How does readily available Raise Dead affect the world at large?

[SangoProduction]

So, consider, if you would, that the common populace of the D&D world had access to Raise Dead,maybe by means of their church or simply by random talent, who cares for the source. The end result being that coming back from the dead, while traumatic (a negative level), and kinda expensive, it ultimately doesn't mean much.

What do you feel it would impact the society?

My interpretation would be that death, obviously, becomes a very much insignificant idea. People probably wouldn't be completely reckless, but murder would probably at best be a crime that's paid for by the murderer, and then they must offer service/monetary compensation to help rehabilitate the victim.

And that's assuming the person who died even wants to come back. Since there's more or less a reliable proof of the law/chaos, Good/Evil afterlives, I'd imagine most would strive for Good, so that when they die they'd never want to be returned. Those who prefer different chaos/law variants would probably splinter off.

I mean, with the exception of those who were essentially incapable of making other decisions (due to mental illness or what not), or maybe overenthusiastic sadists (maybe like Dark Souls players, lol), who would actively choose to have an Evil afterlife?

I'd imagine that it'd...actually get kinda gruesome... With cult-like mass suicides among 'the faithful'. And the better off of the...less 'faithful' would have an insurance of "Raise me after I die. If I don't come back, I'm happy. If I do, then I shall...do Gooder?"

But what if suicide is Evil? Have a martyr (probably an immortal creature like a Lich or Construct, which wouldn't need an afterlife anyway) do the killing on those it deems faithful. And, eventually, the world is left with nothing but immortals, as everyone eventually gets in to their afterlife of choice.

But...I could also imagine misconceptions of what is Good arising. Maybe people don't 'test' the group's beliefs enough, and like a cruel Telephone Game, what is Good gets corrupted and twisted. And through all Good intentions, an entire set of Evil societies arise. Wow, that's dark.

[Deophaun]

I mentioned it in a previous thread, but I think our general idea of raise dead is off. Souls must be free and willing to come back, but I think those are much, much bigger hurdles than we give them credit for. We kinda view death as just a door that you step through, with the only thing really changing being your location. But your soul is just a part of you, like your subconscious is a part of you, and it's a poor assumption to think that once you get to the other side that you are going to rationally assess your situation and determine whether you are better off dead or back in the land of the living. You might not even have solid memories of life to make that decision.

Take the case of suicide: if your desire to live is so low that you kill yourself, then maybe your soul has already written off the living world. Once you die, your soul ceases to want to return. Sure, the question can be posed to it, but all it really knows of living is that it was so bad that it left for whatever it has now, as good or bad as that is. That can be rule #1: Suicides do not return.

What about murder? As traumatic as it is for the body, being violently wrenched away from life could be a thousand times more traumatic for the soul. Is it going to want to risk that again? It's going to need a powerful, core purpose to want to come back after that. Not even your average noble is going to have drive that great to overcome the pain inflicted by a dozen stab wounds.

To put this in physical terms, being alive is a high energy state for a soul. If the soul possesses enough energy even after death, it will jump back to the high state if given the opportunity. If it doesn't, then the spell isn't going to work.

So the answer to the question of how raise dead affects the world is the answer to how fragile life is in your world. If you want willingness to be decided flippantly, then life can be treated flippantly.

[VictoriousLoL]

I think it sorta depends on how much money they've got on hand; doesn't it cost 'bout 1000 GP just to raise someone? How many people are worth that, grunts-wise? How many people can spend that as well, outside Adventurers?

[PacMan2247]

I think it likely that recklessness and caution would both be expressed to greater extremes- recklessness in particular on the part of those who haven't died yet but can count on a good chance of coming back, and caution from those who have come back after dying (there may be painless ways to die, but there aren't many of them).

Murder would have to remain a capital crime; things can go wrong with the raising, or the victim may simply prefer to not come back. As long as there's still a chance that death remains permanent, murder has to carry a heavy penalty. Even the delay in a victim's ability to act could be relevant, and the sole purpose of a murder: killing a rival politician so they miss an important vote, for instance. Similarly, suicide by arranging for someone else to kill you is still suicide. If you want to die and decide to do it by pouring barbeque sauce on your head and finding an illithid, you've still committed suicide just the same as if you cast finger of death and pick your nose.

As far as the various afterlives go, I imagine they'd all still appeal to the sorts of people who would end up in them, at least while those people were alive (getting what you wish for can be a double-edged sword, after all). In our world, the afterlife is presented as a reward for abiding by the tenets of a religion, or a punishment for failure to do so. In a setting where these things exist, perhaps with the same lack of hard proof we have here but with daily evidence that other aspects of the faith are true, it would be the sort of thing people work toward just as we work toward the education we need to work in our chosen field.

What you've described is not so very different from the Buddhist belief in reincarnation: do your best, and your next time around you'll come back as a higher-order being. Fail to do so, and you'll come back as a lower creature. If you manage to actually get it right, welcome to the release of nirvana.