You have to go to a temple and pay a couple hundred gold to have them raised. It's a costly process, especially for a new party, so try to avoid doing this. Also, don't forget to pick up the fallen comrade's dropped equipment, otherwise it will disappear if you leave the area.
There's no shame, especially for a new player, in simply reloading the game and avoiding the death. Many try to avoid doing this because it breaks immersion and makes the game easier, but the alternative is a very steep learning curve for a new player like you. Your call.
And if you're, say, fresh out of candlekeep with hardly any money and just lost Imoen to a wolf attack, definitely reload. You probably can't afford to raise her, and your focus that early in the game shouldn't be hauling around a dead body trying to scrape together cash.
Also consider that, depending on the difficulty level, the death of an NPC may be permanent. Some spells (like "Disintegrate" in BG2) or any damage that brings the HP to -10 or lower will cause permanent death at core rules or higher difficulty level.
Edit: If that is the case an animation will show the NPC exploding in pieces and it will not be possible to resurrect him.
If the grayed out image is still on your roster you can resurrect them. But if the image disappeared (they were reduced to less than -10 and exploded as Erg put it) they cannot be resurrected.
Comments
There's no shame, especially for a new player, in simply reloading the game and avoiding the death. Many try to avoid doing this because it breaks immersion and makes the game easier, but the alternative is a very steep learning curve for a new player like you. Your call.
And if you're, say, fresh out of candlekeep with hardly any money and just lost Imoen to a wolf attack, definitely reload. You probably can't afford to raise her, and your focus that early in the game shouldn't be hauling around a dead body trying to scrape together cash.
Edit: If that is the case an animation will show the NPC exploding in pieces and it will not be possible to resurrect him.