Suggestion: Rework the death/raise mechanic

[Thaelis]

Alright I've got it now! For anyone else that has fewer brain cells like me:

1. Knockout (no xp loss, temporary debuff)
2. Death (xp loss) - voluntary only
3. Respawn/Retreat (xp loss) - voluntary only

I like it

[Kitunenotsume]

Since that is all willing, dosen't it undervalue the mechanics of divine spellcasters even further?
Or would you automatically default to options 2 or 3 if there is no friendly within the map or something?

Otherwise if Knockout is an option that hops you back up where you stand with said debuff, someone with Scrolls or Elixirs of the appropriate Restoration could just brutalize through fights by applying zero-distance corpse rushes to wear bosses down or whatever.

[zhazz]

Since that is all willing, dosen't it undervalue the mechanics of divine spellcasters even further?
Or would you automatically default to options 2 or 3 if there is no friendly within the map or something?

Otherwise if Knockout is an option that hops you back up where you stand with said debuff, someone with Scrolls or Elixirs of the appropriate Restoration could just brutalize through fights by applying zero-distance corpse rushes to wear bosses down or whatever.

That is a good observation.

If possible, I think the option to be knocked out (option 1) would only make sense, if in a party, and at least one other party member is present in the same map. That last portion being important to avoid cross-map abuse.

The overall idea is to make death a much rarer occurence. However, when it does happen, the actual divine classes are the preferred ways to deal with bringing a dead person back to life, rather than just using a 1000 gp scroll that everyone can use.

[Kitunenotsume]

On another server I play, the rule is that an unconcious PC remains unconscious for 1 minute after the last PC was visible from your position and that the party is not in combat. So someone stealthing or being around a corner will give you a timer before automatic respawn, but if your friend is fighting off monsters to make the area safe for recovery, you are fine to sit there.
Once the timer is up, you get automatically kicked into the failure-state for the area (which is usually respawning at the start of the dungeon).

Any PC being visible would reset and delay the timer, so being unconscious for PVP resolution or being saved by a passing adventurer were possibilities if the proximity was sufficient.

It's probably a bit over-complicated for here, but demonstrates a possible route.

[gedweyignasia]

One thing to keep in mind when making suggestions is that most players tend to treat mechanics however is convenient for them. If they have the option to be knocked unconscious with one penalty or killed with another penalty, most players will choose whichever one has a lighter penalty and RP it whichever way they want. To make players RP something as death vs knockout, there has to be some kind of social accountability; the difference between knockout and death has to be evident to other PCs.

[Blame The Rogue]

something else that bears mention is RL time available to play, and if we bog down that time with more mechanics, it will be a negative thing

i'm for leaving the system as is, and have always treating death as a knockout, unless otherwise agreed upon, and specified by, dm and player

it seems the intent is to improve rp thru mechanics, which i dont feel is possible. the only way to improve rp is thru mentoring