Getting Brought Back from the Dead

So, you're dead. Now what?

Essentially, the key to your chances of being brought back to the land of the living depends on how important you are to fulfilling a god’s goals. This affects both your chances of that god’s clergy being willing to cast the relevant spell (Raise Dead, Resurrection or True Resurrection) and of the god granting your soul’s passage back to the mortal coil. (It should be pointed out here that Revivify is a special case, because it seeks to restore a creature to life before the soul has departed the area, and therefore rarely fails.) Clerics, and to a slightly lesser extent, paladins, in good standing have an advantage in this area, because they are by definition part of a god’s efforts to achieve their aims. For these reasons, it makes sense for the religion most closely associated with you be petitioned for the divine rites to bring you back.

The usual cost for casting a generic fifth level spell is 250 gp, but Raise Dead has a special material component that adds 1000 gp to the price. The diamond required for casting the spell only has a 500 gp value, and a well-disposed cleric (or very high level paladin) might be willing to accept the gem in lieu of the usual material component surcharge. Such gems, of course, are not very common, and there is always a demand for high value diamonds in the circles that can afford them.

Resurrection is a special case, because it is debilitating to the caster as well as you. Instead of the usual 490 gp cost to cast a seventh-level spell, it costs 2000 gp. On top of that is another 2000 gp surcharge for the diamond required to cast the spell, although clerics are usually quite willing to be given the gem because of how hard they are to find in that size. Similarly, True Resurrection costs 4000 gp instead of the usual 810 gp for a ninth-level spell. Following the conventional pattern of doubling the material cost, there would be a 50,000 gp surcharge, but the truth is that clerics very rarely have 25,000 gp diamonds in storage, and sourcing, even in large cities, is a long and arduous process.