[3.5] The afterlife

[rel]

Is there any information on what happens to characters after death beyond the single page of suggestions in Manual of the Planes?

[Psyren]

Complete Divine has several pages on it.

There are also setting-specific books like Faiths & Pantheons for heavily divine locales. (Faerun is about as divine-focused as it gets.)

[Arcanist]

Faerun is about as divine-focused as it gets.

Well you kind of HAVE to focus on the gods since in reality they're the ones running the entire show... and the cast changes like the seasons...

:smallannoyed: :smallannoyed: :smallannoyed:
Sometimes i forget why I like FR...

[Psyren]

Oh, I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. It can have a very "Greek mythology" feel to it due to all the meddling that can be fun once the players are able to start playing cosmic politics.

Though personally, I think the Wall can DIAF.

[Zale]

There's probably a line.

Adventurers can take the revolving door on the left. Less headaches that way.

[hushblade]

Is there any reason a caster can't just planeshift out of their afterlife back to the prime material?

[Khedrac]

Note there's quite a lot about it for Faerun in various Forgotten Realms book s - especially as FR doesn't use the standard D&D cosmology (close but different).
I think Deities and Demigods has some, if just where it gives the statsf or some of the planar inhabitants.

Some of the flavour text in the Fiendish Codicies (Codexes) covers it too, plus anything on the lower plane economy of larvae.

[Psyren]

Is there any reason a caster can't just planeshift out of their afterlife back to the prime material?

Yep - Petitioners lose their class features.

You could always go for something more complex like OotS, where you keep your class levels, but there are rules in place about how you can interact with the material (e.g. Eugene needing to wait for a Planar Binding to hijack or similar.)

[rel]

Complete Divine has several pages on it.

There are also setting-specific books like Faiths & Pantheons for heavily divine locales. (Faerun is about as divine-focused as it gets.)


Thankyou. Sadly the information in CD is rather uninspiring.

[Scarlet-Devil]

Oh, I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. It can have a very "Greek mythology" feel to it due to all the meddling that can be fun once the players are able to start playing cosmic politics.

Though personally, I think the Wall can DIAF.

Hence 'Mask of the Betrayer'.

[Psyren]

Thankyou. Sadly the information in CD is rather uninspiring.

What were you looking for exactly? There may be some more esoteric info scattered around.

[Zale]

It all depends on the tone of the work.

Though, yes, the Wall just needs to die.

[Bloodgruve]

Take a look at Ghostwalk. There are some interesting mechanics if you want to use them.

Blood~

[rexreg]

or, if you are feeling adventurous, take a look @ some of the 2nd ed. Planescape stuff...

[Urpriest]

The Fiendish Codices go into some level of detail about what your afterlife is like if you end up in the Abyss or the Hells.

Edit: nvm this was covered.

[rel]

What were you looking for exactly? There may be some more esoteric info scattered around.

The afterlife as written seems to heavily favour the good aligned planes. I was hoping for a cosmology that is a little more balanced and offered cool afterlife rewards for evil types too.

[Mnemnosyne]

From Planescape, the default was that you would become a petitioner in your god's realm, or on your appropriately aligned outer plane. Memory was funky - some sources, as I recall, suggested you remember your life before death; others suggested this memory tended to fade away very quickly of wasn't present at all.

Either way, except for unusual circumstances, you were bound to your plane and could not leave it under your own power, even if you had magic or abilities that should otherwise allow that. Also, if you die while away from your home plane, you're utterly and irrevocably destroyed, with none of your essence continuing on in any form whatsoever.

Most petitioners would thus live simple lives on their appropriate planes or in their gods realms; the latter would be rewarded or punished according to the will of their deity. Eventually, petitioners just fade away, their individual essence merging with that of their plane, or their god. This is more like a dispersal, but was typically described as the desired outcome for petitioners; if you are one, this is what you want to happen.

At least, that is how I recall it from memory without checking the relevant books.

[Alleran]

The afterlife as written seems to heavily favour the good aligned planes. I was hoping for a cosmology that is a little more balanced and offered cool afterlife rewards for evil types too.
The evil ones get their reward while they're alive and crushing the neck of the collective forces of good beneath their bootheel. Once they're overthrown by a bunch of meddling PCs/adventurers/kids, they get what they so richly deserve. Of course, if they were a particularly powerful evil one, then they might not spend very long as a low-ranking devil/demon/whatever.

[rel]

Does anyone have a different approach they use in their cosmology?

[Urpriest]

The afterlife as written seems to heavily favour the good aligned planes. I was hoping for a cosmology that is a little more balanced and offered cool afterlife rewards for evil types too.

Not really. Sure prospective demons and devils suffer, but if you served an evil god in life you become a petitioner in their realm. Serve Hextor well and you're an officer in his war on Acheron. Serve Erythnul and you get to take part in a wild orgy of slaughter for all eternity, which since you serve Erythnul you're probably into. Etc.