Resurrection (7th Level)
Material: A diamond worth at least 1,000gp, which the spell consumes
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: 1 hour
Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material
You touch a dead creature that has been dead for no more than a century, that didn't die of old age, and that isn't Undead. If its soul is free and willing, the target returns to life with all its hit points.
This spell neutralizes any Poisons and cures normal Diseases afflicting the creature when it died. It doesn't, however, remove magical Diseases, curses, and the like, if such affects aren't removed prior to casting the spell, they afflict the target on its return to life.
This spell closes all mortal wounds and restores any missing body parts.
Coming back from the dead is an ordeal. The target takes a -4 penalty to all Attack rolls, saving throws, and Ability Checks. Every time the target finishes a Long Rest, the penalty is reduced by 1 until it disappears.
Casting this spell to restore life to a creature that has been dead for one year or longer taxes you greatly. Until you finish a Long Rest, you can't cast Spells again, and you have disadvantage on all Attack rolls, Ability Checks, and saving throws.
I don't have to explain to you why this is a big deal. Death is a fundamental part of life. Everything that lives must die. Now imagine a world where somehow, people are able to come back to life. How does that change politics? Religion? War? Life in general?
In many parts of the world, life is cheap. How much cheaper is it when people can be paid to bring someone back to life? Instead of funeral services, families might scrape enough money together to have the person simply brought back to life. We already have spells that can cure any (non-magical) wound (and note that unless you're an adventurer messing around in tombs, most wounds wound not be magical). There is no investment in health care technology.
Notice that the spell is good for 100 (!) years! A CENTURY. That means that if your family doesn't have the money to bring you back now, it's conceivable that they might at some point in the future. Notice that this effectively invents time travel, because you could have someone decide to be killed, and pay someone to resurrect them in the distant future. Imagine archaeologists finding King Tut's tomb, and deciding to bring him back to life!
Life as we know it would break down. With sufficient money, anyone could be brought back. The only caveat is it doesn't work if you die of old age. However, if you have even a single body part of a person, you can cast the spell. Does this mean that if a person had been drawn and quartered, the spells could be cast on each of his limbs separately and create multiple versions of the same person? The spell also mentions a willing soul, so does that mean the soul would then choose which body to inhabit? What happens to the other bodies? Is there a necromancer entrepreneur somewhere that sells soulless bodies to organizations that need them? How does that work?
THERE ARE SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS.
Assassinations are no longer an option for powerful political figures unless the assassins completely destroy the body by raising it as undead, and then killing it again. Weird stuff.
Can you use it on stillborn babies to bring them back to life? Because that would solve most of the problems with medieval pregnancies instantly. What we're tackling here is a complete reimagining of our reality from the ground up.
Sure, I could say that the spell is highly restricted and can only be cast by a single Cleric out of 100,000, but the point stands. That cleric would be the most politically powerful guy in the entire world. Because eventually, technology and training techniques would increase. Eventually you would have a few people who can cast the spell. By the time proficiency reaches 1 cleric in 10,000, the world is forever changed.
Now I have an idea for a campaign where a conqueror has ordered the execution of every cleric, to make sure the royal family stays dead forever.
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