Zak and Ellis have entered a realm that might have been Atlantis and helped Faun destroy the soul prism.
Also, Zak transcended existence and became a six-dimensional being. You left that bit out. :P
Sort of. His being was imprinted insignificantly on the entire essence of space-time. For all intents and purposes he died.
In a game without combat too. I was so proud.
Good thing he cloned himnself.
On that note, I'm thinking about installing some penalties for "Resurrection" effects. Won't come up now (or be post-edited), however there are a few metaphysical questions concerning cloning & magics that need to be addressed.
Usually they're built into the ability. Zak's takes a gift to back him up (or it used to), Carson's traps him in the body of an animal (if he still has that in the revision). Bernard's is probably the most powerful over here, as it only MIGHT cost him a few permanent health levels and is re-usable (may need to be nerfed).
Additional penalties would be cool, kind of a default penalty that can only be made more severe by the systems themselves.
The result of Zak using his was that he got a gift but no experience… Odd.
My primary thought is Humanity loss ("Look, I can't die!" has that effect) & the element of the soul. Say you come back from death after a month. It would be reasonable to expect one's soul to have moved on. Does it come back? Or is the character effectively a "newborn soul" even if it does have the personality/memories of the deceased? I think it is, best represented by a willpower reduction. This is mostly only relevant in deaths of a week or more, & almost exclusively the province of the Mythos Casters, but it bears mentioning.
Exactly how many people over there have resurrection abilities of one stripe or another?
On top of that, is Devon really dead or just sort of dead?
Only Zak, Carson (maybe, he's getting revised), and Bernard. Zak has a whole path for his, Carson's costs him his body, and Bernard's is going to get altered to be a bit more severe.
Additional humanity and willpower penalties seem reasonable.
And yes Devin is really dead. There is still some confusion about exactly what's going on (long story), but pretty much no matter what ends up happening, Devin is dead.
Sasha is fully capable of producing clones & even going so far as to "download" personalities. Some other characters have theoretical ways to avoid personal demise in their abilities. Mainly though, all Mythos Casters can theoretically ressurect anyone if they have a complete body. While their are penalties & Sanity loss built in, I'm thinking any effect that requires a new soul/new body may require a stronger penalty.
In Zak's case, an entire power is dedicated to it…if penalties are applied, then the power rating will reduce that as one might expect.
To answer the venerable Mr. Sleep: It's not "common" by any means. But it is perfectly viable as an avenue a character may expand into. I'd like to see a few more controls put in.
(Oh, & this is probably well known, but: Harbingers will NEVER exchange Gifts to resurrect Characters. I think that is mentioned elsewhere)
Ah. That's what confused me. I took Harbinger's refusal to resurrect to mean that they wouldn't allow resurrection at all.
And when did I become venerable?
There is a sorcery ritual that resurrects people, but it requires that Healing already be at 6 to even purchase and the rolls are exceptionally severe. It doesn't have any mention of what happens to the "reborn" character though …
oh yeah … probably arguably the steepest cost of any spell/ritual I've ever seen …
Revive ••••••
- The pinnacle of understanding in the Path of Healing is the ability to bring back one that has traveled beyond Death's Door. Even masters of the Path can only call back those who have very recently died, and survival is never assured; more than once, a patient has been revived, only to succumb once again to his injuries. The healer burns two permanent Willpower and rolls against a difficulty of 9; she must achieve at least 3 successes, plus 1 additional success for every three minutes the patient has been dead (not counting the length of time the ritual takes to cast). If successful, the healer loses any remaining Willpower they may have (these points, unlike the initial two, can be regained over time), is physically exhausted and at -2 dice on all dice pools for the next week. The patient, while revived, still suffers from whatever ills killed him in the first place; if immediate medical attention is not forthcoming, he will quickly die once again.
If only Bernard had such a ritual. Maybe then he wouldn't have S'd so much D.
Seen so much death, I mean.
Actually it was probably his curse that's caused most of the deaths around him. Poor guy.
And Nick, though his ability and the associated costs and restrictions are well defined in official WW source material. There isn't a cost per se, but his behavior is judged. Effectively, his continued association with Elliot Bratovitch limits his Balance to a max of 5, assuming Elliot hasn't changed significantly.
Etheridge can use his healing powers on a patient who has been dead no more than 5 minutes, as long as the body is basically intact.
http://z7.invisionfree.com/NCHousegames/index.php?showtopic=24
Zak must spend a gift to create a new clone, even though he has this path at 5. Keeping a backup clone costs a gift every time. All told I have spent three or four gifts on this, though this is the first time I have actually used the backup clone.
Count your candles Sleep. Of course you're "Venerable". But never fear: you'll always be the prettiest girl in school to me ;)
Harbingers will not resurrect Contractors as a gift (their own or someone else) because if the character died in a game, then he "lost." The Games do serve a purpose, winnowing down the numbers of truly hardened & cunning types. Take that away, & the point is lost. Now, that's not to say they won't grant that ability to someone with that sort of ambition: sure they will. If they didn't, then the possibility wouldn't even be on the table, as Harbingers were Novices once as well.
By the express directive of the Powers That Be: Those that fail, are failures. While everyone loses a game now & again, good Rollers bounce back hard, learn from their mistakes, etc. Dead Rollers without the means to self-resurrect or plans laid for that eventuality are obviously "dead ends".