A question about low level res and the spell compemendium

[Fiendish_Baby]

So when I purchased the Spell Compendium for 3.5 I read in the reviews that through a spell combination you could achieve a low level res spell. I can't for the life of me figure it out though, any advice into this?

[Curmudgeon]

The spell Revivify (Spell Compendium, page 176) brings a dead character back to life, but with a very stringent time limit: within 1 round of their death. The combination you need is to add Revenance (on the previous page) to extend that, because that spell works for creatures dead up to 1 round/level. When Revenance ends you've got a new time of death, and can be ready to cast Revivify within the round.

[Chronos]

Note that Revivify and Revenance are both the same level as Raise Dead. What makes this combination special is that neither one causes the loss of level like Raise Dead does, and they cost less in diamonds than Raise Dead does.

[Diarmuid]

While not strictly a "rez" effect, the Close Wounds spell is 2nd level, an immediate action, and can somewhat negate a killing blow on an ally within Close range.

It can heal up to 9 points of damage and if that healing would bring the target back below -10 HP then they are not dead and are stable at whatever HP total the Close Wounds spell would leave them at.

Edit - Of note, Revenance is 4th leve, while Revivify is 5th level.

[Naomi Li]

Pathfinder fixes this loophole abuse by making their version (temporary resurrection) not count as actually reviving them as far as real resurrection spells are concerned and thus their death time doesn't reset.

I wouldn't be particularly surprised if some annoyed DMs ruled the end of revenance to be a death effect just to stop things like this.

[Psyren]

Huh? Temp Res does make you die again, so the clock would reset. The only difference is that you still count as dead while it's active, so you can be hit with a rez without waiting for you to die again.

In any event, the penalties for death in PF are less severe so it's not as big a deal whether you rush out Revivify or not.

[Naomi Li]

I interpreted the "still counts as a corpse for resurrection spell" clause as meaning that as far as they're concerned the person has stayed dead the entire time, and once it ends they're transitioning from ambulatory corpses to unmoving corpses, and the resurrection timer is not reset in any way. It's not explicit, though, so... *Shrugs*

My favourite (Pathfinder) resurrection trick is gentle repose on the person within one round of their dying and then as many breath of life spells on them as required to get them back to living.