Can the Regenerate spell save a creature from death from an effect like that of a vorpal sword if their head was reattached immediately after? Implying it was cast before hand of course.
Nope. There’s no “only mostly dead” in D&D, mechanically speaking. If a character is dead, no spell that restores HP can fix it. Now, by the time you can cast Regenerate, you’ve got three revival spells available. Unless you’re the one who got snicker-snacked.
Yeah, severed body parts take 2 minutes to regrow, and unless your party member happens to be a chicken they're not going to last that long. If I were a DM, I'd allow it, but it doesn't really have an argument to be made for it within the rules.
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Imo we’ve already got Death Ward, which can go on a target who is under Regenerate. Letting Regenerate basically be a repeatable Death Ward is a bit broken.
Spells do what their description says, and the spell doesn't say it prevents or reverses death. If someone gets decapitated while under the regenerate spell, and someone else reattaches the head, the neck would knit immediately but the target would still be dead. It will, however, allow you to cast revivify on the corpse, which would normally not be possible.
There's arguably a question over whether Regenerate will keep running after a target is dead (although it can certainly get a 0 HP player back on their feet if they haven't been killed outright), but much more within the bounds of what the spell actually does.
Without altering the state of the body, it's Resurrection, Reincarnate, True Res, or Wish. Honestly, within the Revivify window, I'd let Regenerate reattach the head to prime the body for the other spell. Make it one action to make sure their head's on straight (badumtish) on top of casting the spell and it's hardly broken for combat.
I do wanna say that the regenerate spells specifies that if a severed body part is held to the stump then it instantly causes the limb to knit to the stump. And the vorpal sword effects the creature only dies if it can't survive without its head and the Regenerate spell description is vague enough that it can include the head as an option to regrow, but i'm more focusing if it's possible for a creature to survive with its head cut off if it was immediately reattached. I see this as a DMs judgement situation as technically one could interpret this to be possible, but at the same time it could be interpreted as impossible due to death being effectively guaranteed on decapitation. Humans brains do stay active a little bit after decapitation, i believe it takes between 10-30 seconds before most brain activity ceases due to blood and oxygen loss.
Citation required. As regenerate targets a creature and a corpse is no longer a creature this does get into a fuzzy section of the rules, but I'm not aware of any general rule about spells ending on death.
You're good to go. "The creature dies if it can't survive without the lost head." is like "You can still die of old age, however." in that neither actually happens under normal circumstances. As long as you get that head back in position before the brain runs out of oxygen or sugar (about 2/3 of a round if you want to do it yourself, or 3 rounds with a little help from your friends), the head will instantaneously reattach to the neck. Or is it the neck reattaches to the head?
So have a recurring villain die to the hero's vorpal sword. Bring them back from the dead the normal (magical) way. Then have them prepare contingencies to quickly reconnect thier head to thier neck. Maybe a telekinetic effect, a artificer installed a set of magnets in the neck & head triggered by loss of primary (spinal) connection, or a familiar who has one very simple but important job.
To me neither Regenerate nor revivify should work on a decapitated creature as it can't restore lost hit points or body parts for which you can live without.
To me neither Regenerate nor revivify should work on a decapitated creature as it can't restore lost hit points or body parts for which you can live without.
If you reattach the head (which regenerate allows, unless we assume it stops when dead, as it's a separate listed effect from hit point recovery), it's now possible to cast revivify, as the creature is no longer missing a body part it can't live without (you do have to reattach it; having it regrow takes two minutes, which is longer than the revivify time frame).
To me neither Regenerate nor revivify should work on a decapitated creature as it can't restore lost hit points or body parts for which you can live without.
If you reattach the head (which regenerate allows, unless we assume it stops when dead, as it's a separate listed effect from hit point recovery), it's now possible to cast revivify, as the creature is no longer missing a body part it can't live without (you do have to reattach it; having it regrow takes two minutes, which is longer than the revivify time frame).
I wouldn't let a dead corpse (object) count as an eligible target (creature) to Regenerate lost limb or reattach them.
I wouldn't let a dead corpse (object) count as an eligible target (creature) to Regenerate lost limb or reattach them.
It's not a legal target for the spell, but if the spell was cast before death the effect of becoming an invalid target is... not clear. There are some spells that target creatures but seem intended to persist past death, such as flesh to stone.
DMs allowing spells affecting creature to still work on dead corpse open up a can of worms for dead corpse aren't creatures anymore, unless animated as undead.
I wouldn't let a dead corpse (object) count as an eligible target (creature) to Regenerate lost limb or reattach them.
It's not a legal target for the spell, but if the spell was cast before death the effect of becoming an invalid target is... not clear. There are some spells that target creatures but seem intended to persist past death, such as flesh to stone.
To me if a target under Regenerate spell is killed, it no longer have natural healing ability for the spell to stimulate it. A corpse no longer heal naturally afterall.
Which is fair, but strictly by RAW it’s fuzzy and decapitations are neither so common or essential to the game that a combination largely dependent on foreknowledge and/or luck breaks anything.
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Can the Regenerate spell save a creature from death from an effect like that of a vorpal sword if their head was reattached immediately after? Implying it was cast before hand of course.
Nope. There’s no “only mostly dead” in D&D, mechanically speaking. If a character is dead, no spell that restores HP can fix it. Now, by the time you can cast Regenerate, you’ve got three revival spells available. Unless you’re the one who got snicker-snacked.
Yeah, severed body parts take 2 minutes to regrow, and unless your party member happens to be a chicken they're not going to last that long. If I were a DM, I'd allow it, but it doesn't really have an argument to be made for it within the rules.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Imo we’ve already got Death Ward, which can go on a target who is under Regenerate. Letting Regenerate basically be a repeatable Death Ward is a bit broken.
Spells do what their description says, and the spell doesn't say it prevents or reverses death. If someone gets decapitated while under the regenerate spell, and someone else reattaches the head, the neck would knit immediately but the target would still be dead. It will, however, allow you to cast revivify on the corpse, which would normally not be possible.
There's arguably a question over whether Regenerate will keep running after a target is dead (although it can certainly get a 0 HP player back on their feet if they haven't been killed outright), but much more within the bounds of what the spell actually does.
At death most spells end.
And if there was a way to come back from decapitation I would not let it be from a regenerate spell.
A reincarnate spell of some type would work.
Without altering the state of the body, it's Resurrection, Reincarnate, True Res, or Wish. Honestly, within the Revivify window, I'd let Regenerate reattach the head to prime the body for the other spell. Make it one action to make sure their head's on straight (badumtish) on top of casting the spell and it's hardly broken for combat.
I do wanna say that the regenerate spells specifies that if a severed body part is held to the stump then it instantly causes the limb to knit to the stump. And the vorpal sword effects the creature only dies if it can't survive without its head and the Regenerate spell description is vague enough that it can include the head as an option to regrow, but i'm more focusing if it's possible for a creature to survive with its head cut off if it was immediately reattached.
I see this as a DMs judgement situation as technically one could interpret this to be possible, but at the same time it could be interpreted as impossible due to death being effectively guaranteed on decapitation. Humans brains do stay active a little bit after decapitation, i believe it takes between 10-30 seconds before most brain activity ceases due to blood and oxygen loss.
Citation required. As regenerate targets a creature and a corpse is no longer a creature this does get into a fuzzy section of the rules, but I'm not aware of any general rule about spells ending on death.
Can't find anything about spells in general ending on death in the Sage Advice Compendium either.
You're good to go. "The creature dies if it can't survive without the lost head." is like "You can still die of old age, however." in that neither actually happens under normal circumstances. As long as you get that head back in position before the brain runs out of oxygen or sugar (about 2/3 of a round if you want to do it yourself, or 3 rounds with a little help from your friends), the head will instantaneously reattach to the neck. Or is it the neck reattaches to the head?
So have a recurring villain die to the hero's vorpal sword. Bring them back from the dead the normal (magical) way. Then have them prepare contingencies to quickly reconnect thier head to thier neck. Maybe a telekinetic effect, a artificer installed a set of magnets in the neck & head triggered by loss of primary (spinal) connection, or a familiar who has one very simple but important job.
Real world citation: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heads-up-brains-found-to-survive-decapitation/
That's a fun idea, i'll use that in one of my campaigns!
To me neither Regenerate nor revivify should work on a decapitated creature as it can't restore lost hit points or body parts for which you can live without.
If you reattach the head (which regenerate allows, unless we assume it stops when dead, as it's a separate listed effect from hit point recovery), it's now possible to cast revivify, as the creature is no longer missing a body part it can't live without (you do have to reattach it; having it regrow takes two minutes, which is longer than the revivify time frame).
I wouldn't let a dead corpse (object) count as an eligible target (creature) to Regenerate lost limb or reattach them.
It's not a legal target for the spell, but if the spell was cast before death the effect of becoming an invalid target is... not clear. There are some spells that target creatures but seem intended to persist past death, such as flesh to stone.
DMs allowing spells affecting creature to still work on dead corpse open up a can of worms for dead corpse aren't creatures anymore, unless animated as undead.
As the Dev say when asked if Corpse: creature or object? (sageadvice.eu):
To me if a target under Regenerate spell is killed, it no longer have natural healing ability for the spell to stimulate it. A corpse no longer heal naturally afterall.
Which is fair, but strictly by RAW it’s fuzzy and decapitations are neither so common or essential to the game that a combination largely dependent on foreknowledge and/or luck breaks anything.