Rabbitbait
Grog-nerd
A necromancer would halve the time needed and have advantage on the check.
D&D 5E Can Sending Be Used to Speak with the Soul of a Dead Character?
- Thread starter Hexmage-EN
- Start date
James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
This is a fascinating question not from a rules standpoint, but from a setting one. When you die in D&D, where does your soul go and how long does it take to get there?
We can presume from the existence of Revivify that a soul doesn't instantly pop off to an afterlife. Even undead that create spawn from what's left of your remains don't tend to do so instantly.
We know that souls exist- magic jar, demiliches, and Blackrazor all confirm this mechanically (in 3e there was a material called thinaun, and previous editions had other spells like Trap the Soul that could manipulate or destroy souls). The astral form one assumes when employing astral projection is stated by the spell to be your soul, and thus if your silver cord is severed, your body dies as your soul goes...somewhere.
But the precise mechanics for how someone becomes a petitioner or a ghost and how long this process takes, how your soul gets to it's destination, and, at what point, you cease to be the person you were and become something else, are deliberately kept murky.
We know that there is a limit on how long you can be dead before mortal magic can restore you to life (200 years, as per True Resurrection), as long as the soul is "free and willing", but surely souls don't take that long to become petitioners on the off chance someone can cast a 9th level spell to bring them back to life!
This is all left to the DM to decide, but I think it's very likely that at a certain point, a soul does become an entity that can be contacted (again, citing the various spells that can bring one back to life- a will is implicit in being willing).
Further, this doesn't step on Speak With Dead because that spell has nothing to do with the soul- it "grants the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse". These are two different effects.
Things become murky with undead- you can't raise an undead creature (outside of True Resurrection), but that doesn't imply that a soul is trapped inside a zombie necessarily- it could simply mean that the animating force prevents the soul from being rejoined to it's body (left for the DM to decide is whether the remains of a slain zombie is the corpse of a person or a zombie!).
In the end, in absence of a hard answer, I would say that yes, you can use sending to contact a dead soul, but there is apparently a liminal period where the departed might not be in a state where it can answer (in effect, the soul is incapacitated or possibly in a location that cannot be accessed, like the demiplane of a psychopomp, divine entity, warlock patron, or greedy fiend), which means it's really up to the DM.
An interesting variant of this is katabasis- that is, using plane shift or similar methods to make your way to an afterlife to physically retrieve the soul of a fallen comrade, a common theme in mythology. There's certainly nothing preventing you from attempting to do something like this, but the residents of wherever you end up might certainly have something to say about it, making the return of your deceased acquaintance an epic adventure in of itself!
We can presume from the existence of Revivify that a soul doesn't instantly pop off to an afterlife. Even undead that create spawn from what's left of your remains don't tend to do so instantly.
We know that souls exist- magic jar, demiliches, and Blackrazor all confirm this mechanically (in 3e there was a material called thinaun, and previous editions had other spells like Trap the Soul that could manipulate or destroy souls). The astral form one assumes when employing astral projection is stated by the spell to be your soul, and thus if your silver cord is severed, your body dies as your soul goes...somewhere.
But the precise mechanics for how someone becomes a petitioner or a ghost and how long this process takes, how your soul gets to it's destination, and, at what point, you cease to be the person you were and become something else, are deliberately kept murky.
We know that there is a limit on how long you can be dead before mortal magic can restore you to life (200 years, as per True Resurrection), as long as the soul is "free and willing", but surely souls don't take that long to become petitioners on the off chance someone can cast a 9th level spell to bring them back to life!
This is all left to the DM to decide, but I think it's very likely that at a certain point, a soul does become an entity that can be contacted (again, citing the various spells that can bring one back to life- a will is implicit in being willing).
Further, this doesn't step on Speak With Dead because that spell has nothing to do with the soul- it "grants the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse". These are two different effects.
Things become murky with undead- you can't raise an undead creature (outside of True Resurrection), but that doesn't imply that a soul is trapped inside a zombie necessarily- it could simply mean that the animating force prevents the soul from being rejoined to it's body (left for the DM to decide is whether the remains of a slain zombie is the corpse of a person or a zombie!).
In the end, in absence of a hard answer, I would say that yes, you can use sending to contact a dead soul, but there is apparently a liminal period where the departed might not be in a state where it can answer (in effect, the soul is incapacitated or possibly in a location that cannot be accessed, like the demiplane of a psychopomp, divine entity, warlock patron, or greedy fiend), which means it's really up to the DM.
An interesting variant of this is katabasis- that is, using plane shift or similar methods to make your way to an afterlife to physically retrieve the soul of a fallen comrade, a common theme in mythology. There's certainly nothing preventing you from attempting to do something like this, but the residents of wherever you end up might certainly have something to say about it, making the return of your deceased acquaintance an epic adventure in of itself!
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Hexmage-EN
Legend
I just spent several hours of my real life reading and compiling details about D&D characters' afterlife.
What Happens When You Die (In D&D [According to Some Sources])
Soon After Death
Receiving their Fate
To the Outer Planes
Existence as a Soul Larvae
- Unless otherwise impeded, the unclaimed souls of evil creatures manifest in Hades as soul larvae, giant grubs with the face of their mortal form (Dungeon Master’s Guide; 5E)
Existence as a Petitioner
Existence as an Outsider
What Happens When You Die (In D&D [According to Some Sources])
Soon After Death
- Normally, the soul stays with the body for 1 hour (as evidenced by the nabassu's Devour Soul ability; 5E)
- If slain by a Narzugon's Hellfire Lance, the soul rises from the River Styx in Avernus as a lemure within 1d4 hours (as evidenced by the narzugon's Hellfire Lance ability; 5E)
- If slain by a Hellfire weapon, a creature instantly appears as a lemure in the River Styx (Descent to Avernus; 5E)
- Some undead are born from souls that are unable to leave the world or its echoes, though many are truly composed of an animating spirit, also known as an animus, that has been corrupted (Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead; 4E)
Receiving their Fate
- In Realmspace, the souls of the dead are drawn to the Fugue Plane for up to ten days; some are taken by divine representatives to their final fate, some sell their souls to become devils, and those without divine or Infernal claims on their souls become part of the Wall of the Faithless that encircles the City of the Dead
- In the world of the Nentir Vale the Raven Queen draws souls to her palace in the Shadowfell; most souls pass to an unknown fate beyond a mysterious veil, some are held within her palace's Hall of Final Fate, and the remainder are sent to the Astral Sea (The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond; 4E)
To the Outer Planes
- Astral conduits within the Astral Plane draw souls to their final destinations (A Guide to the Astral Plane; 2E)
- While traveling through an Astral conduit a soul's memories are stripped from it and dispersed (On Hallowed Ground; 2E)
Existence as a Soul Larvae
- Unless otherwise impeded, the unclaimed souls of evil creatures manifest in Hades as soul larvae, giant grubs with the face of their mortal form (Dungeon Master’s Guide; 5E)
Existence as a Petitioner
- A soul appears at its destination as a Celestial or Fiend that either looks like an idealized version of its mortal form or another creature entirely (Morte's Planar Parade; 5E)
- A Petitioner becomes Plane Locked and is unable to leave the Outer Planes (Morte's Planar Parade; 5E)
- If a petitioner is resurrected as a mortal it regains its lost memories of mortal life, though in exchange for losing its memories of its time as a petitioner (On Hallowed Ground; 2E)
- A dead petitioner can either merge with its plane or return as a petitioner on a plane matching its alignment 100 years after being destroyed, though in the latter case beings look increasingly dissimilar from their mortal forms (Morte's Planar Parade; 5E)
- A dead petitioner can be resurrected by True Resurrection or Wish, and it can choose to either return as a petitioner or as a mortal (Morte's Planar Parade; 5E)
- Petitioners primarily seek spiritual growth, reshaping their personality to better align with their Outer Plane thanks to its influence (On Hallowed Ground; 2E)
Existence as an Outsider
- On occasion, a soul manifests in the Astral Sea outside of the plane it was destined for and is forever unable to enter (The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea; 4E)
- An outsider can persist for centuries, but a lack of any ties with a plane means that they cannot return after their destruction (The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea; 4E)
- Knowledge that they are barred from their final destiny has a profound impact on the personality of outsiders; some become more pious to try and earn entry to their gods’ realm, others stew over their perceived shortcomings, and others become embittered bitter against the divine (The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea; 4E)
TaranTheWanderer
Legend
To me, that's for a spell like Contact Other Plane.
But, if your DM allows it, I'd keep this in mind:
Raise Dead has a 10 day limit to when it will work. (5th)
Resurrection has a 1 century limit (7th) But anything over a year taxes the person greatly.
True Resurrection has a 2 century limit (9th)
Which, to me, implies that, after 10 days - and especially after a year - your soul isn't the same person it used to be. You need powerful magic to find it and drag it back.
So, winging it, you could say:
yes, as long as it's within the first 10 days ( and as long as some other entity has interceded or some other event has prevented it.)
I'd allow Gentle repose to extend that to up to 1 year (the limit of where it's even taxing for a person on the receiving end of a 7th level spell)
How much does it step on the toes of SwD?
SWD:
-5 questions
- know only what they knew in life
Sending
If you can contact a long-dead sage, why not your buddy, Jim?
But, if your DM allows it, I'd keep this in mind:
Raise Dead has a 10 day limit to when it will work. (5th)
Resurrection has a 1 century limit (7th) But anything over a year taxes the person greatly.
True Resurrection has a 2 century limit (9th)
Which, to me, implies that, after 10 days - and especially after a year - your soul isn't the same person it used to be. You need powerful magic to find it and drag it back.
So, winging it, you could say:
yes, as long as it's within the first 10 days ( and as long as some other entity has interceded or some other event has prevented it.)
I'd allow Gentle repose to extend that to up to 1 year (the limit of where it's even taxing for a person on the receiving end of a 7th level spell)
How much does it step on the toes of SwD?
SWD:
-5 questions
- know only what they knew in life
Sending
- A single 25 word answer
- Sending is only what they know in death. The closer they get to that 10 days, the less they remember from their life and only know what they are in death. I'd keep the same 10 day do-over limit as Speak with Dead. So, you can push it to a year, but getting useful info is trickier.
W'rkncacnter
Hero
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
I think I'd allow it, they are both 3rd level communication spells. 5% chance the sending spell fails altogether, and if the individual has been dead long enough, as others have indicated, they may no longer remember who they are (or have been reincarnated or otherwise have moved on). Overall, I doubt sending would work on someone whose been dead a year or more.
Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ (He/Him)
“This is soup for my family.”
The Archdevil Campbell is lord over the 7th Layer Dip of the Nine Hells.
Lidgar
Gongfarmer
Baron Opal II
Legend
Maybe. First through is that it wouldn't unless the person became some kind of free willed undead. Then the soul is a "creature" of some stripe. Sending is 2nd level now, not 6th? Probably not unless there were some clever "magical hogwash" going on. Clever ideal, however!
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