How can I bring a lowly terrestrial invertebrate back to life 5 times per long rest with the least investment of levels?

Question

I want to use the Chronicle of the Raven Queen eldritch invocation (from UA: Warlock & Wizard), but I don't want to leave all the cockroaches, silverfish, and hydrozoa I interrogate dead afterwards (I realize I could take Beast Speech instead, but I don't want to).

How do I need to multiclass, and for how many levels, to be able to bring the invertebrates I question back to life after I kill them? They don't need to be dead for more than a single round, but I want to be able to do this 5 times per long rest repeatedly forever.

I want to do this ASAP in terms of levels. 4 levels of Warlock with the Pact of the Tome, the Raven Queen patron (from the same UA), and the Chronicle of the Raven Queen invocation are non-negotiable. Everything else (including race and background, if needed) is available.

Magic Items are fine, but be aware of the levels required before I can likely get the party to track one down: Uncommon or Common magic items will be trivial to track down, but a rare item will take me about 5 levels, a very rare 11, and a legendary 14. Consumables are also okay, but I'm only getting like 1 per level on average and getting a legendary consumable isn't very likely to ever happen before I'm already 20th level.

The creatures I'm raising need to be normal (i.e. not 'giant' or 'dire' or anything like that) terrestrial invertebrates, but it's okay if the method also lets you potentially raise other creatures so long as it can also raise at least some qualifying creatures. The method does not need to work on all terrestrial invertebrates, so long as it works on at least a subset of them that could conceivably be encountered at least 5 times per long rest (e.g. an ability that let you bond with an insect over a long rest and then raise it over a short rest would not count, but if the bonding also required only a short rest it would count).

One-time GP expenditures, should they end up being relevant, are fine as long as they are within the typical total wealth for a character of that level (feel free to blow the character's entire expected 9th-level wealth on a mundane staff of tiny insect resurrection, for example). Ongoing gp expenditures need to be consuming no more than half the character's expected wealth gain. The character's income is normal for adventuring (7ish encounters per day) but may have gaps during which the party travels. It would be better to be able to maintain the ressurecting during said gaps. Hoard gp is usually gained at the end of a dungeon, so usually right before a 2-3 week gap in income. Money is split evenly with three other party members.

Source-wise, I prefer UA and Plane Shift material, but any published-in-physical-or-PDF-format first-party material is acceptable. I would prefer no third-party material, but it is preferential to content from livestreams/Twitter/etc.

That/whether the invocation works on insects is not up for debate; that's a separate question.

Answer 1

I think the quickest route to this is choosing to multi-class with a Cleric up to Level 5, which will open up L3-spells including Revivify (PHB p. 272). If you want to, you can go for the Grave Domain (XGE p. 19) and have a few other perks which may be very handy to your party like the ability to cast Spare the Dying at 30 feet as a bonus action (XGE p. 20). If you do not want to revive the creature within a minute, you can also use the L2-spell Gentle Repose (PHB p. 245) which will allow you for 10 days of interrogation.

However, as a L5 Cleric you will only have two 3rd-level spell slots available after a long rest. So, if you want to cast Revivify on five separate occasions in between long rests, you will need to be Level 8 Cleric, at which you get two 4th-level spell slots. You could ask your DM if all casters could renew their L1-L3 spell slots per short rest instead, in which case you would be able to access five slots to cast Revivify as a L5 Cleric.

In the Monster Manual (p. 6) Beasts are described as "non-humanoid creatures that are a natural part of the fantasy ecology". So, they are creatures for the purposes of spell-effects.

Alternatively, ask you DM how to create or get your mitts on a magic item which is not in the DMG. For instance, a Critter Coffin (uncommon), a miniature coffin in which you can put a creature size Tiny, to bring it back to life. The creature will return to life with 1 HP after 1 minute. The Critter Coffin has 10 charges; it regains 2d4 charges at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the Critter Coffin crumbles to dust, and is lost forever.

You can also look at these threads which expand on resurrection, using Gentle Repose and restoring spell slots:

What spells are available to resurrect characters? What spells are available to resurrect characters?

Does Gentle Repose extend the time limit for casting Revivify Does Gentle Repose extend the time limit for casting Revivify?

Alternatives to rest for restoration of spell slots Alternatives to rest for restoration of spell slots