I'm planning a Paladin character, and want to be able to bring allies back to life if worse comes to worse.
Two feats I've seen suggested are: Ultimate Mercy and Channeled Revival.
First off, I have a question on the effects of Ultimate Mercy:
Ultimate Mercy replicated Raise Dead; Raise Dead says that it bestows 2 negative levels on the target UNLESS they are level 1. What happens to a level 2 character? Are they revived and then immediately killed again by the 2 negative levels?
Secondly, I was wondering which one is suggested? Here is a synopsis of the two options:
Ultimate Mercy costs 10 uses of Lay on Hands and replicates Raise Dead, allowing to raise an ally who died a few days ago, allows gaining a temporary negative level for 1 day to forego the component cost (5,000 gp), and bestows 2 negative levels on the target which will require 2 applications of Restoration to remove, each costing 1,000gp in materials and needing to be applied a week apart.
PROS:
1)Can raise an ally who has been dead a few days, thereby not necessitating immediate application in the middle of battle.
2)Can raise ally no matter how low their HP.
CONS:
1)Negative levels are a pain, and expensive to remove.
2)Costs more Lay on Hands use.
Channeled Revival costs 3 uses of Channel Energy (each of which requires 2 uses of Lay on Hands, for a total cost of 6 Lay on Hand uses) and replicates Breath of Life, allowing to raise an ally who died within 1 round as long as their HP total isn't escessively low, has no material cost, bestows 1 temporary negative level which goes away in a day.
PROS:
1)Not as many negative levels handed out, and none of them are permanent.
2)No GP cost whatsoever for the entire process.
CONS:
1)Must be applied IMMEDIATELY after an ally drops, since it is a full-round action, and only works on someone who died within a round. This means you better be within 5' of the target when they drop, or you won't have enough time to use it.
2)Fails if the targets HP is too low for the healing to work.
It seems to me that the feats have 2 very situational uses: Ultimate Mercy being a more out-of-combat use when the party is recovering from a beating, while Channeled Revival is used for an in-battle, on-the-fly revive.
Ultimate Mercy seems like the less efficient, but also less situational option; I'd hate to take Channeled Revival and then never be near enough to an ally when they drop to use it.
The easy answer is just "take both", but I'm not sure if it is worth the investment.
Suggestions? Comments? Experiences?
