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To what kind of stone creature or character is turned with petrification or flesh to stone type spells?

The Petrified condition is the result of various monster abilities

A Petrified character has been turned to stone and is considered unconscious. If a petrified character cracks or breaks, but the broken pieces are joined with the body as he returns to flesh, he is unharmed. If the character's petrified body is incomplete when it returns to flesh, the body is likewise incomplete and there is some amount of permanent hit point loss and/or debilitation

The flesh to stone spell reads:

The subject, along with all its carried gear, turns into a mindless, inert statue. If the statue resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject (if ever returned to its original state) has similar damage or deformities. The creature is not dead, but it does not seem to be alive either when viewed with spells such as deathwatch.
Only creatures made of flesh are affected by this spell

Is it one of the sedimentary stone types (came from organic elements) or some other like igneous or metamorphic?

And to which subtype of stone are they turned?

More on stone types on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rock_types

Soron
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tbalaz
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2 Answers2

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It's not stated explicitly, but limestone or marble seems the best fit

I'm not aware of any material that explicitly answers this, but the material components for the flesh to stone spell are "lime, water, and earth."

"Lime" is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, typically manufactured from limestone and mixed with water and sand/gravel to make concrete. Already limestone seems like an obvious fit.

Statues are commonly made out of marble… and that happens to be a metamorphosed form of limestone. This is also a strong contender.

Limestones and marbles are based primarily on calcium. As well as being present in the material components, it's also found in the human body in large quantities (in bones, in teeth, and as an important electrolyte). Humans are about 1.5% calcium by mass.

On the other hand, most other rocks involve significant quantities of silicon, but that's only a trace element in the human body (<0.1% by mass), and silicon isn't listed in the material components. ("Earth" could be just about anything from gravel to mulch; some would contain silicon, others wouldn't.)

So, going by both the material components and the human body, we're probably looking at a calcium-based rock without large amounts of silicon, which implies limestone or marble. It could even be concrete—it's a rock, though not a very romantic one.

I'm told (h/t Molot) that "In one of the Underworld books (prose, not rules) drows turned victims into onyx". While true onyx is a silicate, most "agate" sold today is in fact calcite (calcium carbonate), commonly found within limestone, so this is still consistent with the "calcium-based rock" interpretation.

If you want to enforce conservation of mass, then this fine answer's suggestion of pumice is definitely the best option, but spells are generally not known for respecting conservation of mass. For example, Iron Body multiplies a person's weight by ten.

GB supports the mod strike
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    In one of the Underworld books (prose, not rules) drows turned victims into onyx. As far as I remember, of course. It's black, and it was often mistaken / believed to be the same thing as black calcite, supporting your calcium argumnt. – Mołot Oct 12 '18 at 13:57
  • I will accept this answer because of connection between resulting stone type and spell components used for transformation. – tbalaz Oct 18 '18 at 11:23
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This is a great question! Do they turn into the stone of the bedrock nearby? Do different organs become different kinds of rock? In my game, I probably wouldn't specify unless someone at the table asked - in that case, I would probably allow the magic-user to specify.

However, as a geologist, I am very tempted to answer this question in a more definitive way. Assuming we have conservation of mass, what kinds of stone could a person become. Humans are roughly water, so I'll look for rocks and stones with a similar density. In geology, we have a very simple statistic called Specific Gravity that relates a mineral or rock to the density of water. A specific gravity of 1 = water, while a 3 would be 3x as dense. Most rocks are around 3 or 4.

Coal is right around 1.1, but I don't think thats right, because I think petrified creatures are resistant to fire damage (that said, if you're looking for a stone with the exact elemental composition as a human body, look no further). Baked or calcined clay is right around 1.6 but is just a bit too dense, maybe with hollow bits. I think the rock we are looking for is porous or vesiculated pumice: because of its porosity, its specific gravity varies by a lot, but can be as low as .8, which means it floats!

So, for complete 100% fantasy realism, your petrify spell probably animals into pumice, which is an extrusive igneous rock.

patternseeker
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    "Assuming we have conservation of mass" This is a very strong assumption for a fantasy setting with magic where it is possible to turn someone into stone and back again. – David K Oct 12 '18 at 12:29
  • What about conservation of elements? Are there minerals containing a large amount of elements found in the human body (apart from coal)? Like basalt or something. – Suthek Oct 12 '18 at 13:49
  • @DavidK In roleplaying terms, there might be good reasons to assume conservation of mass to prevent/aid bizarre shenanigans by players. – deworde Oct 12 '18 at 14:22
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    https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/133409/does-a-petrified-creature-stay-conscious-and-mentally-sane Actually weight of a petrified creature explicitly increases by a factor of 10, and there are some comments already about how insanely dense that is for stone. – user3067860 Oct 12 '18 at 14:30
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    Given the reference to the "10x weight increase", I'd really like the geologist to chime in on what rocks have a specific gravity that would approximately match the spell description. Nonetheless, I really liked the logic applied in this answer! – KevinO Oct 12 '18 at 16:07
  • @user3067860 while it may be relevant anyway, that question is about flesh to stone and petrification from 5e, while this question is about those topics in 3.5e. – Kamil Drakari Oct 12 '18 at 17:01
  • @KevinO: Galena would be a somewhat close match that might count as "stone". – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Oct 12 '18 at 17:12
  • @user3067860 A factor of ten places this 'stone' at the approximate density of crystalline copper or lead. If the weight does increase, I would assume that its by some amount less - but that for the purposes of 5e carrying capacity, it effectively encumbers you by that amount. How much items actually weigh is a probably a big enough question for a new topic - I can think of a few examples of weight and 'weight' not adding up, but a comment is not the place to describe them. – patternseeker Oct 12 '18 at 18:14
  • @Suthek I'm afraid coal and its polymorphs are the only answer, even the most carbon rich-inorganic rocks (mostly carbonate group rocks, like marble, limestone, and the like) have a lot more oxygen than carbon, and a significant amount of calcium as well. However, graphite is a possibility as its very difficult to burn and 'feels' a lot like a rock or stone, even though its just very pure coal. Coal has almost the exact same elemental composition as animals - essentially coal is dead animals and plants, sometimes mixed in with additional water or earth. – patternseeker Oct 12 '18 at 18:43
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    @patternseeker, coal is dead plants (mosses and ferns, mostly), minus a heck of a lot of hydrogen and a fair bit of oxygen and nitrogen. – Mark Oct 12 '18 at 23:01
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    On the subject of how a 10x weight increase is possible when typical stone is only 3 to 4x as dense as a human body, keep in mind that everything the creature is wearing and carrying turns to stone. In practice, that probably includes all air gaps, e.g. empty space inside bags, the space between armor/clothes and skin, etc. Otherwise you'd have a solid stone statue covered in several thin layers of clothing-shaped stone. So, the total volume that is transformed into stone could be substantially more than the sum of volumes of the creature and its stuff. – Ryan C. Thompson Oct 13 '18 at 02:06
  • @Mark indeed, most mined coal is from plants as plant matter represents a much greater source of organic material (vs animals or fungi) on Earth's surface for most of earths history, including now (there was a period early on where fungi were the dominant terrestrial taxon, but other than that its all plants). The point was more that if animals were subject to lithification, the end result would be a form of coal. – patternseeker Oct 13 '18 at 06:50
  • I think you're missing the part where the petrified creature gets resistance to all damage types and a tenfold weight increase, which wouldn't be the case with a too soft stone. – vonBoomslang Oct 13 '18 at 08:19