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If you slay an undead creature can you cast animate dead on the corpse to bring it back as a zombie or skeleton?

SevenSidedDie
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Critical Crafting
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4 Answers4

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The 4th-level Sor/Wiz spell animate dead [necro] (Player's Handbook 198—9) says, "This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies that follow your spoken commands" (emphasis mine). Also, as this answer says, the spell animate dead parenthetically says, "A destroyed skeleton or zombie can’t be animated again," making it so a lone corpse can't become a zombie repeatedly, for instance, but the question of animating the remains of, for example, a ghoul or wight (ahem) remains.

When reduced to 0 hit points, the typical creature that possesses the type undead (Monster Manual 317) is destroyed. The game never properly defines destroyed, but even if the case is made that dead and destroyed are—I dunno—secretly synonyms, an animated dead creature "can be created only from a mostly intact corpse or skeleton" (199), and I suspect only the most generous DM will rule that a destroyed undead creature's form is mostly intact.

That said, if the DM does rule that a creature that possess the type undead keeps the condition dead upon its destruction and the DM rules that the creature's destruction leaves the resultant corpse largely intact and the creature wasn't previously animated via the spell animate dead, then—finally!—the animate dead spell can be used on that largely intact dead and destroyed and not-previously-animated-by-animate-dead creature… if sticking to the core rules.

Beyond the core rules (like this answer mentions), Libris Mortis on Undead Healing says

What would disable or render unconscious a living creature destroys an undead creature beyond recall. (In game terms, when an undead is reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is permanently destroyed.) No aid, magical or mundane, is sufficient to restore the undead to its previous state of animation. (10)

This makes it clear—outside obvious exceptions like the 5th-level Sor/Wiz spell revive undead [necro] (Spell Compendium 175—6)—that the spell animate dead can't animate a creature that possesses the type undead that's been destroyed.

Hey I Can Chan
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  • We can infer from the existence of a higher level spell that restores undead that animated that should not work this way. – Three Diag Jan 25 '18 at 19:40
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    @ThreeDiag I considered that, but the spell revive undead revives back that specific destroyed undead while animate dead typically makes a new skeleton or zombie. That is, casting revive undead on a destroyed ghoul sorcerer 12 will get back that ghoul sorcerer 12, but casting animate dead on that destroyed ghoul—if the DM agrees that's even possible—will probably just yield a boring ol' zombie. – Hey I Can Chan Jan 25 '18 at 19:47
  • "Undeath to Death" might be the best test case for your hypothetical. Even that says that the undead are "destroyed" though. – fectin Jan 16 '21 at 15:46
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The animate dead spell can't target a destroyed undead since it only target a dead creature, not a destroyed one (Yes, there is a difference). The Libris Mortis talk about this in details but you can't reanimate an undead that was destroyed (Zombies and skeletons are the main example). The gist of it would be "You can't kill what is already dead, you destroy it."

To make use of a former undead, you should use the Revive Undead spell (Libris Mortis/Spell Compendium).

Aguinaldo Silvestre
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  • I disagree with your claim that a destroyed undead creature is not still also a dead creature. Can you back that up? – KRyan Jan 25 '18 at 17:40
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    @KRyan LM pg10: "In game terms, when an undead is reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is permanently destroyed. No aid, magical or mundane, is sufficient to restore the undead to its previous state of animation. Since they are already dead, undead that are destroyed cannot be returned to existence through raise dead or reincarnate."

    If they can't be used in raise dead and reincarnate, I believe they don't qualify as dead creatures after being destroyed.

     – Aguinaldo Silvestre Jan 25 '18 at 17:59
  • That literally says “since they are already dead.” – KRyan Jan 25 '18 at 18:04
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    @KRyan Yes, at its previous state, they are dead, then destroyed and can't be used in a raise dead spell. For a living being its previous state would be alive, then dead and a valid target for a raise dead spell. – Aguinaldo Silvestre Jan 25 '18 at 18:12
  • You still have provided nothing that says an undead creature, destroyed or not, isn’t also dead. My initial assumption would be that it is, and I (and Stack Exchange more generally) require evidence showing this assumption false. – KRyan Jan 25 '18 at 18:14
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    @KRyan The target of a Raise Dead spell is a dead creature, if it does not qualifies as a target of the aforementioned spell, it is not a dead creature. Spells like True Ressurection explicitly says that they can ressurect a destroyed undead as a living being, but not a normal just dead undead. Specific beats general like always. – Aguinaldo Silvestre Jan 25 '18 at 19:01
  • (There's also an ugly, never-resolved contradiction between the spells resurrection et al and the creature type undead that's the subject of this question.) – Hey I Can Chan Jan 25 '18 at 20:06
  • I think that in some cases it could be acceptable, like: if body quality is "good enough" and "destroying" or slaining didn't made it unusable... which probably, in general, happens very rarely :-) Still, we can't completely rule out some homebrew Frankenstein, who makes the undead whole again and animates them. It could actually be cool, keeping some severed limbs together with metal or wooden reinforcements, making something into kind of medieval mecha-undeads ;-) – Kusavil Jan 26 '18 at 04:26
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The answer is definitely not lesser undead, straight from the players handbook.

First paragraph page 199. Yes 3.5e, and 3e and 2e.

This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies that follow your spoken commands. The undead can follow you, or they can remain in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific kind of creature) entering the place. They remain animated until they are destroyed. (A destroyed skeleton or zombie can’t be animated again.)

I would also argue a creature that is destroyed has no body. From Wish on page 302

Revive the dead. A wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two wishes, one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from losing an experience level.

Cro
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  • It would help you to quote the Player’s Handbook, since I for one don’t see it there. Note that the question is about D&D 3.5e, *not* the latest D&D 5e. The D&D 5e Player’s Handbook does indeed say that, but it’s not relevant to D&D 3.5e. The D&D 3.5e Player’s Handbook does not say that, as far as I can tell (feel free to prove me wrong with a quote and page number). – KRyan Jan 26 '18 at 05:15
  • If that second paragraph there is a quote, please indicate that by putting it in a quotebox (> at the start of the paragraph). – KRyan Jan 26 '18 at 05:16
  • The second paragraph was indeed a quote, edited now to reflect that and to add something else I found. – Cro Jan 26 '18 at 05:52
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    Wow, I have no idea how the four people answering here missed that. Thanks for pointing it out, and sorry I doubted you. Though I’d point out—as HeyICanChan did in another comment—that the existence of higher-power spells reviving undead, whether it be wish or revive undead, doesn’t quite demonstrate all that much because those are much more powerful, returning an undead creature to its previous state rather than turning it into a generic zombie or skeleton. – KRyan Jan 26 '18 at 05:58
  • @KRyan I think you didn't grasped what Cro says. I assume he says 'destroyed' in the "when reduced to 0 hit points, undead creature is destroyed" (from undead type) and 'destroyed' in "dead creature whose body has been destroyed..." (from Wish) is the same destroyed so you can't cast Animate Dead on both. It's not true, but I think it was the vision of this answer's author. Of course, authoritative clarification is welcome! – annoying imp Jan 26 '18 at 06:46
  • @annoyingimp Ooh, I misread that. That seems more like wish as a replacement for true resurrection, I don’t think “destroyed” there necessarily has anything to do with undeath. – KRyan Jan 26 '18 at 06:47
  • @KRyan It doesn't have. You can restore destroyed undead to life with a single Wish (just emulate resurrection), but you need two to handle the destroyed mentioned in Wish itself. I just think reasoning outlined in my previous comment was Cro's point, not the capability of higher-power spells to restore destroyed undead to undeath. – annoying imp Jan 26 '18 at 06:58
  • @annoyingimp Using wish as the basis of defining destroyed means revive undead can only be cast in really weird circumstances: "The body of the undead to be revived must be whole" yet the spell "restore[s] animation to an undead creature destroyed by hit point loss" (Spell Compendium 176). Small loss, I guess, but important for some. – Hey I Can Chan Jan 26 '18 at 14:14
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Rules as written, animate dead works on a dead humanoid, not an dead undead. So no.

That said, I and, many DMs chose to ignore this distinction and let people animate anything they can. There are animated undead hands in the monster manual so there is a precedent that you don't even need an intact body.

In conclusion: DM's discretion.

Overthinks
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