Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
IME all that does is distort the purpose of the spell being in the game in the first place. Either you wish to allow players to resurrect their characters or you don't. If it's the former there's no reason to put excessive costs and restrictions upon obtaining the spell. If it's the latter you should be removing the spell entirely. The problem doesn't lie with the spells or their accessibility - it lies with the too-casual attitudes of players towards their characters deaths.Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but I would like to add a perspective about aquiring the materials none of you guys seem to have mentioned.
My point is: Diamonds. 5000 gp for a raise dead, 25000 gp for a true ressurection. If I want to limit the availability of ressurection in my campaign I limit the access to these components.
Players will ALWAYS pay the extra costs right up to the point that you make it a practical impossibility to afford it - at which point you are merely using the most annoying way of banning it's use/availability. The purpose of the spell is COMPLETELY meta-game related and attempts to regulate its use should not be handled in-game by pricing it out of players reach. All it will do is alienate and frustrate players without otherwise changing their attitudes and approaches to the subject.