Hello spellcasters! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 33rd episode of our second level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at one of my all-time favorite second level spells in the entire game. Mostly because i have an hillarious story attached to it. Today we’re going to be taking a look at the loving embrace of dnd 5e spell gentle repose.
This spell is usable by the cleric and the wizard that is so far as to say is it’s found on their spell lists. There are couple other subclasses that get access to it but it’s only found in those two lists. It is found in the good old players handbook as well so we should all have access to it. Now before we get too far into this let’s take a look at its mechanics and break it down.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action (Ritual)
- Range/Area: Touch
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 10 Days
- School: Necromancy
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Warding
The effect at a glance reads as followed: After touching remains, and casting this spell. The remains do not decay, and cannot become undead. This spell also extends the expiration limits of resurrection and other spells.
The casting time is one action and it can be cast as a ritual for an extra ten minutes. Its range is a touch and its duration is 10 days which is great. The components are verbal, material and somatic. And if you’re curious about the material it is a pinch of salt and one copper piece placed on each of the corpses eyes which must mermen there for the duration. Very cool stuff!
And the school is unsurprisingly necromancy as most things dealing with corpses are. Now let’s take a look at its full description here.
Description
You touch a corpse or other remains. For the duration, the target is protected from decay and can’t become undead. The spell also effectively extends the time limit on raising the target from the dead, since days spent under the influence of this spell don’t count against the time limit of spells such as raise dead. * – (a pinch of salt and one copper piece placed on each of the corpse’s eyes, which must remain there for the duration).
Very cool stuff! once again really love this one. If you’re going to do anything regarding corpses and this spell is a must-have in your arsenal. Especially a factoring in the material component of a lot of these higher-level resurrection spells. Now without further ado let’s take a look at some alternative uses here and i’ll tell you a quick story about how this spell completely derailed my game.
Alternative Uses
So first and foremost i already addressed it but it’s worth bringing up a second time in taking a good solid look at. This spell just through virtue of extending the time frame of which you can resurrect a necessary ally or party member is worth its weight in gold.
Because the material components for a lot of these higher level spells are insane and you could have a whole quest arc dedicated to finding these items in the real world and being able to effectively cast this and recast it as needed is super beneficial.
Outside of that there are going to be a lot of planning and logistical deals that could be completely mitigated from this spell, for example meet. Let’s say you have a huge caravan, a huge convoy of people that need be taken care of and you have to deal with a supply chain for those people.
Would it not be way more beneficial to not have to worry about rot or decay or refrigeration or anything of that nature just cast the spell once and it’s good for 10 days and since it can be ritual cast and you can effectively cast it all day long without worrying about expending a spell slot.
I think that’s super useful and i think it’s a great way of implementing this spell and it’ll you’re a lot of people talking about it, so this is weird.
Outside of that there is this story, this is when i first became a DM didn’t really know what i was doing, it was a 5th level or is a party of fifth level adventures and i had a very cool quest line where in the town was being attacked by undead forces trying to recover a lich’s skull from the town monastery and in doing so the horde wanted to resurrect their lich because i was as dying oath or commandment or order what-have-you. Also check out raise dead 5e.
So as soon as the priests of the monastery finished explaining. The cleric and the party is like oh may i see the skull to investigate it and just make sure it’s in good condition and the priest said well yes of course adventurers handed it to him and he cast it a gentle repose 5e on it and it derailed my whole quest line.
Because i’m like oh no because the way it was set up is the ritual was supposed to be the BBG right! And now even if the lich’s skull was recovered they would have had to wait ten days before they could it. Also check out dnd 5e gentle repose and revivify.
Oh it just hurt me, it hurt me so deep, cut me so deep. Needless to say this is a great spell under very specific circumstances and there is no real downside to having it in your arsenal. Especially if you’re a wizard and you just happen to walk by and pick it up and i mean clerics already have access to their full spell list anyways so there’s no real reason not to have this, unless you’re planning on having a super specialize to build that make spells like it’s no longer necessary.
Conclusion
In any case if you have any ideas, concepts, cool gentle repose 5e uses, questions, comments, concerns, please put them down in the comment section beneath i really do appreciate it or anything related to is gentle repose worth it? That being said, i hope you all have a wonderful day and as always happy casting everyone. Don’t miss this revivify 5e.