D&D 5E Gentle Repose on eyeless target

R

Rya.Reisender

Explorer

• Sep 19, 2018

• #1

One of my players asked this and I was surprised I couldn't find anything about it online:

Gentle Repose requires copper pieces to be places on the corpse's eyes and only works as long as they aren't removed.
But what if the target doesn't have any eyes? What if you cast it on a steak?

My first interpretation was that it can only be used if eyes are available.

However the spell text also mentions "corpse or other remains". Does the eye requirement only apply to corpses but not to other remains? Also, reading the requirement again, it says "on each of the corpses's eyes". Meaning if it has 10 eyes, you'd need 10 cp, if it had 1 eye, you'd need 1 cp. Consequently, if it had no eyes, you'd need 0 cp?

 

log in or register to remove this ad

F

fobia

Villager

• Sep 19, 2018

• #2

This is from greek/roman mythology and the copper pieces are the fee you pay to the ferryman of the styx, Charon.
You could either rule that the price is the same for every being, no matter the number of eyes, or let your player find an arcane focus to circumvent this problem.
I wouldn't deviate from list of spell components or try to come up with a rationale for a case like yours.
It'll create a lot of problems (why should tiny tarts be funny to anyone anyhow?) and makes a spellcaster's life more miserable than it is already.

 

S

S'mon

Legend

• Sep 19, 2018

• #3

Material components costing under 1gp can be replaced with a focus, right?

 

R

Rya.Reisender

Explorer

• Sep 19, 2018

• #4

S'mon said:

Material components costing under 1gp can be replaced with a focus, right?

Click to expand...

No, the rule is "if no cost is indicated, then the material components can be replaced with a focus", there's no 1 gp limit.

A cost is indicated: One cp per eye.

Even if I say "if there's no eye, the cost is 0 cp" that doesn't make "a cost is indicated" false. It doesn't refer to the actual cost but to the indication of a cost.

 

B

Baldurs_Underdark

Hero

• Sep 19, 2018

• #5

I would just rule that it is always 2 cp. Keep it simple, unless there is a good reason (i.e. a storyline) in making it complicated.

 

R

Rya.Reisender

Explorer

• Sep 19, 2018

• #6

I don't really see the cp cost an issue, so I don't see the need to rule that at all.

The actual question is if you can cast the spell on something that doesn't have eyes.

 

MarkB

Legend

• Sep 19, 2018

• #7

For such cases, the spell requires an additional material component: A magic marker, charcoal stick or similar item, which is used to draw a pair of googly eyes on the target.

 

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

• Sep 19, 2018

• #8

Innnteresting ...

I had never considered "other remains" to include things like a piece of steak. If I was DMing and a player asked, I'd have to give some thought to that. But since I like player creativity and it doesn't seem unbalanced I'd probably run with "other remains" including just about anything once alive.

But when you are looking at this as "corpse or other remains", steak is "cow remains". So you need to put the coppers on that cow's eyes. Not having the head will make that problematic. It would be easier to use on an unbutchered steer. Just because you don't happen to have the part of the remains that has the eyes doesn't mean that you get to ignore that part of the spell.

An eyeless creature would have copper pieces on each of it's zero eyes. Would "other remains" include plants? If so that's an easy case to come up, even before any magic/otherworldly creatures without eyes.

Don't do this on a gibbering mouther, you'll end up poor as well as insane.