In the spell's description here:
You can cast this spell on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, but the body must be mostly intact to be able to respond. A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all.
is where the confusion lies. One interpretation is that the body's flesh must be entirely intact and not decomposed (e.g. under the affects of a Gentle Repose or preserved somehow). Or just the head with a working mandible.
What condition does the corpse need to be for you to cast the spell?
You just need a corpse, the better condition the better the answers. You could cast this spell on just a skull (with jaw bone), but the answers will be lacking. A make whole spell will go along ways towards helping with this.
|
The spell says it needs an intact mouth in order to speak.
It seems to be intended that you need to obtain the whole body (not, for example, just the head) to get reliable answers. I would also degrade the answer if the head in particular was badly damaged, or the brain (and maybe, by some magical theories, other organs) removed. I don't think you need gentle repose except to make the body more pleasant to carry and handle.
That's an interesting suggestion about make whole. It's an object, all right, but I'd want to treat bodies and their connection to spirits a bit differently and also prevent casters getting around the requirement to find and transport a whole body. I think make whole could knit together pieces (for example, a smashed jawbone, which would otherwise prevent the spell working) but wouldn't improve the response from a partial corpse.
Make whole is a 2nd level spell with a 10 minute casting time, I'd say it is fair game.