The intention here is to not increase the lethality of the game too much for the PCs, but for death to be a real and permanent thing. The main people that this should be killing are NPCs, the intention was so that kings could be assassinated meaningfully, etc. Nor did I want to nueter lethality, hence the negative levels gained. It's intended to incite the PCs to retreat for more or less how long it would take to travel to town and get an ally raised.
Oh, and the world I'm intending this for is more or less low level, 13th level NPCs would be among the most powerful in a multi-million poulation empire.
Comments? Suggestions?
Death and Dying:
You die at hp equal to minus (your constitution score +5 per four levels + con modifier per four levels).
For a number of round equal to your Con modifer after you die you can make a Fortitude save equal to 15 plus half your level to instead stabilize at one hp higher than your death hp. This gains you one negative level per four HD, and negative levels gained this way cannot be healed except by first casting wish or miracle spells; they heal naturally after a week.
You can be raised from dead a maximum number of times equal to 1/4 your HD. The total increases as you gain more. After this only a wish or miracle spell cast before the raising spell allows you to be raised. This means that a creature with less than 4 HD cannot be returned from the dead without a wish or miracle spell.
I dunno, I suppose it would be good for keeping people dead, sort of... -waves hand- Am iffy on that.
But.. you could also just make all the NPC's for the most part in towns of equivalent levels to that of 1-6.
The reason for this ---> http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html