Dungeons and Dragons - Resurrection

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

You keep saying Revivify is a bard spell but it isn't in 5th edition, it can be a secret but a bard needs to be at least level 6 to pick up a magical secret of revivify if a lore bard and level 10 if not. It is a druid spell however if you use tasha's caldron of everything

[@AJPickett]

Oops, shit, you are correct, I am wrong, I assumed a Bard could cast the spell because they can cast all the higher level rez spells... my bad.

[@lorekeeper685]

I think it was a cleric spell in 3.5e spell compendium?

[@tonyromasco1735]

I usually took the edge off of resurrection/raise dead by adding that there be an additional rare component somehow related to cause of death. Also added cast off butterfly pupation cocoons as a component to reincarnation

[@PattPlays]

@@AJPickett Not to mention Artificer's revivify.

[@e.s.viviano7835]

Reincarnation makes me think a an Altered Carbon situation on the world of Toril. If there are hyper-wealthy people (or even people who are doing okay financially, considering this is a universe where some can afford spelljammer helms), then it's a bit shocking that we hear a lot about those who decide to pursue lichdom, but very little when it comes to those who just opt to call in a druid and get a new body when their time is up.

[@unintentionallydramatic]

Ayepppp. There is literally no logical reason to pursue lichdom if it's purely for the sake of survival rather than religious/philosophical reasons. Clone, too, is a pretty damn reliable insurance against death.

[@marthachampagne316]

i kind figure that the druids have an ethos barrier such that it must be better for the natural order for you to not die of old age than the disturbance caused by circumventing your natural death. most of the wealthy just don't have outlook required to look for sustainability over profit and thus would be rebuffed by the drudic order. also a human noble would be realy upset if he was reincarnated as say a goblin and the repercussions of pissing off a noble are realy bad. clone does seem like a good idea though and would give yet another reason why every noble court would want one in their pocket.

[@derekburge5294]

Random thought: diamonds are needed for resurrection because they're compressed, ancient biomatter? Basically distilled life essence.

[@O4C209]

I'm using this.

[@draketerry3497]

Diamonds are made of carbon but not biomatter. On earth Diamonds were formed 1-3 billion years ago which is far before any form of life started

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@draketerry3497 yeah they are more likely to come from hypernovas than anything else as is the case for most of the rare metals. It requires among the biggest explosions in the universe.

[@AJPickett]

Life appeared on Earth 3.8 billion years ago.

[@O4C209]

@@draketerry3497 true, but D&D rarely occurs on Earth, and within the lore there are plenty of ways for various life to exist for longer than the plane of existence. In fact it is within the lore of Mind Flayers that their brains can turn into a psi crystal.

[@jacopoarmini7889]

I always believed that all divine magic is not entirely at the disposal of the caster, if the existence of gods is a given in the setting, divine magic would be granted every time by the god in question. In my head, the gods probably allow the casting of every small-scale miracle like cure wounds or sacred flame, but take their time evaluating whether to allow the casting of resurrection spells and the like.

[@AJPickett]

True

[@LSDireWolf]

I absolutely love the idea of the life insurance clerics. Already working to implement them in my world

[@fereshkan]

YES! Perfect Idea for the Orzhov in Ravnica :D

[@mikewaterfield3599]

You didnt already? “The Aviators” “Travelers Song”; “Second chances don’t come cheap.”

[@robz5089]

aye, think Abadar clerics in Pathfinder!

[@zacharyspires8271]

Same

[@Scottishstorm]

On a slightly different tangent, I like to think of the social implications of spells that bring people back from the dead. I can easily imagine public resentment -even to the point of revolt and violence- over the idea that someone is resurrected while a commoner's spouse/sibling/parent or child isn't even considered for that option. This could be implemented into a tragic backstory for a (justified?) evil character who opposes the nation's church. For this character, some slimy good-for-nothing noble was brought back from the dead while the character's own most cherished loved one is lost forever.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

Wow guy, current year politics in a fictional fantasy world…… there will always be disparity. Scarcity is a thing even with magic. So the guy who died taking down the litch should die for Fred the farmer to live? Feudalism is a thing in fantasy worlds, how do you think such societies react to peasant revolts? So the adventurers who risked life and limb to attain that wealth and material that allows a saving throw are obliged to hand it over for the goat header kept safe by their efforts? My parties tended to be lawful evil to chaotic good, we would not have obliged such things.

[@Harrowed2TheMind]

@@mikewaterfield3599 I believe you're reading too much into @Scottishstorms ' comment, my man. Nowhere did he say that everybody SHOULD have equal access to high-level resurrection spells, only that the disparity between different people (/classes) in that regard can grow resentment (always was the case) which can then fuel a character's or NPC's motives. Human nature is presumably very similar in said fictional fantasy world, so I think it's a pretty interesting idea.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

@@Harrowed2TheMind i dont deny some truth to it. Ive thought on simple things like the idea of adventurers rocking up into a small town offloading a bandit camp worth of gear. Those weapons and armor might represent years of tax revenue for a town while to the merry band of murder hobos it was an afternoon raid. Such things breed resentment no question. Cheesy as it was the live action D&D movie showed it. Ismere was a magocracy and the commoners hated them for it. I can understand where people are coming from with ideas like that. IRL i had one hell of an uphill climb, only now in my late 30s am I reaping the rewards of my efforts. Call me callous, I dont want to share. Not unlike the characters I’ve played over the years. I went through a lot of trouble to attain my gear….. MINE!

[@MrPrat91]

I have generally explained the need for diamonds to be because this was the "tithe" demanded by the God of death for releasing the soul.

[@Harrowed2TheMind]

So, in essence, ransom money? XD

[@bigsarge2085]

I like it!

[@TearDownGenesis]

The ironic believe that you need to show sacrifice by using Diamonds not emeralds is. that Diamonds are SUPER common compared to other gemstones. Its just they've been horded by groups to drive up the price. The only "impressive" feature they have is their hardness. So perhaps they are used because no other material can handle the power channeled through them. The idea that they "turn into coal" is interesting because Diamonds and Coal are both made of carbon. Diamonds are just made under extreme pressures. It could be the spell "explodes" the diamond, undoing the pressure thus turning it to coal.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

Scaling resurrection, by class, race, alignment, ect is fun. Honestly how willing will an elven cleric be to resurrect a half orc? Is a priestess of Shar going to be up for resurrecting a cleric of Pelor? We tended to have “raise dead” only really available at proper temples.

[@agsilverradio2225]

Also, I'm pretty sure the soul has to be free and willing too. ... Would a good character being be up for being reserecred by say, a Xatharum agent, and thus owe a life-debt to them as a result?

[@mikewaterfield3599]

@@agsilverradio2225 probably not, but a zent would love the idea of having “I owe yous”

[@DragonstarFighter]

I will say this much, if you are playing a Cleric of Pelor or some other really good deity of life and health, who is high enough level to cast Resurrection or True Resurrection, and they are killed in battle, after the battle that they die in, if the DM doesn't bring the player/character aside and say "Your God/Goddess approaches you and asks you if you wish to join him/her now, or return to your duties in the mortal realm" The DM isn't playing the Gods right...

[@mikewaterfield3599]

@@DragonstarFighter aint it the truth? For that i steal a line from a forgotten realms novel, “Live that you may serve.” Lothander to a prospective young paladin formerly a devotee of Ilmatere.

[@DragonstarFighter]

@@mikewaterfield3599 ^^This, Amen

[@Reddotzebra]

The spells that allow resurrection in DnD are usually handled in a quite easy fashion in places like the Forgotten Realms. Basically, they are too expensive to be cast on anyone that is not either super rich or influential, and the people who can cast them are only available in the largest temples or druid groves. Thus they have written themselves out of the corner that free access to life restoring magic would otherwise present to a campaign setting, I choose to see this as a third reason for the expensive material components. 1k gold may not be much to an adventurer beyond level two but it's a significant amount to a random commoner NPC that might not see that much liquid currency in their entire life, so I'd assume most people treat death in the same way we do, with the added benefit of being reasonably sure what kind of place they are going to end up in after they snuff it. Edit: That's actually another thing, you seem to be forgetting that quite a lot of deities in these settings have paradises set aside for the faithful, and the one overriding rule for every spell of this type that I know of is that the target must WANT to return to life. If some random NPC that has spent his entire life subsisting on potatoes and working four hours a day just to keep himself clothed and fed dies and goes to heaven, there's a good chance that regardless of who is trying to bring him back, he's not going to want to go back. Also the deities need souls to populate their planes of existence and recruit from those for their angelic hosts, so they would probably not take too kindly to some diamond baron cornering the market and then declaring that nobody dies in his country...

[@zacharyweaver276]

The diamonds must flow

[@robouteguilliman6662]

The diamonds must flow

[@jarydf]

My campaign world has a gnome town based next to a graphite mine. They use giant jellyfish as submarines to place graphite in deep underwater volcanic fissures to retrieve years later once it is pressure processed into diamond. Dwarves control the gold banks but Gnomes control the diamonds.

[@AJPickett]

It's against Gnome religion to destroy gems.

[@jordanwhite8718]

Hey AJ. Do you think you could make other videos about how certain spells could affect the economy in a dungeons and dragons world? It’s a subject I’ve always been interested in just because it seems that spells should affect both the social and economic fabric of any World that they are in.

[@AJPickett]

Given the massive and unexpected response this video is generating, I think I must!

[@jhund81001]

I totally agree Jordan. I'd love to see more videos like this too on other spells.

[@trajanfidelis1532]

As cool as resurrection is as a pc, i personally think that having common access to resurrection blunts the risk of adventures, and cheapens the death and sacrafice of characters. I know there are times and places for it, Like more lighthearted campaigns ect,. but thats just my take. Thanks for the Video AJ!

[@Stephen2K4]

I agree and I think that these spells are far to low a level for what they can do. I personally would raise them up by 2 spell level. [Not class levels... spell levels]

[@camerongunn7906]

I would think that Resurrection, raise dead, or any of those spells would fail much of the time. Aside from limited wish or wish I'm not sure that the others could bring back a soul that didn't want to come back. At the other end of the spectrum let's say there's a chance, that what you bring back, isn't the person or thing you think it is. It would take some doing, but damn the story. And I propose that all of this be determined by a roll of a D20.

[@agsilverradio2225]

In the later case, wouldn't that techncly make the resurected character's body undead?

[@Gashren]

Basically, that's why AD&D had system shock roll (depending on CON score) for ressurrections - spell could be cast, components lost, but character might still not survive the process of being brought back. Kinda like "operation was a success, but patient died".

[@TheHornedKing]

The Reborn race has a table of suggestions for possible origins, and the very first one is that you were magically resurrected, but something went wrong. So mistakes can happen.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

I feel like a video series of how spells effect a high magic world is even more useful to me than monster ecology videos. Dream? Wish? Control water? Polymorph? Sending? Plant growth? This can be a great series

[@yellowmartian]

I 100% agree. Although I love the dragon videos still. But yeah, high level spell videos like this are great 👍

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

@@yellowmartian I mean I’d never ask AJ to stop making videos.

[@brandoncozad4053]

People would be very protective of Vortices to the elemental plane of earth due to massive raw minerals there….and spelljamming crews ferrying diamonds to places like Garden in realmspace or any water body would make a KILLING basically anywhere you can’t mine diamonds

[@lostbutfreesoul]

On reincarnation: The cycle of Life and Death is one of the center tenants to Druidic Believe, which is embodied by the whole 'no resurrections after your time is up' limitation. This is what makes the lack of such wording in the Druid version of this spell so very interesting to me, a sort of Poetic Irony that shows the authors had a deep sense of humor. The one class which is the least likely to ever use such a spell is the one most known for having access to it, depending the edition.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

This just means Druids will get bullied into casting this, which may or may not be a good thing

[@ThisNameIsBanned]

A evil druid might not have the moral guidelines.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@ThisNameIsBanned morals have nothing to do with this, if a Druid does not follow the Druidic Beliefs he will lose spell casting and other magical effects. It's about following natural laws and such, it's not morals

[@tomc.5704]

Someone else pointed out that there was probably a reason why the resurrections spells are so difficult/limited. There's a natural order to life. Anyone who tries to abuse lichdom, resurrection, undeath, or even clone is upsetting the natural order. To that end, a diety who allowed resurrection of just anyone who died would also be upsetting the natural order, no matter how compassionate their intentions. This violation of the natural order would eventually attract the attention of higher beings -- Kelemvor, the Inevitables, AO, Modrons, etc. The rogue diety would get slapped down, hard. Heck, if too many souls were staying on the material plane instead of going to their respective afterlife, a great many powers would become upset towards you with or without the "natural order" being involved. So, the theory is that the diamond requirement was put in place by agreement among the divine powers to limit disruptions. Some resurrection is fine, but because there are only so many diamonds, it won't get out of hand.

[@scottmcley5111]

Several things jumped out at me and got my mind working. Great video. 1. Druids would be in circles forever. While I always considered an old elven druid out living even liches since they could live for 3000 years, a circle casting reincarnate will be much more common and world shaping. 2. Dwarven stock just went up 110%. Who runs a diamond mine is a world shaping thing. 3. Clerics on missions to retrieve bodies, and monster hunt is great RP fuel for Clerics to get out into the world and not be homebodies.

[@TheHornedKing]

The Reborn race from the guide to Ravenloft has a table with suggestions for how they came to be a reborn, and the very first one is resurrection magic gone wrong. This confirms that resurrection magic can indeed go wrong, and it might result in the target coming back as a psedo-undead with memory loss. If resurrections were common, then there would be a good number of reborn around, though still a small minority of the population (though if reborn don't die of old age, that could change with time).

[@AJPickett]

Yep, because the memories left in the astral plane are.. rarely... damaged.

[@HenriFaust]

If someone's high enough level to cast True Resurrection, they're also high enough level to Plane Shift to the Quasielemental Plane of Mineral and fight off territorial Dao.

[@AJPickett]

I could have been rich! If only that Xorn had not bitten off my knee.

[@smile-tl9in]

probably the only reason there is rare gemstones or metals of any kind in those worlds is because people make deals with the Dao for gemstones, or regularly sneak into their territory for diamond. That or the quasielemental plane of gemstones. That's a thing, and it's on the border between the elemental plane of earth and the plane of positive energy

[@derekpb6394]

Imagine in more primeval times the areas where diamond were found... a body was brought into the mine or laid in a grave and the spells cast with the spells pulling the diamonds essence from the ground leaving just carbon behind and have the person rise up from the ground (realm of the dead). The priests would then have to dig through the carbon to a new layer... A new holy shrine built around a mine, a river delta... Then some day the mine drying up

[@jacobvardy]

I forget if it was published by WoTC or on the Candlekeep forums but Ed Greenwood went into a little detail on this in the Forgotten Realms. Goodly churches offer healing to local "parish" members of good standing at a discounted rate. And it is not the powerful but crude spells available to player characters. There are fairly extensive clergies that deal with early childhood and reproductive health (no STDs!), communicable diseases, degenerative diseases, broken bones, cancers, mental trauma, and the like... Places like Waterdeep the churches get tax credits for average attendance. Which usually brings in more than the churches pay in taxes. Which means the state is subsidising the churches. And their healthcare programs. So the Goodly settlements in the Forgotten Realms basically have universal healthcare.

[@garryame4008]

This is the type of lore/world building that I love

[@Karlettto89]

Lovely nerdy stuff. My drink has been consumed. And so my caffeinated brain says: what if this kind of "holy" magic is abused by the church in the way above described, and the deities who are granting these resurrections are fed up with the tendency of using these spells for profit and halt the resurrection altogether, gifting it only to few chosen clerics.

[@alexanderjamesaustin]

Play as an Evil character, set up a diamond mine, flood the free market with diamonds, lower the value of ALL diamonds in the material plane, prevent everyone from casting revivify

[@damus5728]

"You fought in the Diamond Wars?" "Yes I was once a high level cleric the same as your father."

[@AJPickett]

YES YES YES! Oh man...

[@NoConsequenc3]

Lost faith after seeing the big picture of what the wars were about - the only gods left were the ones with authority over resurrection, and they each sought to stamp out the other. An arm's race of return fueled by the god's desire for power and lack of oversight

[@Junkzillabox]

A young hopeful cleric looking to make their mark on the world and make it into the upper echelons of the corporate theological institution of "The Living Hand Inc", where "Death doesn’t have to be the end.".

[@Arwcwb]

I was just thinking about this lately - interesting facts to know. If a Bard can revivify with songs or whatever it is Bards do could a Berserker scare somebody back to life somehow? Seems feasible to me since I have no idea what I'm talking about beyond what I have gleaned from these wonderful videos

[@lorekeeper685]

Well there are always counters. in 3.5e if you are killed my death magic raise dead did not work on you. In epic level handbook, garrote had an poison which prevented it true resurrection, wish had %50 chance to bring them back. I think Azure flame spell from 2e from paradamancers( paladin/wizard multiclass) could use. And the spells like soul binding and imprisoned, prevent resurrection until soul is freed. In 3.5e if a god kills you with a salient ability, such life and death, you can only be ressurected by deity of equal or higher rank. (Artifacts may also work) I am sure there tons I miss too. I think there was evil creature I forget it's name who corrupted it's killer which adventualy became it.

[@OMentertainment]

This sparked _several_ thoughts: 1) As far as reasons for character to return to civilization, Hackmaster dealt with this quite smartly as a lot of RPGs just have you level immediately at reacing the required XP; whereas they require you to return to a usually class or skill specific trainer(s) in order to activate your level, which would also signify which NWPs would increase. Including having to pay for said training. 2) As fsr as how a civilization would fair with divine magic being common, the removal of such is illustrated beautifully in Dragonlance at the end of the age of might, followed by the cataclysm and the resulting dark age / post-apoc civilization that rose from the ashes with NO divine powers or guidance. 3) Your example of the system that would implement itself around clerical insurance and the resulting economy and character "runs" essentially created a fantasy cyberpunk like Shadowrun, or Altered Carbon. Of course, such a system would never go forever since the corruption it would sew would worry the gods and turning them into a tool/slave of the system rather than as worshiped beings. At some point, they would do something... kinda like with the aforementioned Dragonlance...

[@AJPickett]

Yeah, I am in favour of home-brewed character advancement rules, such as level advancement only in skills the character actually uses during play.

[@BulldogLawyer]

There would also be a powerful class of high level genie warlocks. They have the ability to grant a wish at level 14 that copies any spell of 6th level of lower without the component cost. This means there could be a powerful Genie Insurance Company.

[@greedtheron8362]

One of my favorite stories more or less implied that everything has an inherent value to it, like it has a weight, that merchants/bards/rogues could sense, and dragons could smell. Kinda like a paranormal version of the appraisal skill, irrespective of market conditions. Supply and demand often set stuff out of line of that 'value', but stuff like counterfeit coins, or markets determining whether or not raise dead worked, wasn't an issue.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

In aTheros campaign world, it's quite thematic. The god of death is also the god of greed after all and he would be furious at the concept of resurrection for free, as its stealing from his domain. So beware those who wish their friends back to life

[@itzybitzyspyder]

A cleric that meets people at parties so he can use sending later to ask them if the want to extend the warranty on their lives by 2 years.

[@AJPickett]

Oh man... that is so evil, lol

[@dbensdrawinvids8390]

Whatever his god is, I'm now a faithful worshipper of the opposite.

[@itzybitzyspyder]

@@AJPickett I was just making a joke but the more I think about it, the more I want to do this. I just realized I never use sending as a DM outside of sending stone McGuffins.

[@Sean-ni4qy]

love this breakdown/brainstorm! thank you! the hub city for my main game has a god of trade as their chief diety. They absolutely sell revivify as insurance, and for the ultimately rich their temple has vats that allow the generation of clone vessels per the wizard spell that do not need to be clones of the caster. the cost of the ritual to make the clone is unknown... but with enough money someone will be willing to do your dirty work.

[@patrickbuckley7259]

A diety of commerce would probably.y be the only god's to exploit the system like this, though more good or lawful deities of trade (which they would likely be alignment wise as commerce is generally about equitable and consensual trade, exceptions would likely be gods of wealth who could easily be neutral, or greed who would always be chaotic or evil.) would likely be more careful in their dealing with such magic. That being said their entire worldview would likely have them see the notion of equitable trade and binding agreements as sacred, and thus their would be no conflict between the commodification of divine magic and maintaining reverence for said magic and it's source. In other words, the act of selling healing and resurection magics would be considered a sacrament, and the Temple would likely take upholding such agreements VERY seriously, it's not just about the money, it's about the principle of the thing. Notably though as I meantioned before Good or Lawful deities of Commerce would likely be more carful with this, trying to make sure that everyone involved even other gods, psychopomps, and organizations who may be involved are getting something of value out of this, ensuring no one is being stolen from, and that resentment is kept to a minimum.

[@ronabitz5156]

I could see the major church or orgization of churches owning or having major interest to as many diamond mines as they can and keeping as many high value possible.

[@xobeabacat5716]

This is so damb sick. I love the entire concept, you should do more societal effects of magic studies in the future.

[@reifuTD]

I have put thought in a world where Resurrection is common, not in a D&D like fantasy setting but in Metafiction fantasy setting, One of the perks of registering with a superhero organization is Resurrection style life insurance. They where normally allowed an extra life preseason if they use up their lives then they are dead until their insurance resets their life count and they also choose to come back. Normal people can technically come back to life as well but the system restricts it's self to a few as to not be over taxed so it tends cater to the heroes and the super rich. D&D wise a superhero organization probably isn't that much different from a big name adventures guild and since they have the highest risk and reward they would get first crack at Resurrection magic for their members.

[@thomassmith6232]

A few other things to take into consideration: First, I would assume that a cleric able to use a resurrection spell would be dedicated to his (I'm using the inclusive pronoun) deity and alignment, so regardless of how much wealth is offered, you would still have to convince him that bringing the subject back from the dead would glorify his deity and shift the world however slightly toward his alignment, or no deal. Next, the subject himself might not want to come back from wherever. Third, the deity himself might simply say no, or if he says yes might attach a major quest which the subject or party must do as a condition to the resurrection.

[@Piemasta9000]

that is why I am a fan of how Mathew Mercer makes a ritual out of resurrecting someone. he lets his players make sacrifices+skill checks to make the DC easier on the roll.

[@elohdonrycor9741]

Was having trouble getting the next adventure to gell in my head, fortunantly a client whose corpse needs to be retreaved was an excellent hook. The conversation about "we need to get the corpse back, and they will probably be grateful later" was so much fun

[@quietatombomb1262]

I am very interested in the scarcity and producibility of diamonds. If diamonds, like in our world, take millennia to naturally form, then a world that used them regularly would have a hard time keeping up with demand, eventually. If there was some magic to produce diamonds, then this problem would be lessened, but the people who knew how to make them would be very rich and politically powerful.

[@siviblakhawk]

Diamonds are actually relatively common, they are simply marketed and controlled to be rare. But more to your point, keep in mind that as the supply of diamonds began to dry up, their value would sharply increase. Therefor the diamonds these spells would require would shrink in size and purity. when the last diamond in the world was mined, spells would be using flecks of diamond dust. :)

[@HenriFaust]

Good thing that, unlike gold, diamonds can be manufactured using deposition. Imagine an alchemist manufacturing diamonds from coal: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a37Te2WjaN2ZppI

[@robinmcgee9277]

Thanks! This goes back to basics on how alignment can get muddy. A "good" church can lose it's way to the "golden idle" and a stead fast cleric can see the darkness that is slowly taking over and give him an existential crisis. You could even play it to where a fiend is playing the head of the order and go from there. Man i live how you can take things back to basics

[@foolycoolytheband]

My question is how would this sort of thing effect the popularity of certain deities, I feel as though many good aligned and even some neutral deities would be vary opposed to this kind of greed and abuse of the magics they gift worshippers. Could this also be a potential reason as to why some worship evil deities as these gods may not take issue with the practice.

[@AJPickett]

Exactly so.

[@foolycoolytheband]

@@AJPickett I'd love to see this explored upon further in the future, it's a real fun idea to think about

[@deepsea5266]

Diamonds 💎 represent the void. It's the other door for the spirit opposite the abyss.

[@MrDuduril]

In 5e not everyone can cast a spell from a scroll. The spell need to be in your character class spell list. And make a check to see if the casting work if it's of higher lvl than you have access. Soo no, no scroll everywhere like defibrillator. But yeah big organization would keep diamonds as insurance policy in case of "premature" departing.

[@AJPickett]

Are you trained and certified in the use of the Revivify scroll? Excellent, excellent, well, you seem fine, welcome to the city pool lifeguards. *stamps application form*

[@wrelaxcliffgaming6330]

Fucking imagine a farmers commercial, you know the ones where there’s so crazy over the top explanation for the damage. And they’re like, “Yup, seen that, covered that.”. But with an adventurers body and a clip of the over the top way the adventurer died. 😂🤣

[@MOTat18]

Imagine if this type of magic was present in the real world. What you said in this video would only be the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the bureaucracy! I've always thought being able to be brought back from the dead in a relatively easy fashion was questionable, but I guess it's there for gameplay purposes.

[@TheKing-qz9wd]

That background of diamonds is a thing of beauty.

[@MisterTutor2010]

Resurrection Magic would make life insurance like all the other forms of insurance where the money pays to replace what was lost.

[@Outsider5wr]

Clone spell is a wizardly alternative that CAN restore people who did die of old age and come back younger. It could cost an arm and a leg, or rather, a cubic inch of flesh, a 1000 GP diamond as well, and a reusable 2000 GP "vassal" or vat to grow the body in. Oh, an it costs little time too! Each casting costs 3000 GP but even if a wizard/ "Necromancer" charges a premium or upcharge, what wealthy old noble of Waterdeep wouldn't pass up an opportunity to be young again? How many "level headed" 15th level "necromancers" are out there to be competition?

[@AfroChef]

What a novel idea, I think my players would enjoy the body retrieval missions as a great entry to working for the clerics

[@darrylhammett63]

Now imagine if a clever wizard found out how to make diamonds from charcoal.

[@SystemLordNemo]

Imagine alliance of good clerical orders taking monopoly like control to diamond trade. With monopoly they can artificially rise the price of the diamonds until even with limited supply of diamonds is sufficient to charity resurrect all the needy creatures (except the evil ones of course).

[@AJPickett]

Depends on the world of course, but I could see the gods getting a little grumpy about that :)

[@jgr7487]

the more we think about magic in a setting, the less it looks like a dirty, uneducated medieval community. they did have all types of assurance back then, but let's not forget that population booms (which healing & farning spells would cause) is a reason for technology to get better & closer to our modern society.

[@AJPickett]

Yeah, it's not primitive, it's just alternate technology.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

Correct. You really can't ascribe our modern tech levels to Toril or really any D&D world. Even the grippli are beyond our modern understanding. Or to put it another way, Earth (us) would lose any war with Toril or Golarion. Despite our technical advantages.

[@cypher4783]

As the importance of diamonds increased, so would the methods of finding them... or making them. A transmutation wizard that develops a spell that turns coal into diamonds would potentially upset such a system. An idea for a character

[@dpme3fan193]

Resurrection caused me to remember a question I've been meaning to ask. We all make bad deals for the best reasons i.e. johnny blaze. If a person welling enters into an infernal or great old one pact or deal for the greater good, can a deity dissolve the agreement? Example, a good aligned surface drow forms an infernal warlock pact with a powerful archdevil to save many lives from an invasion by a vast horde of demons. Can a deitiy save his or her soul? Or is it up to say, kelemvor considering one of his titles is 'judge of the damned'? Or are the deities bond by ancient laws & treaties with the infernal & far realm powers?

[@agsilverradio2225]

I would think the evil powers that the pact was made with have ways of protecting their interests, else they would be dumb to bother making a pact with a good aligned being in the fist place.

[@NoConsequenc3]

@@agsilverradio2225 the "Great Laws" that govern pacts could stipulate that a God could provide an alternative payment, negotiated necessarily by some charming and unique fellow whom has a moral compass less about good and evil and more about chicken and bowties.

[@robomonkey1018]

The falling diamond background was a dope touch

[@LOBricksAndSecrets]

In the setting of Girl Genius, nobility and royals are allowed to be resurrected, but doing so is considered an abdication of any titles they held at the time

[@siviblakhawk]

One of your best speculative videos. This is amazing.

[@DragonstarFighter]

An archangel owns a line of shipyards in my world, and she constantly is TRing people who died on the job, but then again, she can do it with innate spellcasting, without having to spend resources...

[@AnonymousAlcoholic772]

Because yeah, when i role play, I like thinking about deductibles. Thats exactly why I pretend to be a wizard, to answer the question of whether i need term or whole “resurrection’ insurance. Luckily i specked into underwriting.

[@andrewhalverson6974]

1st. My home brew setting is heavily influenced by this exact resource. Wealthy NPCs were always talking about the diamond market. One province of the empire had near total autonomy because of the diamonds they posted in tithes. 2nd... I'm surprised you didn't bring up the zealot barbarian from xanithars.

[@hollowmask222]

I remember a quest on space-battles where we played as a deity of knowledge and he made a insurance company to pay for all his followers costs.

[@roberthill5805]

I play in a setting where this type of thing actually occurs, and even happens with certain forms of necromancy. Guild due's include things like corpse retrieval, resurrection, and so on based on rank and experience, so it isn't just tied to wealth. People aren't going to raise some guy who may be an ally of an enemy nation or a murder hobo so it is based on local reputation and if you have a low enough you can have yourself true deathed and buried deep underground. There are also schools of necromancy that function more like building robots or crafting golems where they aren't fueled by negative energy more of the remnants of what is left and infused with magic. Towns that have these will have life assurance policies or a form of 'of age' funding to get their populace in a state where they keep healthy and strong to make strong and long lasting skeletons and zombies. It is always interesting to think of where societies would go with access to such magic and resources.

[@dhalterman]

I think there might be a misinterpretation of the DMG's table, AJ. The full line goes, "The character must also be a spellcaster with spell slots and must be able to cast any spells that the item can produce. Moreover, the character must meet a level minimum determined by the item’s rarity[...]". The column is also expressly labeled "minimum level" on the accompanying table. This table also largely lines up with the table on creating magic items from scratch in Chapter 8 of the DMG. You have to be a minimum of 17th level to create a legendary item, and a minimum of 3rd level to create an uncommon magic item that either doesn't cast spells or casts spells that you can cast. The DMG's section on the DM winging up magic items also suggests the maximum spell level for a magic item: A 3rd level spell like Revivify is the cap for an uncommon magic item, while a 5th level spell like Raise Dead would be a rare magic item. So it's not that a paladin's Spell Scroll of Revivify is a rare item while the cleric's is uncommon. They're both uncommon, it's just that paladin and ranger get a bit shafted in the DMG's magic item creation rules due to needing to be able to cast the spell (since they have to expend that spell slot every day during crafting), which they can't do until a much higher level.

[@AJPickett]

Ahaaa, OK, that makes a LOT more sense, thanks a lot Douglas, that is a huge help.

[@EvilSillyPutty]

This could help with the Ghostwalk setting, never though about life insurance like that

[@agsilverradio2225]

So, since the diamond requirement is based on market price, it would make sense for the church to inflate it, like the juelery industry does in real life.

[@TH3S3V3R]

You could base the diamond requirement on some inherent value (only deciphered/certified by a Xorn or something) and then have the church(es) inflating the price due to "certification", with black marketers selling ones that are "just as good but half the price" but have a high risk of failure.

[@wistercrimson3904]

Wow. This episode blew my mind on how this can affect fantasy worlds in DND. Another great video! Let the Diamonds (videos) flow!

[@darkhawk123]

This conversation reminds me of Order of the Stick Comic #677. In the first panel a background character wizard apprentice tells her master that they successfully talked the shopkeeper down to 400 gp for the diamond dust, only for her master to tell her that the spell requires 500gp worth of diamond dust and so she needs to go buy more.

[@rowanmcclantoc5418]

That might imply that a church heist could be used as both a distraction from and a way to ensure the long term success of an assassination.

[@Greenscyth22]

Druids using reincarnation can get shady if you think about it. Imagine a sketchy urban druid who works for a local rogue's guild. His job is to patch up the thieves after unsuccessful robberies and to bring back fallen rogues. The leader of that guild could stay in power for decades by continuously being brought back to life in a slightly different form each time. The city would be terrorized by an ever-present crime lord who's face might change, but who's tactics never do.

[@AJPickett]

*guard captain* "This Bugbear's break and entry method is remarkably familiar... I could swear this was Jimmy the Footpad..."

[@andresmarrero8666]

I think the earth itself would reject in that case. I feel that in order to use reincarnation in that manner you would need a highly mechanized system and in that case it won't be used in such a small materialistic mindset.

[@AJPickett]

@@andresmarrero8666 that's a point of view, sure. I have no problem with morally questionable druids.

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@AJPickett sure but don't be surprised when the planet starts screwing you over. Nature doesn't like to be messed with in that manner and certainly doesn't like to be abused. Even evil druids would know when to rein it in because mother nature has no qualms with squashing you should you take it too far.

[@coreyeaston6823]

I had a party try to resurrect an important NPC they allowed to die. They took it for granted they could just return him to life. Imagine their surprise when they tried and the NPC declined. He was in paradise. Why would he return to aid a group that so callously allowed him to be brutally murdered. Moral: Be careful who dies and how. Just because you can break the rules of life and death doesn't mean that everyone is going to cooperate.

[@lordnul1708]

One of the rules I have with resurrection is that you can only go through "actual" resurrection up to three times before the death becomes permanent, giving a total of four lives. For a bit of flavor, a mark appears on a person's body if they're out of proverbial continues, and the Inevitables have their eyes glued on those who have the mark as someone who might try to cheat the cosmic laws of death in a more extreme way. Why four lives? Well if you know your Japanese homonyms...

[@Logan-zx3zq]

I love videos like this where you go into the implications of certain features existing in a DnD world and what repercussions they have on the world. I'd love to see more of them.

[@jarydf]

The crystalline structure of diamond is required to correctly arrange and restructure the weave in carbon based lifeforms.

[@AJPickett]

Sounds legit

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

Now *that* is a quality word salad 😘👌 Star Trek should be jealous

[@jeffcook6735]

Think how a Xorn outbreak would be viewed. Imagine summoning one to a churchs diamond stash....

[@AJPickett]

Pure mayhem. That Xorn would just be snorting powdered diamond like scarface.

[@ericwhite1942]

Yeah reservation is always a good opportunity for role-playing. Spooky ideas can be rolling a % dice to see if instead of the original soul returning, an evil spirt or demon is resurrected into the PC. Even spooker if the other players aren't aware have the player play the possessed PC while waiting for the opportunity to open a gate

[@Cruuvo]

I live for every upload, glad this one is about returning to life.

[@downtostandup]

Now this comment is a 1000gp worth of diamond.

[@HowtoRPG]

Now I see what you were trying to do with the scroll creation rules.

[@AJPickett]

Yep, thanks for the help Fred.

[@HowtoRPG]

@@AJPickett No problem. You did a great job with the video.

[@robouteguilliman6662]

That’s just altered carbon with extra steps.

[@AJPickett]

I mean... yes

[@asameretali6639]

The biggest question I seem to have… is how subjective the Value of a diamond is… how inherently valuable is the diamond or diamonds. What qualities do these diamonds have? Does a shortage of diamonds increase the power of formerly “lesser” diamonds… because they are now more valuable. Its quite… confusing

[@AJPickett]

Imagine someone from Faerun trying to understand bitcoin and blockchains...

[@juanjfm]

This is the first video I watch from your channel. Great work, congrats! I sure will be sticking around

[@AJPickett]

Welcome!

[@MisterTutor2010]

@13:40 what you have described sounds like something from Altered Carbon.

[@madocmayhem]

Ohhhhhhh twinkling. Beautiful work as always.I can see merchant gods in more divinely desposed dimensions doing this. However in some settings I see a lot of blood just keeping the dead alive xD. I would love to see your thoughts on older dimensional and planar magics. Imagine the business complexity across the planes or pholgiston.

[@AzraelThanatos]

You know, if you want something funny read through some of the stuff in Ghostwalk about even easier than normal ways back to life. Things like comments about in times of famine, they might start killing their own people to bring them back later rather than need to feed them. And things of that nature for it which is something that can create things of nightmares

[@FlutesLoot]

Excellent speculation on the economic and societal effects of resurrection!

[@blackgriffinxx]

campaign idea: Your task is not done yet Party sign up to do a task from a shadow group. This group offer them tings you can't normally get unless you stand on the level of a king, pope or warlord. first fight. DM Goes for party kill. After all are dead. DM pull out a jar and slap a dice on the table with a table. Roll to see when you come back and how. Big prices( jar) to pay when you get drag back to life. lose a little time or all your stuff. Might get lucky and just lose a toe or 2 LOL.

[@That80sGuy1972]

So, is the Wizard version of Resurrection (the Clone spell) still a thing in modern editions? For decades, it was the Wizards' middle finger to the Cleric (religious) dominance of returning life to the dead. Well, decades of our lives but I have no idea how much canon time... if Clone is still canon nowadays. There is also a twisted issue bit on Simulacrum... but let's not go of fon than tangent here.

[@nickh3205]

Hi I’m not sure if you take video requests from the KZbin comments anymore but I was going to ask to see if you could do a lore video on the Phyrexians from MTG?

[@drose5718]

Oh that would be awesome

[@AJPickett]

Oh absolutely.

[@snforde4603]

Sooooooo, what I’m hearing is holy wars over sacred land being a pretense for claiming a diamond deposit.

[@AJPickett]

You heard correctly.

[@Mortablunt]

Just got off a 12 hour shift, gotta go back in 9 hours, and I see your upload. Watching it!

[@Slamdance3535]

My god, this music. So much funk.

[@chriscalvin5083]

Great video AJ

[@AJPickett]

Thanks Chris!

[@TyLarson]

Great video. I did a dark sun-dragonlance spelljammer trade campaign with diamonds for metal. Basically you could have a docwagon resurrection campaign that would be a ton of fun.

[@alexrowe9957]

If you're making lore videos about spells as well now, I'd love to see you tackle my favourite spell in the game: Animate Objects! (or perhaps doing animated objects as a monster highlight) There's nothing quite like being beaten to death by the crockery after all! :)

[@zmishiymishi5349]

Reincarnating random folks in 3e and reintroducing them to world was one of my hobbys back then

[@SSSyndrome214]

Nice vid! I hadn't considered that druids could just keep recasting Reincarnation on each other to achieve effective immortality.

[@apothocareon7521]

This explains why the drow are so harsh on deep gnomes and dwarves.

[@Tourak]

The issue and explanation for not running out of diamond is the same as adamantium. The earth elemental plane, on all of Toril there's not enough adamantium to mine to create a single adamantium golem, yet there's still some Adamantium, golem. How? Because expedition to the earth plane are made to collect the adamantium. There's no reason, as diamond are already valuable and could become more valuable, that such expedition for diamond could not happen.

[@travisterry5855]

I rule that reincarnation can reincarnate people into the past. Like all their memories just come rushing back at the point in time they died. It adds allot of role-playing options and I've found is a lot of fun for the player. They can make an entirely new backstory or they can be the npc friend the party made along the way. It's really fun.