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Thread: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
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2023-01-06, 11:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
The Sending spell allows you to send - and receive - messages from other planes of existence.
Many afterlives are places you can physically go to, depending on your world/worldbuilding. They are, other planes of existence.
Can you Send - and receive - a message to/from someone who has died with a 95% success rate?
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2023-01-06, 11:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- Corvallis, OR
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
This entirely depends on the metaphysics of the setting. By default, as I understand it, the dead in the Great Wheel become petitioners and thus are only sorta the same person. So sending may, or may not work. And you have to be familiar with the person before they died (otherwise you're just familiar with their corpse). So it and speak with dead (which is best for interrogating random dead bodies and skulls you find IMO) have very different purposes.
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2023-01-06, 11:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2013
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
If the someone who has died is in a form such that they qualify as a creature, yes.
If not, no.~ Composer99
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2023-01-07, 01:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
We used to rule it that way in 3.x, but as other said, it depends on what's the creature's afterlife like, if you are using the wheel, then what kind of petitioner they are is relevant, elysium for instnace wil make all memories from previous lives fade, and in the lower planes the styx river would erase all memories.
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2023-01-07, 07:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2008
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2023-01-07, 08:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2017
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Regarding the Lowe Planes, only the Nine Hells start with the souls taking a dip in the Styx, so technically it'd be easier to contact Gramps if he died and went to Gehenna.
Of course Hades does also make who you were in life fade and like you and others said, quite a many places change you enough you no longer qualify for Sending, even if you do avoid the Styx.
Regarding the "form that qualifies as creature" part above, I would say the souls who float in the Astral toward the afterlife most fitting to who they were do not qualify, as there is no indicator they are aware of anything or capable of doing anything until they reach destination and are affected by the plane in question.Last edited by Unoriginal; 2023-01-07 at 09:02 AM.
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2023-01-07, 09:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
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2023-01-07, 11:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2016
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- Earth
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Yes... If they are still able to identify as themselves.
From complete divine (a 3.5 supplement) that I read a long time ago a soul who makes it to the afterlife has a number of different things happen to it. Some come to a form of inner peace at witnessing the outer world reflex so well their inner mind that they murge into the plane. Sometimes 'God' gets hungry and eats you shortly after coming in (The Giant didn't build most of that lore wholesale for the comic). Most do tend to meander about 'as themselves' for a good length of time; usually as a petitioner but exceptions can exist. The rarest of them immediately turn into an outsider (high level, strong alignment tendencies) excepting in Hell where you need authorization to do so.
I don't fully remember but I think you can still be rezed even if consumed.
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2023-01-07, 07:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Another wrinkle:
The creature hears the message in its mind,Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2023-01-11, 07:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2016
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2023-01-11, 07:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2013
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
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2023-01-11, 07:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
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2023-01-11, 08:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- Corvallis, OR
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Dawn of Hope: a 5e setting. http://wiki.admiralbenbo.org
Rogue Equivalent Damage calculator, now prettier and more configurable!
5e Monster Data Sheet--vital statistics for all 693 MM, Volo's, and now MToF monsters: Updated!
NIH system 5e fork, very much WIP. Base github repo.
NIH System PDF Up to date main-branch build version.
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2023-01-11, 09:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
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2023-01-11, 10:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Elysium and Hades are both designed to make you forget your existence more rapidly* IIRC.
*On an afterlife scale, but still.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2023-01-12, 05:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Creative use, and I would think so.
Raise dead/resurrection requires a willing soul, so if they have the presence of mind to be willing, sending should work.
If something about mind/state would prevent sending from reaching them, it may prevent raising them as well.
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2023-01-12, 06:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2015
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
I'd say you'd have to be familiar with their 'petitioner' form for it to work. Not the creature before death.
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2023-01-12, 07:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2023-01-12, 11:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
I think I find the alternative funnier,
Kill that cleric, about an hour later you hear the slow clapping, "Congratulations, you minorly inconvenienced me, enjoy your few days of peace while my sworn brothers and sisters get the diamonds together, prepare good last words."
DM asks, "you may respond, do you have anything you would like to say?"Last edited by Witty Username; 2023-01-12 at 11:19 PM.
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2023-01-12, 11:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2015
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
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2023-01-13, 12:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- Corvallis, OR
- Gender
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
Dawn of Hope: a 5e setting. http://wiki.admiralbenbo.org
Rogue Equivalent Damage calculator, now prettier and more configurable!
5e Monster Data Sheet--vital statistics for all 693 MM, Volo's, and now MToF monsters: Updated!
NIH system 5e fork, very much WIP. Base github repo.
NIH System PDF Up to date main-branch build version.
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2023-01-13, 04:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
You might get better mileage out of Lesser Planar Binding and/or Lesser Planar Ally.
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
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2023-01-13, 09:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2013
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- Somewhere
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Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
In Eberron, you can... for a while, at least, before Dolurrh erase their memories and the soul fades away. How long that is is not stated, but I imagine the 10-day window for Raise Dead is a good measuring stick. After that... depends on what really happens to the soul.
Funnily enough, if you can locate them in Dolurrh, Plane Shift is a more reliable way to get the deceased back than magic designed for raising dead.
Wrong edition.It's Eberron, not ebberon.
It's not high magic, it's wide magic.
And it's definitely not steampunk. The only time steam gets involved is when the fire and water elementals break loose.
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2023-01-13, 01:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
Omegaupdate Forum
WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext
PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket
Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil
Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)
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2023-01-22, 10:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2017
Re: Can Sending...Speak With Dead?
D&D distinguishes between a creature's soul and their animating spirit. The soul goes to the afterlife and is what has the capacity to learn and form new memories. The animating spirit remains in the body and has the creature's old memories. This is why some kinds of undead will mime the things it used to do in life, as it remembers doing them but isn't able to adapt to it's new situation.
Speak with Dead calls up the animating spirit and allows you to ask it questions. Because it can't form memories, it can't take in new information, but it still has its memories from life and can answer your questions. Sending might be able to contact a soul, and while you could pass information along to them, they would not remember anything from when they were alive.
The distinction between the soul and the animating spirit is kind of weird, and maybe more trouble than it's worth, but it does allow for some interesting interactions. For example, it naturally restricts some of the things you can do with Speak with Dead to prevent it from being misused.