🔍 
Home Ancestries Backgrounds Bestiary Classes Conditions Deities Equipment Feats Spells

Talking CorpseSpell 4


UncommonNecromancy
Source Pathfinder Core Rulebook
Traditions Divine, Occult
Cast 10 minutes (material, somatic, verbal)
Range touch
Target 1 corpse
Duration 10 minutes
Saving Throw Will

You grant the target corpse a semblance of life, which it uses to speak the answers to three questions posed to it. This spell calls on the physical body's latent memories rather than summoning back the deceased's spirit, so the corpse must be mostly intact for the spell to function. The more damage the corpse has taken, the more inaccurate or patchwork its answers are, and it must have a throat and mouth to speak at all. If anyone has previously cast this spell on the corpse in the last week, the spell automatically fails. The corpse can attempt a Will save to resist answering the questions using the statistics of the original creature at its time of death, with the following effects.


Critical Success The target can lie or refuse to answer your questions, and the target's spirit haunts you for 24 hours, bothering you and causing you to be unable to gain any rest for that time.

Success The target can provide false information or refuse to answer your questions.

Failure The target must answer truthfully, but its answers can be brief, cryptic, and repetitive. It can still mislead you or attempt to stall so that the spell's duration runs out before you can ask all your questions.

Critical Failure As failure, but the target's answers are more direct and less repetitive, though still cryptic. It takes a -2 status penalty to Deception checks to deceive or mislead you.


Traits

Uncommon

Something of uncommon rarity requires special training or comes from a particular culture or part of the world. Some character choices give access to uncommon options, and the GM can choose to allow access for anyone. Less is known about uncommon creatures than common creatures. They typically can't be summoned. The DC of Recall Knowledge checks related to these creature is increased by 2.

Necromancy

Effects and magic items with this trait are associated with the necromancy school of magic, typically involving forces of life and death.