"Why won't you die!" (3.5/PF)

[Tanuki Tales]

In DnD versions 3.0/3.5 and Pathfinder, how many monsters are there that, without any plot playing by the DM, just will refuse to stay dead no matter what you do to them (outside of the usual "Lolz Magixs iz teh ubranezs!")?

And I don't mean regeneration, the Tarrasque, etc kind of this trope or using resurrection magic/plane traveling back, but more as you were sure as damn you killed the thing dead but it comes back later to try and waste you again.

Liches and Ghosts come to mind for me, as well as possibly Cursts. I don't count Inevitables since each one is a brand new entity on itself, not just the original coming back from blatant death.

[Mystic Muse]

Vampire muses in 4th edition. (they're essentially the Lich version of vampires)

Gods tend to avoid staying dead.

[Tanuki Tales]

Vampire muses in 4th edition. (they're essentially the Lich version of vampires)

Gods tend to avoid staying dead.

*coughs and points at the title*

[Mystic Muse]

*coughs and points at the title*

oops.

okay let me think.

well, Demons and Devils endlessly regenerate unless they're killed on their home plane or through a specific spell I believe.

Gods still qualify.

I don't play Pathfinder (and due to the stupidity and poor phrasing of the Paladin code never will) so I don't know about monsters from there.

[Eldariel]

Everything is killable as long as you know what you're doing. Ghosts are rather difficult to dispose of through traditional means though. Big T obviously also belongs. Some vampire types have a strong aversion to dying. Overall, many types of Undead tend to...well, not go away unless you do something very specific.

Mind you, every single one of them can be ended with a sufficient application of appropriate spells, but it'll take more than swinging a sword, which I guess is what you're asking.

[Tanuki Tales]

Everything is killable as long as you know what you're doing. Ghosts are rather difficult to dispose of through traditional means though. Big T obviously also belongs. Some vampire types have a strong aversion to dying. Overall, many types of Undead tend to...well, not go away unless you do something very specific.

Mind you, every single one of them can be ended with a sufficient application of appropriate spells, but it'll take more than swinging a sword, which I guess is what you're asking.

I mean aside from just using magic to just make it straight dead.

Lich's will keep regenerating until it's Phylactery is destroyed and Ghosts just reform eventually until their reason for staying are gone.

Cursts only kind of count since a single mid-level spell could ruin them.

I did say that I wasn't talking about things that just use massive regeneration or are uniquely immortal (like Big T).

[onthetown]

I had a couple of cockatrices that haunted me. I'd try to get rid of them and they would turn me to stone, the cleric would drag me back and turn me back to flesh, and then I would go back after them to the same end..

I'm pretty sure I still haven't gotten rid of the stupid things. They're just a running gag now.

Undead don't seem to like to stay dead...

[OldTrees]

Edit: misread OP

Bluff to act like an Undead or Construct
fall below 0hp
Diehard
Bluff to act as a corpse

[Tanuki Tales]

The Survivor PrC from Savage Species could help enemies survive longer at the cost of offensive power.

5 levels nets
+0 BAB
+4 Saves
Improved Evasion
Improved Uncanny Dodge
DR 5/-

The Stone Power feat from ToB gives temp HP every round the enemy attacks

A Shield with the Heartening Psionic Ability gives +5 temp hp per round as an immediate action (proper timing allows it to stack with Stone Power. Stone Power, Take Damage, Heartening, Take Damage, repeat.)

I meant that you kill it, blast it apart, reduce it to a nice, fine dust and it still can just come back by its own devices to haunt you later.

Guess only the Lich, Ghost and Vampire Lords can really do that.

[OldTrees]

Edit: misread OP

Bluff to act like an Undead or Construct
fall below 0hp
Diehard
Bluff to act as a corpse

Add Delay death and you don't have to do the first bluff check.


Note: this trick does not work against tearing apart the body or disintegration but might work vs some coup de grace attempts

[OldTrees]

Also Undead can use the above trick if they have that one feat that allows them to survive under 0hp

Otherwise there is that one pact spell the resurrects you when you die.

However if the PCs are to the point of disintegrating the body then only the aforementioned monsters and the clone spell would work

[Jack_Simth]

I mean aside from just using magic to just make it straight dead.

Lich's will keep regenerating until it's Phylactery is destroyed and Ghosts just reform eventually until their reason for staying are gone.

Cursts only kind of count since a single mid-level spell could ruin them.

I did say that I wasn't talking about things that just use massive regeneration or are uniquely immortal (like Big T).

Do note that there's spells that make things go away until something intervenes to fix them up (Plane Shift, Trap the Soul, Flesh to Stone, and so on) without technically killing them - drop a vampire into, say, the Plane of Fire, and he isn't coming back (he burns, then can't get back to his coffin in time). Use Trap the Soul (successfully) on ANYTHING (ideally, duplicate it with Shades to avoid the gem cost), and it's in your back pocket until you figure out what you want to do with it (the Lich's Phylactory doesn't help him in that case, nor does the Ghost's Rejuvination, nor does the Vamp's Gaseous Form).

[Tanuki Tales]

Do note that there's spells that make things go away until something intervenes to fix them up (Plane Shift, Trap the Soul, Flesh to Stone, and so on) without technically killing them - drop a vampire into, say, the Plane of Fire, and he isn't coming back (he burns, then can't get back to his coffin in time). Use Trap the Soul (successfully) on ANYTHING (ideally, duplicate it with Shades to avoid the gem cost), and it's in your back pocket until you figure out what you want to do with it (the Lich's Phylactory doesn't help him in that case, nor does the Ghost's Rejuvination, nor does the Vamp's Gaseous Form).

And do note where I said "outside of the usual "Lolz Magixs iz teh ubranezs!""

[Tanuki Tales]

Also Undead can use the above trick if they have that one feat that allows them to survive under 0hp

Otherwise there is that one pact spell the resurrects you when you die.

However if the PCs are to the point of disintegrating the body then only the aforementioned monsters and the clone spell would work

Or casting Deathwatch

[sofawall]

I had a couple of cockatrices that haunted me. I'd try to get rid of them and they would turn me to stone, the cleric would drag me back and turn me back to flesh, and then I would go back after them to the same end..

I'm pretty sure I still haven't gotten rid of the stupid things. They're just a running gag now.

Undead don't seem to like to stay dead...

Dire Quadrupeds seems to haunt one of the players in my group. They always find him when he is alone, and always grapple him.

Boars seem to also haunt him, for some reason. Not applicable to the thread, but amusing.

[Soranar]

don't Trolls have this habit of coming back

[Mystic Muse]

@^ no regeneration either

[olentu]

don't Trolls have this habit of coming back

Regeneration was excluded.

[Bobmufin52]

There's something in the Heroes of Horror book called a soul locked creature, it's sort of a template. Basically any monster or person can have it, and all it does is returns the creature back to life after so many days. It's only completely killable by a way dictated by the DM.

[sofawall]

Don't dying curses in Dragonlance have some manner of doing this? Probably to do with death knights/Lord Soth.

[Tanuki Tales]

There's something in the Heroes of Horror book called a soul locked creature, it's sort of a template. Basically any monster or person can have it, and all it does is returns the creature back to life after so many days. It's only completely killable by a way dictated by the DM.

You sure Heroes of Horror? I'm not seeing it.

[arguskos]

You sure Heroes of Horror? I'm not seeing it.

It wasn't in the critter chapter, but was a paragraph somewhere. Basically, you can give a critter the power to come back from death FOREVER, unless specific DM-set requirements for it's death are set. Pg 47 has details.

[Tanuki Tales]

It wasn't in the critter chapter, but was a paragraph somewhere. Basically, you can give a critter the power to come back from death FOREVER, unless specific DM-set requirements for it's death are set. Pg 47 has details.

Interesting, thanks.

[Shalist]

+1 to Vampire Lord from the WoTC site...aside from shedding a lot of the usual weaknesses (not killed by stakes, can walk in sunlight, etc), there's this beauty:

The only way to make sure that a vampire lord does not return is to cut its head from its body, burn the body and the head separately, scatter the ashes from the body over running water, immerse the ashes from the head in holy water, and bury the immersed ashes in consecrated ground. However, if the head ashes are ever unearthed and somehow separated from the holy water, dried thoroughly, and then subjected to an unhallow spell, the vampire lord can regenerate in a week if the ashes are placed inside one of its places of rest.

[Tyndmyr]

Wow, thats a tough mob to kill.

[Tanuki Tales]

Wow, thats a tough mob to kill.

It gets Leadership as a bonus feat too.

[Sinfire Titan]

There's an ability in Heroes of Horror that auto True Rezs the creature 4d20 days after death with no cost. DM tool only though.

[Rasman]

giving a demon the incorpreal template can SORT of make it come back over and over again...

...we were fighting a "booloo" or something like that...

it's pretty much a little red demon that, because it could become incorpreal, was possessing a village one by one in order to cast some type of uberevil summoning of a great and powerful demon. It would also BAMF out of rooms if it felt like it was about to lose, so, we ended up fighting it about 3 times before we used these special chains to capture and bind it to death

[arguskos]

There's an ability in Heroes of Horror that auto True Rezs the creature 4d20 days after death with no cost. DM tool only though.

That would be Soul-Locked, dude. We already hit that one.

[ShippoWildheart]

+1 to Vampire Lord from the WoTC site...aside from shedding a lot of the usual weaknesses (not killed by stakes, can walk in sunlight, etc), there's this beauty:

Holy cockroach powers Batman!

Looks like we need a Tippyverse rocket and launch the ashes into space, and scatter it everywhere in order to stop THIS type of menace.