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We'll all be there; The dead guy/people don't want to reroll, so, how do you DxM them back while still keeping death, well...deadly? I thought of that, and came up iwth this thread.
1. A mysterious force identifying itself as "A concerned citizen" offers to resurrect the party/person in exchange for a favor, to be chased in at a later date. THe/She/It explains this is a one-time deal.
2. A classic: As the PC dies he is sees a bright white light at the end of a dark tunnel. As he/she reaches he end of the tunnel a voice says "It is not your time!" and the PC is returned to life (with level loss as per raise dead)
note: I've never used this, or any other reason, I prefer dead characters stay dead lol
3. A conveniently passing-through priest comes across the party and offers to raise their dead compatriot(s). For a price - not necessarily in gold - of course.
Bonus points, if they fail to hold up their end of the bargain, the raised PC suddenly becomes undead.
4. The people who just killed the PC squirrel away the body, get it resurrected, and have a geas placed on him. This can work for any enemy of the party, not just the murderers.
You do know that a person knows who is trying to ressurect them, and can refuse?
5. (a frustrating classic) Dead character wakes-up in his/her bed, panting and sweating. "It has been a dream all along" you say, then proceed to explain the other players that they can restore all consumables they used and erase all the loot they have acquired since the last game. Then argue with the players whether or not they should receive XPs...
6. An epic thief steals the jar/cart/ship/whatever in which the souls of today's dead are carried to [insert cosmology's place for dead], and bring it back home to resurrect his friend.
While the thief and his friend wander-off singing in the sunset, the character stands in a small crowd of confused, recently resurrected people.
7. A small party of outlandish people materialize moments after the bad guys are defeated/good guys ran away, and resurrect the body. They proceed to explain that they come from the future and that after years of research and divination magic, they traced the imminent destruction of the world to the premature death of [insert PC's name]. For their world to survive, [PC] must live (for now).
If players bring out the paradox that the situation brings, the future people scream in agony and are immediately disintegrated.
You do know that a person knows who is trying to ressurect them, and can refuse?
Of course. But we're listing 101 Deus ex Machinas, and my suggestion would work on plenty of PCs. Just not the paladin. Besides, the baddies could always hire a neutral priest.
You must travel to the underworld to bring his/her spirit back to the world of the living because the PC is not actually dead as his/her soul was stolen at the last instant by...insert bad guy here.
9. Your twin brother has arrived to avenge you!
10. As above, but it's actually a creature created from a Mirror of Opposition. The being is currently uninterested in killing the party, but that won't last.
11. You don't actually die when you should. For some reason Death (or accepted representative[s] thereof) never arrives to collect your soul. Either you can be healed as normal despite being in far-negative HP, or you spontaneously become undead, GM's choice. But now you have to find out what's up with the death god/dess or psychopomps and why souls aren't being collected from the slain... especially when your enemies start having the same thing happen to them.
12. The character wakes up, alive again. A mysterious figure is standing over him. If the PC asks what happened, the figure replies, "Someone else has chosen to take your place." A bit of investigation reveals that a loved one is now dead. More investigation reveals that the loved one learned of the PC's death and agreed to die in place of the PC. If the character is lucky, it was a servant of Death who made the offer. If not, a contract devil :)
13. You're in the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror. All you need to do is die, and Kaidan's reincarnation mechanic takes over. Your accumulated karma points accrued in life, plus your base karma score, plus any modifiers due to spells and effects = X. Look on the reincarnation chart to whom you reincarnate into (X = target victim). Your death spirit attempts to possess a living person that matches your reincarnation destination based on the table. If possession is successful your spirit takes over the person's body and the previous body inhabitant is killed - you awaken, having reincarnated. If your attempt fails your spirit is either is given an undead template (you are undead now), you are sentenced to Jigoku (hell) and are now an oni, or relegated to new born status - all as NPCs, roll up a new character.
You don't have to do anything else, except die, above happens to everyone who dies in Kaidan...
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7. A small party of outlandish people materialize moments after the bad guys are defeated/good guys ran away, and resurrect the body. They proceed to explain that they come from the future and that after years of research and divination magic, they traced the imminent destruction of the world to the premature death of [insert PC's name]. For their world to survive, [PC] must live (for now).
If players bring out the paradox that the situation brings, the future people scream in agony and are immediately disintegrated.
If I may suggest an alternate ending:
The future people realize the paradox problem whether or not it's pointed out by the PCs. They start arguing amongst themselves about why Weird Things haven't started happening to them, and conclude that it's because they got must have got the wrong person, after all. Of course, now they think they need to kill the person they just resurrected to restore the timeline.
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14) a lawful evil cleric necromancer happens upon the players and makes an honest offer, a scroll of ressurection (or services himself) in return for a blood price* the cleric is simply looking to see how far people will go to save those they care about. He uses divination to find anyone who died near friends and come to lend his services.
* this can be a quart of blood, a hand, 4 fingers, an ear, or an eye.