How are these handled form a lore perspective? Or more precisely how is it handled when there are no other character's involved? Say I'm out on my own, my character is new enough that I don't have any friends (and he's a little socially awkward and has scared a few people off) and I get in over my head and die. Now no one is around to have seen me go down, or knows where I am, or knows me enough to even be concerned by my absence. How is it I'm resurrected and how do I play it off?

To the best of my knowledge, there's no official word or lore on how this is dealt with. It's up to player discretion and preference, within reason, to determine what happened when their character was killed when they're out alone. The situation is different when other players are involved, such as in PvP - but that's largely irrelevant for being out all by your lonesome.

Personally, I tend to not treat death in PvM as death. Maybe the monsters knocked you out well enough they were satisfied they'd killed you and didn't stop to double tap. Maybe they got distracted by something else and left your body alone long enough for you to regain consciousness and crawl away. Maybe a wandering priest of Shaundakul was like, "Oh snap! Helping Hand powers activate!" and rescued your character, but your character wasn't aware of it because they were out cold.

There's a lot more flexibility in rationalizing respawning if your character wasn't actually killed, and it saves death for more meaningful encounters.

I'm also referring to PvP, this guy has a tendency to find the wrong kinds of people while exploring, lol. And in several cases I can see the unconscious method working, but that still doesn't really explain how to play off actual resurrection when there isn't anyone around to perform it. A wandering priest is pretty convenient but could be used a few times I suppose, but I feel with this character's penchant for exploring ruins I'm sadly going to end up dead more times than I'd like and sometimes I can be unconscious, but real death has to happen occasionally in the mix.

For PvP, the winner determines the state of the loser.

The winner gets to decide if they just beat your character unconscious or killed them. They also get to decide what becomes of the body - they might just leave it there, or they might dismember it, or drag it off to float down a river, or drop it into a pit. The other player basically gets to determine how much effort it is to get your character alive and kicking again, although they cannot force you to permanently kill off your character without your consent, even if they go to great lengths to see to it that it is very costly and difficult to bring your character back. Most means of destroying a body so thoroughly that it would require a True Resurrection, which requires a DM, also generally would require the oversight of a DM in the first place.

You are, of course, also free to consent to permanent character death in such an extravagant manner, if you desire!

Permanent death, or permadeath, is also not a ban from playing the character ever ever again. It more accurately describes needing certain circumstances and/or DM interaction to bring a character back to life. A character with no friends might be slain and destroyed the point of needing a True Resurrection to bring them back, but without friends (or funds set aside with a will; "In case of absence longer than a month, please cast take this truth of funds and cast this spell, priests at such-and-such temple!") to know they are dead, they're likely to be out of the picture indefinitely ("permanently") until that situation changes. But again, no other player can force you to perma- a character.

To go with that LL said there is the unspoken (maybe spoken?) rule that if you die in PvP and your body is burned (therefore requiring a True Resurrection spell) you can return after a brief period of time (like a day or so). This is part and parcel with the ruling that no PC can force you to be permakilled. A DM can grant that, but if you have no way of coming back (for example my cleric Salema was asked to use True Res to resurrect the turned-to-ash-and-scattered body of an old War Knights leader, rather than him just coming back after a few days, that made for some fun RP) then you can just respawn at a later date that you deem suitable.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Ok, those seem like good things to know Thank you for letting me know if I piss off the wrong person in some backwoods area I don't have to abandon the character because he isn't instated into the playerbase enough yet to have someone come looking for him. I'll just try not to die very often, though I'm not sure many players here try to die more often, so I guess I'm just doing the norm in that case.

Oh, also, if you want to generate RP you can always make an IC post in the PC Notice Board that has something to the effect of 'anyone travelling through x might notice signs of a struggle and come across a body, blah blah'. That way any interested party can get IG with you can RP out raising you and such. Just a thought, you can handle things however really long as it's within the rules.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

That would require I have some clue as to where I am, lol. I've had to swear off using that cart system because they dumping me partway to my destination and I have no clue where I am or how to get back.

Haha, map names are awesome for that Even general descriptions work, plus you can put the main part of the map name in the name of the post (ie [Amia Forest] A dead body or [Amia Frontier] or [Brogendenstein wilds], etc).

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

That's a good idea, and one I wouldn't have come up with. I'm still trying to get the feel for all of this and it's been a while since I last played NWN before this too.

No worries, almost everyone is good about being helpful around these parts. Just don't give Silent alcohol after midnight.

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Whomst've'll'd'mn't I play:
Salema Nefahri :: A penny for your thots
Zrae'a'stra'fryn :: That which nightmares are made of
Khasir :: From the East a storm is coming

Is that what triggers his mogwai transformation?

Thankfully not. He's simply usually drunk enough, by that point.

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Signature by Maryn! <3 I am also seen as DM Snuffles.