Raising the Dead

[dedude]

Anything that forces, or gives incentive, to go afk for extended periods is bad from both a game design, and a game performance perspective.

[chad878262]

Anything that forces, or gives incentive, to go afk for extended periods is bad from both a game design, and a game performance perspective.

Taken with no context/in a bubble you are absolutely correct. However, this already exists today for very good reason. Some players take character death very seriously and will not respawn, possibly even won't accept having been raised by someone that didn't RP it properly (see Tsidkenu's post earlier in the thread as an example). No matter what you will have players occasionally sitting in the fugue picking their nose hoping they get lucky and avoid the XP hit. In my mind, what was proposed doesn't change the current dynamic, it just allows for removal of the fugue and allows for the character to respawn without loss of XP in very specific circumstances (either a period of time based on level has elapsed or, as today you get raised by someone). So it would be no more strenuous on the server with regard to AFK and it is more an incentive NOT TO DIE (i.e. making death have some negative impacts) rather than an incentive to go AFK. Pretty sure players are not going to go purposely getting killed because they need to run to the grocery...

All of this said, the only way to have no incentive when a player dies is either to completely remove raise dead/resurrection and make all players take the XP penalty and respawn immediately... I can see some folks rage quitting if that happened, while levelling is not that difficult and really a time sink more than anything for some on this server, for others it is painful and frustrating...Either staying somewhere relatively safe and gaining ~20 XP / kill or getting up to the ~38-50 range, but being one unlucky spawn rate away from taking an XP hit. Anyway, point is that there are very few options at a high level when it comes to death in a PW. Either you make it have an impact, and allow players the possibility to 'get lucky' and not have to respawn or you make it not have an impact and death is treated even more nonchalant than it is currently. Die, respawn, no penalty...might as well go try and solo the white dragon again...

[dedude]

I'm all for harsh penalties for death. It should be a scary thing to push the limits when adventuring. This is my suggestion:

• If you die you can chose to respawn as today. This gives no xp penalty, but for a period of time based on your level you will have decreased ability scores, or maybe reduced level. It should require at least a restoration spell to cure this before the duration

• If you die while the above penalty is active, and chose to respawn, you lose xp as today.

• If you are dead and someone casts raise dead on your corpse, you are restored to life but with decreased ability scores as above. The duration is much shorter though.

• If you are dead and someone casts resurrection on your corpse, you are restored to life with no penalties. (Or maybe the same penalties for an even shorter duration than for raise dead)

I would still make raise dead scrolls more rare than they are today. But with this system you definitely make clerics more appreciated, even with raise dead scrolls in abundance, especially if they can cast resurrection.

[Hoihe]

I would like to ask for you folk to consider folks who have little time and play during hours where everybody is afk or unavailable. And play classes that suck at soloing. I already adventure rarely due to the impossibility of finding people to play with. Making it even worse would reduce that to pretty much nothing.

[Face]

Double the xp gain from ever thing then remove scrolls and wands to raise.

[Mallore]

When you die you should lose all prepared spells and can not get them again till you rest. Perhaps you should lose all spells per day upon death.

[Hoihe]

When you die you should lose all prepared spells and can not get them again till you rest. Perhaps you should lose all spells per day upon death.

Sure, if rest timer was lowered or NPC health reduced or saves normalised.

[Vogar Eol]

Want to add inconvenience to death? Simple. Require hallowed ground of a temple or the spell fizzles for anyone casting it from any source. Want to be a real bastard? Make the diety of the temple zone have to match that of the person casting the spell. Even more evil to people? Make the temple, the caster, and the victim all need the same diety. Suddenly your diety choice gets brought up in character, and matters.

As for people talking about 10,000 gold as if it's chump change, you are crazy. If you lost 100% of your coins acrued over the years, and needed 10,000 coins right now... I challenge you to obtain that quickly. I own a +4 natural AC amulet, and mithril fullplate and have never ever pushed over 20,000 gold. Not everyone is rich, but most people who don't live their life sitting by the fire end up dying.

Nerf Favored Soul's spell list? How exactly does that make roleplay better or things closer to PnP? Ask Ivan if I've made him jump through more hoops to be raised/ress'ed than most Clerics. You're not getting away without owing Oghma/my character some books. There is no need to hate on one divine class over another.

[Sputnik]

As for people talking about 10,000 gold as if it's chump change, you are crazy. If you lost 100% of your coins acrued over the years, and needed 10,000 coins right now... I challenge you to obtain that quickly

I did it today, in between server crashes. It took me about 15 minutes.

The idea is to target bosses that always drop gold. In my case today, I chose to beat up the Frost Giant King and take his lunch money (5k of it!). Coupled with the many epic chests in the area, the 10k goal was easily achieved in very little time.

Keep in mind that I was playing a power-built melee character with good gear. I realize not everyone can solo the areas that grant that kind of wealth. To this I say team up. Find a party and conquer the tougher, more rewarding areas. Even one or two weaker characters joining you will make any area of your relative CR easy.

And remember, looting isn't the only way to wealth!
A wise man once said:

"The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong."


The point is that it's easy and quick to earn gold here; Death shouldn't be cheap!

I like and support the idea of raise dead and resurection having significant gold costs. Teleport and greater teleport do, for reasons of balance. It stands to reason that spells with the power to bring the dead back to life should have a cost as well..

[aaron22]

and there are way way way easier ways using the same method to get about half that. its more variable as you could get 20k in gold one day but the next 4 or 5 only 3k. also if you have good strength you can kill trolls for their skins and make a bunch too. one time i saved up a couple days an walked away from candlekeep with 40k.

[Vogar Eol]

No, it's easy and quick for a very small portion of the server base. Balancing from the top down leads to instant problems for the vast majority.

Also, party play isn't the answer to everything. Scroll up to Hoiche. Mine own experience is larger parties do not equate to more loot, but less. Why? Greed players, or greedy characters... People not willing to stick around past their turn at chests... and/or a dozen other things. Even if you can hit the same chests nude, you are still facing RNG. Some people have TERRIBLE luck with chests. Others have no freaking clue where those chests even are.

In short, you make a poor argument for making one spell take components and/or a mountain of gold.

[aaron22]

VE.. i do not want to sound aggressive, but the chests are not going to fall into your lap. the solutions are many, but you seem to not wish to partake in any of them. the cost application to the raise/res is by far acceptable. if that were the only penalty, most people would not think that it is enough.

[Vogar Eol]

So you're a penniless PC, or you spent your last coin on an auction, and you're going to go run off and beat a few chests to get the 10k gold to raise a random player? Quite the saint. How long are they going to pick their nose while they wait in Fugue?

I read every page of this topic, and I'm not the only desentibg voice. Also, look at my suggestion concerning temples above.

[aaron22]

RP... ask a few people to chip in a few coins to help you raise this poor soul from the clutches of death.

[Vogar Eol]

Tell you what, from this day forward I'll ask for 10k for my services. I predict most people will refuse, threaten him, or declare me as cruel and/or evil. If all these hardcores really want to be parted from coin they can seek my character out for his IC services.