| Greelic |
When the first character death occurred in my campaign (Chapter Three), I made an unconventional decision: the PCs had to pay the reagent costs for a <i>raise dead</i> spell, but the character did *not* suffer level loss when he was brought back to life.
Why did I make this choice? At the time, I felt a bit guilty because the character died while his player was absent (another player was running him). But I was also concerned about level equity; I didn't want individual characters lagging behind in XP when the ELs were going to keep climbing steadily.
For better or worse, I stuck with this policy when the next wave of character deaths rolled in. Since Chapter Three, <i>raise dead</i> has effectively functioned as a cheaper version of <i>true resurrection</i>.
The good news is, my PCs have managed to keep up with the campaign's ELs. The bad news is, our cleric can now cast <i>raise dead</i> herself, so now party death is merely an inconvenient expense. No XP penalty seems to mean no role-playing trauma -- they fall down, they get raised, they bounce right back up again.
Recognizing my error, I tried to slap some restrictions on the cleric. I told her that, as a follower of Wee Jas, she shouldn't run around resurrecting everyone willy-nilly. When that didn't work, she got a special visit from Wee Jas, telling her she had a limited number of "get-out-of-jail" cards. In other words, I've heavily implied that resurrection is going to stop being an option altogether.
However, this could be even worse. Now I'm afraid the PCs will take cravenly precautions to preserve their lives, instead of the bold heroic deeds they're supposed to commit.
My players and I all relish the idea of making it through the whole AP with a single group of characters. What can I do at this point to make PC death a reasonable threat, or cost, but not a game-wrecker?
Thanks!
1: character drops to the bare minimum to stay at what level they are.
2:Impose the neg level...-1 to all rolls and skill checks until the character has gained enough to make the next level up.3: casting the spell consumes 10,000gp/level of the character being raised
if this doesn't make death important enough then add
4: once the spell is cast the party cleric takes on a neg level until next level up or "x" amount of time determined by the DM.
Increase the monetary charge if your running a rich adventure but make it only expensive enought to basically leave the party penniless when its over if ALL had to be raised once. My group are treasure horders and this works well with them.