Dungeons & Dragons is a game fraught with danger, and not everyone makes it out alive. Sometimes, players and NPCs die despite everyone's best intentions and actions. Fortunately, death is not always permanent in Dungeons & Dragons (except in Tomb of Annihilation).
For those seeking to defy death, there are many options available, though not all are created equal. Some are too costly, while others are too high-level. These resurrection spells are often your only bet for bringing back your dead friends and should all be considered.
6 True Resurrection: The Purest Form Of Resurrection Is Also The Weakest
True Resurrection is a 9th-level spell accessible to Clerics and Druids. For an hour of casting time, the spellcaster can bring back anyone from a time span of 200 years, without needing a body and completely restoring them to their original form.
However, this spell is not ideal for adventurers. It's a spell accessible at a minimum of level 17, which many players never play to. The timeframe of 200 years is often unnecessary for most player characters to need. On top of it all, it even costs a whopping 25,000gp, making all but the richest of adventurers unable to even accomplish the spell when they have it.
While a bad spell for adventuring parties on the go, it is nevertheless a good narrative spell, especially for bad guys looking to resurrect an ancient evil. The high cost facilitates low-level adventures by requiring the bad guys to get massive amounts of gold, allowing ample set-up for adventuring parties to play the foil.
5 Resurrection: True Resurrection's Cheaper Counterpart
Resurrection is a much cheaper version of True Resurrection in every way. It only needs a 13th-level Bard or Cleric and only requires 1,000gp, a much more affordable amount. The 100-year time restriction is more than enough for any relevant character in a single campaign and doesn't even require the whole body for the resurrection.
However, it's only really ideal for adventurers who want their characters back after they have been dead longer than ten days. In these cases, it's really the only choice available, certainly making it a viable spell option for niche cases.
4 Wish: The Most Powerful Spell Can Also Resurrect
The only resurrection available to Wizards, Wish, is the most powerful spell in the game by a long shot. Capable of manifesting any spell eighth level or lower, Wish can mimic any of the lesser level resurrection spells. For the more daring, it can even resurrect individuals past the time limit of True Resurrection, at the risk of losing your magic.
That being said, Wish is not a great resurrection spell. For one, it is so high-level that most groups do not play to the point where wizards can get it. Lastly, it is so powerful that using it on a resurrection is almost absurd. There are so many other powerful effects that can be done that the wizard will likely only think to use this spell to resurrect as a last resort or if there is nothing better to do.
3 Raise Dead: Trivialize Death With This Spell
Getting to the spells players will actually use, Raise Dead brings back the dead so long as 500gp in gems and ten days have not passed since their death. Ten days is ample time for most parties to get to a safe location where this spell can easily be cast. Ten days is such a long time that death is almost completely trivialized, provided you can get the 500gp gems needed to cast the spell.
For DMs looking to counteract this powerful spell, limiting gems is the best way you can go. 500gp is a pretty cheap cost and most parties will have enough to afford this at least several times over. Thus, the only way to go is to limit the gems available to avoid your players abusing this spell too much.
2 Reincarnation: Bringing Back Players From Bits
Reincarnation is another fifth-level resurrection spell, this time exclusive to druids. It is very similar to Raise Dead, even having the same time constraints. However, what edges Reincarnation into a better variant of Raise Dead is its ability to bring back whole characters from just pieces of their body.
While Raise Dead and Revivify need the whole body to resurrect, Reincarnation creates a new body out of magic, even restoring lost limbs in the process. The only downside is that it can change the species of the one being resurrected, which can annoy players particularly attached to their characters. Another drawback is its higher cost of 1000gp in gems compared to Raise Dead's 500gp, which can quickly bankrupt players.
1 Revivify: The Simplest Resurrection Is Often The Best
Revivify is a classic resurrection spell for a reason. Being a third-level spell, it is the first players get access to and quickly becomes a necessity in Cleric and Paladin spell lists as a result. At least one person in any party should have this spell on their list.
What makes Revivify the best resurrection spell is mainly its cheap cost and early access. Requiring the least amount of gems at 300gp, it is very affordable for nearly any setting and campaign, with some moderate saving. Receiving it as early as player level five, it is really the only option for low-level parties and is a massively useful spell as a result.
However, its only downside is a pretty major one, eventually making it outpaced by Raise Dead and Reincarnation in most instances at higher levels. The spell is only effective up to one minute after death, basically making it a magical defibrillator. Once a character dies, it is a race to their body to perform the spell lest they pass beyond its capabilities. It is for this reason it is highly balanced and is very rarely checked by the DM as too powerful.