Venture-Lieutenant, Tennessee—Knoxville
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This happened in our last PFS game and we still haven't decided on how to handle the situation for Saturday's game. Our silly rogue with a climb speed went over a wall and ended up engaging with some wights while we walked around. He died... dummy.
Here is the thing - he got turned into a wight. We killed the baddies (including our turned wight friend) and now we don't know if we can bring him back. He has enough fame (54 fame) to purchase a Resurrection Plan.
The Pathfinder Society is invested in keeping its most successful agents in the field. You can purchase a resurrection ritual for 25 Fame. If you are in a rush to return to life and cannot wait the day for this ritual to be conducted, you can instead purchase a casting of the raise dead spell for 50 Fame.
But can you resurrect him? Resurrection ritual requires "the target’s body to be present and relatively intact" unless it's heightened to at least 7th level (9th level with no body at all). The fame reward does not give a level. It is assumed, but not explicitly stated, that if you use this on an 11th level character it is heightened to 6th. Raise Dead has similar language but can't be heightened to perform without a body.
Source Core Rulebook pg. 415
PFS Note All characters have access to resurrect
Cast 1 day; Cost diamonds worth a total value of 75 gp × the target’s level; Secondary Casters 2
Primary Check Religion (expert); Secondary Checks Medicine, Society
Range 10 feet; Target(s) 1 dead creature of up to 10th level
You attempt to call forth the target’s soul and return it to its body. This requires the target’s body to be present and relatively intact. The target must have died within the past year. If Pharasma has decided that the target’s time has come or the target doesn’t wish to return, this ritual automatically fails, but you discover this after the successful Religion check and can end the ritual without paying the cost.
Critical Success You resurrect the target. They return to life with full Hit Points and the same spells prepared and points in their pools they had when they died, and still suffering from any long-term debilitations of the old body. The target meets an agent of their deity during the resurrection who inspires them, granting them a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, Perception, saving throws, and skill checks for 1 week. The target is also permanently changed in some way by their time in the afterlife, such as gaining a slight personality shift, a streak of white in the hair, or a strange new birthmark.
Success As critical success, except the target returns to life with 1 Hit Point and no spells prepared or points in any pools, and still is affected by any long-term debilitations of the old body. Instead of inspiring them, the character’s time in the Boneyard has left them temporarily debilitated. The target is clumsy 1, drained 1, and enfeebled 1 for 1 week; these conditions can’t be removed or reduced by any means until the week has passed.
Failure Your attempt is unsuccessful.
Critical Failure Something goes horribly wrong—an evil spirit possesses the body, the body transforms into a special kind of undead, or some worse fate befalls the target.
Heightened (6th) You can resurrect a target of up to 12th level, and the base cost is 125 gp.
Heightened (7th) You can use resurrect even with only a small portion of the body; the ritual creates a new body on a success or critical success. The target must have died within the past decade. The ritual requires four secondary casters, each of whom must be at least half the target’s level. The target can be up to 14th level, and the base cost is 200 gp.
Heightened (8th) As 7th level, but the target can be up to 16th level and the base cost is 300 gp.
Heightened (9th) You can use resurrect even without the body as long as you know the target’s name and have touched a portion of its body at any time. The target must have died within the past century, and it doesn’t gain the negative conditions on a success. The ritual requires eight secondary casters, each of whom must be at least half the target’s level. The target can be up to 18th level, and the base cost is 600 gp.
[/b]Heightened (10th) [/b]As 9th level, except it doesn’t matter how long ago the target died. The ritual requires 16 secondary casters, each of whom must be at least half the target’s level. The target can be up to 20th level, and the ritual’s base cost is 1,000 gp.
Source Core Rulebook pg. 362
PFS Note All characters have access to raise dead
Traditions divine
Cast 10 minutes (material, somatic, verbal); Cost diamonds worth a total value of the target's level (minimum 1) x 200 gp
Range 10 feet; Targets 1 dead creature of 13th level or lower
You attempt to call forth the dead creature's soul, requiring the creature's body to be present and relatively intact. The creature must have died within the past 3 days. If Pharasma has decided that the creature's time has come (at the GM's discretion), or if the creature doesn't wish to return to life, this spell automatically fails, but the diamonds aren't consumed in the casting.
If the spell is successful, the creature returns to life with 1 Hit Point, no spells prepared or spell slots available, no points in any pools or any other daily resources, and still with any long-term debilitations of the old body. The time spent in the Boneyard leaves the target temporarily debilitated, making it clumsy 2, drained 2, and enfeebled 2 for 1 week; these conditions can't be removed or reduced by any means until the week has passed. The creature is also permanently changed by its time in the afterlife, such as a slight personality shift, a streak of white in the hair, or a strange new birthmark.
Heightened (7th) The maximum level of the target increases to 15. The cost increases to the target's level (minimum 1) × 400 gp.
Heightened (8th) The maximum level the target increases to 17. The cost increases to the target's level (minimum 1) × 800 gp.
Heightened (9th) The maximum level of the target increases to 19. The cost increases to the target's level (minimum 1) × 1,600 gp.
Heightened (10th) The maximum level the target increases to 21. The cost increases to the target's level (minimum 1) × 3,200 gp.
Creatures with the undead trait are "destroyed" at 0 Hit Points. Someone argued this just meant they skipped the "dying" stages, but all NPCs do that anyway. The GM concluded that we brought back a pile of his ashes. It also mentions "soul-corrupting evil magics" and both resurrection and raise dead "Attempt to call forth the dead creature's soul". Additionally both state that "Long-Term Debilitation" are not removed. Undeath may or may not be a long-term debilitation.
Once living, these creatures were infused after death with negative energy and soul-corrupting evil magic. When reduced to 0 Hit Points, an undead creature is destroyed. Undead creatures are damaged by positive energy, are healed by negative energy, and don’t benefit from healing effects.
So these are the questions all this raises:
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We really like to go by RAW or official clarifications as much as possible. Since it's PFS reducing table variation is pretty important. But there is enough ambiguity there opinion is still a factor – I’d just like to avoid focusing on subjective trains of thought if possible.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any constructive replies!
PC died and turned into an undead (wight):
Reasons they can't be resurrected
* Undead are destroyed and there is no body
* Undead souls have been corrupted
* Resurrection does not remove long-term debilitations
Reasons they can be resurrected
* Undead being "destroyed" is just flavor text not game mechanics, there is a body
* "Soul Corrupting Magic" and/or "Bringing back a soul" is just flavor text not game mechanics
* Fame reward does not list a level and can be heightened to any required level (for level reasons, or lack of body reasons)
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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That is also what I would rule.
You could read destroyed as Buffy style poof undead to dust, but I don't think anything actually says so. Actually you'd probably make some scenario writers unhappy who want to sometimes set a post-zombie apocalypse scene strewn with corpses :P
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While not really in game, the taint of undead is something that does occur the moment a body becomes undead. It take time for that evil to replace the being of the what the creature was when it lived.
So the short time that a dead character became a wight is not enough, in my opinion, to taint the character's soul.
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Venture-Captain, Tennessee—East Tennessee
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After rereading a few things, I think it works.
The wight ability states:
A living humanoid slain by a wight’s claw Strike rises as a wight after 1d4 rounds. This wight spawn is under the command of the wight that killed it.
This reads to me that the character did die, and later rose as a wight. (If the ability had said "Instead of dying, a living humanoid rises", then that'd be different.)
Since both Raise Dead and Resurrect both only state that the character has died in a certain time frame, so long as the character died within that timeframe, the spell/ritual can be used. (The timeframe for when the undead was slain doesn't come into consideration, only the original death.)
Objects also get destroyed, but that doesn't mean that the object itself ceases to exist, only that they're no longer usable as that object. Therefore, the bodies of slain undead should still be around.