A question on the Raise Dead ritual

[Vrecknidj]

Carve up the body, take different parts to different areas, do several rituals, and see what happens.

Dave

 

[Blackeagle]

Or perhaps they become grisly curiosities. How do you think it would feel to find your own severed head?

Ooh, creepy.

I like it!

 

[TheLordWinter]

It seems pretty clear to me that the intent is to restore the subject to life in one piece. Why would you have the ritual designed to screw player's over?

Because it's been that way in previous editions, where something more powerful like Regeneration was required to put a person fully back together post-mortum before you tried to resurrect them (well, raise them. Resurrect did that for you).

It does, as shown, pose some interesting questions. Can you then find alternate versions of your own corpse? What happens to your soul when there are two bodies attempting to be raised at the same time?

The ritual also specifically mentions the subject is free of "Any temporary conditions at the time of death, but permanent conditions remain."

Based upon what we've seen, something like losing an eye would be a permanent condition. Yet based upon this, if you recovered a friend's body and were to deocularize it (for use of a prettier term in reference to eye-gouging), then would the corpse return to life with or without eyes? If he was missing an eye pre-mortum, would he have both upon resurrection?

 

[Heselbine]

What counts as a part of the body?

Scenario: Rudgar the Fighter gets eaten by a Behemoth. And I mean eaten like a Jurassic Park n00b. The party wants to raise him. So they wait for the Behemoth to poop. Then they sift through and find an undigestible bit, like a tooth or maybe a piece of gristle.

Can they raise him?

I love this thread.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Or perhaps they become grisly curiosities. How do you think it would feel to find your own severed head?

I am SO stealing this.

 

[Heselbine]

Bear in mind that in 4e there are three constituent parts to a person. The body, the spirit and the animus(?). I think I got that right but that's from memory. It was in the 'Wizards Presents' books - does it not talk about this stuff in the books (which I haven't got yet).

There might be various body parts, but once raise dead is carried out, the spirit and animus are reunited with the body. Raise dead can't be carried out on a missing finger because you can't divide the incorporeal parts.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

What counts as a part of the body?

Scenario: Rudgar the Fighter gets eaten by a Behemoth. And I mean eaten like a Jurassic Park n00b. The party wants to raise him. So they wait for the Behemoth to poop. Then they sift through and find an undigestible bit, like a tooth or maybe a piece of gristle.

Can they raise him?

I had something similar happen in an early 3.x game. The party ranger got snatched by a wyvern, killed, taken to the wyvern's lair and eaten. The rest of the party tracked down the wyvern and..ah..sifted for the ranger's remains to take back and get rezzed. I thought it funny enough that I let it happen.

 

[TheLordWinter]

Bear in mind that in 4e there are three constituent parts to a person. The body, the spirit and the animus(?). I think I got that right but that's from memory. It was in the 'Wizards Presents' books - does it not talk about this stuff in the books (which I haven't got yet).

There might be various body parts, but once raise dead is carried out, the spirit and animus are reunited with the body. Raise dead can't be carried out on a missing finger because you can't divide the incorporeal parts.

Of course this then means that your soulless shell of a body is left in a villain's lair. Which could easily be animated as a golem or some such. Imagine returning to the dungeon to face down the wizard only to find he's completely moved house - and there are some awful rumours spreading about you back in town...