Disentegrate vs Breath of Life

[Irontruth]

This is one of the fundamental design quirks I dislike about the game (and earlier iterations D&D). When is the spell description just a description and when is it a mechanical interaction. PF has reduced the amount that this happens, but it does from time to time.

[Scavion]

Rynjin wrote:

ciretose wrote:

I've seen it run both ways. Neither bothered me.

Dropping all argumentation for the nonce, neither way it's run bothers me, exactly.

I'm just saying I'm nearly 100% certain it does not work the way people want to make it work.

Run it however you like, as will I. I may even run it the less limited way, depending on the circumstance, since I really don't like to kill players unless they deserve it/do something stupid (and IMO, rolling low on your Fort save is neither of those).

I just really don't think the "Cure X Wounds that works on newly dead people" spell should make Resurrection look undesirable.

Personally, Resurrection *should* look undesirable. You are literally preparing for the death of a comrade. It has absolutely no combat utility (Barring some undead's special weakness to it, but hardly ever do we know of such a creature before time and can prepare for it) and kinda makes you look like a jerk for preparing it. Like you don't have faith in your comrades abilities or your faith in your god to see you through it.

It does my heart good though to see many people feel the same way about losing someone to a single failed roll however.

[Bizbag]

It's not a question of wanting to cast Resurrection, it's a question of having to cast Resurrection. It's the tool you need in case of near total destruction (just like True Resurrection is the tool you need in case of total destruction). Breath of Life is a stopgap, a desperation move. If luck is on your side, you can avert a terrible cost.

Resurrection costs more to cast, takes longer to cast, and requires a higher spell slot, thus is not accessed for four additional levels, and the only benefit of it is the larger window of opportunity to cast it?

Disintegrate is one of the cruelest spells in the game. It preys on the classes that don't have the Fortitude to resist it or the HP to withstand it, it requires only a touch attach, and the character is therefore completely out of the game without the help of a level 15 cleric or oracle (or level 7 druid, I guess, but that's got a host of risks of its own). There is no buff to resist Disintegrate - it's not a Death effect. There is no resistance to Disintegrate - it's not elemental damage. It's just devastating.