Is body recovery / res always available?

[pogie]

Played a scenario where a pc was teleported off plane, with the game ending shortly after. The GM ruled, with much player opposition, that the PC was gone, dead, with no chance of resurrection. The PC was irrecoverable. I’ve never seen this in PFS before. Is this within the confines of the rules? I thought res and body recovery were always available if you had the requisite pp or gold.

[BigNorseWolf]

They're always avaialble. Take this up the chain.

If the rest of the party can cast or get the spell it wouldn't even take PP

[Auke Teeninga]

pogie wrote:

Played a scenario where a pc was teleported off plane, with the game ending shortly after. The GM ruled, with much player opposition, that the PC was gone, dead, with no chance of resurrection. The PC was irrecoverable. I’ve never seen this in PFS before. Is this within the confines of the rules? I thought res and body recovery were always available if you had the requisite pp or gold.

AFAIK body recovery has been always available since it was introduced.

[Belafon]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

If the rest of the party can cast or get the spell it wouldn't even take PP

If only one member of the party was sent to another plane, it’s can be quite a challenge to get him back if that particular member doesn’t personally have access to plane shift. The real challenge is that you can’t just plane shift directly to him because the spell has an inherent inexactitude. If the party can come up with a way to overcome that problem (and as long as the plane is in the inner or outer sphere, the only ones PFS characters can get tuning forks for) they can retrieve him. Otherwise it doesn’t work.

But the body retrieval has been ruled to apply to “lost in the planes” PCs. I’ll see if I can find the quote.

Edit: it’s actually in the Guide 10.0 page 24

Quote:

It is possible for a player character to spend her Prestige Points even if the character in question is dead, petrified, or otherwise out of commission in the context of the current adventure. In essence, this represents the PC having made prior arrangements with the Pathfinder Society or her faction to perform certain actions on her behalf, such as recovering her dead body and returning it to a specific location or having it raised from the dead. In this event, the PC’s actual location does not impact the Prestige Point cost. This cost also includes recovery of a character’s lost equipment or the need to hunt down and kill a character’s undead body before recovering it and bringing it back to life.

(bolding mine)

I would start by pointing that out to the GM. If she still disagrees, then talk to the local VL, etc.

[andreww]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

They're always avaialble. Take this up the chain.

If the rest of the party can cast or get the spell it wouldn't even take PP

Plane shift is very inaccurate, even assuming you jnow where in the lane they have been sent to (unlikely). However if you can combine it with scrying and teleportation it is doable depending on distance. The longer it takes though the longer the chance you have to run into something deeply unpleadant or die due to environmental conditions.

Body recovery is the simpler more guaranteed route although there may remain some doubt if you can be rescued in time if you are plane shifted somewhere like the negative material plane or elemental plane of water.

[roll4initiative]

Hi! I was the GM for this game a few days ago.

Spoiler:

It was 'What Prestige is Worth'. Just yesterday I talked to the player who had a contract devil the party was fighting Plane Shift his PC to the middle of a huge desert on say, the plane of fire. Or in Hell. Basically somewhere very difficult to be rescued. My plan was to have the devil come rescue the PC a few days later (just before the PC was about to die of starvation, thirst, and heat stroke) in exchange for a Dark Bargain, and maybe a wish, and send him back to Absalom.

That is what I told the player yesterday. I am issuing him a new chronicle with no Prestige spent for body recovery & raise dead. He is giving it some thought to decide on taking a Dark Bargain for a wish, though.

[TwilightKnight]

Generally speaking the body recovery option is always available, but as Christian indicated above, there is a recent scenario that has specific rules about the cost of recovery that takes precedence. Since it involved spoilers, it is better discussed the specifics in the GM forum.