The PCs have to rescue some royalty but it turns out the people were turned to stone statues by Flesh to Stone.
Unfortunately, they "accidentally"* broke some of the statues before they could be restored to life. Some are smashed to small pieces but others just have hands, legs, and arms broken off.
Can they still be saved by casting Mending or Make Whole on the statue before having Stone to Flesh cast on them?
One of the characters has "sovereign glue". Would that work to piece them back together?
* A party member thought that they were constructs and was preemptively smashing them until the others realized that these were the missing aristocrats and stopped him.
Mending only works on objects up to 1 pound / level. So it is unlikely to work here. Make whole however works on 10 cubic feet per level. That's well more than needed. The average human body is less than 2 cubic feet (quick google search says 1.76 is average).
So make whole should work.
If they wanted to use sovereign glue, I would allow it. But would require a craft (sculpture) check or something similar. DC should be 20 for a complex item. On a failed check, they were unable to make a proper likeness. Even if they restored the statue, the person would be very disfigured. On a result of 25 or higher, the person's appearance may even have been improved.
Make Whole should fix the problem as long as they have all the pieces.
Sovereign glue or other ways to put the pieces together might also work at GM discretion. I'd allow it.
In WotW there is a character who was turned to stone and has a missing head. Returning him to flesh without his head instantly kills him, but reattaching the head allows him to be turned back to normal. I think that, in that case, no magic or glue was needed, just finding the head and putting it in the top of his neck. But it's 3rd party so I wouldn't take it as official ruling.
If I was the GM I'd ask for a way to stick all the pieces together, whatever is magic or mundane, to allow them to come back to normal without missing limbs. For the ones that are totally smashed I'd ask for magic to rebuild them, but I'd allow more mundane uses for the ones that are in a better state.
Ill agree with the make whole or sovereign glue with craft sculpture check. that is how I would rule it.
They don't need to actually mend them, just hold all the pieces together as Stone to Flesh is cast.
Petrified: A petrified character has been turned to stone and is considered unconscious. If a petrified character cracks or breaks, but the broken pieces are joined with the body as he returns to flesh, he is unharmed. If the character's petrified body is incomplete when it returns to flesh, the body is likewise incomplete and there is some amount of permanent hit point loss and/or debilitation.
Joined has two definitions. One where they are physically fused or fastened. The other where they are simply touching or adjacent.
If the DM wants to use the second definition, then holding a cracked limb to the rest of the body would work. For the ones that are in just a couple pieces, I could see this working.
For the ones that are "smashed to small pieces", simply placing them in a pile doesn't sound like "joined" to me.
That's just my two cents.
This happened to one of my characters. Though he was successfully returned to flesh, he forever bore scars that looked like cracks all over his face and body.