Mushroom C1oud's page

Mushroom C1oud wrote:

https://www.patreon.com/caeora

edit* I will likely still get the tokens as a way to support Foundry and Paizo. However, I still believe the cost is too high for art that was already previous sold in book format.

That's not market price, lol. How many months of subscription are you assuming to support this person? Because if it's only one or two to get the packs and leave, oof, very bad form. Not only that, but it says in his bio that his patreon isn't to make money, it's to get a little extra support while he primarily makes maps and tokens for free.

How about other actual businesses, such as other VTTs?

You're also clearly ignoring the amount of art that wasn't already in the bestiaries, or the rest of the work they put into the tokens, like adding proper transparency to the ones that come out of their frames. Not only visual transparency where it makes sense, but also still being able to interact with player and other tokens underneath those overhanging images, so there's no loss of functionality.

First, I've been following Caeora for a long time and I purchase his maps and tokens whenever there's a pack I like.

Second, kudos to Paizo for taking over 1200 digital art assets that are sitting in a file and repurposing them at $60 per person. Taking each art piece and shrinking it onto a token background an amateur artist could do in a weekend is very profitable. Clearly this was a very wise investment for Paizo as the fanbase is very quick to defend the price and obviously willing to spend the money.

If these were on cardstock, then I would say that this was a very good deal as the overhead would be very high. But let's be real, there was not a lot of overhead to make these tokens. If they were all original art, then I wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

https://www.patreon.com/caeora

edit* I will likely still get the tokens as a way to support Foundry and Paizo. However, I still believe the cost is too high for art that was already previous sold in book format.

$60 for tokens is far above the market price. I would have dropped $10

The "Org Play Online" discord (aka OPO at pfschat.com for an invite) is a great place to connect with online (virtual table top OR Play by Post/Discord) games. There's also PbP games here on this forum and several other discord communities.

Most games get listed on Warhorn.net and you should be able to restrict a search to PFS2: online games with open seats for PFS2. But make sure to click through to the event's page for any guidleines/rules for their particular community.

Thank you, that was exactly what I was looking for!

I have been trying to search to see if there's any online Pathfinder Society games. It's been awhile since I've played PF and just learning the new edition. I don't know a lot of people that play and the only organized play near me is over an hour drive away. I would be grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Wanting to GM a game on a VTT has been very daunting. When I browse each VTT discord I get a lot of "put this code in here" or "create this macro" which is way over my head.

This Beginner Box Foundry bundle has been an excellent way for me to learn how to use the system. There were still some technical hurdles I had to ask about in the forums to get started. Once I got started, it has been a great experience.

For someone who loves Pathfinder but has little extra time and basic computer skills this is great. The easier it is to pick up and play on a VTT the better. I wasn't sure about jumping into 2nd edition until now.

Just noting the hypocrisy of the "joke".

My wife's parents keep going to this s$#+ty little diner, like every Monday for years, then spend the rest of the day b%@&%ing about it.

So why do they keep going back? So they have something to b+&!* about other then each other:-D

I suspect thegreenbeargamer, this is a similar situation :-)

Hence the title of the thread that you so willing opened just so you could post your laments about the posters anyways.

I despise the use of classes and alignment.

I despise the current magic system. I prefer a system that is recreated from the ground up that takes the player's health, state of mind, and/or soul into the cost of the spell.

I would like to see ritual magic as a skill anyone can use as long as they have a source and can survive the casting.

I don't like seeing deities playing active roles in the prime material world but are enigmas that people want to believe exist.

Here's a listing of the major deities:

Abadar

• Lawful Neutral
• Cities, Wealth, Merchants, Law

  Asmodeus

• Lawful Evil
• Tyranny, Slavery, Pride, Contracts

  Calistra

• Chaotic Neutral
• Trickery, Lust, Revenge

  Cayden Cailean

• Chaotic Good
• Freedom, Ale, Wine, Bravery

  Desna

• Chaotic Good
• Dreams, Stars, Travelers, Luck

  Erastil

• Lawful Good
• Farming, Hunting, Trade, Family

  Gorum

• Chaotic Neutral
• Strength, Battle, Weapons

  Gozreh

• Neutral
• Nature, Weather, the Sea

  Iomedae

• Lawful Good
• Valor, Rulership, Justice, Valor

  Irori

• Lawful Neutral
• History, Knowledge, Self-Perfection

  Lamashtu

• Chaotic Evil
• Monsters, Madness, Nightmares

  Nethys

• Neutral
• Magic

  Norgorber

• Neutral Evil
• Greed, Secrets, Poison, Murder

  Pharasma

• Neutral
• Fate, Death, Prophecy, Rebirth

  Rovagug

• Chaotic Evil
• Wrath, Disaster, Destruction

  Sarenrae

• Neutral Good
• Sun, Redemption, Honesty, Healing

  Shelyn

• Neutral Good
• Beauty, Art, Love, Music

  Torag

• Lawful Good
• Forge, Protection, Strategy

  Urgathoa

• Neutral Evil
• Gluttony, Disease, Undeath

  Zon-Kuthon

• Lawful Evil
• Envy, Pain, Darkness, Loss

Those that are completely neutral are Gozreh, Nethys, and Pharasma

If the favor system were to be used as a type of buff rather then protection when you die how would you see it used?

• Perhaps it could be used to allow you to thread more items to keep them from being looted. Wouldn't be an issue in the beginning but as you collected more powerful items you would need more threads.

• Maybe using up a favor could remove a debuff from a critical hit or remove resurrection sickness.

• Favors could be used for a bonus depending on what your deity's portfolio contained. A deity could have several bonuses to choose from but you can only have one at a time. Someone who worshiped Abadar might have a slight boost to construction time. Desna could give a bonus to travel time or a luck bonus. You would still be only able to get favor from one deity at a time and you would have to be of the proper alignment. Once you had the favor it would last until you changed alignment, changed which deity you worshiped, or changed which bonus you wanted.

With the first one I could see it becoming a grind gaining favors so you wouldn't have to worry about being looted.

The second one seems too trivial.

The third I like best.

Also, earning a favor for a deity could help bring your alignment closer to that of the deity. This might make it easier for those who are trying to remain True Neutral a way to help keep their alignment.

I have GM'd for 20+ years. One thing I learned about players is that if they have to do something for their god they have felt more connected to their deity. They felt that their deity was watching them and cared about their actions, this would affect how they role-played for the better. They would act in character what their alignment was based on their faith. Even characters who spurned the gods would get into it based on how the other players played.

Skill loss would amount to about an hour worth of training. This would reduce the amount of people from "grave rushing". It would be easy enough to have the skill return over an hour naturally or faster with healing.

In DR, if you had your body reconstituted you were in a very weakened state. I remember it was difficult just walking out of the temple.

I mentioned it at the bottom of the post. That's why I reformatted the mechanic, removed permanent death, and touched up on points that had been discussed in the other thread. I wanted people to get a chance to read it to see that there could be more depth to resurrecting then having everyone being chosen by Pharasma.

I'm not completely against having the amnesia wear off over time, but I think the skill loss would be just enough to where you would want someone to prevent or reverse it but not make it necessary to have it done.

You're not really "going out of your way" when the tasks are things you do already. Isn't that the point of playing a game anyways, to be given a task to complete.

Skill penalties can be prevented using a team effort. The idea behind it is to increase community interaction.

Resurrection sickness would be the alternative if you did not have help to be resurrected. This would build on the idea that team work and community are better options then going solo, though going solo is still a very viable playstyle.

Popping into a graveyard and rushing back to your body has been done in so many MMOs and encourages "grave rushing". I think this game is well suited to the Favor system and adds something different.

Please be more specific. If you have a suggestion or critism that's fine, but I can't change anything without knowing what about it you don't like.

I have read the blogs To Live and Die in the River Kingdoms and Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves and I am not satisfied with the description of how the death mechanics work. I do not like the fact that one god, Pharasma, resurrects all who die. I do not find this immersive if the same god is going to resurrect my enemies and my allies. Since discussion was encouraged and it's still early in development I would like to offer my suggestion.

My goals for this mechanic:

• Add an immersive resurrection mechanic.
  
• Gives the gods a reason to keep you alive.
  
• Add more depth to the deities.
  
• A system that encourages you to role-play your alignment without confining you to it.
  
• Add more depth to healer/cleric builds. (which I am biased towards)
  
• Most importantly it has to be fun!

Death, dying, and resurrection

Death will be nearly impossible to avoid. At some point during the game you will die. I will go over the moments before you die, what happens when you die, and how to survive death.

Dying is that state you go into when you hit 0 hit points. Once you are dying you will continue to lose hit points from bleeding. You can also still be attacked, or a coup de grace may be performed. If you hit a set number of negative hit points or a coup de grace is performed you will die. While you are bleeding you can be stabilized by anyone who has the most basic healing skill. The better the player’s healing skill the better the chance of being stabilized.

When death occurs you will become a spirit. At this point you will have to decide if you want to wait for help or release your spirit. You will have to have gained favor with your deity to be resurrected at the last temple where you prayed. If you do not have favor you will be stuck until help arrives. You may roam within a certain distance from your body. If your body is moved, your spirit must move with it. While in spirit form you may whisper to those within range.

You can also haunt those around you if you so wish. In spirit form you will have the ability to protect your body from looting. You can disrupt those who are touching your body. This attack does no damage but does interrupt someone from grave robbing or trying to drag you away. You are invisible to all except other spirits. Attacking someone who is touching your body will make you appear incorporeal. You may even be able to learn more effective ways to affect the living and maybe other spirits while in spirit form through the skill system.

At death your body will begin to decay. As your body decays your memories will start to fade. Without the talents of someone who can cast a spell to preserve your body or memories you will develop amnesia and lose random skills up to a fixed amount. A healer who is exceptionally skilled at preserving memories may even be able to reverse the effects of amnesia. A highly trained healer would be able to target all allies on a battlefield effectively preserving them. Multiple castings may be required depending on level of decay, number of bodies, and distance needed to travel.

Time that it takes to recover from death will need to be balanced. It would probably take about 5-8 minutes on average to move a body, protect memories, and resurrect depending on travel time. Here’s more information about travel in the blog Time is the Fire in which We Burn. Resurrection on site would be immediate, and releasing and resurrection would be immediate but with about 10 minutes of resurrection sickness.

The ability to resurrect, or bind a spirit back to its body, should be considered the pinnacle of any cleric’s profession. If there is not a cleric of sufficient skill then a trip to that player’s patron temple would be required. You would have to transport the body by dragging, using transportation, or if you have the proper spell, animating the body.

Once you have someone to raise the body you will have to prepare it. You may still need to reverse the amnesia. The body is most likely still broken so it will need to be healed to bring it to at least 1 hit point or resurrection will fail. If you received a critical hit, those effects will carry over until healed. You can find more information about critical hits in the blog Gentlemen, You Can't Fight in Here! This is the War Room!. Critical hits could also determine which skills are affected by amnesia. If your soul is willing and you are successfully resurrected you may have some resurrection sickness plus you may still need to be healed further. You will also save your favors you have with your deity.

Sometimes you may be alone, or the enemy is still guarding your corpse preventing others from helping you, or you may be concerned about memory decay. If this should happen you may release your spirit. Your body and everything you were carrying will be left behind. Your deity will create a new body for you at the last temple you prayed and your spirit will bind to this new body. It will be fully healed but in an extreme case of weakness, it will also have memory loss incurred up to the point you released. Any items you had threaded to you will appear in your temple’s coffer available for you to pick up. Everything else will either have disappeared or been looted. You can find more information about looting and threading in the blog Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves . You will have also lost 1 favor with your deity. You may go on another quest for your deity to gain another favor up to the max.

In summary you have a short amount of time after falling in combat to be saved from death. Once death occurs you will need a powerful healer to resurrect you. If no healer is available you may release your spirit back to the most recent temple where you have prayed, this would require a favor from your deity. Without favor from a deity you will have to wait for a rescue. Skill will begin to decay when you die, however, a spell can be cast to prevent further decay or even reverse it.

Favors

The Favor system is designed to bring more life to the deities and how you roleplay your character’s alignment. I will break down possible ways you can gain favor with your chosen deity. Selecting your deity would reflect your own alignment. That deity’s portfolio would determine what type of quests or actions would be required to gain favor. Without favor, you will need someone to help you. Quest or task options can include combat, contracts, politics, crafting, and/or building.

Deity (Alignment) [Portfolio]

Abadar (LG, LN, LE, N) [Cities, Wealth, Merchants, Law]

• Casting a vote(s) for a settlement or kingdom.
  
• Building or purchasing a shop or residence.
  
• Selling a certain value of merchandise.
  
• Donating money to the temple.

Asmodeus (LN, LE, NE) [Tyranny, Slavery, Pride, Contracts]

• Completing a contract to buy or sell slaves.
  
• Casting a vote in a settlement where only your vote counts.
  
• Completing a contract where you are clearly receiving the better end of the bargain.
  
• Convincing a slave to sacrifice themselves to Asmodeus.

Cayden Cailean (NG, CG, CN) [Freedom, Ale, Wine, Bravery]

• Releasing someone from confinement or slavery.
  
• Crafting ale or wine.
  
• Completing a contract such as hunting down an Owlbear.

Desna (NG, CG, CN) [Dreams, Stars, Travelers, Luck]

• Travel to a specific temple of Desna and observe the night sky.
  
• Win at a game of chance.

Iomedae (LG, LN, NG) [Valor, Rulership, Justice, Honor]

• Capturing a criminal alive and bringing them to justice.
  
• Casting a vote in a lawful good settlement.
  
• Gaining a position of leadership in a settlement.
  
• Completing a contract such as removing bandits that have been attacking the locals.

These are but a sample of the deities and possible ways to gain favor. To gain the quest you would go to a temple of the deity you wish to worship and pray. Complete the challenge given by the aspect and you will receive your favor. You can have up to a set limit of favors (possibly 3) and you can only carry favor with one deity at a time. Gaining favor with a different deity forfeits your favors with the other deity. A change in alignment that puts you out of step with your deity also forfeits your favors with your deity and you will either have to worship a new deity or find a way to change your alignment back.

With the latest add-ons available you can now get a second mark of Pharasma. I do not want to interfere with anyone who has put money towards this add-on. My suggestion would be you would still get the mark and the mechanics that go with it along with the system I have just described.

Many of Pharasma's worshipers are those closely aligned with either burgeoning life or terminating death. These include midwives, grave diggers, and morticians. Her priests are typically clerics, diviners, and necromancers that choose not to create undead. Her followers view the undead with hatred and consider them a great abomination. They view putting the undead to rest as a holy duty. The creation of undead is outlawed, and commanding undestroyed undead is not much liked either.

Since PFO uses Pharasma as the deity who resurrects you when you die I don't see creating undead as favorable and would break lore to revive such an outlaw.

I think it would be neat to be a member of a LG settlement but secretly you were a follower of Asmodeus or a member of an assassins guild that worked in or near that settlement.

How can you go to the forum if you are having issues with the forums? :)

Reminds me of when I called Verizon to tell them my internet was down and the lady on the line kept telling me to log onto the website.

You could set up your down time with a type of queue. Craft 10 potions of healing; create contract to sell 10 potions of healing at x amount of coin; create contract to purchase 20 glass bottles for y amount. When you log back on you will have created some goods, sold them, and then purchased more supplies.

• And
• I
• was
• just

getting used to

As of right now the god who resurrects you when you die is Pharasma. She has necromancers as followers but all her followers are banned from using the undead. If the game where to follow the Pathfinder lore there would not be necromancers with pet undead.

It could be the capstone to a long skill tree associated with your deity. Capstones are talked about in the blog Your Pathfinder Online Character.

Favor would be something you could gain through normal game play. There are options based on things you would already do through combat, contracts, politics, crafting, and/or building. The task would have to be something that your deity would approve of and fits within their portfolio.

There would be no grind, just a quick stop at your temple and choosing a task that pertains to what you like to do.

While using favor as a way to protect you from amnesia would work I find that gaining favor with a deity as a way for them to care enough about you to give you a new body in the event you died. I think it is more immersive then living in a world where Pharasma resurrects you just because you died. I want some meaning why I'm still alive and not dead.

Here's another possibility if you wanted to remove permanent death. If you have no favors when you die you cannot release. You will have to call for help or set up a contract for your rescue.

As far as the decay goes, I would see about an hours worth of time lost if not protected or reversed. Cumulative time, if you are dying more then others you may want to consider safer areas, bringing more friends, or hiring more protection when taking more dangerous jobs.

I would like to hear more about your Entropy idea. It is possible there is a solution I have not looked at yet. Right now I see tying Favors to deities as a way to encourage role-playing of your alignment. Changing your alignment more than one step of your deity's will cost you your favors with that deity. You want those favors in case you die and do not have help.

Calidor, I appreciate the criticism and you bring up a valid point.

In my 20 years of playing RPGs, table top and computer, death of a character has been detrimental but never group breaking until I played World of Warcraft. I have seen players kicked out of groups because they died during dungeons or raids.

To understand why players respond this way let's look at how WoW is designed. It is a theme-park game meaning you get a group together, enter a dungeon, and go through scripted events until you reach the conclusion much like a ride. How the players are able to handle death of a character, such as running back to the entrance of the dungeon or resurrection being commonly available to different classes, determines how the difficulty of the dungeon is designed. Difficult dungeons require certain character dynamics and coordination that is usually developed after multiple tries and failures. Sometimes players become so accustomed to running the dungeon that they have high expectations of others that run the dungeon with them so they can reach their end goal, whether that is trying to collect that rare drop, collecting tokens, or earning reputation. Players tend to be indifferent towards other players and only accept them as long as they can do their part. When a player dies others may weigh the option of looking for someone else or waiting for them to resurrect. WoW is one example but many other MMOs follow this same pattern.

In a sandbox game like Pathfinder Online, players develop communities to build settlements and kingdoms. It is this sense of community where players will strive to help others in their community. People will find value in protecting and recovering community members. That value comes from the fact that everyone will have a purpose that may not be easily replaced. There is not going to be a set number classes where each player in a class is nearly identical. The amount of scripted events or dungeons is going to be a minority compared to player created content.
Protecting or resurrecting the foreman of a construction site will be as important as recovering one of the guards protecting that construction.

Time that it takes to recover from death can always be balanced. I would suggest about 5-8 minutes on average to drag a body, protect memories, and resurrect depending on travel time. Resurrection on site would be immediate, and releasing and resurrection would be immediate but with about 10 minutes of resurrection sickness.

While dying and resurrecting at the closest graveyard is a possible mechanic, there are plenty of MMOs out there that do this already. What I would like to see is something different and more true to the Pathfinder game. The Favor mechanic has been used before and works.

Gaining Favors would be something you would do at the very beginning of the game, perhaps during the introduction where you may still be immune from the negative impacts of death. From time to time you may have to regain a favor if one of the following events occur:

• You release from spirit form instead of being resurrected
• Your alignment changes so that it is no longer compatible with your deity
• You gain favor with another deity

It shouldn't feel like a grind since there will be many deities to choose from and each will have different options catered towards different playstyles with random quests. If you use your favors a lot you may start to see repetition in quests.

Earning a favor will be like buying replacement insurance for your body except instead of money you have to perform a quest or task that relates to your deity (exception would be Abadar, god of wealth, where you literally could purchase a favor). If these tasks were repetitive then I could see it becoming a grind. However, it would be possible to gain your favor(s) at the beginning of the game and never use them, even if you do die.

Amnesia could be a result of resurrection sickness if you release which would return over a certain period of time. Decay would occur upon death but is preventable or reversible with a skilled healer, without a healer you would have to retrain the skill(s). If you had a skilled healer but no one can resurrect you you could still have your memories restored before releasing. This would result in your body being restored at the temple with resurrection sickness but you would not have to retrain any skills.

I like your idea about a divine blessing. A priest type character at a step below that of resurrection could transfer a favor from one player to another including themselves. This way, healers could charge players for favors and could earn the favors themselves. Sort of like resource acquisition for crafters except you're dealing in souls. This would still be alignment dependent. The favor would have to be from a deity that covers your alignment.

A priest of Asmodeus could contract a favor out to you for a limited time or have other restrictions (a demon of the crossroads type of deal). This in turn would earn favor towards the priest from Asmodeus. These deals could be done while you are in spirit form and would change your alignment towards LE.

I would hope that releasing would be a last option so you could protect your belongings until some help arrived. Also, being resurrected instead of releasing would keep you from losing a favor.

With the decay mechanic, I would like to see novice healers able to prevent decay while intermediate healers able to reverse the effects and expert healers able to resurrect.

I don't want to see the decay mechanic so much as a punishment but more of requires a coordinated effort to restore life with everything intact. If you are willing to spend the time waiting for your memories to be restored and resurrected then you are rewarded with no ill effects. However, if you want to rush back to life there are sacrifices you have to make.

Bodies would also have to be healed before being resurrected. The soul must be willing to be resurrected to prevent griefing (i.e. enemy keeps resurrecting and killing you to use up your favors).

Releasing instead of being resurrected means your soul is placed into a new body. This would in effect make any sort of coordination difficult and may even take some time for memories to return. This weakened condition, along with limited favors, would minimize "grave rushing" and make the battlefield more tactical as Micco had stated.

Large battles are more exciting and dying means you can still watch, with the hope in the end your team wins so you can be resurrected. Losing, of course, would be very bad.

Overall, the more friends or stronger the community you are apart of the higher the chance that you can be rescued, memories protected, and successfully raised.

In DragonRealms, where I got the Favor system idea from, permanent death could happen if you had no favors and released. Still, 17% of the population is 141+ levels based on a poll done by the DragonRealms staff. There is no level cap so those who have reached such a high level took years to do it. Despite the existence of permadeath, it is rare and usually only happens if you want it to happen.

For the Decay system it is really dependent on balancing. It could be a single skill or multiple skills. They could go down %10 or %100 depending on how long it takes to train a skill. It should be based upon the time it takes not so much a percentage. Example would be an hour worth of training, subsequent deaths within a certain time period might multiply the speed and training loss of skills. It could be permanent or temporary. It would all need to be balanced and play tested. Right now it is too early to know what would work best.

My goals for the Favor system:
-Add an immersive game mechanic.
-Add more depth to the deities.
-A system that encourages you to role-play your alignment without confining you to it.
-Add more depth to healer/cleric builds. (which I am biased towards)
-Most importantly it has to be fun!

This system also opens up new avenues that can be explored:
-Necromancy
-Ghosts

Here is the mechanics on haunting. I think it is a fun idea and gives those who are waiting on help something to do.

Haunting

In spirit form you will have the ability to protect your body from looting. You can disrupt those who are touching your body. This attack does no damage but does interrupt someone from grave robbing or trying to drag you away. You are invisible to all except other spirits. Attacking someone who is touching your body will make you incorporeal. You can see other spirits in this form. (You may even be able to learn more effective ways to affect the living and maybe other spirits while in spirit form through the skill system. Learning from this skill tree would require that you are in spirit form.)*

*This part could be developed at a later time if at all

Thanks Darcnes

I still would not completely remove "permadeath" but rather make it a choice to die permanently. Some people may find this a more interesting choice then deleting a character.

The adjustment I would make is that if you have no favors with any deity when you fell in battle you would still go into spirit form but you would have to wait for a friend to drag you to a temple or resurrect you where you lie. This means if you have no favors, releasing would mean permanent death whereas having favor you would receive a new body in the last temple where you had prayed. This change would still mean that gaining favor with your deity has meaning but not required. Using the Favors system also prevents grave rushing as favors could be limited to 3 and without favors you could be there awhile. This change would also mean those who wish to role-play someone who has turned away from the gods can do so.

You would have to manually select permanent death. No one else could make that choice for you. Permanent death could mean you leave behind some sort of legacy or tombstone at a graveyard for your character's name forever etched.

Or instead of permanent death you could take Being's idea and you would enter some sort of purgatory where you had to complete a randomly generated task for a deity based on your current alignment. This would take time away from the player that they could have used to gain the favor beforehand. This might take some fun away from the game since you are forcing a player into a task with no options.

As far as using spirit form to spy you would be limited by distance from your body and would make this inconsequential.

Whispering would be used to ask strangers nearby for help, since you're a spirit and could not communicate otherwise. The original idea for haunting was for role-playing or just for fun. If there was to be a mechanic behind it that has purpose I have something I wrote last night. It is saved on another computer so I will post it later.

I would add more about haunting, but I think it may just be too much for most people.

It's really a combination of D&D, EVE skill system, PFO blogs, Pathfinder pantheon, and DragonRealms.

Thought about it myself too Being ;)

Death, dying, and resurrection

Death will be nearly impossible to avoid. At some point during the game you will die. I will go over the moments before you die, what happens when you die, and how to survive death.

Dying is that state you go into when you hit 0 hit points. Once you are dying you will continue to lose hit points from bleeding. You can still be attacked, or a coup de grace may be performed. If you hit a set number of negative hit points or a coup de grace is performed you will die. While you are bleeding you can be stabilized by anyone who has the most basic healing skill. The better the player’s healing skill the better the chance of being stabilized.

When death occurs you will become a spirit if you carry favor with a deity. If you do not have favor your spirit will ascend to the heavens (or descend into the abyss). You may roam within a certain distance from your body. If your body is moved, your spirit must move with it. While in spirit form you may whisper to those within range. You can also haunt those around you if you so wish.

At death your body will begin to decay. As your body decays your memories will start to fade. Without the talents of someone who can cast a spell to preserve your body or memories you will lose random skills up to a max limit. A cleric who is exceptionally skilled at preserving memories may even be able to reverse the effects of decay. A highly trained cleric would be able to target all allies on a battlefield effectively preserving them. Multiple castings may be required depending on level of decay, number of bodies, and distance needed to travel.

The ability to resurrect, or bind a spirit back to its body, should be considered the pinnacle of any cleric’s profession. If there is not a cleric of sufficient skill then a trip to that player’s patron temple would be required. You would have to transport the body by dragging, loading onto a vehicle, or if you have a necromancer, animating the body.

Once you have someone to raise the body you will have to prepare it. You may still need to reverse the decay. The body is most likely still broken so it will need to be healed to bring it to at least 1 hit point or resurrection will fail. If you are successfully resurrected you may have some resurrection sickness plus you may still need to be healed further. You will also save the favors you have with your deity.

Sometimes you may be alone, or the enemy is still guarding your corpse preventing others from helping you, or you may be concerned about memory decay. If this should happen you may release your spirit. Your body and everything you were carrying will be left behind. Your deity will create a new body for you at the last temple you prayed at and your spirit will automatically bind to this new body. It will be fully healed but in an extreme case of weakness, it will also have memory loss incurred up to the point you released. Any items you had threaded to you will appear in your temple’s coffer available for you to pick up. Everything else will either have disappeared or been looted. You will have also lost 1 favor with your deity. You may go on another quest for your deity to gain another favor up to the max.

In essence you have a short amount of time after falling in combat to be saved from death. Once death occurs you must have favor with your deity to be resurrected. Having a cleric raise you will preserve your favor with your deity, releasing your spirit will use up your favor. Skill will decay when you die but a spell can be cast to prevent further decay or even reverse it.

I would like to thank everyone for their posts. It gets me excited knowing that there's interest. I will take all suggestions into consideration when posting. I understand that certain penalties want to be avoided, I myself do not like to lose time or money. I will try and present my ideas in a way that time and money loss can be avoided if proper precautions and the use of skilled characters can be used.

The Favor system is really the bread and butter. It brings more life to the deities and how you roleplay your character’s alignment. I will break down possible ways you can gain favor with your chosen diety. Selecting your diety would reflect your own alignment. That diety’s portfolio would determine what type of quests or actions would be required to gain favor. Without favor, death would be permanent (unless you are still in the introduction or tutorial phase). Don’t get all crazy over “permadeath”, it is easy to avoid and is more or less a deterrent for not roleplaying your alignment.
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Diety (Alignment) (Portfolio)

Abadar (LG, LN, LE, N) (Cities, Wealth, Merchants, Law)
-Casting a vote(s) for a city or settlement of which the temple resides.
-Building or purchasing a shop or residence in a settlement which has a temple of Abadar.
-Selling a certain value of merchandise within range of the temple.
-Donating a percentage of your value to the temple.

Asmodeus (LN, LE, NE) (Tyranny, Slavery, Pride, Contracts)
-Trading slaves.
-Casting a vote in a settlement where only your vote counts.
-Making deals where you are clearly receiving the better end of the bargain.
-Convincing a slave to sacrifice themselves to Asmodeus.

Cayden Cailean (NG, CG, CN) (Freedom, Ale, Wine, Bravery)
-Releasing someone from confinement or slavery.
-Brewing ale or fermenting wine and then sacrificing it to Cayden Cailean.
-Completing a heroic challenge such as removing bandits that have been attacking the locals.

Desna (NG, CG, CN) (Dreams, Stars, Travelers, Luck)
-Travel to a specific temple of Desna and observe the night sky.
-Win at a game of chance.

Iomedae (LG, LN, NG) (Valor, Rulership, Justice, Honor)
-Capturing a criminal alive and bringing them to justice.
-Casting a vote in a lawful good settlement.
-Completing a heroic challenge such as removing undead.

These are but a sample of the deities and possible ways to gain favor. To gain the quest you would go to a temple of the deity you wish to worship and pray. Complete the challenge given by the aspect and you will receive your favor. You can have up to a set limit of favors and you can only carry favor with one deity at a time. Gaining favor with a different deity forfeits your favors with the other deity. A change in alignment that puts you out of step with your deity also forfeits your favors with your deity and will either have to worship a new deity or find a way to change your alignment back.

The challenges should not be very difficult and should reflect your current level and location.

I will tackle healing, memory preservation, and resurrection in another post.

I agree about the looting and running off. That's where the Threading System that was mentioned in the last blog would come in. You essentially bind items to you preventing others from taking it, or if they did take it it would disappear from their inventory after a minute or certain distance and return to your inventory.

I remember spending a lot of time opening up trapped boxes at the Empath's Guild. Nothing worse then getting acid splashed on your face. Think you had about 30 seconds to get healed before you died.

I have read the blog To Live and Die in the River Kingdoms and I am not satisfied with the description of how the death mechanics work. Since discussion was encouraged and it's still early in development I would like to offer my suggestion.

Taking a page from an old MMORPG that most people have never heard of, DragonRealms, at dragonrealms.net which started about the same time Prodigy, Compuserve, and AOL were the premier choices for getting online service. It is a text based game that still runs today. When you died in DragonRealms it was a bit of an adventure in itself. You even had to prepare yourself for death.

When you started the game after creating your character you were put in a type of "tutorial" adventure which would take you from level 1 to level 2. The game was also skill based so you had to raise certain skills to gain a level. At level 1 you were basically immune to death, you could still die but there was no penalty and no item loss. You would just be resurrected at the temple with all your gear and skills.

Towards the end of the "tutorial" or slightly afterwards you are supposed to go visit a temple where there was a puzzle and then you could earn a reward which you would offer to your god. You could offer several sacrifices which in-turn would grant you 1 favor for each sacrifice up to a max amount.

You then went out into the world to make your own way. Sometimes, enemies or players would get the better of you and you would lay dying on the ground. If you were dying you could be dragged to the nearest temple for healing, unless you were lucky enough to have a skilled healer with you. Sometimes you would bleed out before being healed and you would die.

Once you died your spirit would leave your body and you could "haunt" the area around you. Basically, you could whisper to people who were close or moan and make creepy sounds. Most people would ask for someone to please drag their body to the nearest temple where a very talented healer could bind your soul back to your body after healing it of it's wounds. Having your body dragged meant holding onto anything you were wearing. Items you were holding were dropped the instant you fell unconscious. Most kind souls who dragged you would also pick up your sword or bow or whatever else you had. Surprisingly, most people would help you.

There was still a penalty for dying other than losing what you were holding and that was memory. The longer your soul was detached from your body the more "skill" you forgot, up to a max. No worries though, most novice healers were able to keep your memories fresh with a spell. Really talented healers might even be able to help you regain memories that had already faded. A truly powerful healer could target an entire battlefield of allies.

Now you are back at the temple, someone has healed your wounds, refreshed your memories, and is about to bind your soul back to your body. I hope you remembered to make a sacrifice to your god, without that favor you were to walk the Starry Road forever. Everyone would see it in game too, "Mushroom C1oud has walked the Starry Road to never return."

I'm sure you are wondering what happens if no one is around to bring me to the temple for resurrection? Well, you would have to release from your body and if you had a favor would wake up in a very weakened condition in a temple. You would be stripped of everything. However, your items are not gone forever. A grave would appear where you had released and you had a finite amount of time to dig out your belongings, minus what you were holding. Once that time had passed, any passerby could dig up your remains and loot your corpse. Of course, if you had had no favors your belongings would become immediately available to all those around you.

So, what about that really powerful weapon you had worked so hard for and now it is just gone? Well, maybe. You could bind an item to you, it would have a marker on it preventing anyone else from holding it. Very similar to the Threading system in the latest blog. The item would follow you wherever you went.

I have always loved this system. It made death very detrimental yet very much apart of the story and could create an adventure of its own. It reminds me of when I would sit down with friends and play D&D and we had a "resurrection fund" in case someone died so we could bring them back at the temple. I think it adds a lot to how players perceive death, deities, and healer skills.

I think at it's core it is a great system and can be adjusted to fit any game, especially a fantasy setting. All these mechanics would fit within the Pathfinder Online world.

I was hoping that I could create a healer type character, build a temple. I would then sell potions and charge for healing and resurrections. Players would also be able pray to my deity and make sacrifices to obtain favors.