Add to this the fact that they would have to be willing to do so. Remember, the SK's weren't exactly buckets of joy to be around. So, I'd imagine, their demise is seen, by most, to be a good thing.
Note that most certainly there are individuals working towards this very end, however (perhaps Dot Mal Payne for example). This mighy also provide a worthy quest to adventurers: find a way to ressurect the avangion, Korgunard.
As far as there being any special rules against ressurection spells? Not that I'm aware of.
Also though, keep in mind.. its kind of hard to have plot stability if every villain and hero you kill is brought back.. it makes their deaths less... heroic.. or enjoyable if its a bad guy...
Though imagine if Aegis were brought back.. and he went into hiding and gained new skills and abilities.. in preparation for an all new attack on the remaining SK's... or to bring back Korgunard :P fun theory
Think about it- the basic raise dead and resurrection spells have been basically developed by humaniods and therefore they do not work on those whom are dragon types.
Just a thought- do not poke me with anything sharp:D
Correct me if I am wrong, but Agis died in the sea of silt sooo I would rather thing that he is not recoverable or that he as been eaten by something ugly down there.
Be honest! You ate him! ;)
Under the original DS rules, the ability to raise or resurrect the dead was limited to the sphere of Major Cosmos, and thus only druids were able to do it. Although it's not an exclusive list, the number of druids of high enough level given in the campaign setting was extremely low. Of those listed, Enola from Dragon's Bowl, Krikik and probably Darwadala could cast raise dead. Only Mearedes (Shault) and the Old One (Vanishing Lake) were powerful to cast resurrection. There may well be others, but that list should be representative of their rarity. With the changes in the 3e rules, elemental clerics would also be able to cast these spells, however, but the fact remains that it is extremely unlilely that any of these figures would actually want to bring a sorcerer-king back from the dead.
It's true that Elemental clerics can accomplish this feat now, but maybe they shouldn't be able to. I think some of the changes in 3rd edition, make the idea of elemental clerics being empowered by the elements rather then Gods less believealbe and meaningful. And at the very top of the list is the aquisition of Ressurection by said clerics. How can elemental lords be seen as something less than dieties if they are able to grant so supreme a power that isn't even tied to their element in any meaningfull way. For druids, being masters of all the elements I can see it, but for elemental cleric... not really.
It's true that Elemental clerics can accomplish this feat now, but maybe they shouldn't be able to. I think some of the changes in 3rd edition, make the idea of elemental clerics being empowered by the elements rather then Gods less believealbe and meaningful. And at the very top of the list is the aquisition of Ressurection by said clerics. How can elemental lords be seen as something less than dieties if they are able to grant so supreme a power that isn't even tied to their element in any meaningfull way. For druids, being masters of all the elements I can see it, but for elemental cleric... not really.
I agree. In my campaign I'll just set druids up with the raising spells and remove those spells from the cleric's list leave it at that. It will make druids more powerful, but they're so rare that I doubt it will be unbalancing; clerics are overpowered anyways.
No druid would ressurect a sorcerer-king, or any defiler really, so the price you pay for that kind of power is higher. I've always been in favor of tightly controlled ressurection, anyways. It makes death seem less final, and it's then hard to explain why important characters stay dead.
Do the math: with just *one* 9th lvl cleric in the vicinity, you could raise 9 casualties from any given battle. With just *one* 13th lvl cleric in the gameworld, you would have people lining up outside his door with the decomposing bones of their relatives. As long as people have the material components, being grusomely hacked to pieces then brought back to life is about as inconvenient as a trip to the dentist. I'm sorry, but that totally breaks the aesthetic of fantasy roleplaying. This isn't Highlander, for pete's sake.
If well played, a combination of clone and other spells can be a real nightmare for everyone.
Raise dead is the only spell I'd allow in the game world to bring back dead people: you need the body, the body needs to be in good working order, a creature can't be dead for more than a number of days, and its costly for the creature being brought back.
Of course, wish and miracle can do so as well, but could do nothing more than...say...bring the person back without a cost to it.
I'd make raise dead a cleric and druid spell. Maybe raise its level too.
IMC there is no resurrection -- not on Athas, anyway. That's always been a huuuuuge gripe for me in standard D&D.
Do the math: with just *one* 9th lvl cleric in the vicinity, you could raise 9 casualties from any given battle. With just *one* 13th lvl cleric in the gameworld, you would have people lining up outside his door with the decomposing bones of their relatives. As long as people have the material components, being grusomely hacked to pieces then brought back to life is about as inconvenient as a trip to the dentist. I'm sorry, but that totally breaks the aesthetic of fantasy roleplaying. This isn't Highlander, for pete's sake.
The way I've always handled Raise Dead and Ressurection spells in the past was that the clerics Patron decided if the clerics request for the spell was justified or not. Translation, Was the PC/NPC that died central to an adventure plot? Is there a good reason for the PC/NPC to come back? More often than not, the answer was NO. But, if a good roleplaying explanation can be used to bring back a favored PC for "one last hurrah" then I allow the player to return only to finish the task set to him/her then the PC dies a hero. If the answer is no then the cleric's Patron does not grant the spell, leaving a spell slot open unless they want to pray for a new spell in its place.
In a Dark Sun campaign, the only way I'd allow PC's/NPC's to return from the dead is to perform a gruelling quest that may prove to be more dangerous than its worth to accomplish. For example, there may be only 1 Rod of Ressurection in the entire world. The PC's would have to first discover its existense in a tome or something. Then figure who has it, then try to convince them to bring their friend back with it. This way resurrection is still a possibility, but the effort involved might not be worth the trouble.
In a Dark Sun campaign, the only way I'd allow PC's/NPC's to return from the dead is to perform a gruelling quest that may prove to be more dangerous than its worth to accomplish. For example, there may be only 1 Rod of Ressurection in the entire world. The PC's would have to first discover its existense in a tome or something. Then figure who has it, then try to convince them to bring their friend back with it. This way resurrection is still a possibility, but the effort involved might not be worth the trouble.
In my campaign the PCs had to find a minor artifact called the Staff of Alamon as part of their quest to bring back Taraskir, the Lion King. This staff functioned along the lines of a rod of ressurection except the only way to recharge its ressurection ability was to use its other ability of creating a sort of a undead creature called a garm-tal. More or less a dark sun/athasian vampire. The moral issues the PCs had to deal with was great.
If the cost were a percentage of the base XP of the characters ECL, that would be an easy way to calculate it. Then you could just say it was 5% or 10% of that amount.
So using 10%, raising a ECL 1 creature from the dead would have any XP cost of 100, while raising an ECL 10 creature would have a cost of 4,500 xp. For an ECL 20 creature it would be 19,000 xp, or an entire level for the cleric assuming they were the same ECL.
I agree, the cost of bringing someone back from the dead should ALWAYS be more then just money.
When the group first heard this- the player with the cleric actually had to go through his spell list a choose new spells for the first time in several sessions and the rest of the group was scared- they say I get a perverse joy from inflicting pain of the PC's just because I laughed and clapped my hands like a little kid when I scored a crit with an Impaler- but who would not be happy to score a x4 crit?
Anyway- long story made short- everything actually seemed to work out well with the spell change and no one died
Most are neutral, as are most clerics, though certain elements tend to lean more strongly this way or that. For instance Water and Rain tend toward positive energy more often than negative, whereas Fire, Magma, Sun, and Silt tend toward negative energy more often than positive. Earth and Air don't lean either way. Earth and Sun are more lawful elements, while Air, Fire, and Silt are more chaotic, and Magma, Water, and Rain are generally balanced in terms of law and choas.
This isn't the way the elements have to be balanced, in fact the elements are currently out of their normal balance which is in part a reflection of the state of Athas.
Anyway getting to the point, I allow good aligned clerics to channel positive energy and evil aligned ones to channel negative energy as normal. But, neutral cleric don't get their choice of positive or negative energy, but rather spontaneously cast domain spells.