A wraith can cause the spirit of a dead humanoid to rise as a specter, but what effect does this have on the creature's ability to be resurrected? An effect like this usually puts explicit restrictions on resurrection, but this effect seems to just let the flavor text imply that this is really bad. The description of the specter mentions the destruction of its soul, but it doesn't actually say what destroys the specter's soul. People just assume that this is the death of the specter.
The DM may rule differently on the specifics, but generally speaking, a creature raised as an undead can no longer be revived by normal means. You will need an effect like True Resurrection or Wish, which do not require a body.
I agree with the Wish spell, but regretfully have to point out that a Specter is not a free soul that is required by spells like True Resurrection and Raise Dead. Subsequently, that specific text is missing from Revivify, which means that it effectively turns into a race between the party and the Wraith, as the Wraith can only Create Specter within the first minute of a creature's violent death. So there may be the "out" you're seeking.
So, that brings you back to destroying the Specter.... Nothing specified. Syntax error - (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? DMs gonna have to decide what destroys a Specter. High enough (8th Level?) Cleric -Destroy Undead would qualify, I think. Mace of Disruption should do the trick. Holy Water? Sunlight? Up to the rule of cool at that point.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
This seems to be a holdover from earlier editions when "save or die" was a thing, in this case no save even. Something just never revised to be compatible with most of the feel of 5E. By RAW it's all over. As a rule suggestion? Use the first rule, DM decides the rules, DM Fiat. When you have to consider 9th level spells to resolve the actions of a level 5 CR creature, you know there is a problem.
If the player character wishes to remain a Specter, they can stay that way. I would allow this. They become an NPC. I'd allow a PC one, but they would be confined to the listed stat block and could not increase in level. If they don't want to stay as one, looking at the text under the stat block, it says they believe themselves to be beyond redemption. That would take a Wish to change them back. An alternate way would be to destroy the Specter, and then go find the soul or spirit of the character in the afterlife. For spirits, it might be the Feywild or the Shadowfell, and it's pretty easy to get to those places. Souls would go to the Outer Planes in D&D, So you could use Plane Shift to get them, or find your way through the Astral Plane somehow, and then I do believe, Raise Dead would bring them back to life, and then you could escort them back home.
It occurs to me that Gensai have an Elemental in their ancestry, so they would return to the Elemental planes. I believe you'd need to travel though the Ethereal plane to get to them.
The way I see it, there is some room for interpretation with undead and resurrection spells.
For sure it can't resurrect an undead as an undead nor can it target a still "living" undead to cure it. But not being able to resurrect a humanoid that was previously an undead is an assumption not actually written in the rules.
As for the specifics of specters and their descriptions. It is probably RAI that the soul is lost (and thus unable to be revived), but that is ultimately up to the DM.
I guess it comes under your definition of what the properties of a soul are. The only rule book I know of for that hasn't really been updated for a couple of thousand years, has been translated a great many times and could thus contain errors, and the sage advice hasn't been all that useful, as they are entirely composed of option and there has been no official errata published by the original source so far.
By the rules of D&D, it does not seem like souls can normally be destroyed. When the body they were in no longer contains it, it just goes somewhere else. Possibly, based on the way native inhabitants of the outer planes merely reform as pretty much the same thing after being destroyed outside of their home plane, if you managed to track down the soul and destroy it in the afterlife, that would destroy their soul, and a properly worded Wish might still be able to bring it back, or a Cleric could use Divine Intervention.
All the spells I know about say that if the person doesn't want to come back to life, the spell doesn't work. It isn't easy to force them to come back if they don't want to. That would require a Wish or Divine Intervention as well. Casting Wish is dangerous to start with. Using a couple isn't advised, and expecting a god to take a hand in things more than once isn't a good idea. Even the nice ones have a habit of messing with you. Orpheus tried to get the woman he intended to marry back. Look what happened to him. Hades isn't all that nice to start with, and all he asked was one thing. Show a little faith, and don't look back to see if she's following you. The tale of Orpheus is a tragic story, because he looked back.
Once again, there's a story about the true authority on Souls, and about people looking back at things, and it didn't come out so well.
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A wraith can cause the spirit of a dead humanoid to rise as a specter, but what effect does this have on the creature's ability to be resurrected? An effect like this usually puts explicit restrictions on resurrection, but this effect seems to just let the flavor text imply that this is really bad. The description of the specter mentions the destruction of its soul, but it doesn't actually say what destroys the specter's soul. People just assume that this is the death of the specter.
The DM may rule differently on the specifics, but generally speaking, a creature raised as an undead can no longer be revived by normal means. You will need an effect like True Resurrection or Wish, which do not require a body.
I agree with the Wish spell, but regretfully have to point out that a Specter is not a free soul that is required by spells like True Resurrection and Raise Dead. Subsequently, that specific text is missing from Revivify, which means that it effectively turns into a race between the party and the Wraith, as the Wraith can only Create Specter within the first minute of a creature's violent death. So there may be the "out" you're seeking.
So, that brings you back to destroying the Specter.... Nothing specified. Syntax error - (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? DMs gonna have to decide what destroys a Specter. High enough (8th Level?) Cleric -Destroy Undead would qualify, I think. Mace of Disruption should do the trick. Holy Water? Sunlight? Up to the rule of cool at that point.
Good Luck and Have Fun!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
This seems to be a holdover from earlier editions when "save or die" was a thing, in this case no save even. Something just never revised to be compatible with most of the feel of 5E. By RAW it's all over. As a rule suggestion? Use the first rule, DM decides the rules, DM Fiat. When you have to consider 9th level spells to resolve the actions of a level 5 CR creature, you know there is a problem.
Destroy the Specter and you should be able to resurrect the character. They can't be resurrected until the Specter form has been destroyed.
If the player character wishes to remain a Specter, they can stay that way. I would allow this. They become an NPC. I'd allow a PC one, but they would be confined to the listed stat block and could not increase in level. If they don't want to stay as one, looking at the text under the stat block, it says they believe themselves to be beyond redemption. That would take a Wish to change them back. An alternate way would be to destroy the Specter, and then go find the soul or spirit of the character in the afterlife. For spirits, it might be the Feywild or the Shadowfell, and it's pretty easy to get to those places. Souls would go to the Outer Planes in D&D, So you could use Plane Shift to get them, or find your way through the Astral Plane somehow, and then I do believe, Raise Dead would bring them back to life, and then you could escort them back home.
It occurs to me that Gensai have an Elemental in their ancestry, so they would return to the Elemental planes. I believe you'd need to travel though the Ethereal plane to get to them.
<Insert clever signature here>
The way I see it, there is some room for interpretation with undead and resurrection spells.
For sure it can't resurrect an undead as an undead nor can it target a still "living" undead to cure it. But not being able to resurrect a humanoid that was previously an undead is an assumption not actually written in the rules.
As for the specifics of specters and their descriptions. It is probably RAI that the soul is lost (and thus unable to be revived), but that is ultimately up to the DM.
I guess it comes under your definition of what the properties of a soul are. The only rule book I know of for that hasn't really been updated for a couple of thousand years, has been translated a great many times and could thus contain errors, and the sage advice hasn't been all that useful, as they are entirely composed of option and there has been no official errata published by the original source so far.
By the rules of D&D, it does not seem like souls can normally be destroyed. When the body they were in no longer contains it, it just goes somewhere else. Possibly, based on the way native inhabitants of the outer planes merely reform as pretty much the same thing after being destroyed outside of their home plane, if you managed to track down the soul and destroy it in the afterlife, that would destroy their soul, and a properly worded Wish might still be able to bring it back, or a Cleric could use Divine Intervention.
<Insert clever signature here>
All the spells I know about say that if the person doesn't want to come back to life, the spell doesn't work. It isn't easy to force them to come back if they don't want to. That would require a Wish or Divine Intervention as well. Casting Wish is dangerous to start with. Using a couple isn't advised, and expecting a god to take a hand in things more than once isn't a good idea. Even the nice ones have a habit of messing with you. Orpheus tried to get the woman he intended to marry back. Look what happened to him. Hades isn't all that nice to start with, and all he asked was one thing. Show a little faith, and don't look back to see if she's following you. The tale of Orpheus is a tragic story, because he looked back.
Once again, there's a story about the true authority on Souls, and about people looking back at things, and it didn't come out so well.
<Insert clever signature here>