Resurrect

Resurrect is a way to bring other players back to life in Diablo 3. How this feature will work remains subject to revision, and major changes to its function were made as recently as December, 2009.

Prior to December 2009, Resurrection was cast on another player's corpse, at the cost of one Resurrection scroll. This brought them back to life on the spot, saving them the trouble of running back from the last checkpoint. The "reagent" cost (the resurrection scroll) was removed in late 2009, with an unspecified cost being added to use the ability. [1]

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Death and Resurrection

As of Blizzcon, August 2009, here is how death and resurrection function in Diablo 3.

When a player dies, a grave post appears where they perished. The dead player sees a five second countdown timer. Once the timer hits zero, they can choose to resurrect (with no death penalty) at the nearest checkpoint. Alternatively, the dead player can wait for another character in the game to resurrect them. When this is done the other character uses one resurrection scroll from their inventory, and the dead character reappears on the spot of their grave marker.

No More Res Scrolls

What changed in December 2009 was that the Resurrection scroll was removed. Why, and how this changes the function of the resurrection ability remains unclear.

The change was first announced in a tweet via Blizzard's @Diablo feed. [2]

Co-Op resurrection mechanic getting changed up. No more reagent. -- Dec 3rd

A few days later Bashiok elaborated on this in a forum post: [3]

Yeah it’s [resurrection] always been instant, the reagent was removed for other… requirements. Which may change, so we’re going to keep that a secret for now.

Resurrection in the Diablo Series

The ability to Resurrect was present in Diablo I, but not in the release version of Diablo II.

Diablo I Resurrection

Resurrection scrolls were a part of Diablo I, where they worked like any other scroll. When another player died in the game, a living character could stand near the corpse, right click on a resurrection scroll, and then target the corpse with the resulting cross-shaped cursor. The dead character was instantly resurrected, but since all of their items had dropped when they died, they were in a perilously state, and needed quick fingers and a clear area to survive long enough to reequip and rejoin the fight.

Corpses in Diablo I could only be resurrected if the player had not yet chosen to restart in town. Once that option was selected, their corpse vanished and there was nothing for a character in the dungeon to do to resurrect them.

Diablo II Resurrection

Resurrection was present in the developmental period of Diablo II, initially from scrolls just like in Diablo I; later as a skill only the Paladin could cast. One of his skill trees in early builds was devoted to healing, curing, and restorative abilities, and one of the highest level skills was Resurrect.

During development the Paladin's healing skills were largely removed from the game, or changed into Auras, and Resurrect was taken out entirely; for the Paladin and for anyone else. That game feature might go the same way in Diablo 3, though it remains to be seen.