Spell to restore undead character to life

[Yogibear41]

Most of the raise dead spells won't bring back an undead character to life without having said character killed (again) first. Is there a spell that can be used to restore a willing undead character back to life without having to kill him again first? Bonus points if there is one that can do it without level loss.

[Inevitability]

Revive Undead, from the Spell Compendium and Libris Mortis.

At least, assuming you wanted to restore the dead body of an undead creature to unlife. If you wanted to restore the undead body of a living creature to life without first killing the undead body, things would get trickier. In such a case, I can't think of anything but a Wish or Miracle.

[Yogibear41]

I'm talking about the latter :smallsmile:

Say I got a vampire, who has his free will and wants to be turned back into a human. :smallsmile:

[Inevitability]

Say I got a vampire, who has his free will and wants to be turned back into a human. :smallsmile:

A human? In that case it's easy enough.

1. Cast Embrace the Dark Chaos on the vampire to switch out one of its feats for a random Abyssal Heritor feat (say, Claws of the Beast).
2. Cast Shun the Dark Chaos on the vampire to swap Claws of the Beast for Human Heritage.
3. ?????
4. Profit!

Bonus points: you keep your vampiric abilities.

EDIT: Nevermind, EtDC only works on living creatures.

[Silva Stormrage]

I'm talking about the latter :smallsmile:

Say I got a vampire, who has his free will and wants to be turned back into a human. :smallsmile:

Polymorph Any Object technically works but not really.

In this instance why couldn't you just kill the vampire and cast resurrection? The vampire not trusting you to actually resurrect him? He could just dominate the person to resurrect him after killing him.

Or a contingent resurrection upon his death if need be.

Edit: Human heritage reaaaally doesn't do that much. I mean he would still have no con score and would be effectively undead despite being a weird undead/human hybrid. Still would need to drink blood/negative levels as well as simply gaining the humanoid type doesn't remove the vampire dietary requirements. Probably couldn't eat/sleep/ do other things people who have flesh and blood bodies want to do.

[Coidzor]

Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.

So to avoid level loss (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#undeadType), True Resurrection it is. So without an Epic level Cleric, you better hope that vampire hasn't been undead for much longer than 2 centuries (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueResurrection.htm).

Yes, it's really counter-intuitive that the rules aren't actually in the spell description and are instead in the write-up for the Undead type.

[hamishspence]

And given the "turned into an undead creature and then destroyed" requirement - just casting it on the vampire won't work - even if they are willing - you have to "destroy" them before casting the spell.

[Tiri]

And given the "turned into an undead creature and then destroyed" requirement - just casting it on the vampire won't work - even if they are willing - you have to "destroy" them before casting the spell.

Well, it makes sense from a certain point of view. After all, you can't resurrect them if they are still 'alive', just powered by negative energy instead of positive.

[ericgrau]

And if true resurrection can't do it, doing it with a wish or miracle is dubious too. Wish specifically says to bring someone back to life by mimicking a resurrection spell. Anything beyond that is a dangerous wish.

It makes sense. To remote auto-defeat a powerful undead foe is too much even for a 9th level spell. Maybe if there was an HD cap on the undead and he got a save on top of that, it would be fair for a very high level spell to bring a very weak undead back to life.

[DrMotives]

A human? In that case it's easy enough.

1. Cast Embrace the Dark Chaos on the vampire to switch out one of its feats for a random Abyssal Heritor feat (say, Claws of the Beast).
2. Cast Shun the Dark Chaos on the vampire to swap Claws of the Beast for Human Heritage.
3. ?????
4. Profit!

Bonus points: you keep your vampiric abilities.

EDIT: Nevermind, EtDC only works on living creatures.

I understand how Dark Chaos shuffle works. However, Human Heritage's "must be taken as a first level character" requirement means I would never allow that kind of cheese to add it into an undead to revert them to life. That's one of the most broken things people regularly suggest in this forum.

[Silva Stormrage]

I understand how Dark Chaos shuffle works. However, Human Heritage's "must be taken as a first level character" requirement means I would never allow that kind of cheese to add it into an undead to revert them to life. That's one of the most broken things people regularly suggest in this forum.

Most people who suggest Human heritage suggest taking it at 1st level. The feat doesn't stop working once you become undead. It would go Human with Human Heritage -> Undead still having the feat which means for all effects and purposes he is humanoid except for undead traits/abilities.

[DrMotives]

Most people who suggest Human heritage suggest taking it at 1st level. The feat doesn't stop working once you become undead. It would go Human with Human Heritage -> Undead still having the feat which means for all effects and purposes he is humanoid except for undead traits/abilities.

Absolutely not. Human Heritage doesn't lock your type in as humanoid forevermore, it changes your type to humanoid when you acquire the feat, if you weren't already humanoid. Much like the many PrCs which change your type aren't trumped because "The MM says I'm a humanoid, so I still am" an outsider or whatever who becomes humanoid by grace of Human Heritage feat can't ignore future things that change type to something else again. It's just like template stacking. Sure, that (human) subtype tag isn't going anywhere, as very few things strip subtypes away from creatures, but the feat doesn't protect your creature type from future changes like the vampire template changing it to undead.

[Coidzor]

And given the "turned into an undead creature and then destroyed" requirement - just casting it on the vampire won't work - even if they are willing - you have to "destroy" them before casting the spell.

If it's destroyed then it's no longer an undead creature, which would invalidate the text on the undead type about Resurrection and True Resurrection.

They're mutually contradictory rules and you just have to choose which one you go with, there's no right or wrong answer.


Well, it makes sense from a certain point of view. After all, you can't resurrect them if they are still 'alive', just powered by negative energy instead of positive.

Sense is what you make of it, really. It can go a number of ways. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReviveKillsZombie)