Clerics and Raise Dead

[Witch Hunter]

Alright then! how should clerics play out the raise undead spell?
 
 I've seen plenty pray a lot, make a big fancy deal out of it and then after it's cast just move along as if it was a normal spell...  and I've seen some play great physical weakness after such a deed and infact procceed to being uncapable of furter hunting or at least not casting any spells for a while, this is regardless of a soulstone.
 
 So, what's the general idea on this spell?

[hawklen]

hawks so powerful, its trivial to him and he suffers no weakness.

[Pankoki]

Raising the dead is not a trivial act. It is an excruciating experience that leaves a cleric shaky at best, quite violently stirred and weak in the worst of cases. No one should be roleplaying that it is a trivial everyday matter.

With that said... there are locations which are not particularly safe to type a 10 page eulogy and roleplay the raising properly, so it is perfectly fine if a cleric wants to act "tough" or simply in haste to get to the fallen and bring them back to life as quick as possible.

Either way, it is not something trivial, and to anyone that points out that Raise Dead is a relatively low level spell in the grand scheme of things, that as Leanthar has previously stated is inconsequential from the act of raising.

If it were possible we would make this some sort of ritual, however, such complications are both obtrusive to the gameplay provided by Neverwinter Nights and just more work load that is not really that necessary.

A good guide to roleplay how "stressful" this spell is, would be to cast Divine Relation on the character that is being raised. The more further apart from Allied the character is the more it would strain the caster. Furthermore if the player has or doesn't have a soul stone, then the strain is even stronger.

The sky is the limit as it is your character, but I would probably base it on their cleric level and constitution as to see how bad they are affected. That's just an idea, just please don't play it out as it is a picnic, because it isn't.

[Leanthar]

Spot on Pankoki and well stated.
 
 If you are playing that "you are too poweful to become weak" then you are doing a poor job at RP'ng or being lazy at RP'ing--whichever fits best I suppose. Even the best clerics at the highest orders in the temples for the various deities do not just snap their finger and just make it happen.

[hawklen]

*sigh* Witch knew I was joking around with him.

[oneqtbebe]

Well, as a cleric player.. i agree with Pankoki.. when in situation that Aiden have to resurrect, he first prays upon Her Perfection, cast Divine Relations if he does not know the player well, and raises him/her.. his reaction or result after the resurrection depends on whether or not the player had a soul stone & their deity relations. Normally, he coughs up blood and requires rest again. Futhermore, i set a standards of how many times he could do that within a RL day. Hopes this helps *smiles*

[darkstorme]

In a similar vein, the XP loss incurred by the caster is essentially "life essence" being drained away to bring another person back to life.  If their god is allied with the caster's, the god foots the bill, and only has to channel the energy from the god (hence, moderate shakiness for an Ally).  However, the further the recipient is from the deity's good books, the more essence the caster has to personally provide... and therefore the more wrenching casting the spell ought to be.

So a cleric who casts the spell to raise a follower of his own or an allied deity ought to be fine after a brief sit-down and a glass of water, but if, for whatever reason, he's Raising a follower of an opposed god, he'd better have alchemical Advil, a hot bath, and a long night's sleep available to him afterwards.

Just my two coppers.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Bringing a person back from the dead is, indeed, far from a trivial act. Not only must you mend their body, closing wounds and healing tissues, regrowing bones, even whole limbs... You must also pull back their soul from where it's gone, and bind it into that body once more, giving it spiritual life as you set the neurons firing and heart beating that give it physical life.

It is truly a miracle from the gods.

To consider the toll taken on the body, let's examine the PnP spells.

Raise Dead :: d20srd.org
Resurrection :: d20srd.org

Now, in both cases, there is no cost for the Caster (well, apart from the material components). However, the cost on the subject is very great - loss of a full character level that can only be regained through gain of XP as normal. (In the case of a 1st level character, the subject loses 2 points of Constitution damage, which is permanent.)

On Layonara, there is no greater toll on the subject than that which would be caused by death, and the toll is in fact lesser for those Raised or Ressurected than the toll taken on someone who rode the Bindstones home. The cost rests with the cleric bringing back the dead (which is, I think, as it should be).

To shift gears slightly, in many of my PnP groups, the DM has made the decision that since we were all moderately serious RPers, XP costs could be done away with for human, half-human, or halfling spellcasters. In the place of XP cost would be aging. The spell Teleport, for example, caused the character to age one year for each casting (though there was an epic feat to counteract this... not that we made it to those levels alive).

Now, I know I'm one of very few to keep meticulous track of my characters' ages, but... I think this variant (at least for RP) would be very nice. Instead of replacing XP cost, though, perhaps it could simply be played alongside it. For example, raising a character Neutral to your god would cost a good three months, Unfriendly six, Hostile twelve. Double the numbers for Resurrection.

Just think. If something's draining enough to sap your character of a chunk of his or her life... Well. Ouch.

Edit: By the way, nice link parsing. Very nice. Kudos to our board designer.