What's the opinion on Revivify

[Skrum]

The apotheosis of yo yo healing.

How often does this get restricted, either directly with a ban or by throttling diamonds? Or is it only a problem that bothers me? Lol

[RedMage125]

The apotheosis of yo yo healing.

How often does this get restricted, either directly with a ban or by throttling diamonds? Or is it only a problem that bothers me? Lol

I've always enjoyed it. In 3.5e, the spell had to be cast within one round of someone dying, and brought them back with no level loss, which I always took to mean they got to them before the soul had fully departed.

So, I've never restricted it. By contrast, once it becomes available, I remind any PC cleric of the material components, when they have loot in town. Because I do track expensive components, especially ones that are consumed.

[LuckyTheOrc]

The apotheosis of yo yo healing.

How often does this get restricted, either directly with a ban or by throttling diamonds? Or is it only a problem that bothers me? Lol

Yo-Yo healing, including spells like revivify, is how 5e is designed. My general advice is "Lean into the system. Don't fight the system". There's plenty of RPGs with healing systems that work differently, but if you're going to do 5e, do so with gusto.

[Kane0]

Its a great source of convenient diamonds in loot

[DracoKnight]

It doesn't bother me, but I also don't run resurrection spells by RAW, either.

I remove the material component, and to resurrect someone you have to go grab their soul from the underworld, Greek Style. It basically amounts to a dungeon crawl (I have a map tied to each of the spells, like "this is the revivify map, this one's for reincarnate" etc; the length and complexity of the map correlates to the level of the resurrection used) that culminates in a boss fight suitably thematic for the PC who died. Defeat the boss, bring their soul back to the mortal realm, and you have your buddy back. You have to complete the crawl within the time limit of the spell cast. The Revivify map, for example, and that's a good thing, cuz you have 1 minute to pull your friend back out before you need a Raise Dead.

The player whose PC died doesn't have to sit out the crawl, they get to pilot the Psychopomp, who's a badass Rogue who knows the paths in the underworld.

My players seem to have a good time, and I have yet to hear a complaint about it. It puts it much more in the players hands rather than creating Feels Bad because I haven't given out diamonds.

[Skrum]

Yo-Yo healing, including spells like revivify, is how 5e is designed. My general advice is "Lean into the system. Don't fight the system". There's plenty of RPGs with healing systems that work differently, but if you're going to do 5e, do so with gusto.

It took me time, but I don't mind healing word. I kinda had to rework what "downed" looks like, but I don't mind it.

Revivify though. It's just a little too far IMO. I love the strong, capable characters, I like how tough and heroic they are, but just stacking revivify on top of all that...

[JonBeowulf]

The spell is fine if you stick to the cost (which was put there for balance). My problem is with pop-up healing in general. "Oooo I'm dying" <spell> "I'm good, RAWR!" "Oooo I'm dying again"...

The first pop-up is fine but I hand out a level of exhaustion for the second and each additional pop-up during a single encounter. It's a lot less rage-inducing than having enemies target downed PCs. "Continually almost dying" should not be a valid combat strategy.

[Blatant Beast]

The spell upset me in 3e, due to the fact that the 3e version would raise someone, and they would not lose their spells, unlike what happened with Raise Dead.

The 5e version, despite being more powerful than the 3e version, almost never gets used in my games by the players in combat, as 1 Hit Point, often just means you die again as soon as a foe gets to act.

Instead, the tech my players have settled upon is casting Gentle Repose on a downed PC, and then using Revivify out of combat as a cheaper Raise Dead.

Which is why hungry trolls will attack and quickly try to scarf down parts of fallen adventurers.
It strikes me as something a troll would do, just stop in the middle of combat and eat someone, not caring if they get hit. The fact that Revivify does not reattach missing body parts has no bearing upon that roleplaying decision, at all. ;)

[NecessaryWeevil]

As a PC, I love being the sentinel at the gates of death. Most groups won't begrudge you a brief bit of roleplay the first time you use Revivify. It's a good way to showcase what kind of healer you are. "Rise; my patron still has need of you" vs "Do not fear, child. Focus on my voice. The Morninglord watches over you."

That being said, like Blatant Beast I rarely see it used in combat. In most cases I've been in, if you're outright dead then either we're mopping up and you can wait a few rounds for a Revivify, or we're so hosed that the survivors need to focus on escape, in which case Revivify is a suboptimal choice. So it's rarely yo-yo healing in my experience.

[Sindal]

I'm not a fan of any of thr rez spells, but don't have anything else against them.

[Leon]

Its dead easy

[Mastikator]

My only criticism is that it doesn't follow the "if the soul is free and willing" convention, it's the only revival spell that allows you to resurrect a creature against their will.

If yo-yo healing is a problem then there are ways to remedy it. Raise dead has a penalty that you could use as a baseline. If "resurrection is too easy" is a problem then you can increase the cost, or induce some risk. Like maybe resurrection includes a risk that the person comes back wrong, or the spell might bring back a stowaway (and the risk is bigger when NPCs do it, so they are reluctant to do it).

[Unoriginal]

Diamonds aren't going to be available everywhere, let alone in the required quantity, and that + the other restrictions make the spell good.

IMO if you need to use Revivify in a fight, things are going badly enough you either flee or punch through with the energy of despair, and both are pretty epic. Big "oh ****" factor.

My only criticism is that it doesn't follow the "if the soul is free and willing" convention, it's the only revival spell that allows you to resurrect a creature against their will.

I like that it is the only spell allowing that, personally.

Gives it a great "you're not getting their soul from beyond the veil of death, you're fixing the body before the soul got to leave" flavor.

[hewhosaysfish]

I remove the material component, and to resurrect someone you have to go grab their soul from the underworld, Greek Style. It basically amounts to a dungeon crawl (I have a map tied to each of the spells, like "this is the revivify map, this one's for reincarnate" etc; the length and complexity of the map correlates to the level of the resurrection used) that culminates in a boss fight suitably thematic for the PC who died. Defeat the boss, bring their soul back to the mortal realm, and you have your buddy back. You have to complete the crawl within the time limit of the spell cast. The Revivify map, for example, and that's a good thing, cuz you have 1 minute to pull your friend back out before you need a Raise Dead.

That really does sound like a badass and thematic way to deal with resurrection. My first concern, especially with the longer underworlds, is the matter of what the player of the dead character is going to be...

[/quote]The player whose PC died doesn't have to sit out the crawl, they get to pilot the Psychopomp, who's a badass Rogue who knows the paths in the underworld.[/QUOTE]

.... Ohhhhhhhh....
That does sound awesome.

Do different patron deities send different Psychopomps or is the Psychopomp a fixture of the underworld?

[Skrum]

The spell upset me in 3e, due to the fact that the 3e version would raise someone, and they would not lose their spells, unlike what happened with Raise Dead.

The 5e version, despite being more powerful than the 3e version, almost never gets used in my games by the players in combat, as 1 Hit Point, often just means you die again as soon as a foe gets to act.

Instead, the tech my players have settled upon is casting Gentle Repose on a downed PC, and then using Revivify out of combat as a cheaper Raise Dead.

Which is why hungry trolls will attack and quickly try to scarf down parts of fallen adventurers.
It strikes me as something a troll would do, just stop in the middle of combat and eat someone, not caring if they get hit. The fact that Revivify does not reattach missing body parts has no bearing upon that roleplaying decision, at all. ;)

While I have seen Revivify get used in combat, most of the time people use the 1 minute window and do it after. But the game is now DBZ. Characters "dying" has no weight, as the only thing that matters is if someone in the party has the dragon balls Revivify. Someone goes down and it's "ah, oh well." The tension of NOT having Revivify, when a party happens to not have it, is amazing.

I throw Revivify in with yo yo healing because of how it cheapens going to zero, and changes the meta of combat. I just can't get myself to "oh yeah, Revivify is totally improving the game experience."

[Sigreid]

I don't mind revifiy as I see that as basically being the EMT showing up and doing CPR etc., so you're not brain dead yet and are just packing your spiritual bags.

For the other resurrections, they simply don't always work. For example, I recently lost a character to an intellect devourer brain eating. The party did take the body out and try a stronger rez, but that particular character would have been in heaven and I couldn't see her coming back.

[Unoriginal]

While I have seen Revivify get used in combat, most of the time people use the 1 minute window and do it after. But the game is now DBZ. Characters "dying" has no weight, as the only thing that matters is if someone in the party has the dragon balls Revivify. Someone goes down and it's "ah, oh well." The tension of NOT having Revivify, when a party happens to not have it, is amazing.

I throw Revivify in with yo yo healing because of how it cheapens going to zero, and changes the meta of combat. I just can't get myself to "oh yeah, Revivify is totally improving the game experience."

Dunno, having to finish a fight on a timer is pretty tension-building, especially when the healer now has to keep a spell slot in reserve (and likely one of their highest-level ones, when they first get the spell).

[stoutstien]

It's a seatbelt feature so it doesn't need much management from the GM unless you don't like it for the tone/theme for a setting.

[Blatant Beast]

I throw Revivify in with yo yo healing because of how it cheapens going to zero, and changes the meta of combat. I just can't get myself to "oh yeah, Revivify is totally improving the game experience."

I'm not so sure D&D has a true history of going to Zero Hit Points, or lower, being a precious thing, that drove concern. A common house-rule of AD&D was it took going to -10 to die, and even with a downed PC losing a hit point per round, it was pretty common to wait until you healed someone.

A PC being at -3 was not a big deal, at all, in my experience.

The 5e, 3 Strikes and you are out rule, is more deadly than the old AD&D house-rule, in my opinion, (especially with Critical Hits counting as two Death Save Failures).

My experience, is people take someone dropping to zero hit points in 5e as a more serious event then someone dropping to -3 in a game that has -10 being death.

I'm not sure Revivify makes the game better, but my sense when the spell was added to the Spell Compendium in 3e, that primarily the spell was trying to mirror aspects of MMO play.

One option I have used to make going to zero hit points have more lasting consequences is having the PC roll on the Lingering Injuries Chart when their hit points reach zero.

[Psyren]

If you want to make repeated down-healing more impactful, you can impose some kind of stacking penalty for each time beyond the first in a combat as a variant, like exhaustion levels (I would recommend the far less painful 2024 exhaustion rather than 2014 exhaustion for this).

[RSP]

One thing that’s sometimes overlooked in Revivify diluting combat is that dying severs attunement, so Revivify brings them back up, but minus any effects or usage of attuned magic items (so no benefit from Cloak if Protection or the like).

No all encompassing by any means, but is a negative associated with “yo-yo healing”.

[Theodoxus]

Since 99% of the time, I play a Life Cleric 60% of the time, I more often than not have Revivify on my list. But the only time I ever used it with regularity is when we had a Zealot in the party. Diamond-free resurrection is quite the boon. Plus the guy wasn't right in the head and routinely ran into danger without a care (because 'free' res...) The player is my best friend, so I didn't mind.

My problem is with spell components in general. How big is a 300 gp diamond? Is it a carat? half? 300? Instead of listing only the cost, the size would be great. So I know if I'm going to be dragging around hundreds of kilos of diamonds or just a few grams...

As is, technically, a 300 gp diamond is any diamond I pay 300 gp for. Does my patron accept that as a worthy sacrifice? If so, why can't I just sacrifice the actual gold pieces instead, like a Forge cleric crafting something? I get that its a gatekeeping exercise... I'd rather the DM outlaw the spell than have an artificial gate to it's use... When I DM, I never have an issue, the player asks if they can buy components, and I handwave the shopping spree (unless there's a hook or some other reason to RP the spree).

[Keltest]

Since 99% of the time, I play a Life Cleric 60% of the time, I more often than not have Revivify on my list. But the only time I ever used it with regularity is when we had a Zealot in the party. Diamond-free resurrection is quite the boon. Plus the guy wasn't right in the head and routinely ran into danger without a care (because 'free' res...) The player is my best friend, so I didn't mind.

My problem is with spell components in general. How big is a 300 gp diamond? Is it a carat? half? 300? Instead of listing only the cost, the size would be great. So I know if I'm going to be dragging around hundreds of kilos of diamonds or just a few grams...

As is, technically, a 300 gp diamond is any diamond I pay 300 gp for. Does my patron accept that as a worthy sacrifice? If so, why can't I just sacrifice the actual gold pieces instead, like a Forge cleric crafting something? I get that its a gatekeeping exercise... I'd rather the DM outlaw the spell than have an artificial gate to it's use... When I DM, I never have an issue, the player asks if they can buy components, and I handwave the shopping spree (unless there's a hook or some other reason to RP the spree).

It just says "diamonds" not "a diamond" so I assume the size is variable. I think the intent genuinely is the specific value of the sacrifice rather than being intrinsic to a diamond.

[LudicSavant]

I have never felt a need to restrict Revivify, even in situations where I have limited other resurrection spells.

[Unoriginal]

As is, technically, a 300 gp diamond is any diamond I pay 300 gp for. Does my patron accept that as a worthy sacrifice? If so, why can't I just sacrifice the actual gold pieces instead, like a Forge cleric crafting something? I get that its a gatekeeping exercise... I'd rather the DM outlaw the spell than have an artificial gate to it's use... When I DM, I never have an issue, the player asks if they can buy components, and I handwave the shopping spree (unless there's a hook or some other reason to RP the spree).

All the "gates" are artificial. Be they open or closed.

I wouldn't allow PCs to just use gold instead of a costly component any more than I would allow them to use several 2nd lvl spell slots to cast one higher level spell.

As for the "shopping spree" part, I may handwave the trip to the shop, but that does not mean everything is available everywhere. Why would there be diamonds in the shop of a small village where most people are woodcutters, for example?

[Blatant Beast]

Why would there be diamonds in the shop of a small village where most people are woodcutters, for example?

Why Alibaba of course! The Djinn based E-commerce* group that goes around from village to village using their Creation ability to make stuff. You only need coal, to make a diamond. (Just see Donner's Superman films).

*(E-commerce in D&D is Extra-Planar Commerce)

[J-H]

You go to 0 or die, you get a level of exhaustion.
You have to have the actual material component pre-purchased. No "gold to Revivify" any more.

Haven't seen it used in a while.

[KorvinStarmast]

I see no reason to restrict it.
I do see a reason to seek out and either purchase, or trade for, diamonds so that you have the Material Component on hand in case you need it.

Every one of my clerics always had it prepared, and I went to whatever effort was necessary to invest in diamonds.
My two Celestial warlocks also have it on their list.
You never know when you'll need it.

Per stoutstien: it's a seatbelt feature.

Gives it a great "you're not getting their soul from beyond the veil of death, you're fixing the body before the soul got to leave" flavor.

Yep. You have a minute to do it.

[Segev]

Getting the material comment can be hard even without the DM not deliberately restricting it, as long as he doesn't hand it out as a deliberate choice. Finding gem merchants is not always easy.

[Skrum]

I'm not so sure D&D has a true history of going to Zero Hit Points, or lower, being a precious thing, that drove concern. A common house-rule of AD&D was it took going to -10 to die, and even with a downed PC losing a hit point per round, it was pretty common to wait until you healed someone.

A PC being at -3 was not a big deal, at all, in my experience.

The 5e, 3 Strikes and you are out rule, is more deadly than the old AD&D house-rule, in my opinion, (especially with Critical Hits counting as two Death Save Failures).

My experience, is people take someone dropping to zero hit points in 5e as a more serious event then someone dropping to -3 in a game that has -10 being death.

I'm not sure Revivify makes the game better, but my sense when the spell was added to the Spell Compendium in 3e, that primarily the spell was trying to mirror aspects of MMO play.

One option I have used to make going to zero hit points have more lasting consequences is having the PC roll on the Lingering Injuries Chart when their hit points reach zero.

In 3e -10 was dead, but there was no "breaker" like there is with death saving throws. If you were at 17 and took 27 damage, you died.

I remember being at low hit points being tense - yes there was a 10 hit point buffer, but being at very low hit points was scary - you're in one shot range!

5e is not like that at all. Being at 7 or 12 hp barely matters; you have so many more chances to not die.

Now I have to say, in my time playing 5e, I've gotten away from "the only outcome that matters is life or death." There's lots of ways to have tense, difficult combats without death being the most present threat.

But sometimes, I DO want that threat - and revivify really kinda prevents that.