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

[steeldragons]

Using vampires as the precedent on which to base other undead-related stuff is...ill-advised.

Aside from that, according to the OP, there is an explicit detail of the zombie that they require a high level resurrection spell. So, what works on Vampire Spawn and what works on a zombie are not the same thing...nor should they be.


*SD's universal 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.

 

[Green1]

Well, in mindless undead like skeletons or zombies, the spirit is long gone to whatever plane. Even if the zombie is still alive, you can raise/resurrect , but the lower level versions of the spells require a corpse which is kind of being borrowed and you would have to "evict" whatever makes it a zombie by beating it till it does not move then do the Raise Dead. In True Resurrect, a new body is created, so what happens to the corpse matters not. The patient could meet his zombified corpse.

 

[Azurewraith]

Rule one my friend your the DM you can do what ever you want. True Resurrection should work just fine or you could go through a nice plot point to unzombify the character by taking him to the lost temple of the raven queen and preforming a ritual at the height of a black full moon.
[MENTION=92511]steeldragons[/MENTION] is it that bad that you need to put disclaimers in your posts that you may not be 100% serious dear god what has the world come to.

 

[Ahrimon]

I've always looked at as while undead the body is filled with necromantic energies that are animating it and preventing the original soul from returning. In order to return someone to the living that has been turned to an undead you have to defeat the undead and then cast the appropriate spell. Many undead have been that way for a very long time so you end up needing high level magics.

I actually have a 5e character that has this backstory. He was a lord of a small area that went bad. Eventually he was killed and raised by a necromancer as an undead warrior to lead his armies. Hundreds of years later the heroes defeat him but accidentally pick up part of him instead of their ally that he had stripped to a skeleton. When they went to raise their friend they got him, but he doesn't remember much of his past life or the time that he was undead. Just vague memories of what he had done and memories of his spirit being tortured so he's looking for redemption.

 

[Fanaelialae]

As I see it, an undead that is put down is by definition no longer undead. It's dead (Jim). Therefore you can restore that creature to life provided the spell you use meets the appropriate critieria (the creature hasn't been [un]dead too long, etc).

 

[Hand of Evil]

Wish could do it.

But more important is; what is your world myth on the soul/spirit? Does it move on right away or does it stick around, get judged and then goes to its assigned place? If you have your world myth setup, you can then have exceptions to the rules, like a cleric that leads the party to recover the soul and bring it back before it moves on.

 

[steeldragons]

@steeldragons is it that bad that you need to put disclaimers in your posts that you may not be 100% serious dear god what has the world come to.

Seems so. One never knows what people are going to read in one's responses. And, frankly, I'm tired of getting PMed about something I say that some whiny and/or entitled and/or easily "offended" and/or just plain dense reader takes offense to. Better yet/more likely, the "way" I say it is viewed as some personal attack...or simply putting forth a preference of my own is somehow perceived as personal affront...and then [ultimately pointless] arguments ensue.

SO, to have everyone clear that what I say, in fact, has nothing to do with other's egos or personal well-being...that because I like/want/say something I enjoy does not make it an attack on what you [any other person] like/want/enjoy...and even if I do attack or insult an idea or style or dispute a logic or line of thinking that I do not agree with, that is not an attack/insult on the person(s) making or liking the idea/style/"logic"...it seems the most prudent and expedient course.

The running amok of political correctness, the age where everyone gets a trophy for showing up, and no one is ever deemed "wrong" for their opinions (unless that opinion is pointing out fact or even /proving/ the "wrongness" of others) is to blame [imnsho]. But whatever the cause/source, it's irrelevant. Just easier to preemptively say "I'm not interested enough in you to try to bring you down or out to get you nor have any power through my digitized letters on this screen to take your fun away" up front. Whatever I say is "my opinion." No, you don't have to like it...But you certainly don't have to/there's no reason to be "insulted" by it either.

I whole-heartily agree, it's sad.

EDIT TO ADD: In this particular case it is to avoid the pointless 20 reply posts of "that's not how undead/vampires/zombies/spells work [in my games]" and "that's not how I read it/you're wrong!"



*SD's universal 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.

 

[Scorpio616]

It looks like somebody had 3Era on the brain when they wrote the MM text. 3Era had specific stipulations; undeath & death magic boned being raised and you only had until nightfall to raise someone killed by energy draining.

Raise Dead
A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can’t be raised by this spell. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can’t be raised. The spell cannot bring back a creature that has died of old age.

Resurrection
You can resurrect someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. You cannot resurrect someone who has died of old age. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can’t be resurrected.

Energy Drain
A character with negative levels at least equal to her current level, or drained below 1st level, is instantly slain. Depending on the creature that killed her, she may rise the next night as a monster of that kind. If not, she rises as a wight.

 

[the Jester]

My (tentative, unresearched) opinion is this:

You've been killed and turned into an undead? Raise dead won't work on you anymore, not even when you've been "re-killed". But resurrection will work on you once you're killed again. It takes a true resurrection to skip the "kill the undead thing first" step and just change you from (say) a zombie back to a living being.

 

[steeldragons]

Wouldn't just killing a zombie and then resurrecting the zombie get you (if the spirit chose to return), a "living" sentience in a still-zombified body?