Do undead count as dead for the purposes of resurrection magic?

[Greywander]

Most resurrection spells have a time limit on how long ago the target died before the spell no longer works on them. What I'm wondering is if time spent undead counts toward this limit. If it doesn't, then is the time limit merely "suspended" while undead, or does dying while undead reset the time limit? In particular, Revivify has a time limit of just one minute, but has no clause restricting it from targeting undead. Personally, I'm of the opinion that undead count as dead, so if you've been undead for 200 years then you're beyond the reach of even True Resurrection.

Somewhat related, Resurrection explicitly can't target undead, but Raise Dead has no such clause. Raise Dead merely says that it can't return an undead to life. So it's pretty clear you can't cast Raise Dead on, say, a zombie that's still shuffling around in order to make it fully alive and not-undead, but if the zombie dies, would you be able to cast Raise Dead in order to return it to life? What about returning it to unlife? By contrast, would True Resurrection be able to revive an undead target that's still un-alive (but not fully dead), or would you need to kill them first?

I'm thinking more in terms of an undead PC race rather than common zombies and skeletons. Could also apply to antagonist undead like vampires and liches.

[Millstone85]

From Crawford's tweets, it appears that the [living --> corpse --> undead --> corpse] process leaves you with a corpse that no longer counts as that of the original living creature.

link (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/711023013999693824)


Raise dead: "The spell can't return an undead creature to life" (PH, 270).So a dead undead is still undead for those spells?Yes.

link (https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/709791324656902144)
If you cast revivify on a zombie, the creature returns as a zombie. The spell doesn't change creature type.

This feels like some weird rule artifact, though it could be justified in-universe as the body having been desecrated by undeath.

[Greywander]

Hmm, I feel like I have seen some of these tweets before. So according to Crawford, if you have an undead PC, you can bring them back with Revivify like normal. Presumably, this also works with Raise Dead; it brings them back to their undead state, as the description explicitly states it can't bring undead back as living.

Under this interpretation, undead does not count as being dead. Resurrection magic (except Resurrection, oddly enough) works "normally" by returning you from a dead state to an undead state.

This makes me wonder about True Resurrection. Would it bring you back as undead? Or can it return an undead to life? Maybe you can choose?

[Unoriginal]

Hmm, I feel like I have seen some of these tweets before. So according to Crawford, if you have an undead PC, you can bring them back with Revivify like normal. Presumably, this also works with Raise Dead; it brings them back to their undead state, as the description explicitly states it can't bring undead back as living.

Raise Dead does not work on Undead, at all.



Under this interpretation, undead does not count as being dead. Resurrection magic (except Resurrection, oddly enough) works "normally" by returning you from a dead state to an undead state.

Aside from Revivify, most resurrection magic does not work on Undead, as their wordings indicate.




This makes me wonder about True Resurrection. Would it bring you back as undead? Or can it return an undead to life? Maybe you can choose?

True Resurrection can bring back a creature that was turned into an undead, or the undead.

[Greywander]

Raise Dead does not work on Undead, at all.
Hrm, Revivify (and Raise Dead) does state that the target "returns to life", so if "returns to life" means that a zombie comes back as a zombie, then I suppose the clause in Raise Dead that says it can't return an undead to life would prevent it from working. Unlike Resurrection, though, Raise Dead can still target an undead, it just can't return them to life. Which, I suppose, means that it does nothing?

Why the difference in the way these two spells are worded, then, I wonder? Raise Dead could have just as easily said, "You return a dead creature you touch to life, provided that it has been dead no longer than 10 days and isn't undead." This would match the wording of Resurrection (more or less).