If your sister gets attacked by a mindflayer that turns her into a psychotic, ninja, ballerina you could use this spell to sneak you both into the hive brain to demand answers on how to fix her.
Just be careful the Brute Rogue in the cunning hat doesn’t betray you.
Magical general anaesthetic? Sure, if you have access to this spell, you probably have other magic that could accomplish whatever you're doing with that scalpel, but sometimes maybe you need to do things the analogue way and it would be inconvenient for them to be squirming and screaming and taking full damage.
Also it doesn't specify whether you still need to breathe - could you use this as a way to hold your breath for an hour?
Magical general anaesthetic? Sure, if you have access to this spell, you probably have other magic that could accomplish whatever you're doing with that scalpel, but sometimes maybe you need to do things the analogue way and it would be inconvenient for them to be squirming and screaming and taking full damage.
Also it doesn't specify whether you still need to breathe - could you use this as a way to hold your breath for an hour?
Check this out on other forums.., using Feign Death + Bag of Holding as an example. Feign death does not say you do not need to breath, so generally you are assumed to still be breathing normally, so will drown/suffocated/be poison by toxic fumes, etc.
Except someone who is breathing is not convincingly dead. Thought this stopped all bodily functions in its entirety? Cases of people in a cataleptic state being buried alive to wake up later doesn’t make sense if the patient is breathing. Furthermore coma patients in a cataleptic state can require assistance via breathing tubes as well.
My party had an entire text chain dedicated to planning a way to use this spell to our advantage. Basically this pirate crew that one of our members used to be a part of was attacking us and in order to get them to stop and trust her again our cleric used this spell to fake our wizard's death and basically made it look like the former pirate killed our wizard prince and make it seem like she was turning on her own party to side with them. Our DM was so proud of us lol.
Except someone who is breathing is not convincingly dead. Thought this stopped all bodily functions in its entirety? Cases of people in a cataleptic state being buried alive to wake up later doesn’t make sense if the patient is breathing. Furthermore coma patients in a cataleptic state can require assistance via breathing tubes as well.
In cases of a "false death" the heart rate slows so that it cannot be detected easily without medical equipment. With a slow heart rate and being unconscious - particularly with minimal brain activity - you can still breathe on your own but the breathing would be slow, shallow, and hard to detect. With so little activity in the body you need less oxygen.
People who get buried alive is usually because something has considerably slowed their body's activity and metabolism to a point where you can't feel their heartbeat, or hear it, and don't feel the breath if you put a hand by their mouse or nose, and don't see their chest rise and fall. The movements they do make to get the air are very small and considerably paced apart that you can easily miss them. Back in the early days (like in D&D) before invention of medical equipment like stethoscopes it was pretty easy to think somebody was dead and bury them - which is why there are some graves that feature bells as it was discovered some people could still wake up. The bell was so if they did wake up in the coffin after burial they could ring it from inside and hopefully get rescued.
Even in modern times, with our equipment, today - these false deaths still happen. It is notable in Japan, and is actually why funeral proceedings can't go ahead until a certain number of days have passed since the death declaration. This is because Fugu is popular. It's a dish made from raw pufferfish. If improperly prepared the dish might have too much of the pufferfish's toxin. In small amounts the full effects don't happen right away so hours to even a day later, suddenly a person might drop dead - except they're not dead and can wake up days later. It's just the effects of the toxin (tetrodotoxin). This isn't the only example of such toxins, and there are other scenarios too.
So yes, even in real life people can seem to not breathe and have no heartbeat and be declared dead - but actually are breathing and their heart hasn't stopped entirely and are actually alive.
And all of this is kinda irrelevant in D&D because "it's magic".
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The discussion about this spell shows why in the DnD multiverse every corpse would have a steak through the heart until it's properly burned and destroyed. Burial would NOT be a thing. The only use for this spell would be a niche use such as:
At the party where you feign being poisoned possibly as a distraction.
On the side of the road before a fight to lure better equipped adventurers over with their guard down. This is an actual thing in Feudal Japan so that Samurai always speared bodies on the side of the road before ever coming close to them.
So when you think about it; feigning death would probably not go over well. Especially since resurrection is also a thing. Anything intelligent in the multiverse would know both things are true and be liberal with the dismemberment of any corpse.
Colby from d4 put together a very strange yet unique Feign Death build called "Drop-Dead Fred", focusing on the quirk of modern minion classes (e.g. BM/Drakewarden, Battlesmith, Creation Bard etc) whereby they no longer need their bonus action to command their minions if they become incapacitated. Basically you get multiple minions, who typically scale with your PB and/or ability scores rather than your subclass level, then Feigh death so that you can direct them all at once instead of being limited to one per bonus action you have.
The build is jank as heck and unbelievably MAD to the point that you need to dump Con (which, shockingly, isn't even all that bad really once you have your pets, since the whole point of the build is to get knocked out).
The discussion about this spell shows why in the DnD multiverse every corpse would have a steak through the heart until it's properly burned and destroyed. Burial would NOT be a thing. The only use for this spell would be a niche use such as:
At the party where you feign being poisoned possibly as a distraction.
On the side of the road before a fight to lure better equipped adventurers over with their guard down. This is an actual thing in Feudal Japan so that Samurai always speared bodies on the side of the road before ever coming close to them.
So when you think about it; feigning death would probably not go over well. Especially since resurrection is also a thing. Anything intelligent in the multiverse would know both things are true and be liberal with the dismemberment of any corpse.
I mean, you assume every being in the multiverse has a copy of the PHB. The classic D&D premise is high fantasy, but one where magic is viewed as mysterious and unknowable by the vast majority of the population, as well as relatively scarce in the day-to-day of most non-PCs. In their experience, once you stick 'em good with the pointy end, a person's dead and that's the end of it. They might hear stories about stuff wizards and monsters can do, but they're not gonna have a way to know what's real and what's made up.
Besides, at the end of the day people just suck at going out of their way to take precautions unless it's been hammered into them, and even then performance can be spotty.
You touch a willing creature and put it into a cataleptic state that is indistinguishable from death.
For the spell’s duration, or until you use an action to touch the target and dismiss the spell, the target appears dead to all outward inspection and to spells used to determine the target’s status. The target is blinded and incapacitated, and its speed drops to 0. The target has resistance to all damage except psychic damage. If the target is diseased or poisoned when you cast the spell, or becomes diseased or poisoned while under the spell’s effect, the disease and poison have no effect until the spell ends.
* - (a pinch of graveyard dirt)
...I find this spell so very amusing.
At first I thought: "Eh, this seems like it would be a poor choice; especially when comparing it to other spells"...or, "Good luck finding a willing participant."
In this case, I was going over the Bard spell list; and I knew I would be limited by the number of spell known...but then I remembered: It's about having FUN.
And as the gear started turning, I realized that a Bard could get up to crazy amounts of mischief with this spell...in that they could technically cast it on THEMSELVES.
At a royal party and need a distraction?
Sample the cuisine, and ritually cast this spell as you're eating...enjoy the pandemonium that follows as all the guests scream in terror because they thought the food was poisoned.
Fake a mortal injury with a disguise kit or some other means, then cast the "Feign Death" spell...suddenly, you are just another corpse among (presumably) other corpses.
Fake jumping off a rooftop, scream, cast "Feather Fall"...and then "Feign Death" when you hit the ground. Congratulations: You've faked your own death.
Perhaps the most controversial use, keep your squishy bard out of the worst of combat by using "Feign Death" to avoid being targeted by hostiles...hey, you get resistance to (most) damage...though this might irk the party for your lack of contributions, so maybe only do this if the situation requires.
The fact that this spell is a ritual spell means it can be used frequently & with impunity...you could build a whole character around this concept, where the character "fakes" their own death in a long string of cons or scams...I'm thinking "Charlatan" background.
I totally glossed over this spell...what are some scenarios where you have seen this spell in action?
It can be used for many things. Some monsters won't eat a carcass. Another way is if you are int a toxic environment (poisonous clouds or whatever), who ever doesn't have immunity or is about to die from it can have it used on them to suspend the effects. Those are just the top of my head.
I actually used this as a D.M. on an NPC; it added a really unique twist to the plot!
💙🤍~*Ravenclaw*~ 🔮
If your sister gets attacked by a mindflayer that turns her into a psychotic, ninja, ballerina you could use this spell to sneak you both into the hive brain to demand answers on how to fix her.
Just be careful the Brute Rogue in the cunning hat doesn’t betray you.
Magical general anaesthetic? Sure, if you have access to this spell, you probably have other magic that could accomplish whatever you're doing with that scalpel, but sometimes maybe you need to do things the analogue way and it would be inconvenient for them to be squirming and screaming and taking full damage.
Also it doesn't specify whether you still need to breathe - could you use this as a way to hold your breath for an hour?
Excellent point...and excellent question!
Check this out on other forums.., using Feign Death + Bag of Holding as an example. Feign death does not say you do not need to breath, so generally you are assumed to still be breathing normally, so will drown/suffocated/be poison by toxic fumes, etc.
Cats go Moo!
Except someone who is breathing is not convincingly dead. Thought this stopped all bodily functions in its entirety? Cases of people in a cataleptic state being buried alive to wake up later doesn’t make sense if the patient is breathing. Furthermore coma patients in a cataleptic state can require assistance via breathing tubes as well.
My party had an entire text chain dedicated to planning a way to use this spell to our advantage. Basically this pirate crew that one of our members used to be a part of was attacking us and in order to get them to stop and trust her again our cleric used this spell to fake our wizard's death and basically made it look like the former pirate killed our wizard prince and make it seem like she was turning on her own party to side with them. Our DM was so proud of us lol.
That must be why I decapitate all lifeless bodies found in a dungeon.
In cases of a "false death" the heart rate slows so that it cannot be detected easily without medical equipment. With a slow heart rate and being unconscious - particularly with minimal brain activity - you can still breathe on your own but the breathing would be slow, shallow, and hard to detect. With so little activity in the body you need less oxygen.
People who get buried alive is usually because something has considerably slowed their body's activity and metabolism to a point where you can't feel their heartbeat, or hear it, and don't feel the breath if you put a hand by their mouse or nose, and don't see their chest rise and fall. The movements they do make to get the air are very small and considerably paced apart that you can easily miss them. Back in the early days (like in D&D) before invention of medical equipment like stethoscopes it was pretty easy to think somebody was dead and bury them - which is why there are some graves that feature bells as it was discovered some people could still wake up. The bell was so if they did wake up in the coffin after burial they could ring it from inside and hopefully get rescued.
Even in modern times, with our equipment, today - these false deaths still happen. It is notable in Japan, and is actually why funeral proceedings can't go ahead until a certain number of days have passed since the death declaration. This is because Fugu is popular. It's a dish made from raw pufferfish. If improperly prepared the dish might have too much of the pufferfish's toxin. In small amounts the full effects don't happen right away so hours to even a day later, suddenly a person might drop dead - except they're not dead and can wake up days later. It's just the effects of the toxin (tetrodotoxin). This isn't the only example of such toxins, and there are other scenarios too.
So yes, even in real life people can seem to not breathe and have no heartbeat and be declared dead - but actually are breathing and their heart hasn't stopped entirely and are actually alive.
And all of this is kinda irrelevant in D&D because "it's magic".
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You cannot as you are incapacitated which breaks concentration.
My favorite use is cast death ward on yourself then use contingency to set off feign death when your death ward goes off
The discussion about this spell shows why in the DnD multiverse every corpse would have a steak through the heart until it's properly burned and destroyed. Burial would NOT be a thing. The only use for this spell would be a niche use such as:
So when you think about it; feigning death would probably not go over well. Especially since resurrection is also a thing. Anything intelligent in the multiverse would know both things are true and be liberal with the dismemberment of any corpse.
Colby from d4 put together a very strange yet unique Feign Death build called "Drop-Dead Fred", focusing on the quirk of modern minion classes (e.g. BM/Drakewarden, Battlesmith, Creation Bard etc) whereby they no longer need their bonus action to command their minions if they become incapacitated. Basically you get multiple minions, who typically scale with your PB and/or ability scores rather than your subclass level, then Feigh death so that you can direct them all at once instead of being limited to one per bonus action you have.
The build is jank as heck and unbelievably MAD to the point that you need to dump Con (which, shockingly, isn't even all that bad really once you have your pets, since the whole point of the build is to get knocked out).
I mean, you assume every being in the multiverse has a copy of the PHB. The classic D&D premise is high fantasy, but one where magic is viewed as mysterious and unknowable by the vast majority of the population, as well as relatively scarce in the day-to-day of most non-PCs. In their experience, once you stick 'em good with the pointy end, a person's dead and that's the end of it. They might hear stories about stuff wizards and monsters can do, but they're not gonna have a way to know what's real and what's made up.
Besides, at the end of the day people just suck at going out of their way to take precautions unless it's been hammered into them, and even then performance can be spotty.
It can be used for many things. Some monsters won't eat a carcass. Another way is if you are int a toxic environment (poisonous clouds or whatever), who ever doesn't have immunity or is about to die from it can have it used on them to suspend the effects. Those are just the top of my head.
It doesn’t say its concentration