Outsider Death

[Yogibear41]

I remember a rule about if an outsider (non-native) dies on the material plane or some other plane other than its home plane, it doesn't actually die but is rather sent home to his home plane, such that without magic of some sort a outsider can only be killed on his home plane, however I can't seem to find this rule anywhere, am I mistaken in my thinking or am I just missing the rule?

[Red Fel]

Quoth the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#outsiderType):

Unlike most other living creatures, an outsider does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an outsider is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection to restore it to life. An outsider with the native subtype can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be.

That may be the rule you're looking for.

[Yogibear41]

Yes, I found that but that doesn't actually say anything about the returning to its plane of origin on death.

[Red Fel]

Nope. It doesn't say that at all, does it?

As I recall, this topic has been addressed previously (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233234), with results specific to your inquiry.

Short version? Complete Divine says they are dispersed into the plane. Spell Compendium backs this up in its Revive Outsider spell. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12743223&postcount=4)

But the SRD version just says they're gone, gone, gone, and require more oomph to bring back.

[DeltaEmil]

In core 3e rules, all non-summoned outsiders die when they are killed.
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/339/1/6/people_die_if_they_get_killed_by_raptorj-d34bauk.jpg
Supplementals like the Fiendish Codices do have the rule that the fiends are returned to the lower plane of their origin while slain in a non-summoned state outside their home plane. So devils and demons being brought back to life in a minor form when killed outside the Abyss and the Nine Hells is only true for your game if you use the background lore of the Fiendish Codizes supplementals, which is mostly a Greyhawk-ish game.

In the Forgotten Realms and Eberron, the background lore is quite different in many aspects, so the fiends in those setting are really dead while killed even while outside of their home plane (until they're resurrected by their fiendish patrons or the plane they are on resurrects them by itself).

[Yogibear41]

Maybe its a throw-back to an older edition or something, that I am thinking of.

[DeltaEmil]

In older editions, demons and devils did reform back on their home plane, but that was only made clear in Planescape, I believe.

[hamishspence]

It was a common theme in D&D novels. One of the first, The Crystal Shard, has Errtu sent back to the Abyss for a hundred years once killed (unless the killer summons him).

[Psyren]

If the outsider is summoned and you kill them, they are simply sent home. No lasting harm done. In effect, the summon spell creates a throwaway temporary body that gets discarded.

Outsiders that are really here however - ones that are Called, or came here on their own via Plane Shift etc. - will actually die if they are killed. (*points to DeltaEmil's meme above*)

This doesn't mean they're gone for good - FC1 and FC2 for instance talk about the outsider reforming over a very long period of time - but this is more for the narrative impact of "our family line has a longstanding feud with demon X that great-great-great-grandfather slew" than for any real mechanical impact. It's a backstory type of deal.

If you actually kill them, they're gone just as much as a mortal would be - barring divine intervention or cosmic chance of course, and those things can affect mortals just as easily.