D&D 5E Can an undead character be restored to life?

[designbot]

A character was killed and then turned into a zombie by the animate dead spell.

Is there a way for the character to be restored to life?

Raise Dead says "The spell can’t return an undead creature to life." Resurrection says "You touch a dead creature that has been dead for no more than a century, that didn’t die of old age, and that isn’t undead." True Resurrection doesn't say anything about undead, but diamonds worth 25,000 gp are way out of reach for this character.

The Monster Manual says "Once turned into a zombie, a creature can't be restored to life except by powerful magic, such as a resurrection spell." Which is confusing, because resurrection​ says it doesn't work on undead.

Can someone just kill the zombie and then restore the character's corpse, or is a dead zombie still considered undead?

 

[Kobold Stew]

I think a killed zombie is an un-undead, and the two uns cancel each other out. The corpse is dead, an scan be raised to life again.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

A zombie is still dead, whether or not it's moving around. While it's moving, it's both dead and undead. I feel like, once it's stopped moving, it's still dead but isn't undead anymore.

It's kind of a gray area.

If you're a player, then you may want to ask your DM about this. Traditionally, there was no way to return life to someone who has become undead. It was one of very few ways to kill a character off for good.

 

[Dausuul]

Can someone just kill the zombie and then restore the character's corpse, or is a dead zombie still considered undead?

The wording is very unclear. I note that the word "resurrection" in the Monster Manual is not italicized; by longstanding convention, the D&D rulebooks put spell names in italics. That suggests "resurrection" is describing the type of spell required, not specifying the actual resurrection spell, and thus any spell that resurrects the dead would qualify.

However, per the text of the raise dead and resurrection spells, they can't be cast on a corpse that is still undead. You have to destroy the zombie first. Raise dead requires a more-or-less intact corpse (no vital body parts missing or destroyed); I would rule that the damage required to "kill" a zombie leaves the corpse pounded to pulp, impossible to raise. Since resurrection does not require an intact corpse, you can cast it on the remains of a destroyed zombie. True resurrection says nothing about undeath, so you can cast it on the still-moving zombie and it works.

But that's just my interpretation of some very ambiguous text. You could easily argue that any of the three would work, or that only true resurrection would.

 

[Mirtek]

The clause is in there that you can not use raise dead or resurrection as a save-or-die (save-or-live?) spells to "slay" undead

 

[Leatherhead]

Whether or not stabbing a zombie with a sword several times is enough to counter whatever magic zombified the person in the first place is mostly DM fiat. But, I believe the intent is that you can't tie down a zombie while it is trying to eat you and cast Raise Dead to "cure" it, forcing you to destroy the creature and use the higher level spells to compensate for the bodily harm.

I suppose it also has something to do with turning ghosts and vampires into more serious threats.

 

[designbot]

I'm the DM. I think I might use this note on raise dead from the AD&D PHB:

Note that newly made undead, excluding skeletons, which fall within the days of being dead limit are affected by raise dead spells cast upon them. The effect of the spell is to cause them to become resurrected dead, providing the constitution permits survival; otherwise, they are simply dead.

 

[steeldragons]

According to what you've quoted above, the book says you need "...a resurrection spell..." Small r, which all spells in 5e are I'll grant you, and no italics, as Dausuul notes.

...Because there are TWO. There is Resurrection and there is True Resurrection. You need "a"...or, in other words, "one" of them...the True Resurrection spell in which, as noted, there is no text against using it on an undead creature.

In the case of a zombie (or any other creature), we also have the fun fact that an undead creature IS NOT the soul/spirit of what/who that creature was in life. They are driven/fueled/inhabited/however you want to define it by necrotic energy. That's what's functioning there, in a zombie. In the case of "free-willed undead" [which is something of an oxymoron, and might be more accurately described as simply "willed undead" to differentiate them from "mindless undead" like zombies and skeletons], such as wights or vampires, they are similarly not who/what they were in life, but minds and spirits that have been overrun/driven to madness by the necrotic energies or evil spirits taking over and warping the individual spirit with "inhuman" drives (soaking up "life force," in most cases) that fuel them. Hence the need/stipulation for resurrection [small "r", no italics] requiring the willingness of the creature's soul/spirit to return to life.

Long story short...this seems another case of seeing [deliberate or not] "vagueness" where none exists. You need "A resurrection spell"...that spell is True Resurrection. Reading comprehension FTW.

EDIT to add my new post disclaimer: In case it's not obvious and/or for the thick of skull or thin of skin, as with all posts on the interwebs, all of the above should be read/taken as "IMNSHO" and is not intended as insult or attack to anyone involved with this thread. /EDIT

 

[Minigiant]

The basic idea is that you have to kill the zombie to turn it back into a corpse. Then you can return the corpse to life.

Revivfy doesn't work as the spell to create zombies, animate dead, takes an hour and revivify can't return beings that were dead for more than a minute. If the undead is created in a faster method, it would work by RAW.

Raise dead is iffy. Raise Dead fails if the corpse is missing vital organs and that happens very often when killing a zombie to turn it back into a corpse and can happen during its unlife.

Reincarnate and Resurrection work as they restore the missing organs.

So step 1) You have to drop the zombie.

Step 2) You have to cast the correct spell.

Revivify, only if the creature died less than a minute ago and has all its vital organs attached. Otherwise the creature would just die again.

Raise dead, only if the creature died less than 10 days ago and has all its vital organs attached. Otherwise the spell would just fail.

Reincarnate, only if the creature is humaniod and only if the creature died less than 10 days ago.

Resurrection, only if the creature died less than 1 century ago.

True Resurrection, only if the creature died less than 2 centuries ago.

 

[aramis erak]

A vampire spawn can explicitly be brought back to life by killing them as a vampire then raising the resulting corpse. At least in the context of D&D AL play.

I can't see why other undead from corporeal remains cannot be similarly handled.