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HMS Invincible
2009-12-23, 12:27 AM
An eladrin rogue has requested that I cast a ritual upon him that in the event of his imminent demise, he be sent to the Feywild. The closest analogy I can think of is DBZ when the guy dies and then goes to heaven to train with a dead master.

He wants to avoid death via this method, and I'm willing to accomodate him. I am a lvl 12 bloodmage wizard, what do I need to do this? Add homebrewed rules as necessary.

Arbitrarity
2009-12-23, 12:33 AM
Talk to your DM. Cost should be similar to a Raise Dead (5-6000 gold?), and you need a way to get back. Something simple, like teleporting them to the Feywild before death, spending 24 hours there, then returning to a designated location, would work well. It would punish similar to a Raise Dead, mechanically, except it's cast ahead of time.

Guy
2009-12-23, 01:09 AM
There's likely no exact ritual already created for what you're talking about, so it'd be best to ask the DM if such a thing would be possible. He can consult similar spells for the cost / punishment for such a ritual, if he wishes it to exist.

But it seems a bit much, all the ways to avoid death are Epic, at least natural deaths... but Epic Destinies almost always have a "keep fighting" ability.

Colmarr
2009-12-23, 01:15 AM
An eladrin rogue has requested that I cast a ritual upon him that in the event of his imminent demise, he be sent to the Feywild.

Should we assume that he wants the ritual to also bring him back?

The answer to that question is very relevant.

FoE
2009-12-23, 01:24 AM
Your buddy knows that the Feywild isn't an afterlife and his soul goes to the Shadowfell no matter where his body is located?

Or is this more of a 'bury me at sea' sort of thing?

Colmarr
2009-12-23, 01:26 AM
Your buddy knows that the Feywild isn't an afterlife and his soul goes to the Shadowfell no matter where his body is located?

Or is this more of a 'bury me at sea' sort of thing?

I believe the intent is for the teleport to kick in before death, sort of like a 3.5 contingency spell.

FoE
2009-12-23, 01:51 AM
And if he goes to the Feywild, how exactly does he get back?

Furthermore, how would the ritual define 'imminent death'? When he drops below 0 hit points? That could be a real bitch if he got knocked unconcious at the end of some random battle.

Gralamin
2009-12-23, 01:53 AM
And if he goes to the Feywild, how exactly does he get back?


The closest analogy I can think of is DBZ when the guy dies and then goes to heaven to train with a dead master.


Well, they collect these seven golden balls from around the world, see... :smalltongue:

HMS Invincible
2009-12-23, 03:11 AM
I told him that an old fashion raise dead was good enough but he wants to explore this option. He's always been over the top with theatrics but since this is D&D, I might as well run with it.
One line he said:"Maybe I'll fight some shadow dragon, get him to ally with me, and give me a ride back."

Based on this, I presume he wants a way back but I guess he wants some time to gather some allies while hes there. We don't have any leader classes and combat is pretty deadly so I see why he wants extra plot armor.

For flavor, I think houseruling in contingency from 3.5 and citing the more advanced fey step powers as a template to take a really long trip to the feywild.

While he may be concerned about getting back, I'm concerned about getting this ritual down to a manageable cost. So, I plan to cut corners wherever I can.
If this works, I'll start selling this ritual as a get to know your inner fey to eladrins and elves. =P

Thajocoth
2009-12-23, 03:11 AM
He'll get something like this in Epic Tier. Most Epic Destinies give a 1/day death contingency, ranging from "When I die, I walk back from the Astral Sea. Takes me 2 days, regardless of distance" to "When I die, my sword keeps fighting and it can't be targeted or harmed anything. After the fight, I return to life with full hp."

Those are the flavor of two specific Epic Destinies. Well, the anti-death part at least.

FoE
2009-12-23, 04:58 AM
What, he wants to go on a side-adventure whenever he dies to gather NPC allies?

I wouldn't touch this with so much as a 10-foot pole without getting approval from the DM.

DabblerWizard
2009-12-23, 10:42 AM
An eladrin rogue has requested that I cast a ritual upon him that in the event of his imminent demise, he be sent to the Feywild.

This is the way I interpret his request based on your explanation.

I know that my soul is supposed to go to the shadowfell when I die. Fashion me a ritual, that, upon my death, will (1) pull my soul from the shadowfell and place it in the feywild, and presumably (2) bring me back to life over there.

If this is the case, that ritual, if allowed by a DM, would be rather epic, or in less technical terms, expensive and difficult to find / create.

Indon
2009-12-23, 10:51 AM
And if he goes to the Feywild, how exactly does he get back?

Furthermore, how would the ritual define 'imminent death'? When he drops below 0 hit points? That could be a real bitch if he got knocked unconcious at the end of some random battle.

Let's say he would have to fight his way back, surviving a difficult solo encounter (which could always provide the same XP for him that the encounter he got zapped out of would have).

Throw in that it activates at falling to 0, and it might be weak and unreliable enough compared to other measures to merit existing at Mid-Paragon.

Artanis
2009-12-23, 01:29 PM
First, I agree with Face of Evil that you two shouldn't even think about implementing this without talking to the DM about it first. He might take exception to one character getting an entire side-quest all to himself.



If the DM is alright with it, I would make two rituals.

1) Half the cost of Raise Dead. Its only effect is that when the person it's cast on dies, he goes to the Feywild instead of wherever he would otherwise go. He's stuck there though until ritual #2 is used.

2) Half the cost of Raise Dead. It calls back the person who the first ritual was cast on, with all the same penalties as a normal Raise Dead. The first ritual is used up, and the whole shebang has to be cast again for it to work a second time.


Voila! Guy goes to Feywild upon death, spends some time there, and then comes back.

Yakk
2009-12-23, 01:39 PM
So, he wants to research a ritual, does he?

Well, he has some hints about how it might be done. There was that legendary grandmaster wizard...

Various rumours attribute it to a bargain with an unseelie, tricking an innocent fey to hold his soul without knowing it, eating from the first rose to bloom in spring in the feywilde, pissing off the raven queen so much that she swore he would never set foot in her domain...

There are many such rumours. But ... here is a lead on one of them.

(And in about 9 levels or so, the character, having tried repeated ways to pull it off, figures it out -- and thus enters their epic destiny).

FoE
2009-12-23, 01:41 PM
What's the ritual to travel to another plane again? It's got to be at least equivalent to that.

Doug Lampert
2009-12-23, 03:28 PM
What's the ritual to travel to another plane again? It's got to be at least equivalent to that.

Planar Portal, level 18, 5000 GP component cost.
It's not contingent, and it takes you to a permanent teleportation circle. OTOH it carries a group, goes where you want, and goes to any plane rather than a single specified one.

Fey Passage is far more limited, but is only level 6 with a 140 GP component cost.

As a GM I'd actually go somewhere inbetween. But this sounds like a really BAD idea to me. You're losing the chance that one of your friends will bring you back (characters go down fairly often, staying down, that's rare). And if the ritual goes AFTER you drop (which it probably should) then you likely bleed to death somewhere in the feywild after it activates rather than being Healing <whatevered> by your friends.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-12-23, 03:51 PM
So, he wants to research a ritual, does he?

Well, he has some hints about how it might be done. There was that legendary grandmaster wizard...

Various rumours attribute it to a bargain with an unseelie, tricking an innocent fey to hold his soul without knowing it, eating from the first rose to bloom in spring in the feywilde, pissing off the raven queen so much that she swore he would never set foot in her domain...

There are many such rumours. But ... here is a lead on one of them.

(And in about 9 levels or so, the character, having tried repeated ways to pull it off, figures it out -- and thus enters their epic destiny).
Yeah, you're not going to want to use game mechanics here. The Ritual in question would have to be Epic Tier at the very least; far better to prod the DM into making a side quest to discover a Ritual (or other magical method) to produce this effect.

Basically, this is a TSR D&D-style effect you're looking for; if the Rogue expects there to be a quick-and-easy method of accomplishing it, he's got another thing coming.