D&D 5E Looking for some resurrection rules

i have done many things in the past...

Currently i use "soulcatchers" as "pre-components".

To be brought back by anything more than easy revivify (which is just magic CPR in my view) the dead guy needs to have had a "soulcatcher" on them and attuned when they shuffled off their mortal coil.

A "soulcatcher" is a device that is expensive and mystically crafted that captures the soul and keeps it from moving on so that it can be used when raise dead etc return the body to life. Soulcatchers are basically very tough and durable but can be most any form.

When a raise dead is done with a body the soulcatcher is consumed (and that more than covers the listed material cost) and the soul bound back in. more powerful magics that can restore body have "casting time costs" associated with making the body.

this sets up a world in which the wealthy and the powerful can arrange for themselves to be covered for resurrection but the vast majority of the populace have to deal with dead and gone day-to-day.

opens up lots of storylines around gaining access to, crafting, selling soulcatchers by temples, organization, arcane orders of necromancy, legal issues here, allowed only for royals there etc etc etc. Providing access to soulcatchers can be a "perk" or "signing bonus" for accepting dangerous missions.

What all number of bad things can happen if your "occupied soulcatcher" falls into someone else's hands before allies can get you brought back?

How many missions might there be hired by relatives to go find loved one's missing soulcatcher?

How many missions spawn from finding a loaded soulcatcher?

etc...

Also, if you want to make it even more of a "burden" make a soulcatcher an "attunable" thing - so that having it eats up one of your attunable slots?

now, if no soulcatcher is available/attuned at time of death - then we talk basically gone - barring some major friggin quest thing that requires a *willing* life for a life in trade plus all sort of other stuff.

In previous games, i had "post-death scenes - visions and such for the dead guy - that took place between sessions mostly - which always led to a choice at the end and a new revelation.

i also had cults that believed the bringing back the dead was "blessing by the goddess of death" or "insult to the goddess of death" and depending on which cult's zealots you ran into - things would get interesting. Same game had a series of "talents/feats/features you could gain access to only after dead-and-back - showing you were not quite the same.

SIDE-BAR: While many focus on "new ways to rezz" i think the first party of the discussion for any table and setting is "ways to die." The ways a PC can die affect its frequency and importance and should lead directly into the rezz setting rules. You really cannot IMO have one decided in isolation to the other and get a reliably good outcome. In my games, you get "dead by stupid" and "dead by choice/neglect" and never "dead by dice" so i can afford a lot more leeway with rezz difficulties and costs than i would if "dead by dice" was a thing.


FYI - IMO Soulcatcher also translates well info Scifi settings - Altered Carbon anyone?

First, add a zero to those prices. 5,000 gp for raise dead and 10,000 for resurrection can change the expectations quite a bit.

If you aren’t playing with a high level world, there probably aren’t many NPC clerics high enough level to cast it. So you’ll have to convince the patriarch of somebody to assist you.

Then there is the social stigma, because who knows what complications might involve coming back from the dead? All of those stories about fiends possessing the body, or coming back as undead, or an agent of Death coming to reclaim the soul... Everybody has heard those legends, or they should. Rulers don’t get resurrected (unless they’re a tyrant) because the masses couldn’t trust that what came back was actually their original ruler still of sound mind.

Now if crazy adventuring PC clerics want to plink down a bunch of cash and bring back their allies? Let them. They are unsavory sorts anyway. (Or they are such great heroes that people avoid asking those questions because they are glad to have them back saving the day. Or the party just keeps the death and resurrection out of the headlines.)

Also, I increase the 4 long rest recovery time to 4 months for raise dead and 4 weeks for resurrection.

While it hasn't come up yet, I use 3 potential consequences. Each of these is a 1d20 roll. On a 1, something bad happens. On a 20, something good happens. I don't use this for Revivify, which I see as magical CPR.

1) Something came along. On a 1, some monster returned from the land of the dead. On a 20, it's a deceased ally (albeit one that's now a friendly undead).

2) Memories. IMC, time moves differently for the dead. A person who was dead for a day may have reincarnated and had a family. Or may have spent a near eternity in heaven/he'll. Either way, remembering the afterlife can cause serious issues for even a hero's mental health. On a 1, they have some form of PTSD. Perhaps they resent being wrenched from their next life, or they made peace with their death and laid down their burden, or they're simply insane from thousands of years of torment. On a 20, they remember potentially useful future events.

3) Physical changes. On a 1, they have some deformity or vulnerability from having been brought back. For example, they might be unnaturally chill, and suffer vulnerability to fire as a result. On a 20, they gain a benefit. For example, they might be able to speak to the recently deceased.