Hit Points highlighted in the Statistics window.
A hit point refers to the amount of damage a character can take, fighting classes generally have more than the mage classes. One's amount of Hit Points is equal to their amount of Strength. The number of Hit Points available to a character is determined by Class and Class Level. For more information on the number of hit points available to various classes at various levels, see the Class Level Tables.
Death[]
Death happens when a character reaches below 0 Hit Points. It is possible to have 0 hit points and still be alive because the counter will not show decimal places. When a character dies, they will become a Ghost and everything will appear gray. The player's belongings will be transferred to a corpse that appears beneath the Ghost. The name of the character to which the corpse once belonged is also displayed when a living character uses the 'Get' action on the corpse.
This corpse can be looted by creatures and even
Death strikes.
other players, and it will poof after 45 real time minutes have elapsed. When In Character, it is often said that someone who has died has "entered the Gray World".
In Oberin, death is not permanent. In order to become alive again, a ghost must be resurrected. Ghosts can be resurrected by living Clerics that have the Resurrect spell. Alternatively, a ghost can visit any Temple (excluding Private Temples in Guild Halls). Resurrection - whether by cleric or by temple - will result in the ghost being granted a body.
This new body is the same as the previous one, with the exception that the new body has lost anywhere from 1-50 Successes in each of their skills. Because of this, it is possible for a character's Levels to decrease. Contrary to popular belief, when dying, one will still lose successes for skills that are at level 4 or below. Inside PvP Island, some of the rules of death do not apply. Those who die here will not lose any successes, and corpses can only be accessed by their owner.
The inventory of a dead character.
Once resurrected, a character can find their corpse and take their old belongings if the corpse hasn't yet been looted. Oftentimes it is too dangerous or otherwise unfeasible for someone to do this alone. Many players will have their character's ghost stay on the corpse so that their possessions are not looted. Then, the player might use an instant messaging service such as AIM or iChat to ask other players for help.
In this case, an available lone cleric or a larger party might choose to make a 'Res Run', which is short for 'Resurrection Run'. This process involves distracting or killing the creatures in the vicinity of the corpse, so that a cleric can safely resurrect the fallen character. Shogun has discussed solo Res Runs extensively in his Way of the Cleric, 3rd Edition.
After retrieving their belongings by whatever means, one might drop a single Gold Piece on their corpse. Doing so will result in the disappearance of the name listed on the corpse. This practice, sometimes referred to as 'paying tribute to Charon', will hide the fact of one's death to any non-witnesses.
Corpses can be identified by using the 'Get' action.
Within the In Character realm, the nature of death is fickle at best. When a Quest Character dies, they might become a Ghost, or they might disappear completely. There are no set guidelines that determine which of these two outcomes will occur. However, there has been a few explanations for permanent deaths on a case-by-case basis. For example, Zara can use 'The Thousand Cuts', an ancient fighting technique that permanently severs one's soul from their body. Then there was the Blood Dagger, which consumed the souls of the ones it killed.