I'm looking in the manuals and not seeing anything, but I could be missing it. Is there a way to cure an undead PC and make them a normal human again?
Here's the scenario: I let one of my players use a homebrew race because he really really wanted to be a skeleton, so I kinda went you know whatever and told him yes. Well, now, he's wondering if there's a way that he would be able to become human again? He asked and then when I said I didn't think so, he asked would I pretty please write him something? And I, like a moron, said I'll think about it, which my players have quickly learned basically means yes.
Tbh, it would add a lot to his character, plus maybe be a fun sidequest for the party, so I'm all for it. I just have no idea how to go about doing it, or if there's a way already written in one of the books that I'm just missing or don't have. Any ideas that I could borrow?
The most "in the rules" way to solve this is probably have that player be cured by the "True Resurrection" Spell. It reads:
You touch a creature that has been dead for no longer than 200 years and that died for any reason except old age. If the creature's soul is free and willing, the creature is restored to life with all its hit points.This spell closes all wounds, neutralizes any poison, cures all diseases, and lifts any curses affecting the creature when it died. The spell replaces damaged or missing organs and limbs. If the creature was undead, it is restored to its non-undead form.
This is a level 9 spell, so you'd be needing to find like a level 17 Cleric out in the world to cast this. Level 17 individuals are near god like, there probably are not many, if any at all in a world, it would be your call as a DM. Maybe the players need to go on a quest to seek out some crazy powerful individual to cast this spell. Maybe they need to contact a god to be able to do it and then do a huge favor to that god to have them follow through it. Maybe they need to go to a different plane to even find that powerful of an individual. Maybe there is an old library infested with monsters and there happens to be a spell scroll of True Resurrection there, and the players will have to roll high on being able to successfully cast it. Lots of options!
The 7th Level spell True Resurrection is what you are looking for as it can restore undead to life. Failing that, not much is out of bounds of a well worded Wish.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
There are many ways of going about this. 1 is seeking out a high level caster that can cast either True Resurrection or the Wish spell. Another is you create a quest for a special ingredient that the local priests know can be made into a potion that can restore him as if True Resurrection was cast on him. You can also have it where there is a trial in a scared temple that he must complete in order to regain his fleshy body back. I like to look at DMing as I'm the true god of this world and I can make whatever I want to happen happen. I'm not saying that boom, he is human again. I'm saying, you can make things that can restore him back to being human again and they have to quest to either find it or to complete a trial or even plead with a god of life/death to make him living again. The only limitation that you have is your imagination. I hope I was of some help.
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Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
Depends on if he's only "mostly dead" or "all dead." All dead, there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
Seriously, though, True Resurrection would work, if they can find anyone to cast it, which could be an adventure in and of itself. Otherwise, finding some artifact or place or whatever that grants True Resurrection effect would also be a grand adventure. Assembling rare ingredients for a potion or bath or mechanism to apply the same effects, and so on.
You can make it as difficult or easy as you like. Could be this is a common thing; the guy they run into in the next tavern used to be undead, but he went to The Forbidden Place and fought the Terrible Guardian to get an audience with Good Cleric Humphrey who cast the spell and poof, now he's breathing and eating again. Or no one's ever heard of an undead returning to life, and even tracking down rumors that might lead to clues that eventually point to a possible solution could take months, or even years in-game.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk here, but if your player *wanted* to be a skeleton that you had to homebrew in, and then they realized they don't want to be that anymore, I would simply tell them to roll up a new character that's the race they wanted. Giving players what they want is good to an extent, but at a certain point you become a pushover and players might try to take advantage of you.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Forget the rules, or official spells, they shouldn't factor in to a player's backstory or personal goals. Instead, look at it from a narrative perspective. Explore the reasons why this person became a skeleton. How did they die? Who brought them back? Why? Then build the narrative out of that.
Perhaps it was a Divine Being, who decided this person could do yet more good in the world, and so resurrected them as a skeleton. Therefore the party has to entreat the Divine Being to return him to full life, and the Being says that it will do so, only after the new life has been earned by the PC, by fulfilling the reasons the Being brought him back for. Maybe slaying a demonic entity, or sending other undead that were brought back through evil means, back to the grave.
Perhaps it was a wicked necromancer, who wished to unleash an unwitting servant on the world, and when the party encounter the necromancer, he offers them a bargain, he will restore the PC to life, if they complete an evil task for him. That's a nice test of their morality. Have the necromancer show them his staff, an artefact used to reverse undeath. If they choose to attack him, maybe have him escape, and suddenly there's a potentially great quest arc of them tracking down this necromancer, to take his staff and use it to do what your player desires.
Ultimately, you're the DM. You're not obliged to contrive a reason for this person to come back. As was mentioned in the thread, he chose this homebrew race, if he doesn't like it, the onus is on him to play a new character or make it work. I recently played a Lingering Soul version of one of my favourite PC's, but I found the class to be very restricting and frustrating. I brought this up with my DM, and he laid the groundwork which then led to an amazing and very satisfying quest of finding my body and the right ritual, so I could rise from the grave. It took about 10 sessions and a lot was achieved along the way.
My advice would simply be, don't look for an easy way to just placate this player, with a Resurrection Spell or something. Instead, use his change of heart to make a narrative that everyone can be part of, and will allow him to grow his character in more interesting ways. Sometimes when players bring up frustrations, they're problems that should be dealt with quickly. Other times, they're a gift, that can be used to forge amazing stories that everyone will enjoy, including you. I feel like this is one of those times.
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I'm looking in the manuals and not seeing anything, but I could be missing it. Is there a way to cure an undead PC and make them a normal human again?
Here's the scenario: I let one of my players use a homebrew race because he really really wanted to be a skeleton, so I kinda went you know whatever and told him yes. Well, now, he's wondering if there's a way that he would be able to become human again? He asked and then when I said I didn't think so, he asked would I pretty please write him something? And I, like a moron, said I'll think about it, which my players have quickly learned basically means yes.
Tbh, it would add a lot to his character, plus maybe be a fun sidequest for the party, so I'm all for it. I just have no idea how to go about doing it, or if there's a way already written in one of the books that I'm just missing or don't have. Any ideas that I could borrow?
The most "in the rules" way to solve this is probably have that player be cured by the "True Resurrection" Spell. It reads:
You touch a creature that has been dead for no longer than 200 years and that died for any reason except old age. If the creature's soul is free and willing, the creature is restored to life with all its hit points.This spell closes all wounds, neutralizes any poison, cures all diseases, and lifts any curses affecting the creature when it died. The spell replaces damaged or missing organs and limbs. If the creature was undead, it is restored to its non-undead form.
This is a level 9 spell, so you'd be needing to find like a level 17 Cleric out in the world to cast this. Level 17 individuals are near god like, there probably are not many, if any at all in a world, it would be your call as a DM. Maybe the players need to go on a quest to seek out some crazy powerful individual to cast this spell. Maybe they need to contact a god to be able to do it and then do a huge favor to that god to have them follow through it. Maybe they need to go to a different plane to even find that powerful of an individual. Maybe there is an old library infested with monsters and there happens to be a spell scroll of True Resurrection there, and the players will have to roll high on being able to successfully cast it. Lots of options!
The 7th Level spell True Resurrection is what you are looking for as it can restore undead to life. Failing that, not much is out of bounds of a well worded Wish.
There are many ways of going about this. 1 is seeking out a high level caster that can cast either True Resurrection or the Wish spell. Another is you create a quest for a special ingredient that the local priests know can be made into a potion that can restore him as if True Resurrection was cast on him. You can also have it where there is a trial in a scared temple that he must complete in order to regain his fleshy body back. I like to look at DMing as I'm the true god of this world and I can make whatever I want to happen happen. I'm not saying that boom, he is human again. I'm saying, you can make things that can restore him back to being human again and they have to quest to either find it or to complete a trial or even plead with a god of life/death to make him living again. The only limitation that you have is your imagination. I hope I was of some help.
Remember this is a game and it's suppose to be fun for everybody. Let's all have fun and kill monsters.
Depends on if he's only "mostly dead" or "all dead." All dead, there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
Seriously, though, True Resurrection would work, if they can find anyone to cast it, which could be an adventure in and of itself. Otherwise, finding some artifact or place or whatever that grants True Resurrection effect would also be a grand adventure. Assembling rare ingredients for a potion or bath or mechanism to apply the same effects, and so on.
You can make it as difficult or easy as you like. Could be this is a common thing; the guy they run into in the next tavern used to be undead, but he went to The Forbidden Place and fought the Terrible Guardian to get an audience with Good Cleric Humphrey who cast the spell and poof, now he's breathing and eating again. Or no one's ever heard of an undead returning to life, and even tracking down rumors that might lead to clues that eventually point to a possible solution could take months, or even years in-game.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk here, but if your player *wanted* to be a skeleton that you had to homebrew in, and then they realized they don't want to be that anymore, I would simply tell them to roll up a new character that's the race they wanted. Giving players what they want is good to an extent, but at a certain point you become a pushover and players might try to take advantage of you.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Forget the rules, or official spells, they shouldn't factor in to a player's backstory or personal goals. Instead, look at it from a narrative perspective. Explore the reasons why this person became a skeleton. How did they die? Who brought them back? Why? Then build the narrative out of that.
Perhaps it was a Divine Being, who decided this person could do yet more good in the world, and so resurrected them as a skeleton. Therefore the party has to entreat the Divine Being to return him to full life, and the Being says that it will do so, only after the new life has been earned by the PC, by fulfilling the reasons the Being brought him back for. Maybe slaying a demonic entity, or sending other undead that were brought back through evil means, back to the grave.
Perhaps it was a wicked necromancer, who wished to unleash an unwitting servant on the world, and when the party encounter the necromancer, he offers them a bargain, he will restore the PC to life, if they complete an evil task for him. That's a nice test of their morality. Have the necromancer show them his staff, an artefact used to reverse undeath. If they choose to attack him, maybe have him escape, and suddenly there's a potentially great quest arc of them tracking down this necromancer, to take his staff and use it to do what your player desires.
Ultimately, you're the DM. You're not obliged to contrive a reason for this person to come back. As was mentioned in the thread, he chose this homebrew race, if he doesn't like it, the onus is on him to play a new character or make it work. I recently played a Lingering Soul version of one of my favourite PC's, but I found the class to be very restricting and frustrating. I brought this up with my DM, and he laid the groundwork which then led to an amazing and very satisfying quest of finding my body and the right ritual, so I could rise from the grave. It took about 10 sessions and a lot was achieved along the way.
My advice would simply be, don't look for an easy way to just placate this player, with a Resurrection Spell or something. Instead, use his change of heart to make a narrative that everyone can be part of, and will allow him to grow his character in more interesting ways. Sometimes when players bring up frustrations, they're problems that should be dealt with quickly. Other times, they're a gift, that can be used to forge amazing stories that everyone will enjoy, including you. I feel like this is one of those times.