Unrelated questions about Raise Dead and Trolls

[SilverLeaf167]

Playing in a "serious" yet unavoidably light-hearted campaign with a few friends, where XP isn't tracked and the party always levels up at the same time, would it be stupid to rule that the level loss from Raise Dead acts more like "resurrection sickness" and is lost the next time the party levels up (the resurrected character catches up to the others in level)?
How about using a magic item of sufficient value as the material component? (no returns for using unnecessary expensive items)
In a party with effectively no blasting, would it be logical and/or fair to allow trolls' regeneration to be bypassed by any attack that deals fire or acid damage, and not just by the acid or fire itself? For example, it seems to me that a flaming sword would burn the wound and stop it from healing.

Questions 1 and 2 are about to come up in the next session, and unless someone can think of serious problems I'll probably rule them that way. Question 3 is about a ruling I used in the last session and nobody complained, but I'd like to ask you anyway.

[Khedrac]

On 3 it's probably a big mistake!

Since the slashing damage from a flaming sword will be counted as non-lethal it should not take long to put the troll unconsious even with regeneration, at which point more time can be taken to do enough fir damage to get the kill - and it would be reasonable to allow the fire damage to be multiplied on a coup de grace attempt.

If you allow all the sword's damage to bypass regen just because it is flaming, a reasonably built fighter will down the troll really quickly - it probably loses at least one level of CR.

[OzymandiasX]

Playing in a "serious" yet unavoidably light-hearted campaign with a few friends, where XP isn't tracked and the party always levels up at the same time, would it be stupid to rule that the level loss from Raise Dead acts more like "resurrection sickness" and is lost the next time the party levels up (the resurrected character catches up to the others in level)?
How about using a magic item of sufficient value as the material component? (no returns for using unnecessary expensive items)
In a party with effectively no blasting, would it be logical and/or fair to allow trolls' regeneration to be bypassed by any attack that deals fire or acid damage, and not just by the acid or fire itself? For example, it seems to me that a flaming sword would burn the wound and stop it from healing.


1) I use a 'res sickness' penalty instead of level loss. Instead of actual level loss (calculating skills, feats, etc), I give a flat penalty to all d20 rolls and have the penalty reduced by 1 each game session. Currently we're using a penalty of 3, so after 3 sessions they're back to normal. I like that it is a harsh penalty, but is very temporary. YMMV. (Also, it avoids having it REALLY suck to die the session after they leveled up, but no penalty if they level up right after the rez)

2) That seems up to personal taste. Allowing for alternate material components can allow for such things to be more common and more easily accessible. Whether you want that in your game is up to you.

3) I'm with Khedrac. Knocking trolls unconscious and then burning the bodies is a very doable strategy for any party. (It isn't like you're sending DR10 gargoyles against a party that can't do more than 10 damage per hit...) :)