The other night, we were running ROTRL, Burnt Offerings. We're near the end, and without too many spoilers, the bridge snapped and our rogue tumbled to his doom (as did the witch, but thank the gods for feather fall). He'd been having a bad night, and failed most all his rolls, ending in him drowning in the river. The witch got him to shore with a series of difficult swim checks, but he was dead, and we all looked at each other with a "wow, that sucks" expression. After a little discussion over whether he should make a new character, I (note that I'm a player in this game, though primarily a GM) speak up, "Hey, what's your Con score?"
He gives it to me, and I say, "You know, there have been cases of people coming back to life several minutes after being drowned." The GM looks at me, catches the hint and says to the group with a smile "You've got (rogue's con) minutes to bring him back with a heal check. Magical healing won't work, since he's considered dead." Everyone smiles, the excitement is back, and we get to work. After the obligatory "can I take 20" question, to which he replied "no, that assumes a large amount of failure, and you could kill him completely," the rolls begin. The witch performs CPR, and fails a few times as the rest of us rappel down to the beach with a couple 50' ropes tied together. We all aid her and, together, we revive the rogue (I don't know the DC the GM assigned, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 20s). The party rejoices, and we make camp up topside after a little healing, using the fighter to repair the bridge (with a little help from spider climb).
What do you think? A decent house rule? I always thought that, unless it was epic, drowning felt like a punk way to kill someone in PF. 3 rounds and you're done. And there are cases of people being revived after several minutes of being clinically dead due to drowning (and other instances, but I'm talking specifically about drowning).
So, the official rule would be:
If a creature dies due to drowning, it can be revived with an appropriate heal check (DC 15 + the number of rounds he's been dead? The rogue was out for maybe a full minute or so before we got to him) as long as the heal check is made within 1 minute per point of the creature's constitution score. If the reviving creature fails its heal check a number of times equal to the drowned creature's constitution modifier, the drowned creature dies permanently and cannot be revived this way.
I obviously wouldn't allow this for violent deaths or disease/poison-based deaths. Just drowning/suffocation.
Anyway, just an idea to pass on to the internets.
Oh, and he kicked ass the rest of the night. The whole final encounter was epic.
This is similar to what happened in the Cleric Quintet when Pikel died of poison, the druid cured the poison, and Danica brought him back to life.
Works for me, I'd probably allow it.
It's far more dramatic than the GM saying "Okay, you don't drown" or an interminable period of the rogue's player being bored out of his skull as there's no convenient way to resurrect his character and no plausible way to have some random person walk up, join the group, and immediately be considered a trusted ally.
Seems like a very good plan to me.
+1. I'm definetly using this.
I'd certainly be tempted to use that rule, but possibly with a limit of within Con modifier (or maybe Con modifier x2) minutes of death by drowning and/or hypothermia (min. 1 minute in the case of 0 or lower Con modifiers). Not that I'm any expert on that kind of medical "miracle".
Because it was a good game play and dramatic and everybody got involved, sure, I would allow it, maybe even give a few xp.
Dramatic tension. Nice.
That's the right way to gm.
I always thought that, unless it was epic, drowning felt like a punk way to kill someone in PF. 3 rounds and you're done.
I honestly can't recall any moment when drowning was an actual threat to a PC in any campaign I've played. A character can hold their breath for up to 2 rounds per point of constitution without trouble, then they get to make a series of constitution checks to continue holding their breath and only if they fail do they actually start suffocating and then, after three more rounds, they'll finally die. That's easily a 2 to 3 minute process for even a character with a modest constitution; a PC with higher Con could go significantly longer...
Seems plenty of time to save a drowning character even if the rest of the party has to take an extra minute or two to wrap up a fight or finish their lunch before undertaking a rescue. I'm just not seeing the danger.
Edit: And why wasn't the witch able to arrest the rogue's fall with the feather fall spell she cast? It can target one person per caster level. If the party was playing through the end of Burnt Offerings then the witch must have been at least 2nd level and so able to affect both herself and the rogue equally.
On my first game DMing the Halfling Rogue nearly drowned after swimming a long tunnel. Of course the fact that he had a rope around his ankle so the rest of the party could pull him back if he was in trouble might have been a factor.
I really like this house rule. I will use it if the need arises.
+1.
(particularly as I may be dealing with that exact situation in the near future!)
The other night, we were running ROTRL, Burnt Offerings. We're near the end, and without too many spoilers, the bridge snapped and our rogue tumbled to his doom (as did the witch, but thank the gods for feather fall). He'd been having a bad night, and failed most all his rolls, ending in him drowning in the river. The witch got him to shore with a series of difficult swim checks, but he was dead, and we all looked at each other with a "wow, that sucks" expression. After a little discussion over whether he should make a new character, I (note that I'm a player in this game, though primarily a GM) speak up, "Hey, what's your Con score?"
He gives it to me, and I say, "You know, there have been cases of people coming back to life several minutes after being drowned." The GM looks at me, catches the hint and says to the group with a smile "You've got (rogue's con) minutes to bring him back with a heal check. Magical healing won't work, since he's considered dead." Everyone smiles, the excitement is back, and we get to work. After the obligatory "can I take 20" question, to which he replied "no, that assumes a large amount of failure, and you could kill him completely," the rolls begin. The witch performs CPR, and fails a few times as the rest of us rappel down to the beach with a couple 50' ropes tied together. We all aid her and, together, we revive the rogue (I don't know the DC the GM assigned, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 20s). The party rejoices, and we make camp up topside after a little healing, using the fighter to repair the bridge (with a little help from spider climb).
What do you think? A decent house rule? I always thought that, unless it was epic, drowning felt like a punk way to kill someone in PF. 3 rounds and you're done. And there are cases of people being revived after several minutes of being clinically dead due to drowning (and other instances, but I'm talking specifically about drowning).
So, the official rule would be:
If a creature dies due to drowning, it can be revived...
I think it's a good idea but I would make the call for number of minutes you can be drowned/dead equal to half your con score (10 con = 5 minutes, 16 con = 8 minutes) simply based on, in reality, a person starts incurring brain damage after about 5 minutes with no oxygen. Since the average person only has a 10 con in PF, 5 minutes for a 10 con make sense. Higher con is still more time but not 15 minutes of death.
You could also rule that you can still bring them back after con/2 minutes but they incur a -1 penalty to intelligence for each minute after that.Anyway I think that was a good call on the DM part. :)