Hey guys,
my problem is poorly described in the topic, let me fix that here.
So my Slumbering Tsar party recently encountered a single Basilisk and had some bad luck with his petrifying gaze. On his first attempt, the Basilisk picked three out of six with a single gaze.
So the party traveled back to town and had a high level mage npc destoning them using Stone to Flesh. Two people beat the DC 15, one didn't and died. In his presence of mind, the cleric instantly reacted and cast Breath of Life to save him.
That's where the problem is. Breath of Life does not save creatures slain by a death effect, so... is a failed Stone to Flesh considered as a death effect?
I, as the GM of this party, intervened and said, that it would not be possible to save the fallen comrade that way. In terms of my unterstanding, a death effect is a spell or effect which instantly kills you regardless of hp or other conditions, just like Phantasmal Killer or Symbol of Death.
It's not mentioned in the description of the spell, so how would you consider the ruling to be here? Is my argumentation going the right way or did I fail to see something important? Please help me and let me know what you think! Thank you :)
I would say no, since it doesn't say it is, and it doesn't have the 'death' descriptor.
Plus, I'd houserule that out ... that's just a stupid rule to me.
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It's referring to
1) spells with the [death] descriptor, and
2) other unusual effects that call out "this is a death effect."
Death Descriptor: Spells with the death descriptor directly attack a creature's life force to cause immediate death, or to draw on the power of a dead or dying creature. The death ward spell protects against death effects, and some creature types are immune to death effects.
Example of death effect:
Bodak: Death Gaze (Su) 1d4 negative levels, 30 feet; Fortitude DC 18 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based. A humanoid slain by a bodak's death gaze rises as a bodak 24 hours later. This is a death effect.
Nothing in the basilisk entry or the petrification condition says it's a death effect, so breath of life should work.
I have considered things like massive damage and coup-de-grace as death effects, since they explicitly kill you regardless of normal hp damage concerns (so bonuses vs. death effects would help resist them).
Petrification doesn't actually kill you, so it is definitely not a death effect. Immunity to transmutations would block it, though.
Ironically...
This spell restores a petrified creature to its normal state, restoring life and goods. The creature must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to survive the process.
Stone to Flesh CAN kill you. And still, it's not a death effect.
It is not a deah effect, though I have no idea whether breath of life is supposed to work since the newly dead really did not die of damage, it is just 'dead' after failing the save.
A helpful bit :
Death Attacks
In most cases, a death attack allows the victim a Fortitude save to avoid the effect, but if the save fails, the character dies instantly.
Raise dead doesn't work on someone killed by a death attack or effect.
Death attacks slay instantly. A victim cannot be made stable and thereby kept alive.
In case it matters, a dead character, no matter how he died, has hit points equal to or less than his negative Constitution score.
The spell death ward protects against these attacks.
* Since PF death effects do not kill instantly all that often anymore, many just deal damage or some such, but the rules still apply if the attack results in death.
Heh, I was replying to him and didn't read the OP thoroughly, either. So your problem IS specifically w/ StF...
It's not a death effect even though it can kill. Death effects are tagged. If you Baleful Polymorph someone into a goldfish in the middle of a desert, it will kill them but is also not a death effect (they get a save bonus, though). That's just how some spells work; the killing isn't a direct function, it's a side effect, or happens as causal result of the spell.