Hey, all. I wanted a bit of a harsher death penalty in my DnD5e game to make things a bit scarier and more serious for my players. Take a look and let me know what you think and what you'd tweak or change. Thanks so much! http://worldbuilderblog.me/2014/09/11/you-only-live-thrice/
You forgot the the Revivify spell (3rd level) on your list.
One of the replies on there mentioned each return from death lowers by one the amount of failed death saves you can take before you die. That seems a neat solution.
In past versions we have just banned these these types of spells - if you die, you die. Really sharpens play 
I like to keep things simple. First, I let them take over a NPC immediately because everyone is there to play. After the session, I talk to them about letting their character stay dead and how the death will impact the story, and the joys of playing a new character. You would be surprised how many players willingly take this option after a few days away from the table - well over 50% in my experience.
If they do want to keep their character, we work out a story consequence with an emphasis on the worse it is, the more fun it can be to play. Maybe they lose a hand, or they can no longer speak. That kind of thing.
Shh! No spoilers if that sounds familiar! 
Ansbach wrote:
Personally I don't see a legit reason to punish characters further if their character dies. Buuuuuuut, you can always do something wiggity whack like say some wicked bad villain traps their soul, then throws it in a bag of holding with a portable hole and the gem carrying their soul is lost forever. THAT would make em be more careful. haha.
OR just don't make the spells / items available. Or make it a huge quest to track down the supplies necessary to rez their fallen comrades. Or talk to the player of the croaked pc and ask them if they'd be ok to play a new pc; one that doesn't suck so bad and die all the time. woot! :D
Use Divine Intervention from a bad guy cleric to disappear the soul / body of the fallen pc.
Either way, the most important thing of all and the only thing that matters is that everyone is having fun. If I had a DM that punished me further for a character dying, I'd stop playing with them. Though I generally only die if on the super rare occasion that it's a total tpk. haha.
I like the idea of having the deceased PC hang around in "ghost" form. (Not an official monster ghost, just as a non-physical PC.) The "punishment" would be not physically engaging with the game until the party found a way to ressurrect him/her. I feel like that would help players stay connected to their characters and give justification for not taking an XP hit. The PC would still be part of the game -- they could provide recon, yell suggestions in combat, keep watch, etc. -- but wouldn't be able to wield a weapon, cast spells, disarm traps, etc. This wouldn't work well in a very heavily "hack-and-slash" game, but if you have a group that actively engages in immersive roleplay, it would provide a unique alternative to "ordinary" death.
Seem to recall one of the Gold Box AD&D games had a rule that every time a character was raised from the dead, their Constitution score was reduced by 1. I actually don't remember if that was a book rule in 1st Edition or not, but if you made it two points, you'd have a pretty effective "bite" to death-- you come back weaker, and it'll take you four levels to fix it.
So, why is it that you want to implement this rule? You make the following claim (emphasis mine):
I have a bit of a problem. Some of my players have begun to look on dying as a minor inconvenience rather than the big deal it should be. You see, my players are seasoned, and know that when their PC dies, there’s always a raise dead or resurrection spell to be cast. For the most part, I’m ok with this. D&D is just a game after all, and as long as my players are having a blast, who cares if they’re coming back from the dead? But this has really begun to go too far…
When a character dies, he or she may spend a session or two playing another character while their original’s corpse spends its time gentle repose-d in a bag of holding, but eventually they find that diamond, or scroll, or rod and they’re able to bring the old character back to life. They have even begun to see the death of major NPCs as, “Oh well, we can just raise them later,” as opposed to the big story moments they should be.
Jimbro, in my 1e days as a teen (a long time ago) we made it so that coming back from the dead drained 1 point of constitution, but it actually added XP to the character (20% or so...I can't remember the exact number). Our rationale was that the shock was damaging to the body, but the experience itself enlightened the PC in a way he could never have been enlightened by mortal experiences. It was kind of like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner approach. The con loss was penance for enlightenment. This worked pretty well. At least it helped us keep PCs in the game and give us a way to make it make more sense in our collective narrative.
Well I remember back in the day, losing Con was typical for raise dead. Then there was the concept of permanently losing a level. Both were pretty harsh. The current system isn't entirely forgiving, but if you need something more harsh, those can be pretty painful. I recognize you want to deter death but a person can just roll a new character, same as the old. So...all harsh death penalties really do is make someone waste time and lose fun. I don't know many players who want to lose their character unless they have an idea for a new one they want to try...which circumvents the need for more harsh death penalties anyway.
Llenlleawg wrote:
Rhenny wrote:
teron82 wrote: