Your Death

[Lord Lothar]

When you die, why does your body wither away and you can't come back to life? Some people say that because your pc is a Bhaalspawn but when Imoen dies, her body is still there.

[pcgiant]

From a programmer's point of view, to make it easier. Imagine the logistics of the PC's death. The game revolves around the PC so much that without him/her, certain plot threads would become silly. I must admit, it is annoying though.

[Andrew Mcveigh]

Originally posted by pcgiant: I must admit, it is annoying though.

amen to that! but you're right, some people wouldn't restore the main character, and then the plot holes are too big. they've done a great job on making a large story line already, but that would be too hard. but i think they should at least give you about 20 seconds or so to restore the main pc, that way you don't have to reload and do stuff over again.

[SixOfSpades]

One of Imoen's Bhaalspawn powers is that she doesn't dissolve into energy when she dies. The same thing happens to Sarevok (the first time), and I believe 2 of the ToB enemies as well.

[Yanez]

Death of PC is very annoying thing, especially, if PC is used as tank. What's wrong from roleplaying point of view that your loved one (i.e. NPC you are having romance with) restores PC or arranges his/hers resurrection. The same should go for Imoen, afterall she is PC's sister.

[Timber Loftis]

Yes, but if a Bhaalspawn is supposed to turn to "energy dust" it's a bit like getting chunked, no? Can't resurrect the parts - especially when you don't even have parts.

I must agree with the idea, so long as Bhaalspawn are not supposed to turn to dust, that you should have a set amount of time to restore your PC (like 1-2 mins). Or, perhaps, the game could require the PC stay in the party so the party could not leave the area until PC was restored - "You must gather your party. . ."

I would like to see a "hovering on death's door" rule at work in these games. They were in some of the SSI games, like Champions of Krynn.

[Vedran]

Think about this: Your char in the game is your alter ego, it is "you" in the game (well, not literally). She is the link between the player and other party members (that's my point of view), so if she dies, the player cannot control the party anymore. So, party cleric should resurrect the protagonist by her own will/script. This could be rather frustrating, especially if the priest has no raise dead memorised, or she died, too, or can't get to PC, etc.

Nonetheless, making such a rule modification would be a valuable thing indeed. I believe it can be done (unfortunately, not by me).

[True_Moose]

Hmm, seems like in the cutscene, you're rotting away. Wouldn't it be fitting then, for a curse, sorta like Jaheira's, where you lose stats until death. Once you hit 0 you're unconscious, and you first have to have restoration cast on you, then another spell?

Just rambling...

[andrewas]

Nonetheless, making such a rule modification would be a valuable thing indeed. I believe it can be done (unfortunately, not by me).[/QB]

As far as I know, its hardcoded into the program itself. Ive certainly never seen a file that could control this behaviour, and I have poked around in there more than is strictly neccesary.

Patching the EXE is not out of the question, but you need some seriously obsessed talent to do that. Not the sort of thing thats likley to happen. IWD does allow the party leader to die, but then that game dosent really have a protagonist as such, so it makes sense to do it that way.