I guess I should post my comics here, rather than DnDMemes :)
Mechanically it’s a nightmare though. Anything that breaks concentration or spell casting kills you. You do get undead immunities but they only help so much.
If we’re getting into the nitty gritty of the 5e game mechanics, there’s a wider issue in that the RAW rules don’t actually allow you to “raise yourself from the dead”
- Glyph of Warding (Spell Glyph) requires the stored spell to target “a creature or an area” and “dead body” is neither, it’s an object.
- Contingency requires the stored spell to have a casting time of 1 action.
You could probably arrange something like this with wish or stuff that’s outside of RAW, but at the point that you’re using “rule of cool” you can basically make anything workable and it’s all GM fiat anyway. (This is fine, but if your table plays like this, then you’re probably not overly concerned with mechanics.)
However… with regards to the point here: Spells in 5e that create undead (such as animate dead) don’t usually require concentration - so “I lost concentration” would kind of be fine - you just need to ensure you have the slot each morning to “maintain” the enchantment, (but this is when slots regenerate, so long as you rest you’ll be okay)
The bigger problem would be anti-magic fields or dispel magic.
The RAW rules actually allow you a myriad of ways to “raise yourself from the dead”.
- Clone is tailor made to raise yourself from the dead.
- An Arcana Cleric can cast contingency with revivify as the contingent spell. (There’s other ways to do this but they’re either more complicated or setting specific.)
- A wizard can can cast contingency with danse macabre as the contingent spell. (This’ll have a very limited duration.)
- Magic jar can let you possess another creature to animate your own body if something happens to it while you’re “away”.
- If you’re a humanoid, hitting yourself with a finger of death just before you’re about die can let you rise as a zombie permanently under your own control at the start of your next turn.
- Make a simulacrum of yourself to raise the original you at your leisure.
- Summon a planar ally to raise you if you die within an agreed upon time frame. (Probably requires bribery.)
The whole concept of liches is basically raising yourself from the dead.
Also of note; Most reanimation spells (animate dead, create undead, raise dead, etc…) are instantaneous and can’t be ended by an antimagic field or dispel magic. (The same can’t always be said for a creator’s control. The creature(s) these spells create usually don’t die/cease to be animated when the creator’s control ends either though.)
I imagine the contingency + danse macabre version, or a variant of this, is what /u/Ghost33313@kbin.social what thinking of, since it would break with loss of concentration.
Not all of these work, sadly - if you’re being very strict about RAW. - however many of these would work fine as the explanation for this with a DM who was willing to bend the rules a little to allow you to play the concept.
- Clone makes a copy of you that the soul transfers to when you die, this isn’t technically “raising yourself from the dead” and your soul is now occupying a vessel, so the old body can’t be raised (most spells that raise you from the dead require a soul to be “free” or “able” to return, and most DMs interpret that to mean that the soul isn’t currently trapped or occupying anything else.)
- Contingency can’t choose Revivify. Contingency requires a spell that targets “you” - Revivify targets “a corpse”. Generally speaking, the target “you” means “the creature: you”. It’s maybe a little philosophical whether or not your corpse has the identity “you” that you have while living, but in 5e, corpses tend to be mechanically viewed only as objects, and not as creatures. (As an example of this, it’s invalid to target a corpse with a buff spell like bless or enhance ability - something you might otherwise want to do if you know a revivify is coming after.)
- Danse Macabre, similarly targets “five corpses” - which probably doesn’t count as “you”
- I would count “Summon Planar Ally to raise you” as someone else doing it, the same way I’d count “paying the party cleric to raise you”
These ones I think pass muster.
- It’s probably possible to raise yourself from the dead with Magic Jar. If your body is dead, and you’re possessing something else, you can cast an appropriate spell, then action surge and use that action to leave the body you’re possessing within the same turn, and most people would allow you to say that was “simultaneous” with completing the spell.
- Finger of death is absolutely fine.
Anti magic fields suppress magic. Spells that are instantaneous, but make something that still has ongoing magical effects (e.g. a magic item) are usually suppressed by anti-magic fields or targeted dispel magic. This part of the game is very variable by DM, so you pretty much have to check with the DM of your game how it works there.
However, if your DM is suppressing ongoing magical effects, many of the effects that animate something and give you control would at least suppress the control, and maybe even the animation… 5e is ambiguous enough with rulings that what happens then is somewhat up to the DM to define.
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