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Returning from the dead is an ordeal. Magic that restores dead characters to life deals with cosmic forces, and pulling a creature’s soul back from the realms whither it goes after death is not without consequences. Characters who return from the dead may need extensive periods of time to recover, and may suffer strange side effects. In extreme cases, the resurrection magic may fail entirely.
When returning a dead character to life with magic, the character who is to be resurrected rolls a resurrection check (d20 + the dead character’s Wisdom modifier + other modifiers; see Resurrection check modifiers, below), and the DM (secretly) rolls 1d6, and consults the tables below to determine the results of the resurrection attempt and any side effects that may accrue to the revived character.
(Note that a “resurrection spell”, as the term is used here, includes raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, reincarnate, and any similar effects that restore a dead character to life; it does not include the breath of life spell, which returns a character’s soul to their body before the soul has had time to depart to the afterlife.)
Resurrection check modifiers
All applicable modifiers to the resurrection check are cumulative unless noted otherwise.
State of soul
- −1 for each side effect already suffered
- −10 if character was turned into undead creature and then destroyed
- modifier for being dead for week or longer at the time when the resurrection spell is cast (apply only the largest modifier from the table below):
| Resurrection check penalty… | If dead for at least one… |
|---|---|
| −2 | week |
| −4 | month |
| −7 | year |
| −12 | decade |
| −20 | century |
State of body
- −5 if character was instantly destroyed (e.g., by massive damage), or if body was destroyed after death (e.g. by burning)
- −10 if character was slain by death magic or similar (e.g. a destruction spell, or disintegration), or if body was specially annihilated after death (disintegrated, or consumed by charnel fire)
Spellcaster
- +1⁄2 the caster level of the resurrection spell
- +2 if cast in temple of spellcaster’s deity (or other appropriately consecrated location with a permanent shrine to the spellcaster’s deity)
- +2 if the dead character is of the same faith (or follower of the same deity) as the spellcaster
- +0 if using raise dead or reincarnate
- +4 if using resurrection, wish, or miracle
- +10 if using true resurrection
Resurrection check results
The result of the resurrection check (see above) determines whether the resurrection attempt succeeds, and (assuming success) how much bed rest (if any) the revived character needs thereafter; see Table: Resurrection Check Results, below.
| Resurrection check results (condition & recovery) | |
|---|---|
| 1d20 + Modifiers | Condition & Recovery |
| 0 or lower | The spell fails to restore your life. |
| 1–10 | The spell restores you, but at great cost. You are exhausted until you’ve had a month of complete bed rest. |
| 11–20 | The restoration of life and limb was intense. You are exhausted until you’ve had 2 weeks of complete bed rest. |
| 21—25 | The spell restores your health. You are exhausted until you’ve had 1 week of complete bed rest. |
| 26 or higher | You are instantly recovered without need of rest. |
Exhaustion resulting from being resurrected cannot be alleviated by magic, but its duration can be halved with long-term care via the Heal skill.
Regardless of the result of the resurrection check, when a dead spellcaster is restored to life, all prepared spells are lost, and all spell slots are expended. (New spells may be prepared, and spell slots regained, in the usual manner.)
If the resurrection attempt fails (the result of the resurrection check is 0 or lower), the spell (or spell slot) is still expended, and the spellcaster suffers the secondary effects of casting (e.g., exhaustion), but the material components of the spell are not consumed. Further attempts at resurrecting the same character may usually be made; see Resurrection side effects, below, for details.
Resurrection side effects
The result of the resurrection check (see above) determines which row of Table: Resurrection Side Effects (below) specifies the side effects of the resurrection attempt; the 1d6 roll (made by the DM in secret) determines which of the side effects on that row of the table takes place. See below for explanations of table entries.
| Resurrection side effects | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side Effects (1d6) | ||||||
| 1d20 + Modifiers | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| −6 or lower | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return. | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −1). | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −3) | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −5). | Soul is lost or destroyed. | Soul is lost or destroyed. |
| −5–0 | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at +1). | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return. | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −1). | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −3). | Soul imprisoned or otherwise not free to return (repeated attempts at −5). | Soul is lost or destroyed. |
| 1–5 | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. |
| 6–10 | Your brush with death has shattered your former confidence. Take a −2 penalty to Will saves until you gain a character level. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. |
| 11–15 | No side effects. | Your brush with death has shattered your former confidence. Take a −2 penalty to Will saves until you gain a character level. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. |
| 16–20 | You feel blessed. You recover 1d6 days quicker than you normally would. All negative side effects are removed. | No side effects. | Your brush with death has shattered your former confidence. Take a −2 penalty to Will saves until you gain a character level. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. |
| 21–25 | Your brush with death has gifted you with the ability to speak with dead once per week. All negative side effects are removed. | You feel blessed. You recover 1d6 days quicker than you normally would. All negative side effects are removed. | No side effects. | Your brush with death has shattered your former confidence. Take a −2 penalty to Will saves until you gain a character level. | Strange side effect. | Strange side effect. |
| 26 or higher | You gain permanent power. Gain +2 in your class’s key ability (Strength for warriors, Dexterity for rogues, primary spellcasting ability for mages and priests). All negative side effects are removed. | The sublime power grants you a vision which you believe is of terrible import. The DM will give you a (true?) prophecy. | You are filled with divine power. For one day, you gain the benefits of a heroism spell. All negative side effects are removed. | No side effects. | Your brush with death has shattered your former confidence. Take a −2 penalty to Will saves until you gain a character level. | Strange side effect. |
Failed resurrection checks
When a resurrection attempt fails, there are three possibilities for what may cause the failure: the departed soul refuses to return; the departed soul is destroyed or lost; or the departed soul is imprisoned or somehow prevented from returning to the mortal world. The caster of the resurrection spell knows which of these three possibilities is the reason for the spell’s failure, but does not know any details beyond that.
Soul refuses to return
A soul cannot be returned to life if it does not wish to be. A soul knows the name and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and may refuse to return on that basis. In such a case, the resurrection attempt fails regardless of the result of the resurrection check.
Soul is lost or destroyed
It is said that the souls of the departed are consumed by demons, or join in eternal union with the Shining Lord, or dissolve into the oblivion of nothingness (as befits the faith and character of the departed individual). This, evidently, does not take place immediately after death (else resurrecting the dead would be flatly impossible); it is known that those who have been dead longer are harder to bring back, but the nature of the afterlife is largely a mystery, so no one knows how to predict when a fate like this will befall (or be bestowed upon) a departed soul.
There are also stories of departed souls that wander the dim and distant places of the afterlife, beyond the reach of resurrection magic. Whether this is a punishment for one’s deeds in life, or some manner of cosmic accident, none can say; indeed, such tales are obscure and largely apocryphal, and sorting fact from fiction on this subject is nigh-impossible.
In either case, the resurrection spell fails, and subsequent attempts are likewise doomed to failure. Nothing short of a wish or a miracle will suffice to restore the lost soul (whereupon a resurrection spell must still be cast; however, any result less than 1 on the resurrection check made when casting said spell is treated as a result of 1).
Soul is imprisoned or otherwise prevented from returning
The soul of the departed character may be restrained, imprisoned, or otherwise prevented from returning to life, by the will of extraplanar powers or entities. The nature of such powers and such restraints may vary greatly, depending on the faith (or lack thereof) of the character in life, or as a consequence of certain actions taken by the character during their life, or due to unknown and unpredictable aspects of the afterlife.
In any event, if this result is rolled, the dead character makes a Charisma check against DC 5. Success means that the character is offered the opportunity to buy or earn (depending on one’s perspective) his or her freedom. Usually this takes the form of a quest, which is imposed upon the character the next time they are returned to life. (Needless to say, deliberate failure to carry out such a quest has substantially more severe penalties than normal; it is also nearly impossible to remove with magic, requiring a wish or miracle to do so.) Should the departed soul agree to the deal, a subsequent resurrection attempt is guaranteed to succeed (any result less than 1 on the resurrection check made on the subsequent attempt is treated as a result of 1).
If the Charisma check is failed, or the offered deal rejected, further resurrection attempts may still be made. However, these attempts are not guaranteed to succeed; furthermore, the indicated modifier (if any) is applied to both the resurrection check and (if applicable) the Charisma check made if the “soul is imprisoned or otherwise not free to return” result is rolled on the subsequent attempt.
Side effects of successful resurrection
If the “strange side effect” result is rolled on Table: Resurrection Side Effects, then the DM rolls on the Strange Side Effects of Resurrection table in secret to determine the side effect incurred.
Some side effects are evident at once; others may reveal themselves only gradually or much later. Side effects of resurrection are permanent. A wish or a miracle spell can remove resurrection side effects; they can also be removed by being brought back to life after dying again, and rolling an “all negative side effects removed” result on the table. In some cases, it may be possible to remove or mitigate a side effect by some other means.
The full gamut of resurrection side effects is very large (and there is every reason to believe that there exist potential side effects which are as yet unknown), but it certainly includes such possibilities as:
- You have the pallor of death about you, and no tincture or perfume can conceal it. You take a −2 penalty to Charisma-based skill checks made to interact with living creatures, and +1/−4 to reaction rolls with living creatures, but you gain +0/+4 to reaction rolls with undead. You are harmed by positive energy and holy water, while negative energy heals you; you may be commanded as if you were undead (by command undead), etc.
- Dark power leaked in while you were being restored. You are harmed by holy water (but not by unholy water). You may be affected by magic that affects evil outsiders (such as holy smite). (You are still native to your home plane, however, so you cannot be dismissed or banished.)
- Something wicked has taken an interest in you. An imp or similar creature (DM’s discretion) becomes your familiar, but it does not always obey your commands.
- You have been permanently connected to an extraplanar font of pure life force. You gain fast healing 1. You glow like a candle to the unliving; all undead can sense your presence within 60 feet.
- Your soul is marked. Extraplanar beings can perceive this mark, and usually either fear and avoid you, or hate and try to slay you.
- Animals are frightened by your presence. You can only ride magical or polymorphed beasts. Any animal companion you have runs away from you unless you win an opposed Charisma check (which must be repeated weekly), or compel the creature to stay via magic, etc.
- It feels like another being sometimes controls your dominant arm. When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, you hit an adjacent ally instead of an enemy.
- You occasionally speak in tongues. When in combat or at other times of stress, make a Will save (DC 15); failure means that you can speak and understand only a strange language (which may be a language native to another plane, or something even more exotic; in all cases, this is a language you did not know prior to your death) until the moment of crisis has passed. This does not interfere with spellcasting, but does apply to language-dependent spells and effects.