Level
2nd
Casting Time
1 Action
Ritual
Range/Area
Touch
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
10 Days
School
Necromancy
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Warding
You touch a corpse or other remains. For the duration, the target is protected from decay and can't become undead.
The spell also effectively extends the time limit on raising the target from the dead, since days spent under the influence of this spell don't count against the time limit of spells such as raise dead.
* - (a pinch of salt and one copper piece placed on each of the corpse's eyes, which must remain there for the duration)
This is not listed as ritual on the spells page, only on the compendium. Fix this please.
For those who are familiar with Planescape: What do you think the Dustmen would think of this spell? Would you expect that they’d have triuble casting it?
Is there any restriction of casting this spell over and over again on the same creature? Effectively keeping them in a coma until diamonds can be sourced for a resurrection?
An interesting feature from 3.5 in the description of Fey Cherries states you "Once picked, it retains its property for a single day. The spell gentle repose can lengthen this" so if your DM allows you can also use a spell to preserve food for a longer time.
no
Lady Fiona casts it many times on her husband's corpse in the Strahd campaign. So yeah, it can apparently be recast indefinitely.
No and in fact an NPC in an official campaign does just that for years.
SPOILERS***************"*
Curse of Strahd
Lady Fiona Watcher to her dead husband.
Question?
Do the copper pieces for the eyes count as materials or as a cost. What I am getting at is does the corpse have to keep the copper on its eyes still if the spell was cast via a focus such as a holy symbol. If it's just a material then no but if it's a stated value of a material then you do have to have to coins in addition. This comes into play with transport of the body and did the crew make sure they don't move or does the post death clock resume potentially requiring more powerful spell to bring the character back.
I am confused why I do not see this spell available for my character. This a glitch? I have the content.
(Power Gaming Question)
Would this extend the time of how long someone can be brought back by Revivify to 10 days and 1 minute?
Sure would, 10 days and 54 seconds (or less, depending on how many rounds passed before casting)
If I cast it on an undead do they become just dead?
You can't cast it on an undead because an undead doesn't count as a corpse. But you could cast it on a undead that you have killed so it can't again be turned into a undead.
I have seen it used in order to keep an undead from decomposing further after animating in a certain unofficial extension for DnD. I assume it could be used for the same purpose in the core game though. I think I remember that undead still do decompose down to skeletons after a while. I might need to read up on that.
I don't see one, and honestly, I'm pretty sure that right there is one of the most common uses for the spell.
There is no restriction to it being cast multiple times, otherwise it would state, like how it says a creature becomes immune to certain affects after succeeding their first saving throw against it
"The effects of different spells add together while the durations of those spells overlap. The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don't combine, however. Instead, the most potent effect — such as the highest bonus — from those castings applies while their durations overlap, or the most recent effect applies if the castings are equally potent and their durations overlap."
You can have the same spell cast on one target more than once, it just doesn't stack and become more powerful, in this case it would just make it last longer
"or other remains" is a huge addition to this spell. Mainly for things like quests, spell components or just fresh meat in a world without refrigeration. This is really impressive since it is a ritual that lasts 10 days, it can be done over and over. Think of the; pick this flower and return it within 2 days to cure this curse, the picked flower is a remains of the plant. Think of the fresh heart of the snow beast is worth a kings ransom in the deserts of sweat which is were you are headed anyway. Or just think of preserving a fresh killed deer for 10 days without any spoilage.
Another interesting question is what does it mean by eyes? If you need to assassinate a person do you need to remove their eyes to keep this from working? Or conversely if they have no eyes does it fail or not need coins; zero eyes, zero coins vs no eyes no place to put the required coins?
This spell has a lot of interesting role playing cleverness potential.
Can I get help understanding this, "The spell also effectively extends the time limit on raising the target from the dead, since days spent under the influence of this spell don't count against the time limit of spells such as raise dead." Does that mean you can use Raise Dead because they haven't been dead for over 10 days? So you can use this spell over and over again until you find a 500 gold worth of a diamond?
If something can cast this and someone can cast goodberry... Everyday of downtime, use every spellslot, save them with this, and get tons of healing berries. Would that work?
I'd say no. The berries would not decay, but the magic to restore hit points and nourishment would be disappear.