We always said that characters brought back by Raise Dead weren't actually dead ("Oh, look who knows so much: as it turns out, he's only MOSTLY dead.").
A module for harder resurrection rules would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know that I could run a D&D campaign where raising the dead is hard, but doable, without completely unbalancing the game (so.. keeping save or die effects manageable, instead of Cloud Kill as an at-will for every monster over CR 15). Being able to turn around and just dial back the difficulty a bit so I could run a full blown blender of a dungeon with players bouncing back as if they had respawn, using the same...
View full commentA module for harder resurrection rules would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know that I could run a D&D campaign where raising the dead is hard, but doable, without completely unbalancing the game (so.. keeping save or die effects manageable, instead of Cloud Kill as an at-will for every monster over CR 15). Being able to turn around and just dial back the difficulty a bit so I could run a full blown blender of a dungeon with players bouncing back as if they had respawn, using the same system, could present some fun options.
This approach is the core of a good RPG, guidelines and QuickStart rules but a solid framework for customisation. It is what I have almost always done to every RPG that tried to be too prescriptive.
Couple more ideas for you–Barrister, Demagogue, Magical Duelist (please make counterspell work), Mighty Caster, Persistent Caster (saves, eschew components, spell resistance), Versatile Caster (and this is the one who messes with distance, area and duration).
I agree with marcos9999 that the idea of hit points is lunacy especially considering its origin, but I do think Gygax and Arneson did it in the best possible way: characters started with the same HP (D6) as an attack could cause (D6). The blog post talks about the trouble of being stuck with 1 HP: 1 HP nothing! Every character was tromping around with enough health to maybe survive one sword blow - 1 was definitely worse but you weren't exactly sitting pretty anywhere else, either. The tactics...
View full commentI agree with marcos9999 that the idea of hit points is lunacy especially considering its origin, but I do think Gygax and Arneson did it in the best possible way: characters started with the same HP (D6) as an attack could cause (D6). The blog post talks about the trouble of being stuck with 1 HP: 1 HP nothing! Every character was tromping around with enough health to maybe survive one sword blow - 1 was definitely worse but you weren't exactly sitting pretty anywhere else, either. The tactics mentioned in the blog post weren't just standard to HP 1 characters, but to pretty much the entire party! It differentiated low-level play in a way I enjoy, though I'm not sure the progression of HP is really the best way to solve it, as I agree with marcos' other conclusions if not, necessarily, the suggested solutions, but let's not go over it point for point.