| Craig1234 |
So I killed one of my players yesterday. I know it happens, and I'm fine with it. But it was near the end of the second to last session of the mini-training campaign I put them on. They're using the beginner box pregens and are anxious to roll their own characters and start RotRL under full rules after the next session. Because of all that, I didn't want to waste time rolling up a new character that would be used for 1 session only and arranged for the adventurers to find a scroll of resurrection on the corpse of the gargoyle that killed one of them (which, admittedly makes no sense from a story perspective). I also made sure my players know that after we start RotRL, there's really no chance that would happen, so they'd better be more careful. It worked for the night, but I also know that bad rolls happen and mistakes occur so I want to be sure that they have some recourse if dead. As such, I was thinking about having them find a cache of resurrection scrolls (I was thinking 4, one per PC) at one of the early loot piles in RotRL so that they at least have the ability to die once each and come back, but still have plenty of chances to die. I just don't know if that's too generous or unnecessary or what, thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. Again, I'm fine with players having to roll up a new character, I just don't want them to have to do it often - there needs to be real death, but they shouldn't spend the entire adventure path mourning their other characters.
thanks
| Phntm888 |
Honestly, if they die early enough in the Adventure Path, they may not be too attached yet. Check the RotRL obituary thread to see what's caused people the most grief and in what book. It's one of the more deadly adventure paths, but as they figure things out, and if they play smart, they should be able to handle any issues that arise without dying too much.
If you're really concerned at some of the points, include enough funds to raise dead one of them. I don't think you should necessarily give them scrolls of ressurection.
For a good example of a well-prepared, smart RotRL group, go to NobodysHome's RotRL Campaign Journal.
| Dekalinder |
That's waaaay too much. Even assuming you meant raise dead, that's a 5 level spell with 5k material components. Hand them 4 of those and they better be selling them to buy actual equipment.
That said, after a few levels (still no sooner than level 5) i think is generally a good idea to give them a raise dead scroll, but you better make clear that is a special occurence by making them sweat to get it.
| MurphysParadox |
You killed a player? You should probably turn yourself into the police.
Unless you mean a player character, heh. An important distinction in some posts (though when talking about killing people, it is reasonably assumed to be characters).
As for your situation. You could have ruled the 'death' as a 'knocked unconscious by sheer/divine luck'. Then you don't need anything to bring them back.
As for the adventure path, don't hand out free scrolls of rez for every players; it is a bit heavy. You have a few other options though.
There are things called Hero Points that can let players do things like dodge death or get bonuses. They are awarded for doing things the GM likes (good roleplaying, interesting solutions, buying the GM pizza) and can be spent at any time to do a number of cool things. Rules here
You can also just give them all a divine mark that lets them cheat death. Maybe have a group dream where Pharasma talks to them about how they are on a rather important trek, even though it may seem unimportant now, and that it will prove dangerous, even deadly at times. She provides a blessing to the adventurers to assist in their trials.
Or, you wait for a character to die, take them off to the side, and have them receive the speech from Pharasma, then have them jolt back to life.
All of these are good options while avoiding players coming up with the idea that maybe they could make a pile of cash by selling the scrolls. Either way, make sure it is known to be a one time event.
| StDrake |
Can't say if unnecessary while I didn't see your rolls (mine end up below 10 3/4ths of the time while the GM has to fudge his rolls not to keep critting us), but a little cheap.
For one thing - remember that dropping below 0 does not automatically mean death. It's only getting knocked out. Not that many things can outright kill a PC early on without giving them a chance to run.
For another - death is only the beginning. There are gods, there are other adventurers, there are nefarious beings and phenomena that might be watching and might even find it amusing to return a character into play..though under conditions that will still make him prefer to have survived instead.
Getting turned into an undead (though sentient), some kind of half-demon because of an infernal pact or something or that funny reincarnation spell (can't recall exact name - you come back to life as a possibly different race) utilised by some trickster just for the heck of it..maybe even a mini-adventure about running away from the underworld!
Of course you'll need to put some invention of your own ranging possibly far outsidfe the book, but it'd be well worth the effort
Deadmanwalking
|
Things I've done in my games for this purpose:
Replace some somewhat less valuable loot with a single Scroll of Raise Dead fairly early on. This gives a little bit of a safety net without being too unbelievable. Four is pushing it.
Give all the players one 'Get Out of Death Free' card. It results in them auto-stabilizing at -1, but keeps them from dying. There are no ways to get more of these, but each and every player has one. No need for it to be loot, just say it's the Gods looking out for them, or luck, or fate, or leave it a metagame construct entirely.
You could theoretically combine these, though I never have.
Other things that leap to mind:
Have one of the players have a rich family or patron of some sort who can be convinced to pay out for a Raise Dead on people...provided they're paid back with interest in one fashion or another (side quests, actual cash with interest, whatever you like).
As mentioned, Hero Points are a thing...though I personally don't feel like they fit the genre I view Pathfinder as. But that's a personal thing. they do also make PCs generally more powerful and add another subsystem to worry about.
| Craig1234 |
I just read through the hero point bit and have to admit I like the way it works on the whole. I'd probably restrict it some to the basic portion of the mechanic without all the extra spells and such (really just using points to affect the occasional roll or cheat death), it feels somehow natural to me. I also like the idea of (I'm thinking a money lender) an NPC who will loan the players the cash to get fixed up at some semi-high interest rate. More thought to do still, but this does seem a far more elegant (and subtle) solution to the problem.
Touc
|
The game loses some of its suspense when a character death becomes meaningless, so be careful with the "wow, how convenient right after my character died we found a scroll of raise dead" moments. I would simply let the game balance things out. As noted, it's not easy to kill a character, but it happens. It shouldn't be viewed as a negative ("losing") but rather another facet of the game.
In Red Hand of Doom (3rd), because the party was going to be away from civilization with little chance to buy/sell, an early treasure (6th level) was a partially charged Staff of Life (6 charges, enough for a Raise Dead and a Heal, or 6 heals). While a powerful treasure, no one was leveled enough to recharge it and it was useful in a setting where you can't run back to a temple and pray for the best. Consider the setting and circumstances. Also remember low-level PCs aren't supposed to have access to resurrection magic (generally one doesn't become as attached to a character until they've run it for months to higher levels).