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Monday, October 5, 2015

DF Cut-Rate Resurrection II: Bring Back the Dead

Here is another option for Cut-Rate Resurrection.

Raise Dead. As the Resurrection spell, but not as quick. 100 energy ($5000 in town), needs PI 4. The newly raised subject is at 0 HP and 0 FP, like normal Resurrection, but also needs a month to recover. Until the subject can rest in town (not carried around in a wagon, litter, by a comrade, etc.) for one month straight, her or she is capable of only limited actions, and is not capable of combat, spellcasting, or adventuring.


Or you can be really mean, and do this:

Risky Resurrection. Resurrection costs 300 energy because it restores the victim to life without fail . . . if you get the spell off. The casting cost can be reduced 100 energy ($5000 in town) if you're willing to take a chance it doesn't work. If the spell succeeds, the victim gets to make a HT roll (plus Fit, etc. but not Hard to Kill) with a bonus of +1 for every point the Resurrection spell succeeded by. If the subject makes the roll, he or she is resurrected. If the subject fails, he or she stays dead! One Try - if it fails, you can try full-power Resurrection . . . but the spell is cast at -5 and the subject must make the HT roll as above. If that fails, it's over.

I forgot to mention prereq for the previous version - I'll edit them in. I think Power Investiture 4 or Magery 4, Lend Vitality, and 4 Necromancy spells including Summon Spirit. Mages can bring back the dead, too - heck, let PCs do it. It costs their buddies 26 character points . . .

13 comments:

  1. makes me think of The Bard's Tale, where the priests at the temple could botch the roll and reduce you to ashes...

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  2. Another idea for cheap resurrection might be using the Infernal to grant it. Maybe a wizard using black magic or an evil cleric could perform the resurrection but when the person comes back to life he has Sadism, Bully, Bloodlust, and Excommunicated. The PC could use adventures to buy off his disadvantages but he may become the target for demons in doing so. On a critical failure, during the resurrection the PC has his body possessed by a demon which now controls the PC and the soul of the PC goes to Hell.

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    1. Maybe you could also have a Higher Purpose (Kill the Holy People) too. But basically if you get resurrected by the powers of the Infernal, you have entered a bargain where you agree to promote evil in the world or the Devil sends demons to collect your soul. The PC has the chance to atone for this but the Devil will try to stop it from happening. In order for the PC to buy off the disadvantages from the Infernal, he must atone for his sins and must seek the aid of the Divine. Maybe the PC will also end up with an enemy (Infernal ):for doing this...

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    2. Personally, I like the idea that Team Good brings you back to life - although sometimes it's not without cost, and that Team Evil brings you to undeath. I'm going to keep that split in my game - Resurrection isn't a path to evil, it's a path to life. You want to return to Team Evil, there is Zombie, Wraith, Lich, and a couple of variations of the same.

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  3. Maybe you could be resurrected as undead? Maybe you look normal but pale and are cold and frighten animals and can be turned by holy symbols. You just end up with a creepy undead version of the previous PC along with some evil personality traits.

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    1. I think what you're aiming at is covered by the variations to the Zombie spell in GURPS Undead - customize what "zombie" gives you, and you can cost out the template for making a corpse undead.

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    2. So you could remake your 250 point dead PC into a zombie? ( With a few disadvantages of course.)

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    3. Sure, it's what happened to Rahtnar, after all. It's an unplayable character, but powerful zombie - now.

      You could customize the Zombie spell with the rules in Undead to make it do any form of "bring back as undead."

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    4. But could you have a playable zombie or undead PC?

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    5. With those rules? Sure. In my game? Unlikely.

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    6. Being able to play an undead PC during a dungeon delving adventure really shows that GURPS allows you to play any kind of character.

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    7. Yep.

      That zombie spell cost variant is on p. 89 of GURPS Undead for a 3e version, and GURPS Zombies p. 133-134 for the 4e version

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