I've been playing 5e for a while now, and every time I look at this spell, I'm puzzled what's it's purpose. There are a few obvious uses... > Feign your death But it has obvious somatic and vocal components, your opponents WILL suspect something. Also, if you cast it on yourself you can't even dismiss it at will, since you're incapacitated and it requires an action to dismiss. > Cast it to slow death from poison/AIDS But it has duration of just 1 hour. AIDS is not going to kill your party member in exactly one hour.
I know you can come up with some clever uses.
Liam Perry
Sneak into or out of a place on corpse carts.
There are probably cheaper alternatives than this tho.
Austin Long
also turn in a bounty, or just get rid of one on any close personal friends who have run afoul of the law.
you might be able to pull something off where you send the "dead" bodies through fire or acid or other hazards, confident that they can come out the other end.
Jonathan Ramirez
> Here's the body of doctor Evilstein. Where are my money? Finally, this villain is brought to justice. We'll chop off his head and put it on a pike for other villains to see! > Wait, shit! No!
Luis Martin
I mean, the only reason a GM would do that is because they know the player feigned death. They've never done it before.
Henry Davis
You're ignoring the fact that it has the ritual tag. If cast as a ritual you can keep someone under its effects indefinitely.
Aiden Nguyen
This guy gets it
Benjamin Hughes
I would imagine its use to get around murder scenes would be interesting to explore.
E.g. you kill a merchant and his guard, dress yourself up as one of the guards, cast this on yourself.
Investigation concludes that the perp got away (even though they didnt). By time they realize you aint dead youve already been moved into the town crypt/morge (since forensics aint a thing in fantesy land) and can just get up, pick up the stash of clothing you hid there earlier and walk out the front door.
Adrian Walker
Ooooooh.
Stealin' dis.
Jackson Russell
>Spending 10 minutes of every hour to keep someone under
Seems a bit impractical if you ask me. And that begs the question of why you'd bother? If you're trying to keep someone from dying, wouldn't it be faster to just use lesser restoration or something to deal with the issue directly? If you're trying to fake your death, then having a cleric pop by every hour for 10 minutes is going to make the trick pretty obvious.
Xavier Lopez
It's honestly a pretty common way of dealing with outlaws in old times.
Noah James
Seems useful
Nathaniel Smith
>bounty calls for them brought in alive >bring them in dead >haggle for reward >if they refuse demand the body back, someone will pay >your friend is no longer wanted or >they agree and pay you the bounty or some portion thereof >hang around for an hour, then help your buddy break out of the morgue >spend your hard earned bounty getting somewhere without extradition
Jose Brown
>your opponents WILL suspect something Distraction, cover, ignorant opponents, or perform out of battle.
>duration of just 1 hour So recast it every hour, it's worth it to increase your timeline if you're a long way from a cure.
The number 1 use that comes to mind for me is feigning death in non-combat situations, such as smuggling people into/out of a secure area, cashing in bounties without actually killing or handing over the person, or for executing a con or solving a mystery by baiting out a killer. Alternatively, it may be useful for the resistance to a passive, predictable damage that people want to weather.
Joseph Barnes
Because clerics don't ever hang out around dead people, mumbling words about the afterlife.
Evan Howard
>target has resistance to all damage except psychic. I can think of a few uses for depending on how much damage is ignored.
Like could I cast this on my familiar, have it swallowed by a beast and then have the familiar be the conduit through which I cast fireball upon fireball until the battle ends?
Tyler Sullivan
If you had a way of increasing the duration, it would be a good way of controlling a dangerous prisoner. Or even if you didn't. Lots of shenanigan potential.
Hunter Foster
resistance is half damage.
Jaxson Martinez
Well, one hour is plenty of time and it's technically not necrophilia...
Andrew Martin
>kingdom buries it's dead wrapped in powerful anti-magic shrouds to prevent necromancy >convince munchkined up That Guy that getting one of the shrouds would be had >feign death him >casually coup de grace him without having to take on his octuple template bullshit with your human fighter >continue to avoid just talking things out with your fellow players
Logan Perry
Have the most bitching power nap in the world.
Kevin Walker
Familiars can only be a conduit for touch spells in 5e.
Jaxon Perez
Enjoy killing a revenant version of the munchkin next session.
