Replacing Raise Dead with Incantations

[atemu1234]

Since the forums now have multiple threads related to dying, I figured I'd post my way of doing things.

I've never been a fan of Raising the Dead, simply because it seems to cheapen death, and makes it more difficult to keep players dead and not break roleplay. So I made incantations that I use, in addition to the rules in Heroes of Horror, to make things a little bit darker and to expand the game.

So I'm curious what the forums will think, and I'll post them here.

Bring Back the Dead
Conjuration (Healing)
Effective Level: Sixth
Skill Check: Knowledge (Religion) DC 28, 6 successes
Failure: See below
Components: V, S, M, SC, B
Casting Time: 6 hours
Range: Touch
Target: 1 whole corpse touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: No (Target must be willing)
Spell Resistance: No

As you touch the corpse and say the final words of the incantation, the open wounds upon the corpse close, and the body begins to flail about, the eyes opening and closing, mouth opening and closing, gasping for breath, and a white mist, which had gathered throughout the ceremony, flows into its lungs. Finally, it collapses into unconsciousness, alive once more.

This incantation, as the name suggests, returns the dead to life once more. To begin the incantation, you require the corpse of the creature you wish to return to life. As you begin the chant to restore the creature to life, torches in the vicinity begin to dim. One check must be made every hour, until the entire casting time is complete. While the ritual occurs, the torches eventually go out and a white, faintly glowing mist gathers around the room.

When the ritual is complete, the corpse regains life, and the mist flows into it, returning it to life. The body is unconscious for the next 24 hours as its soul becomes reacquainted with its former home. The shock can cause some trauma to the soul (see Heroes of Horror for details).

Failure: Upon failure, the body returns as either a Skeletal creature, a Bone creature, a Death Knight (if BAB 11+), or a Lich (if CL 12 or higher and has Craft Wondrous Item feat). Once so restored, the creature becomes evil, and seeks to slay all who it had known in life, starting with those it hated in life and those who had taken its life, but eventually slaying its own family and friends.

Material Component: Diamond Dust worth 10,000 gp, to be sprinkled on and around the corpse.

Restricted Casting Time: Can only be cast during the full moon.

Secondary Casters: Requires 4 secondary casters.

Backlash: All casters become exhausted.

I also made a pair of incantations to bring back the dead without their permission, but those are slightly unrelated here.

[Venger]

that's a cute ritual. since it's so hard to cast, I'd advise keeping the money at 5k instead of 10, since that's not going to be the discriminating factor in casting the spell, all the other stuff is.

as mentioned in one or more of the other anti-rez threads, anti-rezers always say rezing cheapens death. the opposite is actually true.

if character A is killed and I am able to rez him, I will endeavor to do so because it's an option. I will, knowing rezing is on the table, form an attachment to the character because I know if he's killed, I can still continue to play him later on.

if I know at the beginning of the game that rezing is not an option, I'm not going to bother forming attachments or roleplaying much, because I know I'm only one bad save away from having to go to character B instead, and so on when B dies and I move to C, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence and poverty.

so yes, you're succesful if your goal was to make rezing impossible to use, but if you do that, no one is actually going to use this spell, they'll just roll a new character instead, making this a waste of time.

if you'd like people to be able to use it, you should lower the barriers a little bit.

[Morcleon]

Beyond my initial reaction of "undead should not be automatically evil if they're intelligent, and should be neutral if not", this ritual is either automatically a success (via Surge of Fortune, a masterwork tool, and a couple ranks) or not worth attempting due to the risks.