Resurrect

Resurrect is a way to bring other player characters 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]

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.

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. [2]

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

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.

The topic was revisited in February 2011.[4]

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?

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.