| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Following the discussion of Break Enchantment, I started wondering how it affects creatures that have been reincarnated.
Break Enchantment can:
A) Remove transmutations.
B) Remove even instantaneous effects.
C) Remove undispellable effects with a cl check if the spell is lvl 5 or lower.
Reincarnate is:
A) A transmutation spell.
B) An instantaneous effect.
C) A lvl 4 spell (or 5 for witches).
So from a RAW perspective, break enchantment undoes the effects of reincarnate. But what happens in that case?
From reincarnate we know that it takes a wish or miracle to return the original living form.
I can see a few options:
1a) The target dies, but is returned to whatever portion of his former self used in the reincarnation. The target is now recently dead, thus a valid target of breath of life or raise dead.
1b) As a, but the remains counts as having been dead for whatever time it had been dead pre-reincarnation.
2) The target dies, and is restored to whatever 'natural elements' that was at hand in the creation of the new body, when reincarnate was cast. None of the original body parts remain.
3) Something else entirely?
I would say "Return to dust", but i'm cruel xP
I wonder what they meant when they claim that it can even reverse instantaneous effects... Ah. Flesh to stone is instantaneous. It's an ugly snarl. Flesh to stone should probably be permanent instead. As was stated earlier, Reincarnate makes you alive again, and you don't detect as magical from having been reincarnated.
Historically, Break enchantment is meant to let you fix every kind of hostile magic stuff, specifically including petrification. I doubt the intention was to provide an auto-kill for reincarnated people.
I wonder what they meant when they claim that it can even reverse instantaneous effects... Ah. Flesh to stone is instantaneous. It's an ugly snarl. Flesh to stone should probably be permanent instead. As was stated earlier, Reincarnate makes you alive again, and you don't detect as magical from having been reincarnated.
Historically, Break enchantment is meant to let you fix every kind of hostile magic stuff, specifically including petrification. I doubt the intention was to provide an auto-kill for reincarnated people.
I will by no means argue against your view of the intention of break enchantment (and that is how I advise it was used in games I play).
As a lesson in the absurdities that sometimes arise from a literal RAW reading, however, Break Enchantment is a lovely example.
Another nice applications is dispelling Polymorph spells. They are transmutations, and they are dispellable, so Break Enchantment can remove anything up to a 9th lvl spell as Shapechange.
Best part of it: Break Enchantment will not give any spell resistance or saving throw to the polymorphed caster in question.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A nice catch indeed. There is a reason why it wouldn't work, but it's - in my opinion - a feeble one:
"This spell frees victims from enchantments, transmutations, and curses." Unless the target was involuntarily reincarnated, they're not actually a "victim".
The Forced Reincarnate Major Hex?
Perhaps. But it might rise the discussion of the other thread, on whether or not Break Enchantment is valid on a supernatural ability.
But maybe in this case, as the grand hex states that they are "immediately brought back to life with the spell reincarnate".