Pathfinder 1E Can you bring Undead back to Unlife?

[RUMBLETiGER]

I know you can't Raise Dead an undead to alive again.

However, is there a way to return an undead that has hit 0 hp, back to unlife? Or are they outright destroyed,
*poof*, with no way to magically get back up? Can you Animate Dead ​a dead undead?

 

[Kramodlog]

I know you can't Raise Dead an undead to alive again.

However, is there a way to return an undead that has hit 0 hp, back to unlife? Or are they outright destroyed,
*poof*, with no way to magically get back up? Can you Animate Dead ​a dead undead?

Wish and miracle should do it. Some artifact of your design should to. Lich have philateries, so that is a option to explore.

I'm not aware of a rule against animating destroyed undead. But if they are destroyed, maybe they aren't effective undead. There can be stages in a the "life" of an undead. Like a zombie's flesh rots away and it becomes a skeleton. The skeleton is destroyed and now it can only be animated in to an crawling hand. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/crawling-hand

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would certainly rule that a cleric could research a resurrection spell for the undead. I'd think that Orcus would want his most powerful creations around to plague the living indefinitely.

 

[Ramaster]

I'd say no... I does say that they are "destroyed" when they reach 0 hit points. Living creatures cannot be resurrected when they get "destroyed" (via a disintegrate spell or similar effect), so undead shouldn't be either.

 

[delericho]

In general I would say "yes" - animate dead or create (greater) undead will do the job.

Though, technically, each of these is actually creating a new undead beastie out of the corpse left behind when the previous one was destroyed. Indeed, they might not be the same undead - a ghoul could be destroyed and then animated as a zombie, for example.

I'm not aware of any way to restore a vampire or lich to its previous state, though wish would probably do it.

Edit: All IMO, of course.

 

[Tovec]

However, is there a way to return an undead that has hit 0 hp, back to unlife? Or are they outright destroyed,

Per the PFSRD on the subject:

Not at risk of death from massive damage, but is immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points. (Source: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/creature-types#TOC-Undead)

So, outright destroyed.

*poof*, with no way to magically get back up? Can you Animate Dead ​a dead undead?

Since a undead become destroyed, not become a dead/corpse again, I see no reason why they would work for animate dead or create dead spells. I could be wrong though.


However, several times in the undead description it references that undead are basically objects - as such there may be ways of repairing the undead or otherwise treating them as objects for spells (animate objects?). But failing that once an undead is destroyed you can't re-undead it (as far as I know), since the undead-ing process requires a non-undead in any instance I can find.