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Are there any special moves that need to be made to allow a character was turned to dust to be revived in Starfinder?
As far as I can tell there is no real guidance in the rules - Raise Dead doesn't SEEM to require the body and there's no Resurrection or the like.
Turned a player to dust last night and want to see how I SHOULD have ruled.
I think your problem is "raise dead". CRB page 371:
"While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole. Otherwise, missing parts are still missing when the creature is brought back to life."
To me, it's pretty clear that if there's no body, raise dead ain't gonna fix that. Despite assertions to the contrary it is not, in fact, only a flesh wound. :)
Raise Dead absolutely does not work on disintegrate dust. In addition to the target being "one dead creature" (not a pile of dust), the spell states "While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole. Otherwise, missing parts are still missing when the creature is brought back to life."
It restores life to the parts that are there, it doesn't create any, and if it's missing something that would be necessary to keep living (like a torso or head) it's going to die as soon as the soul reenters the rest of the body.
The only thing I think can bring back a dusted body (via distingrate or a fusion that does the same thing) is Wish/Miracle/Alter Reality if you know a friendly 20th level caster or an Efreeti.
I know this thread is a couple of months old, but I just had a PC in one of my games get disintegrated. He's back... sort of. While Raise Dead is not an option, and Wish/Miracle/Alter Reality are high level, Reincarnate is a viable option.
Reincarnate is a 4th level spell, but some its rules are restrictive:
1. PC has to have been dead for less than 1 week.
2. PC has to come back as a member of a different race (most likely).
3. PC gets 2 permanent negative levels.
4. Elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can’t be reincarnated.
5. You need a 1,000 credit totem (a small price to pay, in my opinion).
One way to get around some of these restrictions is to get in good with the Church of Hylax. The Vessel of Hylax lets a character be reincarnated without the 2 negative levels or the totem, but they must come back as a member of an insect race.
If you want a revival of the original character as the same race though, you'll need the higher level stuff, or a very generous GM.
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Yeah, reincarnate doesn't work because target is one dead creature. The pile of ash left by disintegrate doesn't count as a dead creature.
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The condition of the creature’s remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature’s body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature’s body at the time of death.
I think the dust is viable.
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Easy answer is to get the Mi-Go to do it. Disintegrate dust sounds a lot like essential salts needed for a Charles Dexter Ward-style resurrection (haven't dug around to see if that bit of the Mythos in Starfinder... yet).
Of course, your friend probably wind up in a brain cylinder, but with good timing, maybe you'd get all the pieces to do a proper resurrection before the discarded parts are disposed of.
Alternatively, consider installing the brain cylinder in powered armor, or a pet carrier on their drone.
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The condition of the creature’s remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature’s body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature’s body at the time of death.I think the dust is viable.
I thought, but cannot recall a link, that in PF1 it was clarified that dust from disintegrate was not sufficient for reincarnate.
Perhaps someone else can locate something one way or the other.
I don't see any wording changes in the reincarnate spell between editions that would change the result.
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The condition of the creature’s remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature’s body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature’s body at the time of death.I think the dust is viable.I thought, but cannot recall a link, that in PF1 it was clarified that dust from disintegrate was not sufficient for reincarnate.
Perhaps someone else can locate something one way or the other.
I don't see any wording changes in the reincarnate spell between editions that would change the result.
In Pathfinder 1, it's very clear that dust is enough of a person to be Raise Dead'd but we try not to judge Starfinder Rules by Pathfinder Precedent.
I think you mean in PF1 the dust from disintegrate clearly isn't enough to use Raise Dead on.
While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole. Otherwise, missing parts are still missing when the creature is brought back to life.
Most people have interpreted that as meaning Raise Dead wont work on a disintegrate victim, you can search the PF1 forums for more threads about it, but here is one.
Whether the pile of dust is sufficient for Raise Dead or Reincarnation should be a call made by the table and the GM specifically. How permanently dead do you want this character to be?
If permadeath is going to ruin the fun of the story and the experience of the game, allow the pile-o-dust to be sufficient. If the player and the story are good with grabbing a new character sheet, let Disintigrate be an instakill permadeath with no recourse.
From Pathfinder 1E:
Since the dead creature is returning in a new body, all physical ills and afflictions are repaired. The condition of the remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature’s body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature’s body at the time of death.
So the wording is very similar.
Ashes are by definition remains.
I suppose that if you would let a character who was killed, cremated and had his ashes put into an urn be reincarnated then you should probably let a disintegrated character be reincarnated.
I thought, but cannot recall a link, that in PF1 it was clarified that dust from disintegrate was not sufficient for reincarnate.
I can't find much of anything except some people from like five or six years ago having the same argument we're having right now.
I checked the disintegrate spell description from SF, 3.5, PF1, PF2 and 5e.
Only the 5e version states that a disintegrated PC can only be brought back with True Resurrection or Miracle.
PF1 Core rules specifically state that the remains from disintegrate are sufficient for resurrection (page 334), and since resurrection and reincarnate use the same wording, then both should work for the dust pile. Raise dead is useless in this case.
PF1 rules should be irrelevant for Starfinder, of course. In any case, Starfinder's raise dead does not work on a disintegrated person.