It’s said that the only things certain are death and taxes. In Ultima Online death is certain (or very close to it), but fortunately it’s not permanent. (Only Lord British knows about the Britannian tax situation.)
When your character is killed in the game, you are offered a choice. You can opt for instant resurrection with a substantial and immediate loss to all stats and skills (but never lower than your starting stats and skills), or you can choose to wander as a ghost, at least until you find a healer or a shrine.
Resurrection
Instant resurrection may seem attractive, and is certainly preferable in some situations, but consider your options carefully. An instant resurrection can easily undo days or even weeks of careful character development. Also, if you try an instant resurrection while the thing that killed you is still in the immediate area, you are more than likely to die again, since you resurrect with very few Hit Points and little Stamina. However, instant resurrection is often the best way to retain your important possessions.
Once you’re alive again, you may try to hurry back to reclaim your possessions, but if you were alone when you fell (or all your companions perished with you) all your possessions will be exposed to whomever passes by to claim them. The only way to increase your possessions’ safety is for a surviving PC ally to gather them up and return them to you, or for an NPC hireling or animal companion to guard them for you until you return.
You can resurrect only so often in a given period of time. Each time you resurrect in rapid succession, your tie to your physical body becomes more tenuous. If the tie becomes too weak, you must remain a ghost for a time while it regenerates itself. Even the services of a healer or a Shrine will do you no good until your link to the physical world is again strong enough for you to resurrect.
You may only resurrect 5 times in a period of 20 minutes. Every 20 minutes your “death count” is reduced by one.
Being Dead
If you choose to become a ghost, you leave all your worldly possessions where you fall and wander as a spirit in search of resurrection (however, spell books, practice weapons and starting equipment will be with you when you resurrect). When your ghostly character gets to a shrine, a healer or a sufficiently powerful mage, you can be restored to life.
Note that while shrines and healers will automatically resurrect any ghost in their immediate area, a PC mage has to know you’re there, and it’s his own choice whether to help or not.
The effectiveness of shrines is based on your Karma. Those with positive or neutral Karma are restored, while those with negative Karma are not. There are rumors of a so-called “Chaos Shrine” at an unknown location, where those with negative Karmas are raised, while those with positive Karma are not.
While you’re dead you can pass invisibly, or you can “manifest” so that others can see you. Your ghostly character will be invisible if you’re in Peace mode and visible in War mode. A ghost can pass through doors and certain other objects, but not through solid walls. If you try to communicate while in spirit form, anything you try to say will appear to the living as inarticulate wailing. Characters who possess the Spirit Speak skill can try to understand your moans. Ghosts cannot directly affect the physical world in any way. They cannot use any skills or attacks. Manifested ghosts do sometimes frighten NPCs.
Your Stats
It’s in the best interest of a ghostly PC to seek out resurrection as quickly as possible, because your skills deteriorate at a much faster rate while you’re dead, potentially undoing weeks or months of hard-won progress if the most direct route to resurrection is not taken.
However there are also penalties associated with instant resurrection. When you choose instant resurrection your attributes and skills are reduced by 10% but cannot drop below the minimum values for starting characters.
Murderers who are killed automatically lose up to 20% of all stats and skills (the exact effect depends upon how often and how recently they’ve killed, and the penalty cannot reduce them below starting levels), as cosmic “payback” for their evil deeds.
