Tell me more ×
Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 14 down vote favorite
2

We (my group and I) figured out, that in Pathfinder you can use True Resurrection for a price of 25,000 gp but Raise Dead works for 5,000 gp and you can remove the negative levels with Restoration (two times) for 1,000 gp. So the party can resurrect for 7,000 gp. That doesn't work if the corpse is destroyed or damaged, but in the other cases it is a much cheaper possibility. What are the disadvantages of this combination? Should I disallow that as a gamemaster?

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 16 down vote accepted

The combination of raise dead and restoration in Pathfinder RPG is not only reasonable, it's intended.

The price difference is a holdover from D&D 3.5, where the combination of raise dead and restoration was actually much weaker than true resurrection. In D&D, raise dead caused a full level loss instead of a negative level, and restoration could not restore the lost level. As the only spell able to revive a character without level loss, true resurrection was significantly more valuable.

In Pathfinder, restoration was explicitly given the new ability to recover permanent negative levels, at the increased price at 1,000gp per level. This suggests that the designers intended for the combination to be available.

Even so, true resurrection still has advantages:

  • You don't need an intact body, which is useful if the body has been maimed, disintegrated, captured, dropped down a pit, or left behind after fleeing
  • You can raise someone who's been dead for 10 years per caster level, instead of 1 day per caster level, which is useful if you took too long to drag the body back from the wilderness
  • The character returns with full hit points and prepared spells, handy if you absolutely have to fight something right away
  • It only takes 10 minutes to cast true resurrection, whereas restoration can only heal one negative level each week
  • You can raise someone even if they were killed by a death effect, or killed and turned into an undead
  • You can raise elementals and outsiders, if necessary
share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

I think you've answered your own question.

As long as you have the corpse, and it is in good condition, there is no reason not to use Raise Dead.

True Resurrection is only needed when the corpse is no longer around.

share|improve this answer
But only the usage on missing or decayed corpses doesn't really make this big price-difference acceptable, I think. – Mnementh Nov 13 '10 at 19:25
1  
@Mnementh - I see the difference in that it makes things like disintegrate more of a pain. Also, the PC's must win the field when a companion drops. If they don't, they might need to use True Res to get their party member back. – Pat Ludwig Nov 13 '10 at 19:41
1  
When you're high enough level to properly cast True Resurrection on your own, a difference of 20k gp here or there is small change; high level characters have absurd quantities of wealth to throw about. Remember that money that you spend so that you don't keep it (food, bribes, spell components, etc) is to be eventually rewarded again to keep your wealth by level up. – Lokathor Nov 13 '10 at 21:33
2  
Let's not forget timing. Raise Dead only works if the body is 1 day/caster level old, but True Res is 10 years/caster level. – Scott Pack Dec 8 '10 at 0:57

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.