[Pathfinder] An interesting problem...

[Sylvre Phire]

It's amazing the things that pop into your head early in the morning... Here's my little conundrum: a fighter is turned to stone by a medusa. In the resulting fracas to slay the monster, the statue is broken. The adventurers get the pieces together and either prepare to bring their friend back then and there or cart the pieces off to the city to get things set right. Mending or Make Whole is cast to put the statue back together, followed by Stone to Flesh. The big question is this: after all this hassle, is the fighter still alive despite their stone form being broken or does the fighter require Raise Dead or Resurrection to be brought back to life?

Pax et bonum,

Sylvre Phire

[Sayt]

"A petrified character has been turned to stone and is considered unconscious. If a petrified character cracks or breaks, but the broken pieces are joined with the body as he returns to flesh, he is unharmed. If the character's petrified body is incomplete when it returns to flesh, the body is likewise incomplete and there is some amount of permanent hit point loss and/or debilitation. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Petrified)"

From the SRD. IF the body is anatomically aligned correctly when they're stone to fleshed, they're fine.

[rot42]

If they seamlessly reassemble the statue, I would let it work. Sovereign Glue might leave an interesting scar. This is a hilarious way to smuggle someone into a city in pieces, or you can have a mini-arc with villain gathering scattered stone limbs to repair a favored servant. Or an easy-ish way to create a little mayhem in a city could involve stoned trolls pounded into rubble and used to pave a street ... until someone reverses the transformation and the largest rock starts regenerating.

[Keneth]

The character is indeed alive, the real question is whether mending and similar spells have the capacity to repair the statue to exactly the way it was. A few misaligned blood vessels could kill a living creature pretty quickly. :smallamused:

[magotter]

A few misaligned blood vessels could kill a living creature pretty quickly.

Let's try not to get too much Reality in our Fantasy games, eh?

Regarding Mending, it should totally work... probably. I mean, the spell can even mend Magical Items, so I don't think a statue should be too hard. The only caveat is that the spell can only affect 1 lb. per Caster Level. So unless the DM lets you cast it multiple times on a particular object (once to attach an arm, another to fix the head, etc.), you might have to stick with Make Whole, Shape Stone, Fabricate, or something like that.

[Keneth]

Let's try not to get too much Reality in our Fantasy games, eh?

Meh, I'm not that into catgirls anyway. :smalltongue:

[BWR]

The way I have ruled it is that you are neither alive nor dead when petrified - you are a piece of rock. You can survive extreme heat, cold, vacuum, poisons, etc. However, any damage dealt to your stone form is also dealt to you when you are returned to flesh. If someone casts Stone Shape to mess with the statue, e.g. shape a hole in the head, the person will be instantly killed when returned to flesh. Stone Shape someone's mouth and nose closed and they immediately start suffocating when fleshified. Stone Shape/break off limbs and they will probably need a Con check to survive (good old System Shock rolls).

Mending would explicitly not work since it doesn't fix things that are broken. Make Whole should work. Mending should be able to fix minor chips, dings and scourings that a statue might suffer.

[Keneth]

Mending does indeed work on broken and even destroyed objects. It's just the weight limit that's the problem.

[Kudaku]

As has already been mentioned, Mending might run into some weight issues. A scroll of Make Whole would affect 30 cubic feet of matter - that should be enough to handle a statue.

[Yue Ryong]

Hm... I wonder... if imperfect repairs to the statue leave behind scars and damage... could you use Petrification & Stone Shape to perform cosmetic surgery? Or heck, as a cut price replacement for Regenerate?

[Kudaku]

Hm... I wonder... if imperfect repairs to the statue leave behind scars and damage... could you use Petrification & Stone Shape to perform cosmetic surgery? Or heck, as a cut price replacement for Regenerate?

Interesting question... I think I would allow you to "chip away" at the statue, ie removing aspects you found displeasing - this could be used for cosmetic enhancement I suppose. I would not allow you to "add" to the statue, since that would rather quickly lead to the "So if I add a pair of wings and a lobster claw..." problem.

[Keneth]

Well, if the wings and lobster claws were also petrified and removed from their respective owners, it might work. Of course the appendages would be useless, just like if you had sown them on. It's not a replacement for flesh grafting. :smallbiggrin:

[Sephoris]

Hm... I wonder... if imperfect repairs to the statue leave behind scars and damage... could you use Petrification & Stone Shape to perform cosmetic surgery? Or heck, as a cut price replacement for Regenerate?

You could, but the results aren't going to be pretty:


You can form an existing piece of stone into any shape that suits your purpose. While it’s possible to make crude coffers, doors, and so forth with stone shape, fine detail isn’t possible. There is a 30% chance that any shape including moving parts simply doesn’t work.

In fact, I'd argue that Stone Shape is never going to do better than imperfect repairs. If you're forced to do major repairs with Stone Shape that are going to be readily visible, I'd be tempted to include some CHA loss as something about you clearly doesn't look right. I'd even be a little tempted to pull a modified version of the moving parts clause if you're repairing or replacing a body part with joints: a 30% chance the joint works poorly or doesn't work at all when restored.