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So under the Magic section under Arcane Spells: Preparing Wizard Spells it says:
"Death and Prepared Spell Retention: If a spellcaster dies, all prepared spells stored in his mind are wiped away. Potent magic (such as raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection) can recover the lost energy when it recovers the character."
What about Breath of Life? Since it was added later, I would tend to say yes. Thoughts?
Edit: As I look at the listed spells I see that each has a clause about spells but Breath of Life does not. Now I will waffle and say, it looks like you would loose your prepared spells. Now this clause is under Wizard Spells but it says spellcasters so it seems that it should apply in a more general sense.
Based on the way the spell works, I would say probably yes, it would function as resurrection spells. That's RAI; I'm not aware of any RAW applying to this.
I've generally treated breath of life (and revivify back in 3.5) as retaining all spells.
This is for a few reasons:
- Limitations; in addition to not working on death effects, it also must be cast within 1 round and can fail to heal enough damage to restore the character to life. Even then the character can end up unconscious.
- Flavor: my understanding of why the spell worked has always been, essentially, "the soul has not yet left the body"; that's the 1 round limit, effectively.
- Ease of play: If it loses all spells, the caster brought back up is possibly useless for the rest of the fight (and at risk). If it works like raise dead, suddenly you need to stop, mid-combat, to see what spells the character still has. That's a big pain in the neck.
Thread necromancy i know but i would really like to hear other people's opinions on this since i can't decide for myself (personally i see breath of life somewhere between raise dead and ressurection).
I've generally treated breath of life (and revivify back in 3.5) as retaining all spells.
This is for a few reasons:
- Limitations; in addition to not working on death effects, it also must be cast within 1 round and can fail to heal enough damage to restore the character to life. Even then the character can end up unconscious.
- Flavor: my understanding of why the spell worked has always been, essentially, "the soul has not yet left the body"; that's the 1 round limit, effectively.
- Ease of play: If it loses all spells, the caster brought back up is possibly useless for the rest of the fight (and at risk). If it works like raise dead, suddenly you need to stop, mid-combat, to see what spells the character still has. That's a big pain in the neck.
This is what I would say, and for the same reasons.
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I agree that you wouldn't lose spells. You only almost died. You didn't really completely die.
We had the most epic 'death' ever in one 3.5 campaign. One character received a critical hit from a vorpal blade. Wizard acts next....casts Time Stop...then runs over grabs his flying head...slams it down and casts Revivify.
DM still counted it as a death for his counter but the victim retained his spells.
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I agree that you wouldn't lose spells. You only almost died. You didn't really completely die.
We had the most epic 'death' ever in one 3.5 campaign. One character received a critical hit from a vorpal blade. Wizard acts next....casts Time Stop...then runs over grabs his flying head...slams it down and casts Revivify.
DM still counted it as a death for his counter but the victim retained his spells.
Uh... Awesome! That is an epic save if I ever saw one.
I always thought of breath of life as keeping the character from ever actually dying. So, if you never actually died you should never lose your spells.
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From a strict reading, it might actually be worse than anyone here stated already: Breath of Life returns you from the brink at the cost of a temporary negative level and the loss of all your spells.
Death and Prepared Spell Retention: If a spellcaster dies, all prepared spells stored in his mind are wiped away. Potent magic (such as raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection) can recover the lost energy when it recovers the character.
So by default, if a character dies, the character loses all their spells.
Raise dead...
A character who died with spells prepared has a 50% chance of losing any given spell upon being raised. A spellcasting creature that doesn't prepare spells (such as a sorcerer) has a 50% chance of losing any given unused spell slot as if it had been used to cast a spell.
For Resurrection...
This spell functions like raise dead, except that you are able to restore life and complete strength to any deceased creature.
...Upon completion of the spell, the creature is immediately restored to full hit points, vigor, and health, with no loss of prepared spells.
(Emphasis mine.) Resurrection says you DO get to keep them, and keep all of them.
For True Resurrection...
This spell functions like raise dead, except that you can resurrect a creature that has been dead for as long as 10 years per caster level. This spell can even bring back creatures whose bodies have been destroyed, provided that you unambiguously identify the deceased in some fashion (reciting the deceased's time and place of birth or death is the most common method).
Upon completion of the spell, the creature is immediately restored to full hit points, vigor, and health, with no negative levels (or Constitution points) and all of the prepared spells possessed by the creature when it died.
(emphasis mine)
And now on to Breath of Life:
This spell cures 5d8 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +25).
Unlike other spells that heal damage, breath of life can bring recently slain creatures back to life. If cast upon a creature that has died within 1 round, apply the healing from this spell to the creature. If the healed creature's hit point total is at a negative amount less than its Constitution score, it comes back to life and stabilizes at its new hit point total. If the creature's hit point total is at a negative amount equal to or greater than its Constitution score, the creature remains dead. Creatures brought back to life through breath of life gain a temporary negative level that lasts for 1 day.
Creatures slain by death effects cannot be saved by breath of life.
Like cure spells, breath of life deals damage to undead creatures rather than curing them, and cannot bring them back to life.
"...it comes back to life",
"...remains dead..."
Nothing here says the character didn't die. When you die, you lose all your spells. Nothing in Breath of Life says "works like Raise Dead" like Resurrection or True Resurrection, and it says nothing about saving your spells.