Magical Surgery- Yay or Nay?

[Nagog]

So I've had a few Mad Alchemist ideas lately to implement in 5e, and when I've brought them up with others they tend to get mixed results varying from "That sounds pretty cool!" to "That doesn't work because that breaks the flow of the game", but from what I've been able to glean from various Sage Advice and other reputable sources, these methods are RAW. I'd like to see where the Playground stands on the various operations.

Firstly, surgically reattaching a limb.
The direct approach is using the Regenerate spell. This heals you for 619-642 damage over the course of an hour and can regrow (not reattach, regrow) 30 lost limbs. There is no spent material cost for this spell, meaning it can make you absolute bank selling limbs on the black market with the only cost being a 7th level spell slot and lots and lots of pain.
The surgical way to do it is much more costly, but available by level 5 rather than level 13.
Firstly, you need to kill your patient. Don't worry, it's only for a hot minute.
Secondly, cast Gentle Repose on their corpse.
Thirdly, reattach the severed limb using Mending. This may need multiple castings of the spell depending on the cleanliness of the wound.
Lastly, spend 500 GP worth of diamonds to revive the patient with Revivify, bringing them to 1 HP.

Pros: Available much earlier than Regenerate, and is therefore more likely to be viable in the realm of play most campaigns exist in.
Cons: It costs 500 GP worth of diamonds, and the limb must be intact/good condition.


The second operation is the magical version of Plastic Surgery. I've had the idea to pull a kind of Face Off style plot device with this method for some time, but haven't done it yet.
First step, get your friendly neighborhood Basalisk to turn your patient to stone. If you don't have a friendly neighborhood basalisk, Flesh to Stone works too.
Secondly, use the Stone Shape spell to give them that perfectly sculpted bod they've always wanted (pun definitely intended). For the sake of adding the "Mad" into "Mad Alchemist", I'd suggest also getting extra stone material and trying to graft on more body parts, like extra limbs, winds, etc.
Lastly, use a Greater Restoration spell or potion to cure them from their stony disposition.


So: Are these RAW? Would they work? How evil would it be to gift your party members extra limbs and things with the second one while they're asleep?

[Dork_Forge]

The first one would require some medicine checks (and prof) to at least be considered at my table.

Maybe on the face lift but solid pass on the extra limbs, even if they're attached you have no case for them to be correctly attached medically in order to function they'd just be... on their. And removing the effect wouldn't make the arm turn to flesh (even if it was an arm broken off of another petrified creature, at that point it'd be an object and eligible GR, so they'd just have a stone appendage horrifically grafted to them.

[Damon_Tor]

Why is there a market for severed limbs? Don't get it, who is buying these?

Maybe there's some kind of ship of Theseus nonsense you could get up to though.

[MaxWilson]

Does Mending even work on organic objects? If so, there's an even more readily-available and interesting application for mending: cooking! If you can slit open a pig, pull out the innards, stuff it full of yummy sweetmeats, and then use Mending to seal the pig back up before baking it, that sounds exciting! Can you do the same to a pastry, use Mending to heal the surface of the pastry after cutting it open to put apples in it?

Mending:

This spell Repairs a single break or tear in an object you touch, such as broken chain link, two halves of a broken key, a torn clack, or a leaking wineskin. As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you mend it, leaving no trace of the former damage.

This spell can physically repair a magic item or Construct, but the spell can't restore magic to such an object.

My instinct as a DM is to say, "No, based on the spell text, Mending seems designed to mend simple objects, not complex organic membranes/organs/dishes which have no 'single breaks or tears'." But if the majority of the players disagree I'm cool running it the other way around. If the players are evenly split I'd suggest making a new spell for organic mending, maybe call it Grafting, and it only works on plants, willing creatures, and dead creatures.

[JackPhoenix]

Second suggestion doesn't work. Shape Stone only works on objects, but victim of a basilisk or Flesh to Stone is a creature with Petrified condition, not an object. You'd need True Polymorph to turn a creature into an object, just imposing a condition doesn't work. And any changes made will propably revert when TP ends anyway, as the creautre returns to its "normal form".

First suggestion, at least the 2nd part, potentially doesn't work by RAW due to exact wording of Gentle Repose: *days*, not *time* spent under its influence don't count against the limitation of resurrecting spells, but Revivify's limitation is a minute, not days.


Snip

Well, wineskins and cloaks usually are made out of organic material, and are examples used in the spell's description. And cloak is made out of multiple fibers rather than single mass, which suggests it should work.

[DrKerosene]

Lastly, spend 500 GP worth of diamonds to revive the patient with Revivify, bringing them to 1 HP.

It should be 300 gold for Revivify. Otherwise I think this is fine. I would allow Mending to work on a corpse, since I rule them to be objects (and animatable).


In the attempt of #2 I would probably have ruled you eventually get a Spam consistency of meat. Though I suppose the “invalid target; creature with petrified condition” is technically the correct answer.

[Nagog]

Why is there a market for severed limbs? Don't get it, who is buying these?

I'd assume Necromancers, for the creation of Bone Golems, creative Skeleton structure, or the like.

[sandmote]

I'd allow the surgery method.

If someone tried stone surgery on the fly I might consider it under rule of cool, but not as a normal thing. Applying limbs under that method wouldn't make them functional in any case.


I'd assume Necromancers, for the creation of Bone Golems, creative Skeleton structure, or the like. Regenerate isn't limited to humanoids. I'd imagine it could be attempted on a cow during a famine. Create Food and Water sustains 15 humanoids; this might be able to sustain more than that.

[Kobold_paladin?]

So I've had a few Mad Alchemist ideas lately to implement in 5e, and when I've brought them up with others they tend to get mixed results varying from "That sounds pretty cool!" to "That doesn't work because that breaks the flow of the game", but from what I've been able to glean from various Sage Advice and other reputable sources, these methods are RAW. I'd like to see where the Playground stands on the various operations.

Firstly, surgically reattaching a limb.
The direct approach is using the Regenerate spell. This heals you for 619-642 damage over the course of an hour and can regrow (not reattach, regrow) 30 lost limbs. There is no spent material cost for this spell, meaning it can make you absolute bank selling limbs on the black market with the only cost being a 7th level spell slot and lots and lots of pain.
The surgical way to do it is much more costly, but available by level 5 rather than level 13.
Firstly, you need to kill your patient. Don't worry, it's only for a hot minute.
Secondly, cast Gentle Repose on their corpse.
Thirdly, reattach the severed limb using Mending. This may need multiple castings of the spell depending on the cleanliness of the wound.
Lastly, spend 500 GP worth of diamonds to revive the patient with Revivify, bringing them to 1 HP.

Pros: Available much earlier than Regenerate, and is therefore more likely to be viable in the realm of play most campaigns exist in.
Cons: It costs 500 GP worth of diamonds, and the limb must be intact/good condition.


The second operation is the magical version of Plastic Surgery. I've had the idea to pull a kind of Face Off style plot device with this method for some time, but haven't done it yet.
First step, get your friendly neighborhood Basalisk to turn your patient to stone. If you don't have a friendly neighborhood basalisk, Flesh to Stone works too.
Secondly, use the Stone Shape spell to give them that perfectly sculpted bod they've always wanted (pun definitely intended). For the sake of adding the "Mad" into "Mad Alchemist", I'd suggest also getting extra stone material and trying to graft on more body parts, like extra limbs, winds, etc.
Lastly, use a Greater Restoration spell or potion to cure them from their stony disposition.


So: Are these RAW? Would they work? How evil would it be to gift your party members extra limbs and things with the second one while they're asleep?
So, it's basically the plastic surgery of the forgotten realms? Weird, but has some possibilities.