Waargh!
2012-11-10, 08:50 PM
Here are some alternate rules for life and death. The goal is:
-Make it more interesting when characters are brought back from the dead
-Make it harder for a character to die
-Not penalize fighter characters that wish to go full into battle risking their HPs
Short rest: HPs are fully replenished after a short rest. The rules for a short rest are the same as full rest with the exception that it requires only 10m. No other benefit comes from short rest rather than replenishing HPs.
Ability score damage and energy drain: positive energy can remove ability score damage and negative levels. When casting a healing spell instead of curing HPs the caster can instead choose to restore 1 ability damage per spell level or 1 negative level per spell level. If a magical item that contains such a spell is used a Spellcraft check of 10 is required to use it as such.
Below -10 HP: When a character falls below -10 HP roll a d6. If the result I 6 they remain at
-10 HP, gracefully escaping death. If the result is from 5 to 2 they are seriously injured. If the result is 1 death has his way and character is effectively dead. A character effectively cannot go below -10 HPs. The seriously injured condition remains for 1 hour per character level, after that period of time the characters wounds become fatal.
Finishing blow: a character can perform a coup de grace on a target that is unconscious and seriously injured killing them outright. Any form of attack, including magical, can be used for this purpose.
Death by death effects or energy drain: instead of dying, the character falls unconscious with -10 HPs and becomes seriously injured. If the character is already unconscious they die.
Non-lethal damage and regeneration: a character can still have -10 HP of non-lethal damage and rules for non-lethal damage and regeneration apply as usual.
Surgery: a special procedure, called a surgery, which requires the use of positive energy is required to remove the seriously injured condition from a fallen character. This procedure requires a Heal check DC 10 if healing spell or supernatural ability is is used or a Heal check of 20 if a magic item is used (including potions). The Heal check can be performed by someone else than the caster of the spell or wielder of magic item with a -5 penalty. The process takes 8 uninterrupted hours and the character needs to be healed at 0 HPs or more for this procedure to succeed (multiple spells or items can be used for this purpose). After a successful surgery a character is in a recovering phase (see below).
Curing death effects or energy drain: if a character has been seriously injured due to a death effect or energy drain, the caster of the healing spell or wielder of magic item can make a Spellcraft check instead of a Heal check. In such a case the character becomes conscious right away and doesn't go to a recovering phase. Essentially their body is intact.
Recovering: They remain injured but are conscious. They cannot perform any extraneous activity (including casting spells with somatic components) and gain a -10 penalty on all checks. Casting a spell without somatic components requires a concentration check DC 20. The character remains in this condition for 30 – ECL – 2d10 days. After that period of time they have fully recovered.
Coming back from the dead: divine magic can remove the dead condition from a character bringing them back to life. This requires the consent of the god that grants the magic and effectively they decide either to restore or not the life back to the creature. A divine caster that believes in more than one god can choose which one to ask to grand life. Magic items that contain a spell that can restore a creature back to life have to have the god chosen at time of creation, depending on the caster creating the item. The creator usually inscribes the god, but may choose not to. Gods from all alignments allow the use of such magic, each for their own purpose.
The deal with the god: before a creature is brought back to life they make an agreement with the god that was called to grand life. No god is keen to grand life lightly thus require the subject to perform an act that will follow their dogma. The subject needs to perform the act as demanded by the god in any manner or time limit the god chooses. If the subject fails to perform this act, the god will confront them and end their life and usually destroy or banish their soul to prevent anyone else trying to contact another god to grand them life.
The following spells are altered as shown below:
Raise Dead: casting time 4 hours. No level lost for subject returning back to life if cast within one week of death. Works regardless of the cause of death. Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
Resurrection: No level lost for subject returning back to life if cast within one week of death. Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
True resurrection: Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
Reincarnate: no change. A god of nature is chosen to grand life back or a being that is both capable and interested on returning the subject’s soul back to life. Compared to resurrection, gods are less keen to reincarnate a creature and will take under consideration the creature's choice.
Wish: when duplicating resurrection the caster can choose any god or capable being to grand life to the subject. The caster cannot restore life just from pure magic.
Miracle: when used to restore life a god needs to grand life to all subjects. The god makes either independently a deal with each subject or a deal with the caster.
Experience points: the below are recommendations if the balance of experience points is to be kept within the characters of a given party
While seriously injured: the party doesn't change and everyone, including injured characters, gains their share of experience. The injured characters ECL count to determine experience gains even if practically not participating in an encounter.
While dead: dead characters don't gain experience points nor their ECL counts for determining experience points. In order to balance experience points of a dead character coming back to life the revived character can gain a certain amount of experience points for full filling the deal the god gave them. Count the experience points missed while that character is dead. Divide into 2d10 days. For every day that the character does everything possible to follow the deal agreed with the god they gain a portion of their experience points missed while dead.
-Make it more interesting when characters are brought back from the dead
-Make it harder for a character to die
-Not penalize fighter characters that wish to go full into battle risking their HPs
Short rest: HPs are fully replenished after a short rest. The rules for a short rest are the same as full rest with the exception that it requires only 10m. No other benefit comes from short rest rather than replenishing HPs.
Ability score damage and energy drain: positive energy can remove ability score damage and negative levels. When casting a healing spell instead of curing HPs the caster can instead choose to restore 1 ability damage per spell level or 1 negative level per spell level. If a magical item that contains such a spell is used a Spellcraft check of 10 is required to use it as such.
Below -10 HP: When a character falls below -10 HP roll a d6. If the result I 6 they remain at
-10 HP, gracefully escaping death. If the result is from 5 to 2 they are seriously injured. If the result is 1 death has his way and character is effectively dead. A character effectively cannot go below -10 HPs. The seriously injured condition remains for 1 hour per character level, after that period of time the characters wounds become fatal.
Finishing blow: a character can perform a coup de grace on a target that is unconscious and seriously injured killing them outright. Any form of attack, including magical, can be used for this purpose.
Death by death effects or energy drain: instead of dying, the character falls unconscious with -10 HPs and becomes seriously injured. If the character is already unconscious they die.
Non-lethal damage and regeneration: a character can still have -10 HP of non-lethal damage and rules for non-lethal damage and regeneration apply as usual.
Surgery: a special procedure, called a surgery, which requires the use of positive energy is required to remove the seriously injured condition from a fallen character. This procedure requires a Heal check DC 10 if healing spell or supernatural ability is is used or a Heal check of 20 if a magic item is used (including potions). The Heal check can be performed by someone else than the caster of the spell or wielder of magic item with a -5 penalty. The process takes 8 uninterrupted hours and the character needs to be healed at 0 HPs or more for this procedure to succeed (multiple spells or items can be used for this purpose). After a successful surgery a character is in a recovering phase (see below).
Curing death effects or energy drain: if a character has been seriously injured due to a death effect or energy drain, the caster of the healing spell or wielder of magic item can make a Spellcraft check instead of a Heal check. In such a case the character becomes conscious right away and doesn't go to a recovering phase. Essentially their body is intact.
Recovering: They remain injured but are conscious. They cannot perform any extraneous activity (including casting spells with somatic components) and gain a -10 penalty on all checks. Casting a spell without somatic components requires a concentration check DC 20. The character remains in this condition for 30 – ECL – 2d10 days. After that period of time they have fully recovered.
Coming back from the dead: divine magic can remove the dead condition from a character bringing them back to life. This requires the consent of the god that grants the magic and effectively they decide either to restore or not the life back to the creature. A divine caster that believes in more than one god can choose which one to ask to grand life. Magic items that contain a spell that can restore a creature back to life have to have the god chosen at time of creation, depending on the caster creating the item. The creator usually inscribes the god, but may choose not to. Gods from all alignments allow the use of such magic, each for their own purpose.
The deal with the god: before a creature is brought back to life they make an agreement with the god that was called to grand life. No god is keen to grand life lightly thus require the subject to perform an act that will follow their dogma. The subject needs to perform the act as demanded by the god in any manner or time limit the god chooses. If the subject fails to perform this act, the god will confront them and end their life and usually destroy or banish their soul to prevent anyone else trying to contact another god to grand them life.
The following spells are altered as shown below:
Raise Dead: casting time 4 hours. No level lost for subject returning back to life if cast within one week of death. Works regardless of the cause of death. Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
Resurrection: No level lost for subject returning back to life if cast within one week of death. Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
True resurrection: Character returns in recovering phase (as described above).
Reincarnate: no change. A god of nature is chosen to grand life back or a being that is both capable and interested on returning the subject’s soul back to life. Compared to resurrection, gods are less keen to reincarnate a creature and will take under consideration the creature's choice.
Wish: when duplicating resurrection the caster can choose any god or capable being to grand life to the subject. The caster cannot restore life just from pure magic.
Miracle: when used to restore life a god needs to grand life to all subjects. The god makes either independently a deal with each subject or a deal with the caster.
Experience points: the below are recommendations if the balance of experience points is to be kept within the characters of a given party
While seriously injured: the party doesn't change and everyone, including injured characters, gains their share of experience. The injured characters ECL count to determine experience gains even if practically not participating in an encounter.
While dead: dead characters don't gain experience points nor their ECL counts for determining experience points. In order to balance experience points of a dead character coming back to life the revived character can gain a certain amount of experience points for full filling the deal the god gave them. Count the experience points missed while that character is dead. Divide into 2d10 days. For every day that the character does everything possible to follow the deal agreed with the god they gain a portion of their experience points missed while dead.