Wanna do a Zealot, trying to understand Warrior of the Gods

[No brains]

I for one enjoy D&D's light hand of death. I feel like a thinner veil between this word and the next allows for some weird and interesting cosmic drama. In fringe cases like the Revenant subrace and Zealot subclass, it allows for divine comedy.

I have some ideas for builds that could abuse Warrior of the Gods, but I want to get some of the community's interpretations of the ability's wording. It says that a spell needs to have the 'sole effect' of returning someone to life in order to cheat the material component. It calls out Raise Dead as an example, but even that spell has caveats that keeps resurrection from being the 'sole' effect. What do we think of the other revival spells?

Revivify: The most bare-bones rez you can get. Almost certainly counts.
Raise Dead: Explicitly called out as a usable example. It is the precedent for rider effects.
Resurrection: Similar to Raise Dead, but also restores body parts and can tax the caster. Seemingly in line with Rasie Dead.
True Resurrection: As Resurrrection, but no tax, removes curses, magic diseases, and undeath. Can make a whole body. I'd allow it, but I can see a strict person seeing this going too far.

Reincarnate: Makes an entire new body, presumably free of curses, diseases, and other things afflicting the old body, but maybe not the soul. I see this one being divisive. 50/50 between a RAW reading of it doing something other than returning someone to life and RAI/RAF reading of this spell already causing enough trouble.

Clone: A very weird case because the ability would also negate the need for the expensive container. You could clone your zealot in the trash... and cast this spell every day to make a dumpster of clones. RAW, this should work. The language of the spell is just returning a creature to life. But RAI, I can see some exceptions being made. Maybe the spell would still need some components, but still at a discounted cost.

Glyph of Warding: My pet project, so loaded with my bias. IN THEORY, setting a Glyph so that its spell triggers when the singular dead zealot is placed upon the Glyph keeps it specific enough so that the Glyph storing a rez may also skip its material cost. It also gets a thematic bonus because its material component is the same or similar to the main line rez spells.

Are there any I missed? Where would you draw the line?

P.S. If you want to tell me this is dumb and D&D handles death too lightly: I know and I'm having fun with it. It's not a part of this topic.

[Sigreid]

I would say all of the raise/resurrection spells and leave it at that.

[Crucius]

In my own interpretation the Glyph of Warding (or Contingency for that matter) trick wouldn't work out of the box, because Warrior of the Gods says "cast the spell on YOU". He or she surely casts the spell for you, but not on you.

As a DM I would certainly allow it with the specific clauses you described because it's heckin' cool. So up to DM I guess.

[Damon_Tor]

Clone is another one which I think would probably work. Note that the zealot's ability does not require the barbarian to be dead at the time of casting, so a spell like clone which has no effect but to bring the barbarian back to life should he die at a later date, should work just fine.

[nickl_2000]

I for one would allow Reincarnate to work with this. If for no other reason than the entertainment of allowing a player to kill themselves every night and come back as a different race every morning.

[No brains]

I would say all of the raise/resurrection spells and leave it at that.

So just the Cleric spells that use diamonds? A sensible choice. Keeps thematic synergy between cleric and zealot.


In my own interpretation the Glyph of Warding (or Contingency for that matter) trick wouldn't work out of the box, because Warrior of the Gods says "cast the spell on YOU". He or she surely casts the spell for you, but not on you.

As a DM I would certainly allow it with the specific clauses you described because it's heckin' cool. So up to DM I guess.

Decent point that GoW is not cast directly ON the zealot. That's a fair call.

A theoretical thank you for being permissive if I were to use this at your table. Another thank you since I don't think one of my ideas has been called 'heckin' cool' before. :smallsmile:


Clone is another one which I think would probably work. Note that the zealot's ability does not require the barbarian to be dead at the time of casting, so a spell like clone which has no effect but to bring the barbarian back to life should he die at a later date, should work just fine.

Excellent point. I should edit the OP to include Clone.

Now I want to make a BBEG wizard with a zealot minion who definitely always dies against the party, but gets free clones from their patron.


I for one would allow Reincarnate to work with this. If for no other reason than the entertainment of allowing a player to kill themselves every night and come back as a different race every morning.

The entertainment factor is why I would accept it too. I even had an idea to play a Zealot 3/ Lore Bard 9+ who would take GoW and Reincarnate to reinvent themselves every time they died. I can imagine the gods/ fates giving the character a stare and saying, "You know what? I wanna see where this goes."

[Man_Over_Game]

Officially, characters in AL can purchase the effect of spells at a gold cost. This includes resurrection.

Also officially, someone with the Acolyte background in AL games can receive a free casting of a Raise Dead spell, minus the cost of the expended material component, once per day.

And as we know, a Zealot doesn't require the material component to receive a resurrection spell.



So an Acolyte Zealot can be revived, once per day, for free.

[Crucius]

Officially, characters in AL can purchase the effect of spells at a gold cost. This includes resurrection.

Also officially, someone with the Acolyte background in AL games can receive a free casting of a Raise Dead spell, minus the cost of the expended material component, once per day.

And as we know, a Zealot doesn't require the material component to receive a resurrection spell.



So an Acolyte Zealot can be revived, once per day, for free.

Using a background feature as part of a combo... I just... Wow. Literal tears in my eyes.

MoG, you have achieved new heights. Your genius is unparalleled and I bow at your digital feet.

(plain text is hard, but seriously no sarcasm intended; I am awestruck)

[No brains]

Officially, characters in AL can purchase the effect of spells at a gold cost. This includes resurrection.

Also officially, someone with the Acolyte background in AL games can receive a free casting of a Raise Dead spell, minus the cost of the expended material component, once per day.

And as we know, a Zealot doesn't require the material component to receive a resurrection spell.



So an Acolyte Zealot can be revived, once per day, for free.

I'm a non-union scab likely to pull this cheese in an AL-unsanctioned game. Still, I am happy to know I can essentially be a revenant if I want to play AL. Good catch, MoG.:smallsmile:

[Segev]

Remember taht 5e isn't a rules lawyer edition. If the primary purpose of the effect is to restore you to life, then Warrior of the Gods applies. Revivify, raise dead, resurrection, reincarnate, and even wishes that only bring you back (not that wish has a material component) would qualify. Rider effects are fine, as long as they're playing in theme of "bring you back to life" and not doing something wonky.

An additional point: The way I always read that clause is, "...primary effect of bringing you back to life," rather than, "...primary effect of bringing you back to life." The clause is there, I think, to prevent any group-rez spells from ditching their material component costs just because you happen to be one of several people coming back to life. I don't know that there are any group rez effects, but that's how I read that: it was to stop silly shenanigans like, "Bob and Charlie are dead. Alice, kill yourself so we can rez all three of you for free rather than needing the 5000 gp per person our group rez spell costs."

[Man_Over_Game]

Using a background feature as part of a combo... I just... Wow. Literal tears in my eyes.

MoG, you have achieved new heights. Your genius is unparalleled and I bow at your digital feet.

(plain text is hard, but seriously no sarcasm intended; I am awestruck)


I'm a non-union scab likely to pull this cheese in an AL-unsanctioned game. Still, I am happy to know I can essentially be a revenant if I want to play AL. Good catch, MoG.:smallsmile:

Thanks, guys!

Although, to be frank, I didn't discover this personally.

I was doing research into what the value of a spellcast service fee would be, which (somewhat unofficially) turns out to be:

Spell Service Cost = Square of the spell level, then multiplied by 10, add double of the consumed material cost, add 10% of nonconsumed material cost. (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/132103/45619)

Keep in mind, this was determined by reverse-engineering the costs of the actual costs of casting specific spells. That is, reviewing the costs of the 9 mentioned purchasable spell casts fit within this formula.

Which made me think of what it'd be for the Zealot Barbarian. Although AL rules don't point out the value of the material cost (and instead refers to the cost of Raise Dead being 1250gp), Sir Cinnamon from RPG Stack Exchange found the relevant text for the Acolyte background in the AL rules:

"A character possessing the acolyte background requesting spellcasting services at a temple of their faith can request one spell per day from the Spellcasting Services table for free. The only cost paid for the spell is the base price for the consumed material component, if any is required." (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/132112/45619)

I do appreciate it, but Sir Cinnamon is the one that deserves the praise.