Issues with resurrection contra. new character

[Jacque]

Hello everyone,

I'm the GM of my group and tonight my lvl 8 sorcerer one-shotted the group's Factotum with an empowered combustion spell. I rolled well on both to hit and on my damage so there wasn't really much to do. It resultet in the usual "the encounter was too hard" stuff which I guess is mandatory after a PC death.

Now, my group really like the game for its system mechanics and as such we strive to maintain balance within the group as well as probably not delving much into the fluff of our characters. This results in resurrection of a PC almost never happens. The players in the group will 99% of the time almost always rather roll up a new character than suffering the set backs any kind of resurrection brings. Currently, only raise dead is available to them and the level loss is completely out of the question for them.

The players in my group would feel cheated if they had to lose a level if they get raised. It's the same if I impose that any new character starts one level lower than the rest. We don't play with xp, I just give them a level whenever I feel they're far enough in the storyline. But I would always rather have them stick to their characters than making a new one whenever they die.

Does anyone of you experience the same? How do I make death a burden for the character without making it an unbearable annoyance for the player?

I'm currently considering making the level loss temporary - for example until the next time the whole group gains a level, the former-deceased character gains two and is again on the same level with the rest.

[Mantarni]

You could give him debuffs to attack and some skills until the next level or something, depending on what the to-hit range is for your encounters.

Or maybe 1 or 2 or more points in int and cha ability damage until the next level (or the damage starting higher but lessening throughout that level progression), to represent him losing and slowly regaining life/vigor/awareness?

You could also make it a plot thing on top of that, have people initially think he's an undead on their first impression, up until he's back to normal (on level change? Or maybe 2 levels?). That would make for fun times anytime he goes near certain temples and towns, or runs across a paladin or necromancer.

[Douglas]

There's the Pathfinder route. Instead of losing a level, you gain two permanent (but will never actually cause level loss) negative levels that can only be removed by (Greater) Restoration spells, and if you've only got regular Restoration (which removes just one of them) you have to wait a week between castings. There's also a material component cost on both spells, 1000 per permanent negative level with Restoration or 5000 for Greater Restoration, but I get the impression that the loss of XP is what they really care about.

7000 gp for full recovery from death with a small penalty for a week, or 10000 gp for full recovery immediately - provided they have access to the spells, and plus any surcharge an NPC might demand if they have to hire one.

[Big Fau]

There's a spell in the Spell Compendium that can revive the recently deceased (as in "died last turn"). No penalties at all on that one.

[Jothki]

You could houserule that Raise Dead saps strength from everyone nearby in order to pool it to the raised person. Pair that with the guarantee that they'll be getting those levels back much more quickly then they'd gain their next new one, and it might work.

[Adindra]

my dm runs the rule that everyone gets 1

by that i mean she allows one free non level loss death (or in my case one free time where i dont loose a level for necropoliton :smalltongue: )

its actually worked quite well for us and we've kept characters that we would have otherwise left by the wayside