Why do the dead have the ability to choose who they talk to?

[Red Shoe Paul]

I have the amulet that lets you cast speak with dead, and now corpses are refusing to talk to me just because I killed them. I was unaware there was any consent needed on the part of the necromancee, what right do they have to refuse my questions?

[⇧⇨⇩⇩⇩]

How is that something weird? Speak with dead is a spell that allows you to communicate with the dead, it does not also mindcontrol them to do as you want.

If you walk up to someone and slap them they might not want to talk to you, so why would a restless soul want to talk to the person who killed them?

[Holy Athena]

Originally posted by morrganstain:

How is that something weird? Speak with dead is a spell that allows you to communicate with the dead, it does not also mindcontrol them to do as you want.

If you walk up to someone and slap them they might not want to talk to you, so why would a restless soul want to talk to the person who killed them?

^ This

Plus, Do you really expect Larian to write 50,000 more lines for every random dead NPC?

If they did that, then we'd have people like you in here immediately "Talk to Dead is useless! So many Dead bodies that say useless stuff, you never know which ones are important!"

Doesn't take a genius to understand why they did it the way they did.

[Red Shoe Paul]

I'm a paladin, they chose to be evil, they have no right to refuse me.

[Sockless]

I mean the living can refuse to speak with you so why also not the dead? If is just the ability to speak to the dead that is not the ability to control/command the dead.

[Shaggit]

Simple: That's how the spell works in 5th edition, the tabletop BG3 is based off of...

Speak With Dead
3 necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Target: A corpse of your choice within range
Components: V S M (Burning incense)
Duration: 10 minutes
Classes: Bard, Cleric
You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. The corpse must still have a mouth and can’t be undead. The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days.
Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn’t return the creature’s soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the corpse can’t learn new information, doesn’t comprehend anything that has happened since it died, and can’t speculate about future events.

[fox]

Because theyre dead. What are you gonna do, kill them?

[dustin1280]

Originally posted by morrganstain:

How is that something weird? Speak with dead is a spell that allows you to communicate with the dead, it does not also mindcontrol them to do as you want.

If you walk up to someone and slap them they might not want to talk to you, so why would a restless soul want to talk to the person who killed them?

*this*

[n#n#m#]

Originally posted by Red Shoe Paul:

I have the amulet that lets you cast speak with dead, and now corpses are refusing to talk to me just because I killed them.

Just disguise yourself as another person. You can use Shadowheart's ability for that or Mask of the Shapeshifter If you have Deluxe edition. Then they'll talk (If they have something to say, that is).

[Red Shoe Paul]

Originally posted by Shaggit:

Simple: That's how the spell works in 5th edition, the tabletop BG3 is based off of...

Speak With Dead
3 necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Target: A corpse of your choice within range
Components: V S M (Burning incense)
Duration: 10 minutes
Classes: Bard, Cleric
You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. The corpse must still have a mouth and can’t be undead. The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days.
Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn’t return the creature’s soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the corpse can’t learn new information, doesn’t comprehend anything that has happened since it died, and can’t speculate about future events.

Ahh, so it's not required to give me a truthful answer but it IS required to give me an answer. Chapter and verse from the book, so why are they refusing to answer?

[n#n#m#]

Originally posted by morrganstain:

How is that something weird? Speak with dead is a spell that allows you to communicate with the dead, it does not also mindcontrol them to do as you want.

If you walk up to someone and slap them they might not want to talk to you, so why would a restless soul want to talk to the person who killed them?

Guess it's weird to someone who isn't into DnD much because of the presentation. When you raise someone they always talk so... straightforwardly robotic that one can be under impression that this spell also includes some sort of mind-control (would make sense just to get the most truthful and no bs answer tbh).

[Lord Despicable (Allegedly)]

Originally posted by Red Shoe Paul:

I'm a paladin, they chose to be evil, they have no right to refuse me.

Yeah they do. Being a Paladin gives you no extra authority where the dead are concerned.

[RhodosGuard]

I think it's mostly to circumvent people killing NPCs when they fail speech checks, and then using Speak with Dead to still get the answer out of them.

[Red Shirt]

No face, no ability to speak. No desire to talk, no dialog. You can cast disguise self and that sometimes works.

[Sephiroth]

So many ridiculous comments here.
If you are breathing life into the dead body you are already FORCING THEM to talk to you. So if you have that kind of power they should not have the option to REFUSE any information you ask until the power runs out.

But on another note if all the trolls here want to troll then lets take them seriously.
Ok so then a way to force them to talk to you would be if you had a combination of mind control+speak to the dead or a combination of dominate person and speak to the dead.

But lets be honest. If you think they have a right to refuse the player then you are trolling or have not learned much from the game.

Look at the scene when you use it. You lift the body in the air you force it to talk to you and in any other scenario where you kill people... if they have something useful to tell you they are forced to tell you.

Its only on some weird random bodies where it says "they refuse to talk to the person that killed them"

FINALLY TO FURTHER PROVE THE POINT.

SWITCH CHARACTERS TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DID NOT KILL THEM AND HAVE THEM USE A SPEAK TO THE DEAD SCROLL ON THEM.

I BET THEY WILL SAY THE SAME THING.

REMEMBER YOU CAN SWITCH OUT A CHARACTER FROM YOUR CAMP SO IT WAS SOMEONE WHO WAS NOT EVEN IN THE BATTLE.

THEN YOU CAN PROVE IF IT REALLY IS WHAT IT SAYS.

I HAVE NOT TESTED IT. BUT I SUSPECT THE GAME IS GOING TO SAY THE SAME THING

[EricHVela]

Trivia: BG3 is a video game with homebrew rules based on 5e for video game design purposes.