What happens if a caster casts Feign Death on himself and another caster (that believes that the first caster is really dead) try to cast a resurrection spell? Does the second caster understand that the first one is not really dead?
Asked
Active
Viewed 409 times
5
-
5Does this answer your question? What happens when a caster targets an object that looks like a creature with a spell that targets only creatures? – lucasvw Apr 03 '20 at 20:32
-
Please note that we do not approve of piracy, I changed the link accordingly. – Akixkisu Apr 03 '20 at 21:38
-
1Related: Does a wand lose a charge if it attempts to target an invalid target? – GcL Apr 03 '20 at 21:48
-
Why the dupe? It seems like that asks the opposite. This is a spell targeting an object (a corpse) being cast on a creature. – Szega Apr 04 '20 at 08:25
-
@Szega Because I see no meaningful difference between the two. Much like how "how does exhaustion affect passive perception" was closed as a duplicate of "how does dim light affect passive perception". They are different questions only technically and both are simply asking "what happens when a spell is used on a seemingly-valid, but actually invalid target? " – Exempt-Medic Apr 04 '20 at 13:52
-
1@Medix2 Well, there is no harm in the closure. I just thought that questions are not dupes of each other because the answer is the same. Obviously there is wiggle room, but I always asked myself "Could I think that the answers are diferent, if I hadn't read the exact paragraph where the answer is?" as a test. Is there a consensus on how to handle this? (meta post maybe?) – Szega Apr 04 '20 at 14:53
-
@Szega Yeah I thought that was how it worked too, which is what this post seems to establish, but then this question was closed so now I'm confused... – Exempt-Medic Apr 04 '20 at 15:20
-
@Medix2: It's interesting, because that question and the one it was closed as a duplicate of both ask "how does [x] affect passive Perception", and both note that [x] imposes disadvantage on Perception checks - so although the title question is different, both questions in that case are fundamentally asking "how does disadvantage on Perception checks affect passive Perception?" – V2Blast Apr 04 '20 at 19:39
-
@V2Blast Yes, and I felt both questions here fundamentally ask "What happens when a spell is used on an invalid target?" – Exempt-Medic Apr 04 '20 at 19:41
-
Haha, I was just about to post another comment - In this case, arguably, the underlying question is the same in both questions: "What happens if you cast a spell on an invalid target?" But that's not explicitly stated in either question, so it's not as clear how to proceed. If people are unsure, it may be best to make a post on meta about how to handle other questions marked as a duplicate of that one that aren't quite the same. – V2Blast Apr 04 '20 at 19:42
-
Actually, the question "what happens when you cast a spell on an invalid target?" implies that I am sure that this is an invalid target case. In fat, I am not even sure that this is an invalid target. – firion Apr 05 '20 at 09:17
1 Answers
3
Nothing happens, the spell slot is expended, and the caster perceives that nothing was done to the target.
The second caster would see that the target was unaffected, but would not immediately know why.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything Offers Guidance on Invalid Spell Targets
XGtE p.86 :
If you cast a spell on someone or something that can't be affected by the spell, nothing happens to that target, but if you used a spell s lot to cast the spell, the s lot is still expended
Since resurrection does not require a saving throw, the caster just knows the spell did nothing:
Otherwise, you perceive that the spell did nothing to the target.
The guidance on spells requires saving throws is informative about not giving away the invalid nature of the target.
... the invalid target appears to have succeeded on its saving throw, even though it did not attempt one (giving no hint that the creature is in fact an invalid target).
GcL
- 34,278
- 4
- 107
- 172