| Raise Dead | ||
|---|---|---|
| Realm |
 Life | |
| Spell Rarity | Uncommon | |
| Spell Type | Combat Instant | |
| Combat Cost |
 35 | |
| Research Cost |
 620 | |
| ||
|
Returns a Normal Unit or Hero that was killed during this battle back to life. Units return with half of their total Hit Points. For  Multi-Figure units this means the raised unit gets half of its total  figures back, each at full health. | ||
|
Buggy Feature |
| As of Master of Magic v1.31, Raise Dead is known to be malfunctioning in at least one way. Please read the Known Bugs section below. |
Raise Dead is an Uncommon Combat Instant belonging to the Life Magic realm. It may only be cast during combat, and has a Casting Cost of 35. The spell may only be cast after one or more friendly Normal Units or Heroes have been killed off during the battle, and must be targeted at any tile on your half of the battlefield.
When cast, Raise Dead will return a selected dead unit to life, whereupon that unit can keep fighting immediately. Revived units are automatically healed to 50% of their total Hit Points, which for Multi-Figure units means that they get half of their figures back (at full health each). If the raised unit survives combat, it will continue existing on the overland map as well.
Effects
The Raise Dead spell rejoins the spirit and body of a destroyed Normal Unit or Hero, returning them to life.
Raising Dead Units
Raise Dead will bring a dead unit back to life. For this to occur, the unit must of course be dead first. Only units have have died in this battle may be raised in this battle. Units that die on the overland map, or that died in previous battles, may no longer be raised.
The spell will only affect Normal Units and Heroes. It cannot affect Fantastic Units, as these do not actually die - but rather go back to the plane whence they came, and so must be re-summoned. The Undead, as well as Chaos Channeled units, are both considered Fantastic Units for the purpose of targeting this spell, and thus cannot be raised from the dead.
Regained Health and Figures
Raise Dead restores the unit with exactly 50% of its total Hit Points.
For a 
Single-Figure unit, this means that the creature comes back with exactly half of its hit points. For example, a Hero with a maximum of 10 Hit Points who is killed off and raised from the dead will come back with 5 Hit Points. The remaining damage can then be Healed as necessary.
For a Mult-Figure unit, Raise Dead will restore 50% of the unit's total number of figures back to life, with each figure having full Hit Points. For example, lets imagine a unit with 6 and a maximum health of 2 per figure. The unit's total health is 6 * 2 = 12. Raise Dead will therefore bring 3 figures back to life, each with its own full 2. The remaining figures can then be restored by healing the unit as necessary.
Implications of Death
When a unit is killed off and raised from the dead, it will essentially return as the same unit. It retains any 
Experience it had previously, and raised Heroes will still have the Magical Items they were holding when killed.
On the other hand, a raised unit also keeps the same amount of ammunition and/or Mana it had when killed. If it ran out of either before dying, Raise Dead will not allow it to make more Ranged Attacks or cast more spells.
The only properties that the unit loses permanently are whatever Unit Enchantments or Unit Curses which affected it at the time of death. This can be a boon (getting rid of curses) or a detriment (having to re-cast lost enchantments on the unit).
Other than this, the unit is restored to full functionality. If it survives the current battle, it will return to the overland map like any unit, and carry on in the game as though nothing happened.
Usage
Raise Dead may only be cast during combat, for a basic Casting Cost of 35. For casting to be possible, at least one Normal Unit or Hero must have fallen during the current battle. Otherwise, the game will object to casting the spell.
Raise Dead must be targeted at any empty tile on your side of the battlefield. If only one valid unit has died so far in the battle, that unit will be raised in the targeted square with 50% of its Hit Points restored (as explained above).
If several units have already been killed, the game will pop-up a menu listing all dead units that can be raised. Select the one you wish to raise, and it will appear in the targeted square.
Raised units can move and/or attack immediately as necessary. In other words, they have their full Movement Allowance back as soon as they are raised.
The Raise Dead effect is visually similar to a combat summoning: a blue pentagram appears on the ground in the targeted tile, and the revived unit rises out of it.
Acquisition
As an Uncommon Life spell, Raise Dead may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Life Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is almost never guaranteed.
Customized Wizards possessing 11 Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn.
Wizards who possess at least 8 Spellbooks, or Wizards with 11 Spellbooks who did not select Raise Dead as a guaranteed spell, will be able to Research this spell at some point during their campaign. Wizards with fewer than 8 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Life Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay.
Raise Dead has a base Research Cost of 620.
With at least 1 Spellbook, the Raise Dead spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell.
Strategy
The ability to bring dead units back to life is obviously very important to any wizard.
The primary benefit to this spell is that highly experienced Normal Units lost accidentally (or deliberately) in battle don't necessarily have to be lost for good. The same goes for Heroes: though they can also be brought back with the Resurrection spell, Raise Dead allows them to keep their valuable Magical Items, making it the preferable method (assuming the Hero is going to survive the rest of the battle, of course).
Secondly, it means that you can keep your army's strength up even when losses are incurred during battle. Without Raise Dead, a dead unit can no longer contribute to the battle at all - whereas with Raise Dead it can still come back to do more damage to the enemy (or serve as a target for enemy attacks) a second time (and third, and fourth, as neccessary). So as units are lost on both sides during battle, the ability to bring units back can give a serious advantage.
Furthermore, Raise Dead can make enemy Unit Curses moot - since dead units come back without any Curses (nor any Enchantments) that were cast on them previously.
Known Bugs
Casting this spell can cause the graphics to break, units get displayed at their past location(s) in addition to where they currently are.
Casting this spell with more than 6 dead units to select from crashes the game.