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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6795702" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I agree with your perspective except the part about house ruling a spell. I absolutely agree that any argument for the idea of killing somebody to raise them later is misguided and I don't think it would even be considered by the characters in the game world.But in terms of the ruling on gentle repose - first and foremost, the ruling is up to the DM as designed. Your, um, fixation on a certain term is a bit much for me. I would not consider placing coins on a corpse's eyes, then wrapping the body, including the head, in bandages 'affixing.' The coins are 'placed' - using your terminology - and simply held in place by the bandages not as a dodge to 'house rule' a spell, but by a traditional ritual to respect the body of the dead.Your narrow interpretation based on a word feels like rules lawyering to me, and also prevents a party whose companion actually died from receiving the benefit of the spell as well. The idea of coins originated in Greek Culture to pay for crossing across the River Styx, but the original custom was to place a coin under the tongue of the body. In some regions it was later for St. Peter. It wasn't until later that other cultures used them, supposedly to simply keep the eyes closed until rigor mortis released. There were also superstitions about a dead body looking at you, so the eyes needed to remain closed. In modern practice, the eyes are kept closed not with pennies, but superglue.In any event, part of why we know of these customs is because ancient bodies have been found with them. And even the simple process of moving the body from where it is prepared to its grave would probably dislodge the coins. And yes, I'm the one that said 'gentle repose' meant lying down, a bad attempt at being clever. But I still think that in the event the spell is needed, they would still respect the body, and the process of transporting a fallen companion should be an interesting situation where they have to figure out how to deal with it as they travel. Easy if they are traveling with a wagon. Far more difficult wandering the underdark.Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

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