Another way to resurrect

unfortunate_one

It costs to much to resurrect in the first few chapters of BG. Much cheaper and easier just to reload. How about a visit to and evil priest/necromancer that costs half as much to resurrect, but you take a reputation hit?

Jackalen

How about instead of paying at all, the nercromancer requires a sacrifice or simply makes one by killing one of his servants? >;) *evil grin*

Anton

There is already discussion with similar request - Option to vary raise dead
**Casting Summon @Coriander**

Coriander

@Anton Hmm, the other topic is mostly about saving your equipment loadout and whether or not death should be a game over scenario. They're similar, but I think this one is specific enough to remain on its own.

unfortunate_one

@Anton Hmm, the other topic is mostly about saving your equipment loadout and whether or not death should be a game over scenario. They're similar, but I think this one is specific enough to remain on its own.

Thanks, but it looks like it is just could be you and me on this one. Thought this might add a cool twist. "I wanna be good, but I need to find a way to bring back mt numb-skull ranger to kick some arse."

Ward

I don't want resurrection made easy. Money isn't hard to find you know.

Winthal

@Ward Agreed, if anything resurrection should be made even more difficult. I always feel that forgotten realms/D&D tends to trivialize death... "oh look my mum got brutally slain by kobolds, no biggie I'll just drag her arrow-filled corpse to the local priest and give him 125 gold pieces and she'll be cooking her home-made stew again in no time!"

@unfortunate_one I do see your point with reloads. There's no way that the average player would go all the way back to a temple for a resurrection if there's a quicksave 30 seconds ago. Personally, I don't have this problem since I'm currently more into playing with no reloads at all, but for those who play the game like normal... yeah, I don't really see how the problem can be easily solved since it lies within the very function of quicksave / quickload. Cautious players will simply hit QS before every single battle, ruining the thrill you get from ever being in real danger. Oldschool games were alot more punishing, sometimes frustratingly so I admit, but they didn't baby sit you, and you became a better player for it... making headway into a game used to be more of an accomplishment. I think alot of players yearn for games to be truly difficult again, as evidenced by the popularity of games such as Demon Souls...

unfortunate_one

@Ward Agreed, if anything resurrection should be made even more difficult. I always feel that forgotten realms/D&D tends to trivialize death... "oh look my mum got brutally slain by kobolds, no biggie I'll just drag her arrow-filled corpse to the local priest and give him 125 gold pieces and she'll be cooking her home-made stew again in no time!"

I think my style of play is just different from yours. I like to play as few re-loads as possible. If Khalid dies, I haul his ass around until I find a cleric to resurrect him. If Safana dies an exploding death in the sewers of Baldur's Gate, I like knowing that I can find Alora just a few blocks East. Just my style of play, and I think my style is quite a bit harder than yours. I will admit there are a few battles where I save and reload.

I don't want resurrection made easy. Money isn't hard to find you know.

I'm not talking about easier, I'm talking about a way to offset the price of raising the dead. $1000 to bring back your NPC is a ton of money durring the first few chapters of the game.

Winthal

@unfortunate_one you must not have read my post very carefully or simply misunderstood. I like to play with no reloads at all, as in, if I die its over. This eliminates the "problem" of being tempted to reload whenever a party member dies. I like the inconvenience of having to drag the bodies to a temple and resurrect :-P My point was that the problem doesn't lie in resurrection costs, but rather that it will *always* be cheaper to simply reload the game, and most people will simply do that.

Also, if I recall correctly, it costs 100gp per character level to resurrect in bg1. That is ridiculously cheap to bring someone back from the dead, which brings me back to my initial point of death being trivialized... either there's a reload, or a simple monetary sum and everything's back to normal. This makes all story-related deaths seem unnecessary, like when Khalid dies in the beginning of BG2 and Jaheria just worms her way out of the whole issue of raising him by quoting some technicality of resurrection spells :P (his body having "expired" or whatever it is)

unfortunate_one

@unfortunate_one you must not have read my post very carefully or simply misunderstood. I like to play with no reloads at all, as in, if I die its over. This eliminates the "problem" of being tempted to reload whenever a party member dies. I like the inconvenience of having to drag the bodies to a temple and resurrect :-P My point was that the problem doesn't lie in resurrection costs, but rather that it will *always* be cheaper to simply reload the game, and most people will simply do that.

Also, if I recall correctly, it costs 100gp per character level to resurrect in bg1. That is ridiculously cheap to bring someone back from the dead, which brings me back to my initial point of death being trivialized... either there's a reload, or a simple monetary sum and everything's back to normal. This makes all story-related deaths seem unnecessary, like when Khalid dies in the beginning of BG2 and Jaheria just worms her way out of the whole issue of raising him by quoting some technicality of resurrection spells :P (his body having "expired" or whatever it is)

I did do a VERY poor job of reading you first post. To many Mai Tai's, not enough sleep.
I do believe it is $1000-$2000 gold to raise dead in BG. Could be wrong though, been about 8 years since my last run through.

Winthal

@unfortunate_one No sweat I played BG1 about 6 months ago and I'm pretty sure it was very cheap to resurrect, BUT then I just remembered that all prices in BG depend on your level of reputation, were you perhaps being a bad boy with a low reputation last time you played? That would indeed skyrocket the temple prices to intolerable levels...

unfortunate_one

No, not at all, Neutral Good all the way! I just remember it being more expensive than that.

Spjuv3rn

As i remember it the cost depends on the level of your character and which game you're playing (more expensive in the second one) i don't know about tutu/trilogy prices tough.

ElectricMonk

Well, at the beginning of BG1 at the temple at the Friendly Arm Inn, raise dead costs 100 gold, and that's with 10 reputation.

unfortunate_one

Well, at the beginning of BG1 at the temple at the Friendly Arm Inn, raise dead costs 100 gold, and that's with 10 reputation... although it seems like some people that have posted comments are using raise dead and resurrection interchangeably, they are two different services and resurrection is considerably more expensive, I believe that it's around 1,000 gold or so.

Yes, I should have said raise dead, not resurrection. Sorry for the confusion.

I guess my memory is just not that good. Could have sworn raise dead was a bit more pricey.

pacek

Raise dead does indeed get more expensive depending on level of character. It starts at 100 gold and goes up to 2000 I think at level 6. So at low levels when your characters are most fragile you can raise them for the cost of a few healing potions - hardly expensive for such a powerful spell.

ElectricMonk

@pacek yeah it does scale and it's never really expensive enough to be a burden. 1500-2000 gold at level 6-7 isn't all that much.

AzL0n

Agree with @Winthal for this. I too play no reload and I've always thought that the consequences of the death of my NPC's were too little when the death of my PC means the end of my game. I've actually played some games where I didn't raise any of my NPC's. When they were killed I just dropped them on the ground and recruited someone else. I started running out of characters pretty quickly hehehe. I made a suggestion in my ''hardcore options'' thread which was for them to implement the -1 constitution penalty when raised if the NPC failed his saving throw which is a rule that was in second edition D&D. I would argue that it should actually be part of the game period and that it shouldn't even be an option since the players who don't play no reloads will just reload when their NPC's die and the players who do play no reloads like the challenge and excitement that the possible loss of constitution entails when bringing their NPC to the temple.

Personally I think the cost of raising NPC's is just fine. 100 gp. is very easy to come by even at level one and by the time you're level 6 or 7 1500gp is just as easy to get.

Winthal

@AzL0n The punishment for death in a hardcore run can be VERY severe though if you can't finish the fight you're in because of party members dropping, forcing you to flee without being able to grab their gear. If you leave the map to go to a temple, all the equipment WILL vanish... this happened to me, I lost pretty much all items my party was carrying The upside to that tho is that you're forced to make do with what's left, using the less powerful magic items that you would otherwise just have sold

Space_hamster

We just need an IRONMAN setting, no reloads except save in specific spots, that would solve this, dead vs. mostly dead issue!

AzL0n

@Winthal

That reminds me of that one time when I made the mistake of casting a fireball in durlags tower against these greater basillics when 2 of my fighters (Ajantis and Kagain I think) had been petrified. Lost a lot of precious gear right there when I blew their statues to smithereens by accident.

Winthal

@AzL0n Ouch! The annoying thing with petrification is that even if you bring a scroll of stone to flesh and return your bassilisked party members to normal, it counts as if you kicked them out of the party, and if it happens enough times, they won't rejoin you and will simply be offended and leave forever :P

Space_hamster

Oh man, I remember the first time I encountered Basalisks, several of my party members were petrified immediately. I had to trek all the way back to the circus to buy freedom from petrification scrolls!

Winthal

@Space_hamster Ever gotten a bassilisk as a waylay encounter? Usually, you know where they are and can prepare accordingly, but when ambushed chances are you don't have any gaze protection... and to make matters worse, if anyone becomes petrified you can't return to un-petrify them since its not on a static map... bleuhh :P

lansounet

Travel a lot, pray you get waylaid on the same map and you'll find them

Winthal

Travel a lot, pray you get waylaid on the same map and you'll find them

Really? That would mean all the waylay areas are static as well, and saved somewhere... interesting!

lansounet

I think that's how it is, at least in a BGT game I've been able to retrieve petrified chars in a "waylaid" area. I've tried looking quickly in map files with NearInfinity, I believe they should be AR5600 and up, save a few ones (in BG1+ToTSC game)

Ardanis

As I have said in the linked thread, RPG game designers has long since discovered the correct way to deal with death without endangering plot or imposing a ton of silly and/or annoying "hardcore" complications on players - to knock the dying character unconscious until the end of combat encounter.
It is not a bit less realistic as full plate armor decreasing the chance of being hit (yes, some novice players do tend to rage about how high mobility in armor is ridiculous) - just a technical simplification.

Hm, this leads to an interesting thought - "hadrcore"/"softcore" option for death status of PC characters can be switched in Difficulty settings. On Easy they fall prone with 0 hp and rise later themselves, on Core - remain permanently dead until resurrected, on Hard - can also die irreversibly when reduced to below -10 hp (current behavior).

Shareazu

As I have said in the linked thread, RPG game designers has long since discovered the correct way to deal with death without endangering plot or imposing a ton of silly and/or annoying "hardcore" complications on players - to knock the dying character unconscious until the end of combat encounter.
It is not a bit less realistic as full plate armor decreasing the chance of being hit (yes, some novice players do tend to rage about how high mobility in armor is ridiculous) - just a technical simplification.

Hm, this leads to an interesting thought - "hadrcore"/"softcore" option for death status of PC characters can be switched in Difficulty settings. On Easy they fall prone with 0 hp and rise later themselves, on Core - remain permanently dead until resurrected, on Hard - can also die irreversibly when reduced to below -10 hp (current behavior).

well, personally, i prefer the death thing the way it is in the game, but maybe that would be a good idea, too... though i guess the game would be aa whole lot easier...