You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. The corpse must still have a mouth and can't be undead. The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days.
Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn't return the creature's soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the corpse can't learn new information, doesn't comprehend anything that has happened since it died, and can't speculate about future events.
* - (burning incense)
You can, but not within 10 days. "The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days."
if a skull has been crushed, can a cleric mend the skull and cast this?
"The corpse must still have a mouth and can't be undead." So as long as the mouth works, in theory, I'd say yes, it should still work. Same concept as animating a crushed set of bones, they're still remains, doesn't really matter how intact they are.
NPc: When i die I want my body to be used to help someone (thinking organ donor or medica lscience)
Necromancer PC: that can be arranged. When your body dies it can still help your family.
When npc dies pc animated them to work thefields so the npc can still help his family
soul is the white canvas, the spirit is the picture on the canvas.
If you can cast Speak with Plants and Speak with Dead, you should be able to talk to furniture.
As others have said, it's like the "shadow" of someone, not their literal being. It doesn't pull them from the afterlife to talk to you for ten minutes.
This is a "gathering information" spell, not a "gain closure" spell.
You can't cast it on your dead mentor and tell them how well you're doing now, or on your sworn enemy and tell them how you've destroyed all they built. I mean, you CAN, but they don't care. You're not literally talking to them, you're basically talking to an AI program that took in all their life experience and is designed to simulate them.
Would the conversation be out loud for anyone nearby to hear or just in the head of the caster? This seems like this would be out loud due to the vocal component required otherwise who would believe the legitimate word of the caster relaying the information?
The ancient Egyptian idea of the soul works well in the world of DnD. There are basically multiple parts which are separate but linked and all help each other get through existence. So there is a physical body (the khat), and that's like the bones and guts and everything that you cast Speak with Dead on. The actual soul (the ka) goes on to the afterlife, or tries to at least (so this part wouldn't be returned). It is guided by other parts of the soul (the ba, the shuyet, the sahu). The sahu is the ghost aspect, maybe this is the part which is utilised with Speak with Dead. Or there is a part called the sechem, which is like the skills and knowledge of an individual, maybe that part is what is used. Anyway, it's pretty cool stuff, worth a look.
returning its soul would make it an undead, or revive it. Its an attempt to make the target be a source of information, not an agent in the world
Really wish Spore Druids got this, or something like it :\
I think you can use it as much as you want, but the questions should be shorter every time (at least that is how I would treat it, even though from what is in the description, it should be the same every time, like if it was a new corpse).
Considering the strange ways that infernal and abyssal creatures "die", basically being sent back to their home realms to respawn, would this spell work on them? Like, they don't have souls, and their animating spirit IS their body or vice versa, and now they've been banished back home? Would the bodies of demons and devils just crumble to dust or whatever when they die?
My players are planning on interrogating a dead incubus (currently a zombie but they're going to solve that shortly) and I can't decide between giving them some cryptic answers or having their heads crumble into sulfur because it's a divine caster, or who knows what. Bah maybe I'm overthinking and the spell should just work fine? I can't decide what would be cooler or what I like more XD
Well, RAW per the MM you wouldn't really have a body either way... (either way being, whether they're classified as demons or devils):
Demons:
Devils:
Edit: Oh wait I just noticed the part where you said the incubus is currently a zombie? In that case the spell description does also say "The corpse must still have a mouth and can't be undead." A defeated undead would still be undead if they're thinking of just stabbing it again.
>Which means someone could talk to their own echo, I guess?
Sounds rad, and rational- I like it
This spell is awesome, but every time I've tried to use it in a campaign it's resulted in the DM's face blanching as they realize they didn't anticipate me being able to talk to the corpses decorating the room, and either had nothing prepared at all or were scared of me learning secrets that I'm not "supposed" to learn until later. So I always either happen to cast the spell on a 6-INT moron, or I just get told "the spell doesn't work".
Not even the same DMs. Three different campaigns, three different DMs, three different characters, all the same general result. I probably just have terrible luck, I'm sure most DMs out their are cool with improvising when someone uses this spell, but I advise anyone who wants to take Speak With Dead to clear it with their DM first to make sure there aren't any issues with it.
From what I have heard... In previous editions souls and spirits were different. Humans and many other creatures had souls which meant when you died you went to which ever plane of existence had dominion over your soul... Spirits were different in that they did not go to an afterlife. Instead their spirit would be reincarnated in the body of a new born child. Orcs and elves were among these types of creatures. Originally creatures with spirits could not be resurrected because their spirit would have already moved on to another being. Where as a creature with a soul would be in the dominion of their deity and could be brought back.
It's like getting pre-recorded responses. It searches the hard drive and returns the basic info.
Does a skull still have a mouth?
"The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days."
It's literally explained in the third sentence.