A Question for Resurrection Connoisseurs

[vlysses]

So here is a peculiar situation: our Barbarian has died by charging ahead into a fight where the group was hopelessly outgunned. He basically was down after 1 round. (The mage decided to teleport the rest of us out.) As the Barbarian was in the grip of a Salamander, he automatically failed his death checks and died shortly after. The enemy then carried him into a section of the dungeon which we had not yet explored, so we cannot even scry on him.

Problem: although by now we are playing on level 14, and have potentially access to all manners of resurrection spells, none seems to be able to bring him back from the current situation.

The main issue seems to be that
1. For the lower level ones you need the body - we cannot get (to) it
2. The way Tue Resurrection is worded, RAW, is that the spell can "even provide a new body if the original no longer exists". The problem is that the body DOES EXIST, we just can't get to it.

Our DM basically says, "you cannot true resurrect, because the body still exists, and you cannot normal resurrect, because you don't have a part of the body..."

Reincarnate would work, but given we are talking about a Barbarian, coming back as an elf or gnome, it would not be a happy return to life...

How do you read the RAW, is our DM looking at this correctly? Or can we look at the spell description in a different way?

Any help much appreciated by our Barbarian, I'm sure...

 

[cmad1977]

I’d hand the barbarian some 6 siders and a PHB.

 

[vlysses]

yup, it's not a question of crybabying for a character, it's more a question of fundamental nature, to make sure we have read the mechanics correctly, or whether we have missed something important...

 

[Blue]

"Can" the spell be read another way? Sure. You can squint at it and read it another way.

But is that the default reading that you can take to your DM and say "this is what it means"? Nope.

Your DM read something and made a call. If it was a clear mis-rule, sure, go to yru DM. But it's not - at best it's possibly ambiguous while leads to a DM's ruling -- which they made.

I'd make the same call - it's range touch. If the body is there, you need it.

If you want to convince your DM, I'd go to what's the most fun for the players. But as a player I like real risk, and True Resurrection already makes that tough. Sounds like a stealth run to recover the body, since you can't fight them head-on.

Depending on how bloody-minded your barbarian is and their beliefs, another option serial reincarnation spells interspersed with suicide until they get a viable form. "I will not be a gnome!"

 

[vlysses]

"Can" the spell be read another way? Sure. You can squint at it and read it another way.

But is that the default reading that you can take to your DM and say "this is what it means"? Nope.

Your DM read something and made a call. If it was a clear mis-rule, sure, go to yru DM. But it's not - at best it's possibly ambiguous while leads to a DM's ruling -- which they made.

-> yeah this was what i just wanting confirmation on

I'd make the same call - it's range touch. If the body is there, you need it.

If you want to convince your DM, I'd go to what's the most fun for the players. But as a player I like real risk, and True Resurrection already makes that tough. Sounds like a stealth run to recover the body, since you can't fight them head-on.

Depending on how bloody-minded your barbarian is and their beliefs, another option serial reincarnation spells interspersed with suicide until they get a viable form. "I will not be a gnome!"

<-nah, this would not be supported by the belief system of the group Druid, nor should it be, as it would be pretty munchkin abusive...

Sounds like the Barbarian has stumbled upon a way of dieing that cannot be "fixed" easily and within the time constraints of the campaign anyway... it's OK...

 

[iserith]

I think the DM's ruling is fine and sets up an interesting challenge for the PCs. Get a hireling that the barbarian player can play, then raid that dungeon on a corpse hunt. Spells like locate creature or locate object may be useful here.

 

[Rossbert]

It does strike me as odd to say this super-powerful spell will not work if there is a specific piece of meat in the world.

 

[vlysses]

I think the DM's ruling is fine and sets up an interesting challenge for the PCs. Get a hireling that the barbarian player can play, then raid that dungeon on a corpse hunt. Spells like locate creature or locate object may be useful here.

yeah, well in practice the time constraints of the campaign are such that he will need to play the NPC that we had in the group from now on... ;-)

 

[vlysses]

It does strike me as odd to say this super-powerful spell will not work if there is a specific piece of meat in the world.

in that case TR would be more like "Cloning"... but yes, I can follow how that interpretation would definitely be up to the DM...

 

[Syntallah]

It does strike me as odd to say this super-powerful spell will not work if there is a specific piece of meat in the world.

Agreed. This is the pinnacle of PC spell power. The spell says "...can even provide a new body if the original no longer exists, in which case you must speak the creature's name." [emphasis mine]

If the barbarian player was role-playing his character accordingly with the aforementioned head long charge, then I would rule that upon casting the spell, and speaking the barbarian's name, the original body disintegrates, and the barbarian "...then appears in an unoccupied space you choose within 10 feet of you."