restoring life to strength drained characters

[wickedb]

One of my PCs died to multiple greater shadows' strength drain. He took 14 points of drain and only had 12 ability points making head very much dead. The party (mostly level 11 and 12) tried t restore him and ran into a problem.
Breath of life wont revive the strength damage, although I guess his heart would beat again the strength damage would just immediatly kill him again. Restoration cures the ability drain but not the dead problem...

I allowed us to fudge this in game a bit using multiple characters trying their best while others protected them from the shadows.
For future encounters though, how would one bring someone back from severe ability drain??

[Abraham spalding]

Shadows are a nasty one because they kill with the strength drain (which is an abnormality in pathfinder).

What you could do is allow the appropriate spell to bring him to life and leave him unconscious with the strength drain (which is what normally happens) then allow restoration to do it's job.

The problem with breath of life is it simply won't work in this case since it's not HP damage that dropped him.

Don't forget about shadow kills getting up as shadows either -- this could be more of a problem than anything else right now.

[HaraldKlak]

Abraham spalding wrote:

Don't forget about shadow kills getting up as shadows either -- this could be more of a problem than anything else right now.

This is the biggest problem you face.

I would initially say that I would require both a restoration and a breath of life (or other subsequent means of revival).

The problem is that you only got 1 to 4 turns to do it. So in half the cases you won't have time enough to cast the restoration, and if you cast that first, then it is too late for BoL.
And this is considering that it has to be a greater restoration, because the lesser don't cure drain, and the normal has a duraction of 1 min.

It is a quite horrible situation, and I would like to create some possibilities to actually save the character.

My suggestion is:
- Restoration or Greater Restoration can be cast on the body. While the spell is being cast the process of turning into a shadow (or dying from the str drain) is delayed. If you are interrupted being finishing the spell, however, you can enjoy having you old pal as an enemy.
- Alternatively, Death Ward. While you should have cast it earlier, I think I would allow it to stop the character from turning into a shadow, thus giving you time to deal with him.

[wickedb]

Abraham spalding wrote:

Shadows are a nasty one because they kill with the strength drain (which is an abnormality in pathfinder).

Is this in fact the only ability drain that will kill (besides the obvious constitution)?

[Abraham spalding]

wickedb wrote:

Abraham spalding wrote:

Shadows are a nasty one because they kill with the strength drain (which is an abnormality in pathfinder).

Is this in fact the only ability drain that will kill (besides the obvious constitution)?

I'm not sure -- I think there might be something that does the same by draining mental stats.

[Interzone]

If your Dex goes to 0 via Hemlock poison you suffocate and die (but not otherwise)
0 Int makes you comatose
0 Wis or Cha makes you unconscious

I am trying to remember what specific creatures can do things like that but that cause death and stuff, but I don't remember....