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Isn't breath of life to be applies BEFORE the soul leaves the body, hence making the question of willingness to return moot?
Do helpless/unconscious/dead people even get a ST?
The saving throw is "Will negates (Harmless)"
The default there is that they get a saving throw, but can choose to ignore it if they wish. The question is, what is their wish in this situation? There is precedent with spells like Raise Dead and Resurrection where the target chooses whether or not to come back, and with Speak With Dead which gives the deceased a saving throw to resist the effect.
So, I'd rule that an unwilling creature gets a save. If someone hostile to you is trying to bring you back, there is precedent in the game that you can resist the attempt.
I can see your points, but the "Will negates (Harmless)" could be there just for the benefit of Undead and other things that have Negative Energy Affinity (for whom it ISN'T harmless, but that's consistent with the wording on the whole Cure-series spell set).
As it is a resurrection spell I guess the feneral rules for resurrection apply.
There are few resurrection effects that can bring unwilling creatures back to life, and they usually state it.
Like the Danse Macabre of a Tombstone fairy or Forced Reincarnation.
The will save for Breath of Life is there because of undead, superstitious barbarians and people who wouldn't want to be healed.
The default there is that they get a saving throw, but can choose to ignore it if they wish.
I had this backwards. The character has to choose to make a saving throw against the effect.
But, the rule on revivification still applies: if the character has been slain, you are bringing them back to life. They get a save.
If they are unconscious but not dead, they still get the option to make a Will save. There is nothing in the rules that states an unconscious character automatically fails Will saves.
Where is it stated that it is not?
The spell clearly says that it can bring slain creatures back to life. And it talks about creatures that died within 1 turn.
If you are considered dead, then it s a resurrection, no matter how you look at it.
Speaking from a clearly out of the box perspective, if it was a 'heroic sacrifice' it's kinda a dick move to use that.
Same token, if it's fortunes of war, it's kinda a dick move to refuse to come back, imo. It ain't cheap.
^This.
Resurrections give negative levels not because of being resurrections but because the specific spells state that they do.
Anything stating as being able to bring a dead creature back to life is by definition a resurrection.
Also, taking as the base of your argument an statement that is not mentioned anywhere (the soul is still in the body) makes your arguments flawed in the base.
True Resurrection doesn't give negative levels and it's still a resurrection spell.
But it invalidates your argument that it's not a resurrection because it doesn't give negative levels. Some of them do, some of them don't.
Most spells, with reincarnation and raise dead being the low end, are based on the trope that the soul separates then moves off. The soul has to do a significant astral journey to be judged by Pharasma. Length of time dead matters. It is a fifth level spell that only saves you within 1 round, so conceptually, the soul didn't do more than start to separate from the body. It seems reasonable that the soul would have a choice, especially since a Will save is indicated. The Will (half) save applies to undead, who are instantly destroyed at zero hit points. The Will negates must surely apply to a soul that does not want to return.
Only that if you don't want to return there is no save. You just don't.
Just because a soul has not moved on does not mean that the person is still living. Death is when the connection between your body and soul is severed. This is often referred to as the silver cord. The most common way to achieve this is to damage the body so that it is no longer functional. Once the cord has been cut healing the body is not enough to bring the person back. Breath of life heals both the body and the silver cord.
The point of death occurs when the body has taken enough damage to kill it, not a round later. The best proof of this is ferocity.
Ferocity (Ex) A creature with ferocity remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The creature is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. A creature with ferocity still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.
If the creature does not die for a round than an orc will still be able to fight for an extra round no matter how many HP it had taken. This is obviously not the case.
Great explanation, Misterious Stranger.
Also, I don't think Pharasma should be brought to account here, as she is specific from Golarion's setting and Pathfinder rules should be the same on all Pathfinder settings. I usually play on Dragonlance and the resurrections should work the same way even if my God of Death is called Chemosh instead of Pharasma or even if I play in a setting where, for some reason, there were no death gods.