The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
If a creature was undead, and is reduced to 0 hit points and dies, then it is still undead despite now actually being dead.
This means that after being turned into a zombie by Finger of Death, it is not possible to cast Raise Dead on a character. You therefore cannot cast Animate Dead on the remains of a Zombie, as it was/is an undead creature target.
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
Good point :)
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
A corpse, as has been pointed out, is not an undead creature ... it is a dead undead creature which may be an object. By that logic, you could then cast Raise Dead on the corpse of a humanoid that spent some time as an undead but was later "de-animated" since the corpse itself is NOT an undead creature.
I think I prefer this interpretation suggested by Wolf :)
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
Good point :)
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
A corpse, as has been pointed out, is not an undead creature ... it is a dead undead creature which may be an object. By that logic, you could then cast Raise Dead on the corpse of a humanoid that spent some time as an undead but was later "de-animated" since the corpse itself is NOT an undead creature.
I think I prefer this interpretation suggested by Wolf :)
I prefer that interpretation as well, actually. I think I'll play it that way too :)
If objects doesn't have creature types then Animate Dead becomes a non-starter as the spell requires "a corpse of a Medium or Small humanoid".
There is a subtle difference between typing an object and describing the source of an object. No one here thinks “a toenail of a medium or small humanoid” means that the toenail is a humanoid, right?
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
Good point :)
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
A corpse, as has been pointed out, is not an undead creature ... it is a dead undead creature which may be an object. By that logic, you could then cast Raise Dead on the corpse of a humanoid that spent some time as an undead but was later "de-animated" since the corpse itself is NOT an undead creature.
I think I prefer this interpretation suggested by Wolf :)
I prefer that interpretation as well, actually. I think I'll play it that way too :)
It would sure suck the danger out of a lich or Strahd if you could just raise dead them into a humanoid noble or magic user with basic stats.
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
Good point :)
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
A corpse, as has been pointed out, is not an undead creature ... it is a dead undead creature which may be an object. By that logic, you could then cast Raise Dead on the corpse of a humanoid that spent some time as an undead but was later "de-animated" since the corpse itself is NOT an undead creature.
I think I prefer this interpretation suggested by Wolf :)
I prefer that interpretation as well, actually. I think I'll play it that way too :)
It would sure suck the danger out of a lich or Strahd if you could just raise dead them into a humanoid noble or magic user with basic stats.
You would have to kill them first so hardly an I win button lol. Plus that whole "willing" part doesn't really help.
It would sure suck the danger out of a lich or Strahd if you could just raise dead them into a humanoid noble or magic user with basic stats.
Hehe yeah it'd be too easy. That would be a cool mission goal actually to have to go find the undead villain's lair, and bring him back to life!
(You just gave me an idea for my campaign tx loll I could design some form of variant Raise Undead ritual, which could involve a skill challenge to accomplish while fighting my villain... )
Gonna be a party-pooper and point to Resurrection:
You touch a dead creature that has been dead for no more than a century, that didn't die of old age, and that isn't undead. If its soul is free and willing, the target returns to life with all its hit points.
You touch a creature that has been dead for no longer than 200 years and that died for any reason except old age. If the creature's soul is free and willing, the creature is restored to life with all its hit points.
This spell closes all wounds, neutralizes any poison, cures all diseases, and lifts any curses affecting the creature when it died. The spell replaces damaged or missing organs and limbs. If the creature was undead, it is restored to its non-undead form.
It's pretty clear from these spell descriptions that dead creatures are considered to have types, which are the type of creature they were when they most recently died. Also that allowing Raise Dead to restore an undead creature to its non-undead form is taking a feature from a 9th-level spell. It also removes the sense of urgency of preventing a slain fellow party member from becoming undead when there are means of preventing that, like Gentle Repose or Revivify.
But nothing's stopping you from doing things differently in your campaign; not many parties attain 9th-level spells, after all, and those do sound like interesting adventure hooks.
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Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
Don't worry, you're not being a party-pooper. You're missisng the point. "[A]nd that isn't undead" can be exactly interpreted the way I describe in post #22. "If the creature was" is still not describing the creature type of the corpse, it is describing what the creature was before it died.
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The spell Raise Dead states:
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
If a creature was undead, and is reduced to 0 hit points and dies, then it is still undead despite now actually being dead.
This means that after being turned into a zombie by Finger of Death, it is not possible to cast Raise Dead on a character. You therefore cannot cast Animate Dead on the remains of a Zombie, as it was/is an undead creature target.
That could be what that says, but maybe it is telling you that you can't turn a currently functioning zombie back into a live, non-undead humanoid person.
Good point :)
The spell can't return an undead creature to life.
A corpse, as has been pointed out, is not an undead creature ... it is a dead undead creature which may be an object. By that logic, you could then cast Raise Dead on the corpse of a humanoid that spent some time as an undead but was later "de-animated" since the corpse itself is NOT an undead creature.
I think I prefer this interpretation suggested by Wolf :)
I prefer that interpretation as well, actually. I think I'll play it that way too :)
There is a subtle difference between typing an object and describing the source of an object. No one here thinks “a toenail of a medium or small humanoid” means that the toenail is a humanoid, right?
It would sure suck the danger out of a lich or Strahd if you could just raise dead them into a humanoid noble or magic user with basic stats.
You would have to kill them first so hardly an I win button lol. Plus that whole "willing" part doesn't really help.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Hehe yeah it'd be too easy. That would be a cool mission goal actually to have to go find the undead villain's lair, and bring him back to life!
(You just gave me an idea for my campaign tx loll I could design some form of variant Raise Undead ritual, which could involve a skill challenge to accomplish while fighting my villain... )
Gonna be a party-pooper and point to Resurrection:
And True Resurrection:
It's pretty clear from these spell descriptions that dead creatures are considered to have types, which are the type of creature they were when they most recently died. Also that allowing Raise Dead to restore an undead creature to its non-undead form is taking a feature from a 9th-level spell. It also removes the sense of urgency of preventing a slain fellow party member from becoming undead when there are means of preventing that, like Gentle Repose or Revivify.
But nothing's stopping you from doing things differently in your campaign; not many parties attain 9th-level spells, after all, and those do sound like interesting adventure hooks.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
Don't worry, you're not being a party-pooper. You're missisng the point. "[A]nd that isn't undead" can be exactly interpreted the way I describe in post #22. "If the creature was" is still not describing the creature type of the corpse, it is describing what the creature was before it died.