Scrying question

[Minwaabi]

What happens when you cast scrying on a dead person? (Because you didn't know they were dead?)

[gbprime]

Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again.

The spell fails, just like it would if they are immune to it due to ability or location. My players will often follow up a failure like that with a Divination or two.

[Lord Vukodlak]

I don't think its quite so simple, the limitation on scrying is to make it different then clairvoyance. Its purpose is to locate the target. If the target is lying in a ditch dead. I'd say its perfectly fine to see them lying in the ditch dead. The same would apply if they were say petrified.

[gbprime]

I don't think its quite so simple, the limitation on scrying is to make it different then clairvoyance. Its purpose is to locate the target. If the target is lying in a ditch dead. I'd say its perfectly fine to see them lying in the ditch dead. The same would apply if they were say petrified.

Rules as Written, a petrified or dead person isn't a creature anymore, they're an object, so the spell fails.

But saying the spell still works is a legitimate way for an individual DM to rule, but shaky. It's open to cheese.


Can't scry on a person because he's immune? Scry on his leather armor instead... it used to be a creature, right?
Slip half a stick of beef jerky in the guy's backpack and keep the other half. Then you can scry on him until he eats it.
Petrify a frog, grind it up and keep part of it, sprinkle the rest in someone's wagon. Scry on the frog.


See? Don't go there. :smallamused:

[Piggy Knowles]

Rules as Written, a petrified or dead person isn't a creature anymore, they're an object, so the spell fails.

Overall I agree with you, but I'm curious - where is it actually written that a dead or petrified creature is no longer considered a creature?

[docnessuno]

Overall I agree with you, but I'm curious - where is it actually written that a dead or petrified creature is no longer considered a creature?

Nowhere i'm aware of

You can raise a creature that has been dead for no longer than one day per caster level.

[gbprime]

Overall I agree with you, but I'm curious - where is it actually written that a dead or petrified creature is no longer considered a creature?

D+D FAQ, Page 6.


Is a dead warforged character’s body subject to sunder
attacks, since it is now just an object of wood and metal?

A dead body of any creature (warforged, human, dragon,
whatever) is treated as an object, and thus it can be damaged
using the rules for “Smashing an Object” (PH 165).
There are no rules for determining the hardness or hit
points of a corpse. Most dead bodies don’t have a hardness
score, but the creature’s DR (if any) should continue to apply
against attacks. Use Table 9–9: Substance Hardness and Hit
Points and Table 9–11: Object Hardness and Hit Points in the
PH to estimate hit point values for corpses should such
situations arise in your game.

Petrified states that the creature is unconscious, so I'm wrong on that part of it, though. Scry away on the petrified folks!

[Piggy Knowles]

D+D FAQ, Page 6.

Danke. Don't think I've ever seen that one before.

[KillianHawkeye]

A petrified creature isn't an object.


A petrified character has been turned to stone and is considered unconscious.

I'm not sure about being dead, but spells such as speak with dead can target dead creatures (as opposed to target corpse).


EDIT: FAQ is not "Rules as Written," it's "Suggestions from Somebody who Works for Wizards of the Coast."

I don't think corpses are defined as objects anywhere in the actual game rules.

[gbprime]

EDIT: FAQ is not "Rules as Written," it's "Suggestions from Somebody who Works for Wizards of the Coast."

I don't think corpses are defined as objects anywhere in the actual game rules.

So in your opinion, the Official FAQ is not part of the rules? Crappy as the clarifications from WotC are at times, I must respectfully disagree.

[KillianHawkeye]

So in your opinion, the Official FAQ is not part of the rules? Crappy as the clarifications from WotC are at times, I must respectfully disagree.

That's not only my opinion, but also the opinion of the Q&A by RAW thread. FAQ often contradicts itself, so is not dependable.

Rules as Written = Printed rules + official errata. That's all. No FAQ, no Sage Advice.

[Seffbasilisk]

It creates a magical sensor. If they're on another plane, they just get a +5 on the willsave.

My latest DM has had me accidentally scry into hell trying to check on dead folks with Faustian pacts. (I did not know they were deceased.)

[Emperor Tippy]

Unless you go with the interpretation that dead doesn't prevent you from acting, then a dead creature becomes an object

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_creature&alpha=C


A living or otherwise active being, not an object.
If you aren't ruling the being dead prevents you from being active then a dead person is an object.

[Big Fau]

FAQ is not "Rules as Written," it's "Suggestions from Somebody who Works for Wizards of the Coast and doesn't actually play, they just ask the developers who do."


Fixed that, because they really don't.