D&D 5E Which spells restore a zombie?

[maritimo80]

A FIGHTER was killed by finger of death, he turned into a zombie and was killed again as a zombie.

What Spell restores the FIGHTER back to life ?

Resurection or/and True Resurection or/and Wish ?

 

[evilbob]

Raise Dead should work, as long as it's been less than 10 days. Reincarnate sort of works. The spells you mention would work.

I am coming at this from the perspective that "being a zombie" doesn't change anything and standard "return to life" spells will work.

 

[Sunseeker]

A FIGHTER was killed by finger of death, he turned into a zombie and was killed again as a zombie.

What Spell restores the FIGHTER back to life ?

Resurection or/and True Resurection or/and Wish ?

I would say True Resurection, Wish and Reincarnate would all be fine, however regular Resurection has a caveat that it cannot revive the undead, I'd apply that to an undead corpse as much as a "living" undead.

 

[ghostofchristmaspast]

Monster Manual page 315 : "Once turned into a zombie, a creature can't be restored to life except by powerful magic, such as a resurrection spell."

 

[maritimo80]

Monster Manual page 315 : "Once turned into a zombie, a creature can't be restored to life except by powerful magic, such as a resurrection spell."

Resurection spell don't works with UNDEAD.

 

[evilbob]

regular Resurection has a caveat that it cannot revive the undead

I thought that was saying that undead cannot be brought back again as undead using resurrection magic - like, you can't restore a vampire that has been killed into a vampire again using resurrection magic. In other words, "life magic" can't be used to restore/create undead.

Monster Manual page 315 : "Once turned into a zombie, a creature can't be restored to life except by powerful magic, such as a resurrection spell."

That seems like a decent point of confusion, especially how it's ambiguous as to whether "powerful magic" could include a lower-level spell like Raise Dead. I suppose Raise Dead says it doesn't cure magical diseases / curses / similar effects, which might include "being a zombie." But how else do you remove "being a zombie" other than killing it?

For what it's worth, the new Curse of Strahd adventure specifically implies that Raise Dead can restore an undead creature to it's pre-undead life, such as zombies or vampires being turned back into villagers. Of course, you could also argue that since magic specifically works slightly differently there, it doesn't make this a general rule.

Open to DM interpretation?

 

[ghostofchristmaspast]

Resurection spell don't works with UNDEAD.

Kill them first of course.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

How it's always worked is that you need Resurrection or better to bring a creature back to life that had been turned into an undead. They can't be used to revive the undead themselves though and don't work if the undead is still alive.

 

[Demorgus]

A FIGHTER was killed by finger of death, he turned into a zombie and was killed again as a zombie.

What Spell restores the FIGHTER back to life ?

Resurection or/and True Resurection or/and Wish ?

Are you trying to bring him back as a zombie or as the fighter?

If you're trying to bring back the zombie, then Raise Dead makes sense. If you're trying to bring back the fighter, than I would go with the advice from the Monster Manual.

 

[ghostofchristmaspast]

Are you trying to bring him back as a zombie or as the fighter?

If you're trying to bring back the zombie, then Raise Dead makes sense. If you're trying to bring back the fighter, than I would go with the advice from the Monster Manual.

Schrödinger's fighter