Do you allow resurrection-type magic in your campaign?

[Zappo]

Yup. That's a big part of why I allow it as per the PHB. The cost isn't 5000 GP, it's diamonds worth 5000 GP. While most parties can somehow put together 5000 GP when they really need to, finding that worth in diamonds isn't easy at all unless you are in a very big city (and even then, I'd say that it takes some time). And that's just for raise dead.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Sure, I allow it. After all, one of them has to survive to cast the spell or order its casting...

 

[Ibram]

IMC death is very perminent, The God of the Dead does not easily let souls pass back into the mortal world. Resurection in the traditional sense of the word is always the result of some unique occurence (such as the action of a Saint).

there are other ways to bring someone back to "life" but those dont usualy work out very well... spells such as "Unhallowed Revitrification of the Flesh" and "Dark Resurection" often come at a high price.

 

[Munin]

I allow reincarnation as is. It's a cool spell, one of the few in the PHB that isn't generica.
No true rez, but I do allow raise dead, with a minor caveat:
Lord Death is the being tasked with ferrying souls to their various destinations after they cast off the mortal coil.
Once a soul reaches it's final destination, it is either in torment, or in eternal bliss, for the most part. Either way, it is not available for return to the living world.
It is possible to barter with Lord Death for the soul in question. Understandably, Lord Death is not an easy person to negotiate with. She doesn't exactly have many needs in a material way. However she does crave souls, so from time to time she will allow soul to be exchanged for soul. Enter the side quest. Lord Death is Neutral. Good and Evil are not her concern, only souls are. Thankfully (for the pc's at least) those who would cheat death are usually evil anyways, eliminating those pesky alignment issues, but the rat bastard GM has been known to send the party Paladin off on the morally ambiguous quest in order to raise that fallen ally.

 

[LadyIslay]

In one of the games I play in, the DM has a 'three strike' rule: if you get brought back from the dead three times, Jergal (FR) starts getting pissed off that his records constantly need changing, so he won't allow the fourth. I kind of like this idea, so I use it in my games. Also, since it is FR, I warn players up front that if they don't have some kind of patron, getting raised is going to be a great deal more difficult, since they could get judged as one of the Faithless and be tossed on the Wall, making them quite unraiseable.

 

[TheFan]

Footnote at the end of the "spellcasting and services" section on page 129 of the 3.5 PHB:

"See spell description for additional costs. If the additional costs put the spell's total cost above 3,000 gp, that spell is not generally available except by the DM's permission."

Therefore, the way I restrict it is that unless you're a member of the church or perform a great deed in service to them, the local temple will not raise you.

On the other hand, if a PC cleric wants to liquidate his assets to get 5,000 gp worth of diamonds to raise his buddy (a little less than 1/7th of a 9th level PC's total wealth), then by all means.

As for issues of kings and nobles being raised, I only do that in the case of an accidental death or a death in war. If it's part of a coup, then the conspirators take it into account and make it very, very inconvenient to raise the king.

 

[jmucchiello]

Yup. That's a big part of why I allow it as per the PHB. The cost isn't 5000 GP, it's diamonds worth 5000 GP. While most parties can somehow put together 5000 GP when they really need to, finding that worth in diamonds isn't easy at all unless you are in a very big city (and even then, I'd say that it takes some time). And that's just for raise dead.

Our party has a standard cut that goes to the party treasurey. All diamonds recovered automatically go into the raise dead fund -- pre-cut. One time they were short on funds and I made the entire treasure small diamonds and about 50 cp. They divided the cp among the group and put all the diamonds in the fund. The raise dead fund is split up among everyone in the party so that if Bob decides for fall into the volcano, he can't take all the diamonds with him. When the party is in a big city, the party fund is used to purchase diamonds.

It's getting to the point where I'm going to start hand waving the diamond requirement because they are taking care of it.

Besides I'm one of those people who hate material/focus components that are cost based but that require specific items. How many carets is 5,000 gp of diamonds. Well, as diamonds become scarce, the number of carets required to reach 5,000 gp goes DOWN. Then there's the cleric saying to the character holding the tiniest spec of diamond "I'll give you 5,000 gp for that tiny spec of diamond." POOF you have the spell component. Nonsense.

At the point where the party can do their own resurrections, they can also teleport to Diamond town and get large diamond rocks for pennies and then take them back to Scarce town and have them cut into 25,000 gp gems.

 

[jmucchiello]

Footnote at the end of the "spellcasting and services" section on page 129 of the 3.5 PHB:

I tend to ignore this part of the rulebook for one reason: How much does Cure Light Wounds cost to be cast at the temple of her most merciful? How much does CLW cost to be cast at the temple of his most money grubbing-ness? The same amount? Pish-posh. A temple to her most merciful should give away CLW to anyone who is brought in. Free. No hint at a donation being in order.

 

[Ferret]

I'm unsue but there should be prices to pay, like finding the soul (not in the plane sense) or something. I don't like reincarnate as it is, I might rework it.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I use the same resurrection rules as the Player's Handbook. It hasn't caused me any problems yet.