How can you bring back a character who had been made into a zombie

[dreamspeaker]

Last night a party member was killed by a giant then was Animates by a necromancer we were fighting.
We then did non lethal damage to kill him, I hit him with the flat of my blade (which the DM said worked but I don't).
How do we then go about raising him if we can because as I understand it he has been tainted with undead.
We did raise dead on him but now re-reading spell don't think it would work.

Help Please.

[Whale_Cancer]

True Resurrection can bring creatures who were turned into undead back to life.

[TGMaxMaxer]

Resurrection works, Level 7 cleric spell. So long as you "re-kill" the old body first.

[dreamspeaker]

Is that the only spell that will

Was I right that now he is classed as a zombie and that hitting him with the flat of my blade would not kill him.

[TGMaxMaxer]

Undead are immune to non-lethal, which is what flat of the blade makes it usually.

Yes, you were right, he wouldn't even notice it.

[Kayerloth]

dreamspeaker wrote:

Is that the only spell that will

Strictly speaking no, True Resurrection, Wish and Miracle could also do it. That's just from the CRB spells, might be more spells that aren't CRB especially if you toss in 3rd party sources.

dreamspeaker wrote:

Was I right that now he is classed as a zombie and that hitting him with the flat of my blade would not kill him.

As TGMaxMaxer said his 'undead traits' prevent non-lethal damage from working. Your DM may have been confused as normally a zombie has DR=5/slashing meaning many swords would have defeated its DR when used for lethal effect. Or maybe he was just trying to give the player of the zombie a way to be rescued but didn't want to come right out and say so.

[DonDuckie]

Maybe find a homebrewed ritual and return his conscience to his new undead form and turn him into a juju zombie.

[Kayerloth]

Quote:

We did raise dead on him but now re-reading spell don't think it would work.

Totally missed this earlier. Yes you are correct the spell Raise Dead specifically says it won't work on Undead.

last paragraph of Raise Dead:

A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be raised by this spell. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can't be raised. The spell cannot bring back a creature that has died of old age.

As a total aside and entirely a how it works for my world(s) as GM (99% of the time). Any spell a divine caster has is entirely at the whim of his deity or otherworldly power. Casting a 5th level spell, namely Raise Dead, is something said deity is going to inherently and immediately be aware of ... and if that deity decides for some reason it wants (through the PC) to restore life to your companion it is going to happen regardless of what you might think you just cast or what your true desires might be. It's a deity after all.

There's also all sorts of "caveats" to that may be in place such as only the deity of death can release a soul, or the deities have some binding agreement in place about how to go about such things etc., etc..

[Hakken]

You don't need true resurrection. Even regular resurrection will work.

You can resurrect someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. You cannot resurrect someone who has died of old age. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can't be resurrected

but no--raise dead will not work.

caveat--you would need true resurrection for an aasimar or a tiefling or any other outsider.

[Luke_Parry]

Hakken wrote:

caveat--you would need true resurrection for an aasimar or a tiefling or any other outsider.

Actually, that is not quite correct - Native Outsiders like Tieflings and Aasimars can be brought back with Raise Dead and Resurrection:

PRD wrote:

Native Subtype

This subtype is applied only to outsiders. These creatures have mortal ancestors or a strong connection to the Material Plane and can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be. creatures with this subtype are native to the Material Plane. Unlike true outsiders, native outsiders need to eat and sleep.