Speak with Dead and Wraith Spawning

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Everyone,

This came up in my last game and I ruled it in a way that I think may have been wrong. We discussed it as a group - our group consists of 4 DMs and a DMs wife - and in the end I went the way of favouring the players.

A friendly NPC they needed to question was captured by and has become the untidy meal of a Dread Wraith. The body is intact but obviously the soul has been tormented into a wraith. They perform a speak with dead upon the body - what happens?

At first it seems black and white - any creature turned into an undead cannot be utilised by a speak with dead spell. However upon reading the spell description, I was thinking that it may be possible because the body is left intact but the soul is corrupted. The physical working of the spell would seemingly still work.

Anyway, should I have allowed it or not? In the end, it's happened, I just want to see if I did something foolish.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Meeki]

The description of the speak with dead spell says this "You grant the semblance of life and intellect to a corpse, allowing it to answer several questions that you put to it.....This spell does not let you actually speak to the person (whose soul has departed). It instead draws on the imprinted knowledge stored in the corpse.."

So technically no soul is needed.

 

[mvincent]

- any creature turned into an undead cannot be utilised by a speak with dead spell. However upon reading the spell description, I was thinking that it may be possible because the body is left intact but the soul is corrupted.

Correct. In fact the wording of the spells actually says "This spell does not affect a *corpse* that has been turned into an undead creature."