what are the ways l can prevent someone (PC or NPC) from being brought back to life/becomeing undead? For example,does cutting off a head and throwing it in the sea prevent a true resurrection? l am 99% sure destroying the soul can stop them from comeing back so what ways can that be done?
In the Eberron setting (3.0/3.5) there was a magic item called the Keeper's Fang, that if used on a killing blow would hold the soul in the Keeper's Domain and could not be resurrected by any means.
Another is the Skull card from the Deck of Many Things and I know there have been other effects in various adventures as well.
A round about way is Wish worded to say that the soul doesn't want to be raised, as they have to be willing to return (of course this could be undone). Soul Cage does the trick too...but only for an hour.
Binding a soul into a Soul coin and then using that soul as fuel for an infernal warmachine will also destroy a soul.
I know there are more, it's just poking around to find them.
Blackrazor or similar soul destruction will do the trick, imprisonment will also manage it after a fashion, especially if done by a lich.
Another approach is to completely destroy the body or raise the body as a zombie yourself. In either case true resurrection or wish will be required, in the latter case because the body is now the corpse of a zombie, and a successful resurrection would bring the zombie back.
Some other planes are also pretty good at keeping souls in (so, dying in them is pretty final), and some have a special handling of death within them (relevant Avernus trait makes it pretty hard to bring someone back).
Also, and this may be overlooked... convincing the entity that they should stay dead. A soul needs to be willing to return for most resurrection spells. A paladin that sacrificed his life to save the land knowing that if he returns the land will be destroyed will likely opt to stay in his eternal rest even if his friends attempt to bring him back. :) In that sense, blackmail works well.
The most common way to stop someone from being brought back to life is to destroy the body completely. That'll stop anything short of True Resurrection or Wish. If the creature becomes undead, you get the same results, but that's going to be tricky unless you know where to find a vampire or wraith.
Soul Cage could be used to trap a soul for up to 8 hours.
Also, and this may be overlooked... convincing the entity that they should stay dead. A soul needs to be willing to return for most resurrection spells. A paladin that sacrificed his life to save the land knowing that if he returns the land will be destroyed will likely opt to stay in his eternal rest even if his friends attempt to bring him back. :)
There may not be any need for convincing. The Dungeon Master's Guide states a creature that's being brought back to life knows the name and alignment of whomever's bringing them back. If they don't recognize the name of the spellcaster, they might decide it's a trap.
Note that this doesn't apply to Revivify, which doesn't require the target to be willing (in 3.5e the spell revived the target before its soul left its body).
In the case of Revivify, destroy a body part that is required for life. Remove the head, heart, or lungs (or all of them to use in a nice stew or sausage)... It doesn't restore a missing body part.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
The most common way to stop someone from being brought back to life is to destroy the body completely. That'll stop anything short of True Resurrection or Wish. If the creature becomes undead, you get the same results, but that's going to be tricky unless you know where to find a vampire or wraith.
Soul Cage could be used to trap a soul for up to 8 hours.
Also, and this may be overlooked... convincing the entity that they should stay dead. A soul needs to be willing to return for most resurrection spells. A paladin that sacrificed his life to save the land knowing that if he returns the land will be destroyed will likely opt to stay in his eternal rest even if his friends attempt to bring him back. :)
There may not be any need for convincing. The Dungeon Master's Guide states a creature that's being brought back to life knows the name and alignment of whomever's bringing them back. If they don't recognize the name of the spellcaster, they might decide it's a trap.
Note that this doesn't apply to Revivify, which doesn't require the target to be willing (in 3.5e the spell revived the target before its soul left its body).
Didn't notice that on Revivify. that has some interesting consequences. Personally, I would prefer it didn't do that, but that is from a world building side "Why don't more folks come back from the dead? B/c they are in paradise and don't want to." But clearly is was intended for PCs, not NPCs due to the short time frame.
On the wish, it was more of how would you prevent an otherwise willing person from returning (an evil doer's plot) when I wrote it.
Its not that. That you could kill someone and revifify over and over again. More if a villian thing for a plotline.
That's such a ridiculously expensive and mostly pointless thing to do compared to just regular non-lethal torture. Especially in a world where wounds can be healed instantly.
Its not that. That you could kill someone and revifify over and over again. More if a villian thing for a plotline.
That's such a ridiculously expensive and mostly pointless thing to do compared to just regular non-lethal torture. Especially in a world where wounds can be healed instantly.
Not all villain's are sane, and many are rich, bored, want to experiment or make a point.
Most of mine are far more practical, but I did find it to be an interesting factoid.
Don't underestimate true resurrection. The body doesn't need to even exist anymore for that spell. But a way around true resurrection would be a not willing soul, aging the body to death, or even memory modifying the caster somehow, so they don't remember the name of the person they're trying to resurrect.
The 5e description for raise dead says that it closes mortal wounds but can't replace body parts; if the body part it need (e.g. head), there spell fails.
Therefore keeping the head and body apart or reducing the head to a mush should work.
I think my "Go-To" method would be disrobe, dismemberment, incinerate, bury the parts in different places to make it difficult to find the body.
Another way would be to discard the body in lava or feed the body to a monster that will digest it.
The logic is this ...
disrobe - makes any kind of "Find Object" spell unable to find any objects which have been separated from the body (parts).
dismember - this hopefully makes finding all the essential parts much tougher.
Incinerate - this makes finding and identifying all the parts harder
disbursed burial - makes finding the parts harder still
(Assuming the PC is some sort of "good" alignment ...) As for True Resurrection, I don't believe I would want to come back to life once I have met my god. A player may want his PC back, but would the PC really want to come back to life? There would have to be some sort of revelation by the god to the PC that coming back to life would be a great thing. Maybe the PC could not only avenge their death, but also significantly further the cause of the deity. So as a DM, I think the conversation with the PC in "purgatory" could be a great story element; the ultimate plot hook.
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what are the ways l can prevent someone (PC or NPC) from being brought back to life/becomeing undead? For example,does cutting off a head and throwing it in the sea prevent a true resurrection? l am 99% sure destroying the soul can stop them from comeing back so what ways can that be done?
Ceremony, Gentle repose, and Hallow will prevent them from becoming undead.
Preventing resurrection is a bit harder.
There are very few spells and items to capture souls. You can always use wish.
In the Eberron setting (3.0/3.5) there was a magic item called the Keeper's Fang, that if used on a killing blow would hold the soul in the Keeper's Domain and could not be resurrected by any means.
Another is the Skull card from the Deck of Many Things and I know there have been other effects in various adventures as well.
A round about way is Wish worded to say that the soul doesn't want to be raised, as they have to be willing to return (of course this could be undone). Soul Cage does the trick too...but only for an hour.
Binding a soul into a Soul coin and then using that soul as fuel for an infernal warmachine will also destroy a soul.
I know there are more, it's just poking around to find them.
Blackrazor or similar soul destruction will do the trick, imprisonment will also manage it after a fashion, especially if done by a lich.
Another approach is to completely destroy the body or raise the body as a zombie yourself. In either case true resurrection or wish will be required, in the latter case because the body is now the corpse of a zombie, and a successful resurrection would bring the zombie back.
Some other planes are also pretty good at keeping souls in (so, dying in them is pretty final), and some have a special handling of death within them (relevant Avernus trait makes it pretty hard to bring someone back).
Also, and this may be overlooked... convincing the entity that they should stay dead. A soul needs to be willing to return for most resurrection spells. A paladin that sacrificed his life to save the land knowing that if he returns the land will be destroyed will likely opt to stay in his eternal rest even if his friends attempt to bring him back. :)
In that sense, blackmail works well.
The most common way to stop someone from being brought back to life is to destroy the body completely. That'll stop anything short of True Resurrection or Wish. If the creature becomes undead, you get the same results, but that's going to be tricky unless you know where to find a vampire or wraith.
Soul Cage could be used to trap a soul for up to 8 hours.
There may not be any need for convincing. The Dungeon Master's Guide states a creature that's being brought back to life knows the name and alignment of whomever's bringing them back. If they don't recognize the name of the spellcaster, they might decide it's a trap.
Note that this doesn't apply to Revivify, which doesn't require the target to be willing (in 3.5e the spell revived the target before its soul left its body).
The Forum Infestation (TM)
In the case of Revivify, destroy a body part that is required for life. Remove the head, heart, or lungs (or all of them to use in a nice stew or sausage)... It doesn't restore a missing body part.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Didn't notice that on Revivify. that has some interesting consequences. Personally, I would prefer it didn't do that, but that is from a world building side "Why don't more folks come back from the dead? B/c they are in paradise and don't want to." But clearly is was intended for PCs, not NPCs due to the short time frame.
On the wish, it was more of how would you prevent an otherwise willing person from returning (an evil doer's plot) when I wrote it.
To be fair, all you have to do to prevent a Revivify is to keep a corpse dead for a minute. :p
Its not that. That you could kill someone and revifify over and over again. More if a villian thing for a plotline.
Become a lich.
That's such a ridiculously expensive and mostly pointless thing to do compared to just regular non-lethal torture. Especially in a world where wounds can be healed instantly.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Not all villain's are sane, and many are rich, bored, want to experiment or make a point.
Most of mine are far more practical, but I did find it to be an interesting factoid.
Could you just hide the body? If they cant find the body they cant res. it right?
Don't underestimate true resurrection. The body doesn't need to even exist anymore for that spell. But a way around true resurrection would be a not willing soul, aging the body to death, or even memory modifying the caster somehow, so they don't remember the name of the person they're trying to resurrect.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
The 5e description for raise dead says that it closes mortal wounds but can't replace body parts; if the body part it need (e.g. head), there spell fails.
Therefore keeping the head and body apart or reducing the head to a mush should work.
Not a lot can stop a true resurrection spell. The only limits per the spell are:
For lesser spells, destroying the body typically does the trick.
We did this.
1) Kill them
2) Animate them as a zombie. They are now undead.
3) Entomb the zombie in solid stone via Shape Stone spells.
Also resurrection has this little added bonus.... So that NPC can choose not to come back.....
I think my "Go-To" method would be disrobe, dismemberment, incinerate, bury the parts in different places to make it difficult to find the body.
Another way would be to discard the body in lava or feed the body to a monster that will digest it.
The logic is this ...
disrobe - makes any kind of "Find Object" spell unable to find any objects which have been separated from the body (parts).
dismember - this hopefully makes finding all the essential parts much tougher.
Incinerate - this makes finding and identifying all the parts harder
disbursed burial - makes finding the parts harder still
(Assuming the PC is some sort of "good" alignment ...) As for True Resurrection, I don't believe I would want to come back to life once I have met my god. A player may want his PC back, but would the PC really want to come back to life? There would have to be some sort of revelation by the god to the PC that coming back to life would be a great thing. Maybe the PC could not only avenge their death, but also significantly further the cause of the deity. So as a DM, I think the conversation with the PC in "purgatory" could be a great story element; the ultimate plot hook.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt