Resurrection in the Campaign
In order to justify that even nobility and influential people DO die, there will be a certain amount of uncertainty in resurrection (and raise dead, etc.). For a character to come back from the dead, he must roll a Charisma check. The base DC of this check is 4, modified as indicated on the following table:
Base DC of resurrection check.....4
Person has died before.....+ 2 for each previous death
Cleric performing ritual is of same faith as person being raised.....- 2 AND minus the Cha bonus of priest
Person has lived quite piously and true to his faith.....- 2
Person has lived impiously, and/or paid little attention to matters of religion.....+ 4
Person has performed several great services for the faith of the cleric performing the ritual in the last several years......- 2
Person has performed numerous great services for the faith of the cleric performing the ritual in the last several years.....-4
Person has actively wronged or opposed the faith of the cleric performing the ritual in the last few years.....+ 4
Person has grievously wronged, or aggressively opposed the faith of the cleric performing the ritual in the last decade.....+ 8
Person is an atheist ....+ 8*(see note)
Cleric performing ritual is of an 'allied faith' to that of the person being raised.....minus the Cha bonus of priest
The faith of the cleric and that of the person being raised are ambivalent or neutral towards one another.....+ 4
Cleric performing ritual is of an 'opposed faith' to that of the person being raised.....+ 8
The faith of the cleric performing the ritual is actively an enemy of the faith of the person being raised......No chance of success
*Note that in the case of an atheist, not only is the DC modified by +8, but most clerics will be of a faith considered at the very least 'neutral or ambivalent' towards atheism, resulting in an additional +4 to the DC, for a total of +12. Also, many faiths are NOT ambivalent towards atheism, and in such cases the 'opposed faith' modifier is added as well. Atheism is not a good idea if you want the gods to be willing to return you to life. . .
Failure: This attempt cannot be 'retried.' Matters of the divine are not to be trifled with, and only one raise attempt can be made per death. One must choose wisely the priest to perform such a ritual the first time, for the gods simply won't even listen a second time. (Think of it as multiple attempts being viewed as 'badgering the gods,' something which is just never a very good idea.)