Regeneration and resurrection

[eyebreaker7]

Everyone knows trolls regenerate unless you use fire or acid on them. They can also reattach lost limbs if done soon enough:

"Regeneration (Ex)
Fire and acid deal normal damage to a troll. If a troll loses a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 3d6 minutes. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump."

So what happens if you don't reattach the head? Does a new body grow from the head or does the body grow a new head? If the body regrows a new head how does that work as far as having some sort of mental status/memory? This is assuming of course that you don't reattach the head to begin with.

The MM (page 314) says:
"A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconscious through nonlethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace. The attack cannot be of the type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage."

I am assuming that a head being removed from the body would be considered a coup de grace? Like from a vorpal blade or even for example beating a troll down to negative HPs and then chopping off it's head?

Another example would be a player character is decapitated but a resurrection is cast on him/her without reattaching the head. How does that work? Again the question of regrowing a head if the body is what you cast the spell on. Lets just say the head isn't available. Resurrection says you just need part of the body.
This leads to another question about resurrection. If I cast it on the body and then on the head do they both come back to life or does the part that receives the resurrection first get resurrected and the other part just immediately decomposes (or whatever it does)?

What about a character getting decapitated but wearing a ring of regeneration?
"Ring of Regeneration: This white gold ring continually allows a living wearer to heal 1 point of damage per level every hour rather than every day. (This ability cannot be aided by the Heal skill.) Nonlethal damage heals at a rate of 1 point of damage per level every 5 minutes. If the wearer loses a limb, an organ, or any other body part while wearing this ring, the ring regenerates it as the spell. In either case, only damage taken while wearing the ring is regenerated.

The spell regenerate:
"The subject’s severed body members (fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs, tails, or even heads of multiheaded creatures), broken bones, and ruined organs grow back. After the spell is cast, the physical regeneration is complete in 1 round if the severed members are present and touching the creature. It takes 2d10 rounds otherwise."

Would it not be possible without the head? "if the severed members are present and touching the creature." I'm guessing the head would take the "2d10 rounds otherwise"?


I had a question about fast healing too but can't remember what it was :(

[Maat Mons]

For Resurrections, if I recall, all the spells that bring back the dead require that the soul be "free and willing to return," or somesuch. If you cast Resurrections on one piece of a corpse, then on another piece of the same corpse, I think only the first casting would work. Once the creature is alive again, I don't think their soul would count as "free and willing to return" for the second casting.

[eyebreaker7]

Good point. I somehow forgot that part. Duh me.

[frogglesmash]

Everyone knows trolls regenerate unless you use fire or acid on them. They can also reattach lost limbs if done soon enough:

"Regeneration (Ex)
Fire and acid deal normal damage to a troll. If a troll loses a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 3d6 minutes. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump."

So what happens if you don't reattach the head? Does a new body grow from the head or does the body grow a new head? If the body regrows a new head how does that work as far as having some sort of mental status/memory? This is assuming of course that you don't reattach the head to begin with.

Nothing in regeneration provides explicit guidelines for distinguishing between the creature, and the creature's severed parts, but the language does indicate that the distinction exists, and the context clues indicate that it's likely based on size. Furthermore, nothing in the text indicates that it's possible for regeneration to result in more creature's than you started with. So in your scenario, you'd have to decide which part is the creature (if you go by precedent, then it's the body, not the head), then that past would regenerate whatever it's missing. As for the memories, d&d is a world where minds can be transferred, brains can be destroyed and rebuilt with no side effects, and where many creature's have minds despite the lack of anything analogous to a brain. All that to say that there doesn't seem to be any intrinsic connection between minds and brains in d&d, also RAW doesn't support the idea of mind wiping trolls via decapitation.


The MM (page 314) says:
"A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconscious through nonlethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace. The attack cannot be of the type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage."

I am assuming that a head being removed from the body would be considered a coup de grace? Like from a vorpal blade or even for example beating a troll down to negative HPs and then chopping off it's head?

A coup de grace is a specific type of action, so no, vorpal decapitations don't count as a coup de grace. However, the entry for regeneration says "an attack that can cause instant death only threatens the creature with death if it is delivered by weapons that deal it lethal damage." Interestingly, this means that you can fully disintegrate a troll, and they'll recover from it.


Another example would be a player character is decapitated but a resurrection is cast on him/her without reattaching the head. How does that work? Again the question of regrowing a head if the body is what you cast the spell on. Lets just say the head isn't available. Resurrection says you just need part of the body.
This leads to another question about resurrection. If I cast it on the body and then on the head do they both come back to life or does the part that receives the resurrection first get resurrected and the other part just immediately decomposes (or whatever it does)?

You need a person's soul to resurrect them, so that means a hard limit of one resurrection per death.


What about a character getting decapitated but wearing a ring of regeneration?
"Ring of Regeneration: This white gold ring continually allows a living wearer to heal 1 point of damage per level every hour rather than every day. (This ability cannot be aided by the Heal skill.) Nonlethal damage heals at a rate of 1 point of damage per level every 5 minutes. If the wearer loses a limb, an organ, or any other body part while wearing this ring, the ring regenerates it as the spell. In either case, only damage taken while wearing the ring is regenerated.


The spell regenerate:
"The subject’s severed body members (fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs, tails, or even heads of multiheaded creatures), broken bones, and ruined organs grow back. After the spell is cast, the physical regeneration is complete in 1 round if the severed members are present and touching the creature. It takes 2d10 rounds otherwise."

Would it not be possible without the head? "if the severed members are present and touching the creature." I'm guessing the head would take the "2d10 rounds otherwise"

It is possible for both the spell "regenerate," and the ring of regeneration to regenerate heads from scratch, however it typically only works if you originally had more than one head, because if you didn't have multiple heads, then decapitation probably kills you.