So, when a Vine Leshy PC dies, they explode. Great for the plants all around it, bad for the Leshy's friends who don't have a body which they can use as a focus for Raise Dead or Resurrection. True Resurrection will, of course, work, but that's not really going to be an option for most parties. So, what to do (outside of bringing in a new character)?
Well, Vine Leshies are Leshies, as you can tell by the name. And characters can grow leshies using the proper rituals, as outlined in Bestiary 3. And the requirements for the Vine Leshy creation ritual are detailed in Ultimate Wilderness.
So, if the PCs want to make their Vine Leshy ally a new body after the old one got trashed, can they do so using the Leshy creation rules that are presented in Bestiary 3 and Ultimate Wilderness? And how much would it cost to do so if they can?
Dippin' Dot
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Reincarnate would work, but if you use the table in Inner Sea Races there is virtually no chance of coming back as another Vine Leshy.
There is an archetype with a capstone ability that lets one of the plants that grows from your remains serve as your new body.
The ritual for creating a new Vine Leshy is on page 22 of Ultimate Wilderness. I suppose a GM could handwave that the spirit that takes over that body when it is created could be the spirit of a dead Vine Leshy friend.
Yeah, there really needs to be a way to turn verdant burst off, like an alternate racial trait that replaces it.
The trouble with regrowing them is that even if you get the same spirit, by the leshy RAW it doesn't remember its former life. The GM needs to do more than handwave to avoid that. And if they're going to use Rule 0, they might as well (IMHO) just rule that vine leshys don't do verdant burst, or that they can switch it on or off as a standard action so PCs can keep theirs off, and avoid the whole mess.
Resurrection certainly shouldn't be a problem. Nothing in the concept of 'explodes' would indicate destroyed so completely that no pieces remained.
Beyond that, I think it something of stretch to assume that Verdant Burst even makes a body unsuitable for Raise Dead. It certainly doesn't say that directly, and the phrase "explodes in a burst of fertile energies" doesn't necessarily imply any damage to the physical remains at all. A burst of fertile energy radiating out from a corpse that physically remains undamaged could be described exactly that way. Indeed, I would expect if the physical corpse was exploding, not just radiating energy, it to be accompanied by doing physical damage. Also note that in the general leshy description, this is how it is described "As a leshy’s body dies, the magic animating it unravels in a burst of life energy that infuses its surrounding and quickens the growth of any plants in the vicinity." The magic unraveling in a burst (or 'exploding') doesn't imply any damage to the physical remains.
Basically, I think interpreting Verdant Burst to preclude raise dead is just inventing a problem that doesn't exist. Rules wise, there is nothing in Leshy Creation to allow a particular dead leshy soul to inhabit a new leshy, and so the rules as such do not allow your solution.
Thematically though, using Leshy Creation instead of Raise Dead to restore a Leshy PC fits just fine, and could certainly see allowing it in my games. I would have the cost of the creation be the same as Raise Dead however, not the 1500 gp a 'regular' vine leshy creation would be.
Reincarnate would work, but if you use the table in Inner Sea Races there is virtually no chance of coming back as another Vine
From the Reincarnate spell-For non-humanoid creatures, a similar table of creatures of the same type should be created.
Depending on GM interpretation it could be anywhere from just the Vine Leshy and the Ghoran with there restricted Plant Type to any of the Leshys or even low CR plants.
Cyclic Reincarnation would work regardless.
Mentioned above by Fuzzy-Wuzzy.
From the Reincarnate spell-For non-humanoid creatures, a similar table of creatures of the same type should be created.Reincarnate would work, but if you use the table in Inner Sea Races there is virtually no chance of coming back as another Vine
That is why I suggested using the tables in Inner Sea Races. They ignore that whole table by creature type bit.