Is there a way to bring a Specter back to life

character-deathdnd-5eresurrectionsoulundead

The Wraith has this ability:

Create Specter. The wraith targets a humanoid within 10 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target's spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space.

It has been established that creatures that were zombified (for example with Finger of Death or by a Wight) can be brought back to life with Resurrection, after you kill the zombie.

Would this also work with a Specter after you killed it, given you still have the corpse or have access to True Resurrection (and it only died recently)? I am unsure because the "spirit" of the creature is transformed into the Specter. What happens when the specter dies, does the spirit die (i.e. the soul gets destroyed forever), or does it get sent to a final resting place from where it can be recalled by the resurrection?

Note that this question is not the same as this one, where you revivify the corpse while the specter is still "alive". Here the Specter is first killed, and the question is does that destroy the soul and make re-animation impossible, or not. That problem does not exist in the other case.

Best Answer

No, there is no way to return a Specter to life

The Specter has the following elements in its description (which is also rules text in 5e):

A specter is the angry, unfettered spirit of a humanoid that has been prevented from passing to the afterlife. Specters no longer possess connections to who or what they were, yet are condemned to walk the world forever.

[...]

When a ghost's unfinished business is completed, it can rest at last. No such rest or redemption awaits a specter. It is doomed to the Material Plane, its only end the oblivion that comes with the destruction of its soul.

That last sentence in particular provides a specific exception to the rules on resurrection for Specters. Their only end is the oblivion that comes with the destruction of their soul.

This rules out them being raised from the dead by any means.