Question about Discern Location

[Clistenes]

If a character is reincarnated into a different race (or his/her race is changed through use of Wish), could a wizard who knew the character before the race change but has never seen him/her afterwards, use Discern Location to sucessfully locate the character.

And what about a permanent Polymorph Any Object?

My instincts tell me that Discern Location should work fine against a polymorphed character, since he/she is still there behind that magic facade, but the reincarnated character's old body is gone for good, and if the spellcaster used Discern Location, it should direct it to the old, dead rotten body, not the brand new, different body.

Your thoughts?

[Cruiser1]

My instincts tell me that Discern Location should work fine against a polymorphed character, since he/she is still there behind that magic facade, but the reincarnated character's old body is gone for good, and if the spellcaster used Discern Location, it should direct it to the old, dead rotten body, not the brand new, different body.
Discern Location (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/discernLocation.htm) should work in both instances. Discern Location targets a creature. Material plane creatures have a soul plus body. The soul is the essence of the creature, where the body is merely something the creature has like equipment, where the body may change via reincarnation, be absent if the creature has died and not been raised yet, etc. Therefore Discern Location targetting a creature should always tell you where its soul is, regardless of its current body or lack thereof.

For example, if the targetted creature is a Wizard and has used Magic Jar to possess the body of another, it points you to the possessed body, not the Wizard's original body in stasis. Note all this assumes you use Discern Location to target the creature. If you use it to target the object of the creature's body, then it always seeks out that body, regardless of whether the body is alive or dead, who's currently inhabiting the body, etc.

[Clistenes]

But you need to have seen the target in order to use it, what does it have to do with its soul? Aren't you looking for that person you saw? And what you saw was the body.

[Hirax]

I'll refer you to Theseus's Paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus). My belief on the subject is that Bob the Orc, Theseus's ship, and your grandfather's axe all occupy a presence in time and space. The constituent parts that come and go from that presence are irrelevant to the presence's identity, whatever parts currently occupy the presence are Bob the Orc, Theseus's ship, or your grandfather's axe. Hopefully that makes sense, I tried to distill it down to plain English.

[Acanous]

Given that you must have a piece of the subject's origional body to cast Reincarnate, and that

A wish or a miracle spell can restore a reincarnated character to his or her original form.

I'm going to postulate here that the Reincarnate spell establishes a link between the subject's old form and his new one. Things like permanent ability score increases also carry over just fine. That is why if you have seen the subject once, Discern Location should still be ale to find him in a reincarnated body.

This, of course, is the in-universe explanation. RAW, Discern Location is Discern Location, and no spell short of Mind Blank is going to stop it.

[Clistenes]

And what happens if the person you are looking for is in an uninhabited country/continent/world? Discern Location tells you the name of the plane, continent, country, settlement and address, but, if you are living in a deserted land, nothing has a name. Discern Location could tell you at most: "X is living in a cottage close to an unnamed stream and an unnamed hill, in a unnamed forest in the continent of X",

[LanSlyde]

And what happens if the person you are looking for is in an uninhabited country/continent/world? Discern Location tells you the name of the plane, continent, country, settlement and address, but, if you are living in a deserted land, nothing has a name. Discern Location could tell you at most: "X is living in a cottage close to an unnamed stream and an unnamed hill, in a unnamed forest in the continent of X",

No, then it should tell you that "X is living in a cottage X ft from a tributary that runs out of this hill who's elevation is about 150ft below the treeline, within a forest containing trees that are mostly of the X variety in the south-eastern area of Continent X."

[Clistenes]

No, then it should tell you that "X is living in a cottage X ft from a tributary that runs out of this hill who's elevation is about 150ft below the treeline, within a forest containing trees that are mostly of the X variety in the south-eastern area of Continent X."

Even then, finding the character would still be a Livingstone-worthy adventure. You would have to explore a whole continent (well, at least its south-eastern area) looking for that forest and that hill...

[LanSlyde]

Even then, finding the character would still be a Livingstone-worthy adventure. You would have to explore a whole continent (well, at least its south-eastern area) looking for that forest and that hill...

Well, you would always play eye-in-the-sky with Scry. Alternatively Wind Walk your away across the continent. You will find it eventually.

[Clistenes]

Well, you would always play eye-in-the-sky with Scry. Alternatively Wind Walk your away across the continent. You will find it eventually.

You would gain valuable time, however...that's a way to foil Discern Location long enough to escape capture, if you don't have access to Mind Blank.