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Doctor Acula
2010-08-21, 05:35 PM
So I have a really quick question about how the scry spell works. One of my players is scrying on a villain to find the villain's location through the use of a crystal ball. He sees the villain flying over a landscape and I said for him to make a Knowledge(geography) check however he doesn't have ranks in that skill so he can't make the roll. He then asked me if he could pass the crystal ball around to show everyone else and see if any of them can make the check.

Are there rules regarding this? I said he could but I want to know if my ruling was legal.

TaintedLight
2010-08-21, 05:45 PM
If he's a wizard, he actually can make the check since all knowledges are class skills for him. Otherwise, I don't think that would be at all unreasonable. After all, the focus is a reflective surface/object that could theoretically be held by any character. If you like, you could restrict it such that he must continue to hold the focus or the spell is broken. Just a suggestion and not RAW as far as I know.

Vangor
2010-08-21, 05:53 PM
Considering he is using the magic item Crystal Ball, the effect should not deactivate merely by passing the object. The item was activated, the scry attempt succeeded, and the character has not canceled the effect. Provided this is done within 10 min (Scrying is 1min/level and the Crystal Ball is CL10), should not be a problem.


If he's a wizard, he actually can make the check since all knowledges are class skills for him.

Not what trained means. Trained checks require you to have a rank in them, whether they are class skills or not.

Doctor Acula
2010-08-21, 05:54 PM
Thanks guys :) and he's and archivist btw

TaintedLight
2010-08-21, 05:56 PM
Considering he is using the magic item Crystal Ball, the effect should not deactivate merely by passing the object. The item was activated, the scry attempt succeeded, and the character has not canceled the effect. Provided this is done within 10 min (Scrying is 1min/level and the Crystal Ball is CL10), should not be a problem.



Not what trained means. Trained checks require you to have a rank in them, whether they are class skills or not.

Yeah, I suppose that is true. In my group we allow wizards to make knowledge checks since having a class skill, for us, represents exposure and training in a subject.

Wasn't actually familiar with the crystal ball item myself, though. I thought he meant it was just the spell focus as per a normal casting of scrying

KillianHawkeye
2010-08-21, 06:41 PM
Considering that the scrying spell only shows you what's within 10 feet of the target, I find that it's more useful in seeing what the target is doing than figuring out where the target is.

Shhalahr Windrider
2010-08-21, 10:31 PM
Note that Knowledge skills can be used untrained if the DC is 10 or less. Such a check for Knowledge (geography) would include identifying an area by exceptionally famous landmarks, equivalent to, say, the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, or the Statue of Liberty.

KillianHawkeye
2010-08-22, 01:05 AM
Note that Knowledge skills can be used untrained if the DC is 10 or less. Such a check for Knowledge (geography) would include identifying an area by exceptionally famous landmarks, equivalent to, say, the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, or the Statue of Liberty.

But only if said landmarks are within 10 feet of your scry target. :smallwink:

Shhalahr Windrider
2010-08-22, 08:22 AM
But only if said landmarks are within 10 feet of your scry target. :smallwink:
Well, if we’re still assuming the conditions of the original post… :smalltongue:

KillianHawkeye
2010-08-22, 12:46 PM
Well, if we’re still assuming the conditions of the original post… :smalltongue:

Oh, of course you are correct that in general you can make untrained Knowledge checks as long as the DC is 10 or lower. My point was merely that the amount of information available through a scrying spell is somewhat limited in terms of geographical detail. :smallsmile: