Well, you could reduce the lifespan of an elf...but that wouldn't be nice.
Since Lichdom is so rare, it would be safe to say that the people don't understand the power and sacrifice of that decision. He may think that there is far more power involved and the long life isn't even a thought.

It might be overbalanced to give arcane casters healing magic and keep clerics. Why would people need a cleric?

I'm not sure what to do with your dieties. In my world, all of my dieties were neutral and as long as no wars happen for religious region they really don't care about much else but the balance of their specific areas.
Arthur_Pendragon
03-27-04, 10:04 PM *shrug* I guess they might not, in a sense. I imagine clerics still being what they are, clergy, servants of their god or goddess. Compared to wizards they are a LOT more likely to help the populace (assuming good clerics).

In terms of why would Players play clerics...well its not an issue in my parties, nobody plays clerics in our party anyway. I usually end up doing this just so the party has healing.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Arthur_Pendragon 03-27-04, 03:11 PM	I'm struggling along in working on my present campaign setting, and could use some help. My issue is, is that I'm hunting for a specific kind of feel (what feel that is I'm not sure yet . . . yeah I know annoying). The following is explanation, if you wish you can just jump to the heading called "question" at the end: However, I can explain what I'm not after first. I'm trying to stay away from angels/demons/devils in the afterlife, keeping the afterlife more dark, spooky, supernatural, but lacking in demon/devil/angelic forces. When I create settings I tend to want to sepearte the evil portion of the afterlife into either "demons/devils" or "undead" and not mix the two (as I feel their "feel" or "Flavor" is really different from each other). I previously worked on a demon/devil kind of oriented setting, but I ended up giving up on it, and leaned back toward undead. As to the campaign itself. The world is fairly young, humanity still lives in caves and worships animal spirits. While Elven culture has risen to great heigth (including the creation of High Magic (wizards in this setting are kinda a cross between sorcerers and wizards). And this is an Evil campaign. (Please note additional note concering my group, in my signature). So, my character, was an elven wizard who is cast out (exiled) for using high magic rituals to necromantic ends (he is very interested in death and undeath). I was thinking perhpas that elven religion is rather druid-like and generally ignores the afterlife (saying that things merely return to the earth, or are reborn, reincarnation perhaps?). However, Galen (my character) wasn't satisified and wanted to understand more (so he delves into forbidden knowledge). My wife's character is a human (or maybe elf she is still deciding) rogue (going eventually for assassin). My own character will probably be heading for becoming a Lich (since his people cursed him with a shortened lifespan) probably one of the earliest, if not first, liches in this campaign world. However, my problem is sorting out, exactly the nature of the afterlife world. I'm trying to avoid the ideas of a heaven or hell type places. That creation (in the world and in the afterlife) is more nature oriented and neutral. But I struggle for a real idea of the world after the living. I also know I want to avoid the idea of something like just some giant negative or positive energy plane (in fact I want to throw out postitive and negative energy from my campaign, and instead use Restoration Magic (which covers healing, etc.) and life draining energy (which restoration magic has nothing to do with at all, it can heal it via Restoration, but not actually counteract it, so no positive energy healing spells with which to hit undead). Life draining energy, however, I still need to nail down more. . . I want it to effect the living and undead as Negative energy ususally does, and have it come from the realm or one of the realms of the dead, but I'm unclear what realm or if to have several realms. Summarized questions: What to do about the afterlife realms? What to do about the source of Life Draining Energy? What to do about spirits, gods etc. where do they live, exist, etc.?
Tisner44 03-27-04, 05:00 PM	This is an interesting thought. If healing isn't a positive energy ability, then it should work on all creatures. Positive energy is usually considered diety specific or in general clerical. If you toss out positive and negative energy then what is the difference in the power of divine and arcane magic? They could be of the same type, this would give all spellcasters access to all spells...this could work if you went with a generic caster class and dumped the caster core classes. I don't think this would hurt your world too much with the dislike for necromancy. You can even limit it to little to no healing spells since healing is technically necromantic in nature. This would mean that the dieties have little place in the daily lives of the people or you could make it a partial monotheistic area. The Elves only believe in one true diety and will discourage others. This specific diety does not like healing magic and considers death just a part of life...so deal with it. The savage tribes could have shaman type casters which are an insult to the elves. This could cause some interesting stories. Then your character wants to make dead things walk...um bad:eek: The after life realms are considered permanant to most elves... each of the human tribes may have different ideas for this and could even give the PCs access to resurect for a high price. Life draining energy could be just that. Do you want the undead to still be immune to it... they are still dead right? You don't have to make it negative energy it is just energy stolen from them... actually I've always considered level draining the taking away of life experiences and what was learned from those. Hope this helps.
Arthur_Pendragon 03-27-04, 08:17 PM	Well I had already planned to have Restoration magic (healing, cure disease, etc. all fall under it), that is Restoration restore things or heals things. I am planning so that any spell caster can cast from restoration magic (so mages get healing magic), however I still plan to keep clerics as a separate class. As to restoriative magic while some additions might place it under necromancy, I don't really like that feel for this campaign, so I tend to keep is separate (and the god/gods are ok with such magic then). Plus this way, the party can get healed, even though they'll probably anger every religion on the planet (I'm not fond of having evil gods in my settings). As for Life draining energy being, life energy drained from other things, sounds like a good idea. Of note, I'm thinking about altering the setting further (though I still need help on this part). Because I keep feeling like elves, wouldn't persue lichdom, as their lifespans are already so long, I keep feeling like that is something a human would do (since their life spans are so short by comparision. Even if an elf had his lifespan shortened. . . It still can't see them rushing to lichdom for immortality like a human would. . . sigh...I HATE when I can't make up my own mind and sort things out! :banghead:
Tisner44 03-27-04, 09:50 PM	Well, you could reduce the lifespan of an elf...but that wouldn't be nice. Since Lichdom is so rare, it would be safe to say that the people don't understand the power and sacrifice of that decision. He may think that there is far more power involved and the long life isn't even a thought. It might be overbalanced to give arcane casters healing magic and keep clerics. Why would people need a cleric? I'm not sure what to do with your dieties. In my world, all of my dieties were neutral and as long as no wars happen for religious region they really don't care about much else but the balance of their specific areas.
Arthur_Pendragon 03-27-04, 10:04 PM	shrug I guess they might not, in a sense. I imagine clerics still being what they are, clergy, servants of their god or goddess. Compared to wizards they are a LOT more likely to help the populace (assuming good clerics). In terms of why would Players play clerics...well its not an issue in my parties, nobody plays clerics in our party anyway. I usually end up doing this just so the party has healing.