Regenerate & Revivify

[AlanBruce]

Greetings! I a current 3.5 game we're playing, the party's in a death maze, running around, avoiding/surviving traps and facing off random critters sent to hunt them down.

After being separated for awhile and facing off some of these creatures independently, the party reunited, but got ambushed by a pack of vicious bastards who can decapitate on a confirmed critical hit.

The party's crusader was the unlucky recipient of such crit and lost his head in the process.

However, the party has access to Regenerate and Revivify in spell form. I read Regenerate's description and it will reattach limbs including heads, even granting X amount of HP to the subject when the spell's complete.

My question is: would Regenerate successfully attach the head and bring back the crusader to life, or would the PC remain dead and be in need of a follow up Revivify to bring him back to the world of the living?

Thank you very much in advance.

[Venger]

strict raw, no. regenerate must target a living creature, not a corpse.

however, if you've got access to regenerate, you likely have access to the considerably cheaper make whole (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559886-Make-Whole-on-Corpses). corpses are objects and it sounds like you still have the head, so meat glue it back on there and revivify to your heart's content.

[AlanBruce]

strict raw, no. regenerate must target a living creature, not a corpse.

however, if you've got access to regenerate, you likely have access to the considerably cheaper make whole (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559886-Make-Whole-on-Corpses). corpses are objects and it sounds like you still have the head, so meat glue it back on there and revivify to your heart's content.

Upon reading the spell, I missed that one crucial bit:


Regenerate

Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Clr 7, Drd 9, Healing 7
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 3 full rounds
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched

Odd, considering that limb dismemberment in d&d- at least 3.5- is rare. It usually implies decapitation, with the head being the most common body part removed from a victim.

The party doesn't have access to Make Whole (nobody thought about preparing it). Which leaves us in a difficult situation, since we need that head attached somehow to bring the crusader back.

Thank you for pointing that out regarding the spell.

[Venger]

Upon reading the spell, I missed that one crucial bit:



Odd, considering that limb dismemberment in d&d- at least 3.5- is rare. It usually implies decapitation, with the head being the most common body part removed from a victim.

The party doesn't have access to Make Whole (nobody thought about preparing it). Which leaves us in a difficult situation, since we need that head attached somehow to bring the crusader back.

Thank you for pointing that out regarding the spell.

yeah, they wouldn't want you to be able to actually do anything useful with a 7th level spell.

I made a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555250-List-of-ways-to-sever-your-own-body-parts-in-exchange-for-a-discrete-in-game-effect) of stuff that chops off your body parts, just for your own amusement, but it is mostly decapitation.

is your party's divine caster a 17+lvl druid, or someone with arcane disciple (healing) ? are you stuck in a pocket dimension or something, where you can't teleport/wind walk/etc to the magic mart and buy a scroll of make whole? (or something like that)

niche, but if you can summon or otherwise acquire 3 formian workers, they can caste make whole for you. they're 1hd outsiders, so while somewhat ineffective, you can pick some up via lpb assuming you have access and it'd be easier to do that than make whole

[Crichton]

For what it's worth, the spell description for Regenerate does specify that it only works on heads of multi-headed creatures, so it doesn't contradict the target requirement of a Living Creature

[BowStreetRunner]

Since the body is not whole, the Raise Dead line of spells (including Revivify, Revenance, etc.) won't help until you get up into the Resurrection branch, where the condition of the body no longer matters. Only spells that target an object (like Make Whole) are going to be able to repair the damage prior to raising.

However, you might be able to convince some DMs to allow surgical reattachment prior to raising. Even if it is allowed though, it's likely going to take one heck of a high DC Heal check and will still take you out of the window for a Revivify or most likely even a Revenance.