[RPG] Does a petrified creature stay conscious (and sane)

conditionsdnd-5esanityspellsunconscious

The next dungeon my party visits will contain some strange statues. Most of them are just Stone Golems, which will attack them. But near the end of the dungeon, the party will discover that one of the statues is no statue at all, but a petrified monk. He was petrified over 500 years ago (which is important for plot reasons) by a flesh to stone spell. The party cleric will (probably) cast greater restoration and turn the monk back to normal. I really like this idea, because it allows me to bring in an eyewitness who experienced firsthand what happened half a millennium ago.

I assumed that the monk would be thankful and glad to share some reliable knowledge with the party. Then I read through the petrified condition:

  • A petrified creature is transformed, along with any nonmagical
    object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid inanimate substance
    (usually stone). Its weight increases by a factor of ten, and it
    ceases aging.
  • The creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or
    speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
  • Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
  • The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving
    throws.
  • The creature has resistance to all damage.
  • The creature is immune to poison and disease, although a poison or
    disease already in its system is suspended, not neutralized.

A petrified creature is also incapacitated:

  • An incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions.

But I cannot find the part where it says that the petrified creature is unconscious. Which means that this poor monk stood in the dungeon for 500 years without being able to see, hear or feel anything. Completely alone with his thoughts. As a consequence, he is probably insane after the cleric fixed him. Am I overlooking something?

Does a petrified creature stay conscious (and mentally sane)?

Best Answer

Not-Unconscious does not necessarily mean awake and aware.

Sometimes the game just expects us to understand certain terms without giving explicit rules text about what they mean. Famously, 5e doesn't specify a 'dead' condition or give any rules about what it means to be dead. So there is a precedent for the game having certain game concepts left to the players' understanding of the world without giving specific rules text.

The Unconscious condition has specific effects that don't jibe with petrification: Unconscious creatures fall prone, drop their belongings, and take automatic critical hits, none of which makes a lot of sense with a creature being turned to stone. So there's a good reason not to bring those into a petrification situation.

Which is a all a rather long way to say 'the DM decides that', but:

What rules text even represents being mentally shut down?

Other than the actual name of the condition, the "incapacitated, can't move or speak, and unaware of surroundings" bullet point is as close as the Unconscious condition ever gets to specifying that your mind is shut off, and that text is present in Petrified as well.

So, for whatever it's worth, it seems like Petrified includes the mental component of unconsciousness, in so far as that state is represented in rules text at all.