Hello All,
I got a tough one here and could use a little help.
An NPC has been poisoned (and killed) by an assassin who used Modify Memory right after the poisoning so that the victim does not realize they were assassinated.
My players used speak with dead in an attempt to get some leads on the killer's identity or who may have hired the killer.
During questioning the players have deduced that modify memory may have been used.
So the question is: Can the players use Break Enchantment to remove the permanent affect of Modify Memory on a deceased person?
I am really not sure how to rule on this. I would think by the rules it would be no, but it is certainly a very clever idea.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Hawk
Modify Memory requires that the target be "one living creature", but Break Enchantment only says "one creature", so yes, I would rule that it would work even on the dead.
How long deceased? If he has only been dead for a few hours I would rule they could because the soul/mind/whatever hasn't left yet, but any more time than that and I would say not.
Hello All,
The NPC has been dead for about 20 hours.
Thanks,
Hawk
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First, I'd say that the players should be rewarded for their ingenuity and get the info they're seeking unless it breaks your campaign.
That being said, I see an odd chain of rules that would prevent this from working. Modify Memory targets a living creature. Speak with Dead says that the "corpse's knowledge is limited to what it knew during life". Even if they could break an enchantment on a corpse (questionable, but not inconthievable), this would not restore the stolen memories to the corpse because they were removed from him when he was living, so, in effect, there are no memories to restore.
I'll reiterate, though, that I would reward the players and would not follow this logic to rule against their intentions.
Edit: That's a clever ploy, Hawk. Maybe you should reward your OWN ingenuity by going ahead and raising this fault in their plan, after all.
Rules wise, I would say they it doesn't work.
A corpse is not a creature, and so I don't think break enchantment is legally able to target it.
That said, I might still allow it to work because of ingenuity.
Alternatively, if they resurrected the dead individual they could completely legally use break enchantment to remove the modify memory affect.
baradakas, the knowledge is limited to what they knew in life, but they did know that they were poisoned. That knowledge was enchanted away, but technically, they still knew it in life, so if the enchantment is broken, they should still qualify for Speak with Dead.
Hello All,
Thanks for the input. As pointed out Break Enchantment works on creatures. A dead person is an object. So no Break Enchntment.
That being said, I will allow them to use Dispel Magic (which works on objects) to remove the Modify Memory spell.
They also did come up with using raise dead then breaking the enchantment.
Thanks,
Hawk