D&D General Odd Speak with Dead Question

[Clint_L]

Today one of my players asked me, for future reference, if speak with dead could be used on a door that has a face, including a mouth, carved into it, on the grounds that a door is just dead wood, and speak with plants is already a thing. My thinking is "no," because I think the spell implies a functional (or once functional) mouth, but...I kinda wanna say yes, because I think it's an awesome idea. How would you rule?

I think I'm gonna say yes, but only if speak with plants is also active.

 

[Older Beholder]

Maybe it would work if you upcast the spell?
I like house-ruling upcasting effects.

I do wonder what they plan to ask the door, like, the door doesn't have senses, so it wouldn't be able to tell you if anyone passed through here recently, or anything like that. IMO.

 

[pukunui]

I would say if you've got both spells going, then sure ... but I'm not sure that the door would be able to provide any useful information.

Speak with Dead states that "The corpse knows only what it knew in life" ... so the door would only be able to answer questions from when it was still a living tree. It wouldn't be able to tell you who last opened it or anything immediately useful like that.

I suppose if you're wanting to find out what happened in a forest glade eons ago, and you found out that the wood from a tree in that glade was used to make a particular door, you could use this trick to get some info ... but it wouldn't work to get any info from the door in its role as a door.

 

[Rabulias]

Speak with Dead states that "The corpse knows only what it knew in life" ... so the door would only be able to answer questions from when it was still a living tree. It wouldn't be able to tell you who last opened it or anything immediately useful like that.

Perhaps it's an undead door?

Seriously, speak with plants says you can ask about creatures that have passed nearby within the last day, and normal plants do not have eyes or ears, so how do they know about these creatures? A living plant has at least as many senses as the door -- and I would say the door can tell if it was opened and closed.

I am reminded of an old cleric (AD&D 1st and 2nd) and druid (D&D 3.0/3.5) spell called stone tell -- maybe there is a wood tell?

 

[Chaltab]

I don't think a door counts as a corpse.... sounds like 'Speak With Objects' would be a better bet.

There's even such a spell in Kobold Press' Deep Magic.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No. A dead plant is not a corpse. Only animals become corpses when they die.

Maybe you are thinking of a copse?

 

[aco175]

I say, good try but no.

A door is a piece of a tree like trying to cast the spell on a leg of a dead corpse without having the skull.

I get the other spells like talking to a fish and wanting to have a normal conversation with it or a plant and wanting a flower to tell the difference between a human and an orc. They are spells to help the PCs and should garner some information, but there is also some logic in what a flower or toad would know with the intelligence they have.

 

[Koloth]

By the book, probably no. But it is nice to reward innovative thinking so maybe let it work IF the face carving is good enough quality. But I agree with the above comment about what the plant saw in life. So no 'who passed through two hours ago' answers. Unless the critter on the other side is into necromancy and there is a possibility the door has acquired a bit of life from years of exposure to necromantic energies.

 

[Tonguez]

If a door is a single unprocessed tree trunk - if its a door made from planks then no, its a processed object not a dead tree

 

[Remathilis]

How would you rule?

No.

You have four questions left.