Dojo Spell

[Lysander]

I think this Matrix inspired spell would make for an awesome scene in a game:


Dojo
Divination
Level: Brd 2, Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 3
Components: V, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Caster plus one willing creature per caster level
Duration: 10 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No

This spell puts willing participants into a trance, during which they remain motionless and experience a shared simulated reality. Multiple creatures can hold hands to all be affected without directly touching the caster. The environment is determined by the caster, and they can simulate anything from featureless infinite planes, to forests and seas, to buildings or cities in any layout they wish.

Participants have all the abilities and items they do in the real world, and can try out attacks and spells on one another that affect their simulated selves but leave their true bodies and minds unharmed. Experience points cannot be earned in the simulation. Items and spell slots used in the simulation aren't spent in the real world. These simulated spells cannot be cast into the real world - one could scry or teleport within the simulation, but not from the simulation to outside.

The caster can resurrect, fully heal, and replenish spells or items of any simulated participant at will. They can also simulate or dismiss up to 100HD at a time of any animal, magical creature, or humanoid construct and have them perform any action they wish. Though it doesn't distract them, all participants remain aware of the real world, suffer no spot or listen penalties, and can leave the trance at will.

[Anxe]

Cool idea, but really unbalanced if you get experience from the battles that take place there.

[Lysander]

Cool idea, but really unbalanced if you get experience from the battles that take place there.

Ooh. Big point I should have made clear. No, it doesn't give any experience.

[Badgercloak]

Sounds cool. But couldn't it detract form the overall flow of the game if everyone just wants to "Dojo" instead of Dungeon crawl?

[Lysander]

Sounds cool. But couldn't it detract form the overall flow of the game if everyone just wants to "Dojo" instead of Dungeon crawl?

Not if players want to gain levels, treasure, or if there is a BBEG out there to defeat. It's kinda like the holodeck. The Enterprise can simulate anything, but that doesn't mean they don't have to travel through space and get in battles. It isn't a perfect illusion either. The players are aware they're just sitting still and holding hands, so they'd want the real deal. This just allows them to imagine fights very accurately.

They could duel one another without using up resources and injuring the other. Or recreate a real place and run through a mission plan.

[Jane_Smith]

Maybe it should grant them a SMALL amount of exp? treat any successful defeats with like -90% their normal exp, and as if their Cr's were 1-2 less?

Or, maybe within the next X hours/days, whenever they next encounter a creature they have successfully defeated they get a insight bonus to attacks/ac/saves?

[DracoDei]

Grinding for free experience seems like a big no-no. I would give various bonuses, not to mention pointing out flaws I see in the players plans if they run through things a few times before doing the real thing... of course the simulation will only be as good their intel and anything they are missing could null the bonuses or even give penalties.

[Baron Corm]

I think the spell is a very cool one, but as-written could be broken, if I'm reading it right. If you can summon any animal, magical "creature" (what does this mean?), or humanoid construct, you can learn the strengths and weaknesses of those creatures before you fight them. That's like, as soon as you get 3rd level spells, you play with the MM open to the characters.

If the creatures summoned only have those aspects that the caster actually knows about, it could help the caster to explain the creatures to his allies, but really he could just do this with speaking for the same effect. In this case the only purpose of the spell would be for two creatures that had a dispute but didn't want to kill each other to duel it out. Essentially the spell becomes mostly flavor.

[DracoDei]

Showing is always better than showing. Otherwise military training would be a LOT less expensive to create.

[Baron Corm]

Without doubt, but it has no mechanical bonus. If a player wanted to tell another player that minotaurs have Powerful Charge, I wouldn't stop him.

If you want to "train" against a particular type of monster, that's different, and I could see that granting bonuses, but how do you justify them wearing off? Between this and the stipulation about not getting experience, there are a lot of reasons why I would just keep this as a flavor spell, and make a less complicated spell that flat-out grants you a basic favored enemy ability for a short duration, kind of like rage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rage.htm).

[Lysander]

Without doubt, but it has no mechanical bonus.
If you want to "train" against a particular type of monster, that's different, and I could see that granting bonuses, but how do you justify them wearing off? Between this and the stipulation about not getting experience, there are a lot of reasons why I would just keep this as a flavor spell, and make a less complicated spell that flat-out grants you a basic favored enemy ability for a short duration, kind of like rage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rage.htm).

I think it has a lot of potential as a flavor spell, but it could provide a few small tangible bonuses. For example, let's say you simulate a real room your rogue will have to sneak through later. If they practice with the Dojo spell it might justify a small circumstance bonus to a Hide check later on.

What it could really be useful for is checking your character's ability to fight various monsters. If your team is going to have to fight a dragon it isn't a bad idea to run a fake fight first and see how well your team does, and adjust tactics accordingly.

All this is contingent on the caster knowing what they're simulating. They can't simulate a monster or location they don't know much about. If they don't know a monster's supernatural abilities they would create a monster without that ability

[Jane_Smith]

Its a divination spell - thus, wanna learn more, cast more divination spells before casting Dojo? >.>