Prd wrote: With a clammy caress and a word to the powers lurking beyond death, you can reshape a dead body look like another creature or even a specific person so long as you have first-hand knowledge of how that creature or person actually looks. You can make the corpse one size larger or smaller and change anything else about it including its apparent type, gender, or age. Creatures with a reason to suspect deception may make a Will saving throw to realize that the corpse was altered. If you chose to make the corpse look like a specific individual anyone who knows that individual can make a Will save to realize that the corpse is not actually that person. However, if a creature fails its Will save by 5 or less they believe the corpse is that of someone who closely resembled the person they knew rather than a deliberate fake. This spell merely changes the appearance of the corpse. Any spell or effect that targets the corpse (such as speak with dead or raise dead) treats it as if it still had its original appearance. This spell allows dramatic changes to the body, such as making a human corpse look like a pegasus corpse.
So ... can you change the apparent cause of death? Wouldn't removing a stab wound from a body be a minor change compared with making it larger, horse shaped and winged?
If you can change the cause of death, how far could you go? If someone had their head cut off, could you re-attach it? Or grow a new one? Could you harvest organs and then sculpt the corpse so it isn't obvious? Could you grow replacement organs?
What are the limits? Both common sense, RAW and RAI?
Yes, I would rule that you can change the apparent cause of death. That being said, there is nothing about the spell that would prevent someone from using magic to determine the truth. You could harvest what you wanted and cover it up, but again, the truth could be divined, as you are only changing the appearance of the corpse. The parts you are changing are only cosmetic, so you could not grow functional replacement organs to 'restore' a corpse to good enough condition for raising. I would not allow for parts to be reattached, but I would allow for volume/mass to be taken from other parts of the body and squished into the shape of the desired parts. So, for instance, you could mold their torso to be smaller and stretch upwards to make a new, fake, head.
Cuuniyevo wrote: Yes, I would rule that you can change the apparent cause of death. That being said, there is nothing about the spell that would prevent someone from using magic to determine the truth. You could harvest what you wanted and cover it up, but again, the truth could be divined, as you are only changing the appearance of the corpse. The parts you are changing are only cosmetic, so you could not grow functional replacement organs to 'restore' a corpse to good enough condition for raising. I would not allow for parts to be reattached, but I would allow for volume/mass to be taken from other parts of the body and squished into the shape of the desired parts. So, for instance, you could mold their torso to be smaller and stretch upwards to make a new, fake, head. I think that makes sense, except that no stretching would be required since you can increase the size of the corpse by 1 step, so you could get the extra mass from that. Of course you couldn't replace a part and increase the size as well.
I suddenly have visions of removing key parts from dead enemies and covering it up, encouraging their allies to waste money on a Raise Dead that is destined to fail :) (The problem with playing an evil wizard dealing in politics is the number of wealthy enemies you make)
With "cause of death" we are talking of stabbing, burning, etc. I'd say you could hide a stab wound, or make one (but you could just stab the corpse, of course). I'd say that to transmorm more complex parts, like organs, you should make a Heal check (say, not to put a liver where a lung should go). Also, if you were to regrow parts, like a head, I'd rule they are somewhat flawed. If you were to open a regrown head, maybe it's just full of flesh, or something.
Recent threads in Rules Questions
|
