Raise Dead and Resurrection

[JRR]

Coming back from the dead should have more consequences. Negative levels from raise dead and resurrection should be permanent. And someone resurrected should not be able to jump right back into the fray (one minute casting time, not withstanding.) There has to be some cost for dying, though 2 levels from raise dead is a bit much, reduce it to one and make it permanent.

[JoelF847]

I'm using the house rule with Pathfinder that negative levels from coming back from the dead can't be removed for a week. That way there's no long term penalty, but mid adventure the penalty is there and a restoration spell won't help.

[DM Jeff]

I still have a feeling that this, like magic item availability and how to generate ability scores, will be touched on very lightly by Paizo. Because everyone has their own way of doing it and they'll be damned if the do it one way and damned if the other.

They presented an option for ability scores, gave us basic advice on how to introduce more or less magic in your game, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some raise dead flavorful stuff touched on in the future. But not hard rules.

-DM Jeff

[Noir le Lotus]

It is a bit ridiculous to put a negative level as a penalty to the target of a Raise Dead spell when such a penalty can be removed with a level 4 spell (and for 100 GP IIRC).

As JoelF847 said, the negative level shouldn't be removable and should stay for some time : one week, one month, until the character gains a new level ...

[Zaister]

Noir le Lotus wrote:

It is a bit ridiculous to put a negative level as a penalty to the target of a Raise Dead spell when such a penalty can be removed with a level 4 spell (and for 100 GP IIRC).

As JoelF847 said, the negative level shouldn't be removable and should stay for some time : one week, one month, until the character gains a new level ...

Take a look at how restoration now works (p.116). Raise dead now gives two permanent negative levels. You can only remove one permanent negative level per casting of restoration, which costs 1,000 gp. Furthermore, only one permanent negative level can be removed in this way per week.

[JoelF847]

Zaister wrote:

Noir le Lotus wrote:

It is a bit ridiculous to put a negative level as a penalty to the target of a Raise Dead spell when such a penalty can be removed with a level 4 spell (and for 100 GP IIRC).

As JoelF847 said, the negative level shouldn't be removable and should stay for some time : one week, one month, until the character gains a new level ...

Take a look at how restoration now works (p.116). Raise dead now gives two permanent negative levels. You can only remove one permanent negative level per casting of restoration, which costs 1,000 gp. Furthermore, only one permanent negative level can be removed in this way per week.

True, but Greater Restoration can remove all negative levels, and doesn't have the restriction of 1 per week. Also resurrection only gives the target one neg level. While I like the idea of coming back from the dead not permanently hosing a character, I do like it temporarily messing with them, in a way that can't be gotten around.

[Zaister]

JoelF847 wrote:

True, but Greater Restoration can remove all negative levels, and doesn't have the restriction of 1 per week. Also resurrection only gives the target one neg level. While I like the idea of coming back from the dead not permanently hosing a character, I do like it temporarily messing with them, in a way that can't be gotten around.

Greater restoration also costs 5,000 gp.