Norm said:
In a city where the magistrate or whatever ruler is usually listed as around 9-11th level, what level would you find the NPC clerics being?
I'm no slave to the rules, but I have found that the guidelines in the DMG, Chapter 5, to be fair and balanced. So, we will talk about averages, here. There are always exceptions to the rule. For a town to have a mayor being an Aristocrat level 10 or so, the town would probably be a small or large city. Let's go with a large city. In this case, you will probably have 3 clerics of 10th to 15th level, a half-dozen clerics of 5th to 7th levels, and a myriad of lower-level clerics. Again, based on your campaign and local conditions, numbers of types and levels of NPCs will probably vary.
Norm said:
If you needed to hire a cleric for a ressurection, they would need to be 11 or so I think. How common is an NPC cleric of that calibur?
Actually, a cleric needs to be 13th level to cast Resurrection; however, they only need to be 9th level to cast Raise Dead. Lets talk about game stats: Raise Dead has a material component of 5,000gp and Resurrection has one that costs 10,000gp. Add that to the suggested PHB prices of (Caster Level times Level of the spell times 10). These costs are subjective, as other posts have mentioned. Do what you will with them. The most interesting thing in the PHB to note is the fact that it says that if a spell costs more than 3,000gp to cast, it is generally not available for player characters to hire spellcasters for - except by DM judgement.
This brings me to an "in-game" aspect to think about. Let's say (using my examples above), you want to get your fighter companion raised from the dead (the level 5 Raise Dead). In this city, there are 3 people who can do this. Chances are, unless, according to the setting, there is one single dominant religion, a city of this size would have various faiths (at least 3!) represented. Larger cities would have a mix of cultures and a demand for various temples of worship. Without even getting into the "Does your character worship the same God" issue, these 3 clerics would undoubtedly be high-ranking members of their respective temples. Are these clerics always in the city? How often do they travel? Just how would your characters get an audience with them? Do these churches have so much money that they can routinely keep massive crushed diamonds on hand? Are all three of them even
Good? Are one or two of them unknown to the public in general (such as a Cleric of Nerull in the City of Greyhawk)? After these questions have been considered, THEN we can get into not only issues of faith and whether or not a character is "worthy," but also into issues of politics, greed, and related topics.
Raising the dead is a REALLY big deal, in my opinion. It is far more than simply "dropping another quarter into the arcade game."