[RPG] What happens when Resurrection is cast on a zombie

dnd-3.5eresurrectionspellsundeadzombies

I know the Resurrection spell brings something back to life, but what happens when casting it on a zombie? A zombie is already dead, but now undead—does it "die" and is brought back to life, or does nothing happen?

Best Answer

If the zombie is still 'alive', then resurrection does nothing. However, if you 'kill' the zombie, then you can resurrect the corpse.

From the description of the resurrection spell:

You can resurrect someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. You cannot resurrect someone who has died of old age. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can’t be resurrected.

If a human is killed and raised as a zombie, the zombie is destroyed, and then the remaining corpse is resurrected, you have a human again.

  • Getting to -10 HP turns a person into a corpse.
  • Going to 0 HP turns an undead into a corpse.
  • Resurrection turns a corpse into a human.
  • Animate dead turns a corpse into a zombie.

Nothing I know of directly turns a human into a zombie, or a zombie into a human, without them spending some time as a corpse. (Someone will no doubt point out some way with some nonsense from Libris Mortis.)