[RPG] Bring an unwilling creature Back to life

pathfinder-1espells

An enemy got his hands on the corpse of one of my party members and wants to bring him back to life. I checked the common ways like raise dead, reincarnate or resurrection but none of these seem to work since the character is not willing to come back. Is there another way to force him to?

Best Answer

All of the standard raise-the-dead type spells include the clause that the subject must be willing to return. This permits an individual who wants to stay dead, whether because they generally like being dead or just because they don't like whoever's trying to raise them, to remain dead. However, the subject only has very limited information about any attempt to raise them from the dead:

Revivification against One’s Will

A soul can’t be returned to life if it doesn’t wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and may refuse to return on that basis.

If Johnny McEvil, worshipper of Asmodeus, attempts to resurrect the subject, they could reasonably refuse that call. However, if the enemy takes the body to a neutral or good-aligned cleric to be raised, the subject may have no idea they are in fact still in the clutches of their enemy - the unfortunate cleric could be deceived or even magically dominated (or otherwise controlled) and they'd have no way of knowing. Raise Dead would bring back the subject in a very poor state and in no condition to fight off their captors - so as long as the enemy is capable of making an unwitting or unwilling 9th level cleric do what they want, and the subject would be willing to return in friendly conditions, there's a viable plan.

Alternatively, Miracle or Wish might be used to effect a resurrection which breaks the normal rule and allows no resistance from the subject. The use of these spells in this manner is into GM fiat territory, but it is not wildly unreasonable that they could be used to achieve what you want.

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