Arcane eye or clairvoyance + eldritch spear?

[Joe Eskimo]

situation:
I'm a 5th level warlock. i'm in a sniper's perch. i see a bunch of orcs(Intelligence 6-10) moving 250 ft. away from my position. i don't have spot as a class skill, and even if i invested in spot as a cross-class skill, i still can't use it effectively. so i...

A. pull out a scroll of arcane eye and float that eye towards them. The said eye, now 5 ft. above them, gives me a chance to try to spot their officers and gives me a great view of them.

A.1. So, can i snipe at them using my eldritch spear 250 ft. away using my arcane eye as a scope of sorts?

A.2. Can i even use my eldritch spear while concentrating on my arcane eye?

or

B. pull out a scroll of clairaudience/clairvoyance and put my sensor somewhere around the vicinity of the orcs. the sensor now gives me a chance to try to spot their officers and gives me a great view of them.

B.1. So, can i snipe at them using my eldritch spear 250 ft. away using clairvoyance as a scope of sorts?


If not, can anyone suggest alternatives as to how i can effectively SPOT them orcs 250 ft. away with me being a 5th level warlock.

[Human Paragon 3]

You don't need to make a spot check if they are in plain sight. If they are within range of your attacks, go to town. Are you saying the DM says you don't notice them in the first place? It's an army of orcs...

EDIT: Or are you saying you want to snipe the officers? I would say that once you find them via your spell or invocation, you can reconcile the spell information with what you are actually seeing with your eyes and target them.

Let's say you are in the nose bleed seats at a football stadium, probably 1000 feet away from the quarterback. If you have a sniper rifle, and a clear shot, I see no reason you shouldn't be able to take him out.

[Joe Eskimo]

yep i'm trying to snipe the officers. the -1/10 ft rule was applied and the DM says i couldn't tell them apart. he said i could see orcs but couldn't find the one with the funny pink hat. :smallconfused:

[Human Paragon 3]

See if he'll give you a large circumstance bonus to spot for the arcane eye. It might help if you describe it as starting at your eye level and moving toward the orcs slowly, at the angle of descent from the watchtower, sort of like zooming in with a scope.

He might buy that and give you a +20 bonus to spot the orc captain or something.

Although, it'll be just as hard for them to spot you. If your DM says no, just start shooting them. Given how far away they are, it will be a long time before they figure out where you are, find you, and successfully storm your watch tower. If you have some means of escape (flight or teleport) you could slaughter most of them with eldritch spear, and probably take out a few officers as they approach.

Use the snipe function of hide. They'll never find you at this distance.

[jiriku]

Do you by any chance have a spyglass?

Other than that, I'd say you're pretty much boned. Trying to attack using an arcane eye or clairvoyance would be like trying to shoot a rifle by referencing a nearby TV that was showing you footage from a camera at the target site - it's useful for seeing things, but you can't aim like that.

[Joe Eskimo]

now i've got to sell the circumstance bonus to the DM. that'd be great for me. got no ranks in hide but youre right in that they still cant spot me anyways due to the distance. thanks for the help. :smallbiggrin:

[Joe Eskimo]

i've thought about the spyglass, but i thought it needs ranks in spot to be effective. it just makes the -1/10 ft. into -1/20 ft. and i've got no ranks in spot.
the clairvoyance/arcane eye says "It sees exactly as you would see if you were there". so i was thinking that i'd see through my sensor and strike far away on my perch. effectively making my sensor as a scope or my eyes.

[Snowbluff]

Why can't you see anything a football field away?

[Joe Eskimo]

The -1 per 10 ft rule. But i got that clarified on my other post as it only applies when opposing stealth. So now it seems there's nothing stopping me from sniping the leader. Clairvoyance/arcane eye/a spyglass would help me with the finer details to spot him amongst his mooks. After I take him out, I'll just kill the rest randomly. I don't even need the magical assistance once i spot the leader.

[Diefje]

You will still need either to identify the leader reliably. However, when you've picked out the one, you can snipe away.

Also tell him that the distance rule is ridiculous. A commoner has a 50% chance to see a horse from 100ft away (large object in plain sight DC 0)? Better to just wing it a little bit

[RagnaroksChosen]

ARcane eye or clairvoyance should let you snipe it ignores the sport penalties. o you should have no problem.


Though at 250 you should have trouble figuring out which is the leader... granted the burning of a resource (this case a scroll) should allow you to overcome that.

[chainer1216]

i once had a DM tell me i couldn't see a Collosal+ epic red dragon fighting the the sky above me because of that god damned spot rule.



on topic!

i'm playing a warlock right now, and i have the highest spot check in the party, higher than even the druids. theres an invocation that gives you a +6 to spot and theres magic items that increase you're spot, so when you combine them and cross class ranks, you can get a pretty decent spot check.

but you're particular strategy seems sound, have fun murdering the crap out of orcs! just make sure you hide after every shot, you get a -20 to hide, but the orcs have such a huge penalty to spot they wont be able to find you.

[Joe Eskimo]

Yep. All-seeing eyes. A least invocation that grants you an unnamed +6 bonus to spot and search and comprehend languages for 24 hours. And eyes of the eagle, +5 competence bonus to spot for 2,500 gp. Along with 4 ranks in spot as a cross-class skill at level 5. Cheaper to get too with the guerrilla scout feat which makes listen and spot ranks cost 1 skill point even if they're cross-class. Thats a +15 bonus. Magic makes being good in skills easier.:smallbiggrin:

Too bad i only found out recently about jacking up my spot with magic since I was too focused on using the scrying spells.:smalltongue:

Anyway, both strategies work great and that's all that matters.:smallsmile: