Forensic science with Restore Corpse - does it work as I think it does?

[Elvensilver]

Ah, Restore Corpse: a handy spell for any Necromancer who wishes to animate some zombies instead of skeletons (for whatever reason).

However, it occurred to me that Restore Corpse could also be very valuable in fantastic forensic science: Imagine a typical city watch who finds a random skeleton and would like to find out whether this was a crime victim. Cast Restore Corpse, and voila: as the description says, “the corpse looks as it did when the creature died” (albeit somewhat rotten to prevent cannibalism, when going from the text :smallamused:).

Thus, the spell enables our hypothetical city watch to:
1. Easily identify the victim
2. Find out the cause of death – when the corpse looks like back when the creature died, the fatal wound/ burn-mark/ look of mortal fear from getting killed with phantasmal killer/ … - should still be there, yes?
3. Have a valid target for Speak with Dead.

So, my questions:
- Does Nr. 2 actually work as I think it does, i. E. does the spell restore the corpse to the exact look the creature had when dying?
- What could be other tricks to accomplish with this spell, especially for law enforcement or their criminal counterparts?

[Kurald Galain]

1) Definitely.
2) I would give a heal check at a slightly higher DC (because the flesh is "somewhat rotten") to identify cause of death.
3) Yes, but by the spell description, a skeleton is already a valid target for Speak With Dead.

[Elvensilver]

by the spell description, a skeleton is already a valid target for Speak With Dead
Oh, I overread that then: you can indeed target a skeleton.
However, I don't think a skeleton counts as "mostly intact" (arguably. You could count it as intact because it is a full, intact skeleton, or you could count it as not intact, because it is a corpse that lacks flesh) Logically, the corpse should only be able to talk if there is enough of the vocal system left. Although maybe a skeleton could communicate by clacking its teeth in Morse code? (if the creature knew Morse when alive) That would be hillarious.