Options/Cost for Raising a Dead PC?

[bighara]

After that, they get the Quest or Geas thrown at them.

I've always like the idea of Quest and Geas as a sort of payment. "Sure, we'll bring your buddy to life, but now you owe us one. You remember how we were talking about those ogres?"

Whatever they ask, it's going to be painful or they'd do it themselves. What sort of payment could a group that can bring the dead back to life possibly want from you, after all?

That angle works well, and not just for dead PCs. Heck, in the Lesserton and Mor playtest, we had a PC addicted to a narcotic and the Cure Disease to get him off the stuff cost us a Quest to the ruins to secure a pilgrimage site. Of course, PCs are poor in that game (the way we play).

[MedievalKnievel]

I always charge 5,000 gp for a Raise Dead in my campaign. Actually, I made it such that the spell requires an object of great value be sacrificed to the god in question, usually in the form of a gem worth at least 5,000 gp, but it may vary by god. And this assumes the party is on good terms with the priests they are hiring for the job. If not, a Quest spell may be required as well.

It's a nice outlet for the cash the party tends to accrue, and also makes it such that raising the dead is not a trivial act. It's very rarely wasted on low level characters, as it's just as easy and much cheaper on the party to roll up a new one. Still, over the past year I think we've seen two raise deads paid for, and a third came very close until the player in question decided he'd rather start a new character.