Clerical Slay Living

[darnizhaan]

This is interesting. When a cleric casts a raise dead spell, it is effective for:

dwarf, gnome, half-elf, halfling, or human

Would you rule that the reverse, slay living also only affects that small group of persons, or expand it to include humanoids, etc.?

Would a raise dead raise a wraith made from a hobgoblin, a zombie made from a fire giant, or a groaning spirit (female elf)? (provided the undead was made recently enough that the spell would have an effect).

[EOTB]

Slay Living will kill anything "living" (i.e., not undead, etc.) within the hit dice limitations unless the monster has a defined immunity to it, or to all spells of that level or category. (Rakshasas, etc)

The racial limitations of raise dead wouldn't hinder the effects of slay living. An elf can't be raised, but that doesn't stop a sword from killing it. Same thing with the spell provided the elf was of a low enough level.

I don't think raise dead actually returns undead to life; I think it just takes away their unlife and makes them "normal dead". If you had a wraith, cast raise dead on it, you would kill the wraith but would have to find the corpse to raise them back to life with a second spell. A zombie human wouldn't be as difficult because the corpse is right there, but would still require two spells.

[darnizhaan]

no actually if you cast raise dead on a newly made undead (within as many days as you gave levels), the undead is raised, provided it passes its resurrection survival roll (also see mummy in Monster Manual).