Here's a question about how everyone interprets Raise Dead. In Men & Magic, the description for Raise Dead tells us that the cleric merely points a finger at the corpse and it comes back to life. No mention of the need for the body to be intact, no mention of corpses killed by disease or poison still being affected by disease/poison when raised; the only restrictions are that halflings can't be raised and corpses can't have been dead for more than 4 days + 4 days/level above 8. There's a mention that low Con characters probably not reviving, but no Con loss.
So, if you're running OD&D and not a later edition, how many restrictions do you add above the basics given in the text? Do you dock a point of Con anyways? Do you require another save vs. poison or whatever else may have killed the character? Do you rule that a missing heart or head prevents Raising? Any other restrictions you add?
Coming as I do from a Christian perspective where even the shard of a bone of a saint has been known to emit sweet fragrance and be the source of miracles, I don't place any real restrictions on Raise Dead; however, finding a cleric of high enough level is very difficult to do. In my own campaign worlds the Church has three orders of clergy (deacon, priest and bishop). The members of each order are ordained for life and only deacons adventure. Thus, most priests and bishops are of relatively low level and access to Raise Dead is extremely limited.
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm pretty free with the availability of raise dead in my campaign, I require an intact body and a successful resurrection survival roll, in addition to lowering the CON of anyone successfully raised from the dead. I also limit the spell's use to humans only; no other races may be brought back from the dead.
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't know Raise Dead didn't apply to non-humans in the LBBs. Is any particular rationale given?
ReplyDeleteI have always stipulated that the body has to be *relatively* intact, which Labyrinth Lord also includes in its description of the spell.
Wow, I didn't know Raise Dead didn't apply to non-humans in the LBBs. Is any particular rationale given?
ReplyDeleteRaise dead works on men, dwarves, and elves in the LBBs. The restriction to humans only is specific to my campaign.
No penalties or restrictions, provided they survive the shock roll. Losing points and all that stuff dosen't add up to more fun for me or my players so why do it? Dying, it seems to me, is punishment enough.
ReplyDelete@Carter: Halflings are omitted from the LBB description of the spell, but Elves and Dwarves are mentioned as allowed, although James has mentioned he excludes them from raising in his campaign.
ReplyDeleteNow, the question is: were halflings supposed to be banned, or were they just overlooked?
I go back and forth on this subject also. I am not a fan of raising the dead, resurrection, or reincarnation (although this last one has added some twists).
ReplyDeleteWhat I have done in the past if the PCs found a cleric who would raise the dead I would take part of the session to role-play the character speaking whatever power would grant him life again. If the player can convince that power he will be raised. And sometimes it is only a temporary fix. The character sometimes it given enough life to complete a single quest or task. This added a lot of emotional power to the storyline.
My players' characters are still first level, but I intend not to have Raise Dead in my campaign at all.
ReplyDeleteWell this never came up in my games because there was almost no raise dead actions amongst the players. Though I do remember someone saying that if we want to come back to life teh team had to take a side quest into hell to get us back. We mainly just said "Well shit I'm dead" and broke out a new character sheet for the next game. There was only one exception to this. The DM liked to roll how epic your death would be with a D100, if he rolled a 1 then we would be brought back to life with 1 health. That happened twice, once we me and once with my best friend.
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