Resurrection scroll

A Resurrection Scroll is a scroll that's expended to resurrect another player. There were such scrolls in Diablo I and in the planning stages of Diablo II, though they were not in the final game.

• There are no Resurrection Scrolls in Diablo III. Resurrecting another player does not require any reagents.

Resurrection Scrolls in Diablo III

The developers of Diablo III experimented with various Resurrection reagents during game development, including Resurrection Scrolls, but ultimately determined that the ability to resurrect other players should not require any sort of potion or scroll. The ability to resurrect is directly implemented into the game interface, and does not require any items to use.

The change away from resurrection scrolls was first announced in a tweet via Blizzard's @Diablo feed in December 2009. [1]

Co-Op resurrection mechanic getting changed up. No more reagent. -- Diablo

A few days later Bashiok elaborated on this in a forum post: [2]

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.

The topic was revisited in February 2011.[3]

Will you be allowed to resurrect your team mate in Arenas? If not, are resurrection potions still in the game for regular play? --NocturneGS

No reagents for resurrecting friends in co-op, instead there’s a short window of time to click on them or they’re running back. --Diablo

By "running back" @Diablo refers to the self-resurrection method, which allows dead players to respawn at the last checkpoint they reached, which is usually 60 seconds or less from the spot of death (assuming the dungeon between has been cleared of monsters).

It's not known if there are any limits on resurrection; must a player be nearby? On the visible screen? Is there any limit on how many times resurrection can be performed? Are freshly-resurrected players returned with full health?

No Sting in Death?

There is some concern among fans that by removing all death penalties, and by making resurrection so easy, the developers are encouraging a very reckless playstyle. If there's no punishment for death other than a few seconds delay, won't non-Hardcore characters play wildly, always rushing forward to the next battle, ignoring their defense and resistances, and putting all their priority into quickly obtaining experience and items?

That sort of play style is something the D3 Team has often said they wanted to change in Diablo III, and it was a driving factor behind the removal of life leech, potion spamming, town portals, and more. In that light it seems odd that the developers don't feel any sort of death penalties/costs/delays are necessary to keep players from throwing all caution to the wind.