What is Banished? And what next?

[Kerebrus]

So, it has become a little bit of a joke among my playgroup that my characters die.  Frequently.
Rarely is it because I do anything more stupid than eschew armor in favor of following through with a character's concept.
It is usually because the dice decide to get together and run a train on my character.

So, when I found the Cheat Death concept, I figured I would employ it in some fashion eventually.
Alas, my death came upon me suddenly and dramatically (Dramatic Scene - No Cheating Death).

Haste'd Dire Lions with Charge attack.  3 swings doing 2d8+7 punches through 50 vitality and 12 wounds pretty quick.  So much so that I made it all the way down to negative 17 wounds. (He's dead Jim)

So, my spell slinger wasn't "normal", full on Elemental Legacy.  Which means that, upon death, I am Banished.  Whatever that means.  But we are pretty sure that 'simple' forms of resurrection are out of the question.  Anyone with a better memory (or running a search on a PDF copy) have any other information on what it means to be banished?

[Kerebrus]

Now, with all of the above being true, and 6 levels of Channeler being for nought, I need a new character - and conveniently the whole party is in a whole new land (ejected out of the aforementioned Death Combat with a Wish, the two other negative wound characters barely recovering).

As I was what amounted to our Magical Firepower, it would be a fitting to the party needs to continue in the magical support role.
But I find that building a mage on the heels of another mage is hard not to turn into the second coming of the same character (this one will NOT be doing the Elemental type).

Anyone have a notion for a Mage with a Unique Spin?

Notions already being considered:

Full Casting Supremacy, plus some new tricks out of Spellbound (Playtester)

Ogre (Oni) - although I may discuss with the GM how to do a rework of Magic Resistance like we discussed on these boards.

Some other Specialist (Playtesting) - although in specializing I may leave the party with a gaping hole.

[Sletchman]

Full Casting Supremacy, plus some new tricks out of Spellbound (Playtester)

You lucky bastard.  Totally jealous.

That aside, all I can think of is ways to cheat death that could work for your elemental character (that refer to the idea of what banished could mean in some campaigns) - if banished simply takes you from the material to another plane of existance (some elemental nether-realm?), you could "simply" plane shift back home.  I think the idea of what banished is is kept nebelous by the Crafty guys, so that it can work in most campaign settings (Example: in my upcoming game there is 1 plane of existance, that's it - banished to another plane simply won't work).

Oni sounds cool, and unless you powergame it you may need some kind of SR mod to make it do what you want.  I'm also a fan of specialising, and as an Oni a Reaper / Infernalist could be pretty pimptastic (Extra Discipline: Energy?), and keeps the artillery factor alive.

[Baldur]

The problem with "banished to their home plane" is that the game world typically IS the home plane of the PC with Elemental Legacy.  Thus, the character is either immortal (he just-worst case-teleports to where he was born), or the banished aspect does not apply to the Legacy PC.  I tend to favor the "native (creature type)" rule of other D20 products.  Essentially, even though you are NOW an Elemental (Outsider, Fey, etc), you started as a creature of the Prime, and die (and resurrect) normally.

[Morgenstern]

To be completely honest, banished is dead with different flavor text for being brought back to life. Re-summoning a specific elemental or outsider (i.e. a slain player character teammate) takes exactly the same amount of narative effort as a returning a normal folk player character to the field. It could be an elaborate tale of cheating death, it could a spell of the exact same level as the Ressurects, or (especially in a dead is dead type setting) they could simply be gone, lost to us for all eternity and hopefully in a better place.

[Bhurano]

In our current campaign world you go where you belong. So someone who opted to go Devilish or Angelic Legacy returns to their plane of existence. Same for Elementals.

With Spellbound on the horizon I expect/hope to see something like Plane Shift in one form or the other.
On the other hand, if right now someone with Outsider or Elemental goes poof, he goes to his dimension and has to see how to return on the material plane (for the lack of better words). This might be to strike a deal with a devil, convince the heavenly commander you are supposed to serve to let you go, or plainly find a torrent of elemental power to transport you back. Additionally, the plane of existence where he "returns" to on his physical death might make it hard for the poor bastard to survive for prolonged times. You might have slain dragons, but there is a world of nightmarish demons just waiting to kill them. Also they may not know certain rules or customs that are expected of natives to the plane. What if the poor fellow is supposed to knell before a passing lord of fire, because it is expected. And what if he doesn't speak the language? And finally, if they die there, they stay dead.

They may be "immortal" is not the same as the have it easy... at least not in my campaign world.
This works even for creatures with such "templates" who are born on the material plane. That sliver of otherworldly heritage is, what calls them to their true home.

That's how my group handles it, anyway.

To the mage with a spin... the Oni sounds great. Personally I would stick to the premise of the Reaper to dish out more harm against the living and spent one level with chaneller to go full-blown artillery or use Extra Discipline (Weather). The ice spells are just pure nastiness against the living... and Chill Storm is just plain freakin' scary. And it gets worse with Lightning Bolts and Control Weather. Summon some fog and and go hunting the squishies... one by one. Which would also be great would be a Ogre-blooded human with Grizzled and Stone Brave... ok, ugly like hell... but one tough nut to crack.

@Morgenstern

In my group banished left another impression, than just another flavor for dead. Well, maybe that's another left-over from D&D which stuck with us.

[Morgenstern]

They may be "immortal" is not the same as the have it easy... at least not in my campaign world.
This works even for creatures with such "templates" who are born on the material plane. That sliver of otherworldly heritage is, what calls them to their true home.

@Morgenstern

In my group banished left another impression, than just another flavor for dead. Well, maybe that's another left-over from D&D which stuck with us.

Actually, by your desription you're pretty much going with what I was saying, just with setting specific fluff .

Most of the things in D&D that can be banished are NPCs, and most of the player characters with outsider are native outsiders - so they don't really get banished either, they just die. There are lots of ways to flavor it, but the bottom line is its NOT something that's particularly an advantage to players unless the GM specifically sets out to say "In my world, dead is dead, but banished is dead with appeals (could take take a LOT of paperwork though...)" Its a difference with a distinction only if the GM wants it to be . Belevie me, the costing on outsider for player characters is NOT high enough to constitute a get out of thy grave free card.

[Bhurano]

Ah ok, now If you phrase it so... We are practically on the same page.

You are right, the different types (Outsider, etc.) shouldn't be allowed to go free for zero. Therefore the mentioned deals with the devil or other such things. Practically they come back with strings attached. I took the inspiration from the Planescape Torment videogame... just pure win and a nice way to add some atmosphere.

Imagine the look on a buddies face as I told him: "If you die you will most likely be pressed into service by an heavenly army and go to war against hell. Try to get out of that one." Before that he thought: "Ok, if my char dies he takes a round in the paradise of his god and then returns." After that he was more like: "Oh crap, don't kill him or I'm in trouble."

In another D&D 3.5 game one of the chars died and a demon offered him a deal. It got along the lines of, kill every week (if I remember right) an innocent person with a ritual knife - supplied once by the demon. EDIT: Let's just say as we realized what he did and why, he had a problem.

@Kerebrus
Sorry for this little threadjacking. I stop it right now.

[Kerebrus]

No worries about the Thread-jacking.

as My character was already a follower of one of the Death gods in our home-brew setting, I am working on a plea for Cheating Death.

There was a wish with the loosely phrased "Gather my companions" and then an Artifact level teleport.

I'm just happy that I didn't miss any specific language on banishment.

::: One Variant for Cheating Death, what with everyone just going up a level, is taking a level of Priest to mark my faith.  Hampers my spell progression though.  I have already gone on record that I will not tolerate the undead to make a mockery of life (Adept Undead turning and a goddess of the afterlife - and I didn't even know that the Enchanter was dabbling in Necromancy) though, so a case could be made that being returned to life by anything short of direct godly mandate would turn me a bit Emo.

[Bhurano]

Isn't the Enchanter someone who heals, calls animals and screws everyones mind of everyone from dusk till dawn.

He dabbles in Necromancy? I suppose you mean some kind of resurrection spells, do you? I may be mistaken - don't have pdf's or books handy at work - but Resurrection spells fall under Blessing - if I remember right - and therefore are in the purview of the Prophet.

[Kerebrus]

No, he is collecting bones from vanquished foes to use in skeletal creations or as material components of his Craft: Alchemy projects.
He is a dark young lad, and I would imagine used his Enchanter's lure to draw small woodland animals to him for easy mutilation.  Sociopath.

Now - how to find the right niche for the next character.
our melee side is well served by:
Mr Charging Mastery / Mobility basics with the 60' move and a Spear.
Claymore wielder of Doom
unhittable (but not very damaging) Two weapon defense Double Shield user.

The Sage / Burglar / Emissary Mr Chance Feat and Mr. pretty boy courtier round out the "skill" characters

Often hard to find a tactical hole to fill in a group of 7 players.

[magustoad]

Eh, I'd say screw tactical hole and just go with 'fun' or 'just plain old cool.'  Whack-a-do goblin shamen.  Snake-oil salesman flim-flam confidence man.  Guy Who Knows Everyone.  Old-school Druid.  New-school Steam Punk inventor (if the setting supports it).

I try to take party makeup from the pov as an ad-hoc collection of people, not a meta-game construct.  Of course some systems are just not conducive to that. *cough*D&D4e*cough*