Preventing Death with Lvl 9 Wizard

[HMS Invincible]

Alright, I'm in a small bind that I decided to expand upon because it would make for an interesting challenge and contribute to the storyline. We have forbidden knowledge that would be detrimental to the deities if they were to ever find out. They would find out if we were to blab in public about it or if we die and go to our deity's home plane. Since none of us are planning to talk, I want to plan in case anyone dies. The time spans I'm worried about are the next couple sessions, next few months, and 60 years which is the lifespan of the shortest living member.
The DM informed me that I MAY have a few rounds while they were dead before any deity would notice, but stopping them from dying in the first place would be better.

I only got 5th level spells right now, and I rather not resort to incantation magic if I have a choice. If I had unlimited magic, contingency + soul jar or something like that enchanted upon a trinket that I give them. Should I ask the DM for help via homebrewed or special requirement spells? I'm a conjurer, and I banned illusion and evocation.

[Elrihm]

Yeah, contingency with some sort of death delaying spell. My personal favorite way to fight the inevitability of age is to create another body that doesn't age with craft construct, and possess it via magic jar. I got my DM to houserule a continuous magic jar wonderous item for 90,000 gold, DC 14 will save. Um...other than that, there are any number of ways. Give me some time with my books and I'll come up with a more satisfactory answer.

[HMS Invincible]

If I can do it without their knowledge, that would be a nice bonus. Cost isn't really a problem, it'll be an adventure trying to acquire the materials without paying for it.

[Elrihm]

Well...here's what I've come up with so far. Not terribly helpful but...you could use the spell trap the soul, or soul bind as a contingency. It's hideously evil to cast on friends, but it keeps the knowledge safe. For the greater good and all that.

[HMS Invincible]

How many contingencies can I stack on an item? Also, I've banned evocation so how do I get contingency type things to occur? Do I need certain item creation feats? I hope not because I don't have any feats to spare.

[holywhippet]

Not the best option, but having a barghest feed on one of the PCs might technically destroy it's soul. I'm not certain though - the MM entry says wish, miracle and true ressurection only have a 50% chance of working.

If you had a lot more levels you could use the clone spell - or maybe you could get some scrolls of it somehow?

[Seonor]

While perhaps not what you are looking for, there are several spells that alter memorys. An item that removes the forbidden knowledge upon death of the wearer could be a quick fix until you are able to find a method not to die in the first place.

[Cyrion]

If you've got a cleric in the party, they're much better suited to the task with two spells from the Spell Compendium. The first, whose name I'm blanking on at the moment, allows you to restore life temporarily, but at the end of the spell they fall dead again. This can be cast within either rounds or minutes of death and lasts long enough that you can get to them with the Revivify spell, which raises them without level loss, but only if cast within 1 round of death.

Another possibility is to make a pact with an entity from another plane besides your deity's, so that if you die your soul goes to another plane.

What have you specialized in? You could simply go paranoid and any time you think they're in even the remotest danger of death you "rescue" them. Make liberal use of things like benign transposition, dimension step, levitate, etc. to get them out of danger.

[HMS Invincible]

If you've got a cleric in the party, they're much better suited to the task with two spells from the Spell Compendium. The first, whose name I'm blanking on at the moment, allows you to restore life temporarily, but at the end of the spell they fall dead again. This can be cast within either rounds or minutes of death and lasts long enough that you can get to them with the Revivify spell, which raises them without level loss, but only if cast within 1 round of death.

Another possibility is to make a pact with an entity from another plane besides your deity's, so that if you die your soul goes to another plane.

What have you specialized in? You could simply go paranoid and any time you think they're in even the remotest danger of death you "rescue" them. Make liberal use of things like benign transposition, dimension step, levitate, etc. to get them out of danger.
I'm a conjurer, and I banned evo and Illusion. Anyway, what about that memory jar cheese I heard about? You could store your memory in an item and any attempts at probing would only reveal that they have a hidden memory but not what the memory is.
As for the proactive role, I'm already adventuring with them but I'm not always by their side. Simply quickly reviving them midcombat isn't the greatest idea since the bad guy will simply attack the weakened PC. Is there an item that auto stabilizes and prevents additional damage? They had it in 4th edition. It was like shroud of revival or something.

In addition, I think I need to invest in the bluff skill. I need to deceive those who inquire why I would want such a device and maybe my fellow PCs who don't appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

Lastly, I don't want to involve too many people. Asking them to provide me an item is different from asking someone to snatch and watch over their soul. The forbidden knowledge is that the old gods are still alive and there is a way to seize divine rank/power from other gods.

[Elrihm]

Well....Magic Jar is really for possessing a new body entirely, not for storing memories. It is a medium between your original and new body. There is an enchantment that you could cast, I can't remember the name, that creates entirely new memories and destroys the old ones, after a certain trigger.

[Redshirt Army]

Well, once you get to 9th's, Programmed Amnesia or Mindrape can remove the knowledge entirely, though since Programmed Amnesia is only permanent, it can be dispelled, and Mindrape (as the name would suggest) is on the deep end of the alignment pool.

Modify Memory might work, depending on the details of this forbidden knowledge, but again, it's only permanent.

Of course, this all depends on the cosmology of your campaign - after all, secrets and forbidden knowledge are part of the portfolios of more than a few gods.

So far, I'm liking the plan of selling your souls the most, since then they never end up with the gods in the first place - though you might just try and convince the gods that the secret must remain just that (Still depends on cosmology and the secret, though.)

[Analytica]

Scrolls of Stasis Clone (Lords of Darkness, 9th wiz/sorc)? Create clones, if you ever die, you lose a level and wake up in the clone.

[Elrihm]

I think I might have found the answer! Give them all items with a contingent Temporal Stasis, and tell them it's something else. The wording on temporal stasis says that no force or effect can harm them, and they do not age. As with everything else, this is only permanent magic, so it could be broken or undone. Still, given the options, it's not a bad one.

[HMS Invincible]

Hmmm, how about a flesh to stone or polymorph type spell? That would hinder someone from continuing their attack into lethal territory.