[RPG] Can an undead cleric resurrect himself

clericdnd-3.5espellsundead

Inspired by the current OOTS story thread, I was trying to think my way around a resolution for the situation and wondered:

Would it be valid for an undead cleric to cast resurrect on himself?

Best Answer

YES!! It took longer than it should have but I found it.

Yes, an Undead Cleric could resurrect himself, although, not directly as would normally happen. This is assuming that, aside from his Undead state, he would otherwise be eligible for resurrection. (Mainly that he has been dead (including Undead) for less than 10 years.

First the caveats:

  1. The first hurdle, which was brought up in the other answer is that your Cleric must still have it's Cleric abilities. To my knowledge, Pelor is not in the habit of granting spells to Undead. And deities who love Undead would be not be inclined to grant a spell to make him un-Undead. Wee-Jas may have no problem with this, and in fact with material in the Complete Divine would probably gladly endorse such things. Also, Clerics who have no Deity but instead worship an "ideal" should retain their abilities (even if their ideals change upon being Undead). (Resurrection is not a good spell so evil Clerics can cast it)

  2. The MAIN hurdle, as was pointed out earlier, is Undead creatures can NOT be resurrected. However, "You can resurrect someone...who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed."

So how do we overcome? Well we have to be prepared to destroy ourselves!

From "Complete Arcane" we have a feat called "CRAFT CONTINGENT SPELL" available to casters of atleast 11th Level. Direct quote from the text: "Triggers for contingent spells are usually events that happen to the bearer of the spell, and can include death."

This is an Item Creation Feat so there are significant additional costs to use this but it gets the Cleric his life back which is apparently what this Cleric wants so I'm sure it's a completely acceptable cost.

NOW we have an interesting dilemma. How long, in levels, has your Cleric been Undead? Was he level 5 when he was "turned" and now he's level 13...is your Cleric prepared to go to level 4 when resurrected? I'm not sure that he has to, but it appears so. I think I read another question on the matter but I can't find it right now. If I do I'll link it in later, if not it would make for an interesting related question.

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