i see dead people?

[TYPO5478]

Besides the fact that I don't think everyone is turned into a petitioner when they die, this is still a good thing for people who just want to communicate with the dead. Again: no murder is unsolved! Kings rule for all of time!

I agree with moritheil's assessment of the nuances of regal succession; it's likely that a kingdom would have a tradition (if not a law) that a king is only king until he dies. And even if one doesn't, so what? If a country wants to live under a ghostly despot for thousands of years, let them. Arguably, not all nations would.

As for solving murders, I'm not sure how this tactic would help much. Assume for a moment that moritheil's concern about resources isn't valid (a tenuous assumption, but it's only for the sake of argument). It might help for crimes of passion (wife kills an adulterous lover, merchant kills a competitor), but there are probably simpler, easier ways of getting that type of information (speak with dead, for instance, or good old-fashioned detective work). For something like an assassination, you'd have to assume that the victim actually saw and could correctly identify his assailant. If, for instance, a baron were killed by a hobgoblin assassin who was under the effects of greater invisibility and alter self, why would the baron's spirit know any better who killed him than the baron would have when he was alive? I don't doubt that this tactic could help solve some murders, but I think claiming it could solve every murder is stretching.

A creature <> its soul. The soul ends up on one of the outer planes, not the creature. Sending contacts a creature. Therefor sending does not work on dead people.

I'll consider that a hair split. Dying doesn't stop a creature from being a creature; it simply changes the creature's state of being.

 

[robberbaron]

IMO.
When a character dies and, presumably, goes to whichever version of heaven/hell is used for their religion/campaign their souls are transported to that plane. They do not necessarily become Outsiders. Their souls are PMP-native and nothing I've seen/read changes that.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Dying doesn't stop a creature from being a creature; it simply changes the creature's state of being.

Good point.

I have always played that a dead creature is treated as an object (for the purposes of spell targeting, etc.), but that may be a house rule. I couldn't find anything in the SRD to support this, at least on a cursory search.

 

[FEADIN]

I agree with an above statement, a creature is a soul+a body, even outsiders who get them "fusionned" and undeads who are spirit in a body.
Once you're dead (or destroyed for undead) the soul/spirit part goes up (or down) but the body remains for decaying, you're no more a creature to be targeted.

 

[evilbob]

I think the soul/creature argument makes sense. An outsider is a creature and a soul in one unit, but doesn't break anything in the argument about creatures and souls being different. In fact, to me it strengthens it because the rules had to specifically say these things were one in these types of creatures. (I.e. they're the exception.)

So a dead guy is an object (former creature) who's soul has departed, and a soul is not a creature. Therefore sending wouldn't work on someone who is dead - invalid target, either way (body or soul). And planar ally/binding wouldn't work, either - invalid target (not an elemental or outsider).