What can you do with scry?

[Templarkommando]

One of my players is looking into playing a caster before too much longer, and it's looking like I need to expect a lot of divination-type spells. I have a few questions, so I'd like answers to as many as you care to comment on. Forgive me if my questions seem dumb, but I have next to no experience with a lot of the divination school, and I'm notorious for misunderstanding spell descriptions.

1. Can scry be used to read a covered object? For example, can scry be used to read what is written on the pages of a closed book or a rolled up scroll?

2. When scry refers to targeting a subject it sounds to me like it works only on living targets. Is this true, or can you scry on inanimate objects or just points in space?

3. Is the sensor for scry corporeal? For example, if the scry sensor is following a target, and the target closes a door behind him, can the scry sensor follow through a wall?

4. Does the scry sensor have to follow the subject if the subject leaves the area that he is in? For example, if the subject leaves the room, can the scry sensor stay and investigate the room the subject just left?

5. Can scry be used to study spells? Suppose that a wizard leaves his spell book open on a stand and goes to sleep on his cot in the same room. Can a scrying wizard study the spellbook and memorize the spell(s) written there?

6. Can scrying be used to hear what is being said in an observed area in addition to seeing?

7. If a scrying sensor views a sepia snake sigil, explosive runes or some similar marking, what happens?

8. If an observed subject makes the DC 20 intelligence check to see the scrying sensor, what does he see exactly?

9. Are there any rules of thumb or nifty tricks that involve scry of which you are aware?

[Wookie-ranger]

well, in the games i was in scrying was used as such:

1: no you cannot see what is written in a closed book. As far as we use ROI the mage that cast the spell sees everything as if he/she was where the sensor is. (if the book was open he could probably look to see what was written on the pages that are in plane sight.

2: it should work on everything you want to, as long as you know what it is. simply saying 'i want on the closest dragon/ nearest staff of magi' will not work. but to say 'i want to scry on my own laboratory at home' would.

3: well, yes and no. it depends on the DM (you that is). i usually play that it is a small black dot hanging in the sky, like the size of a very small fly. Any wizard knows (and feels) what that is. it is not corporal, bot not intangible; so it can go though an closed door, but any attack will sever the link and destroy the sensor. this one is purely up to the DM as there are no rules ofr at all, as far as i know.

4: again, depends on the DM. IMO, yes it should remain stationary in the room and you should be able to move it around to see what is in the room. but often the DM rules that is is either stationary where it first appeared and you cannot change the angle of perspective; or the opposite ruling is that the sensor follows the Person you are scrying on automatically.

5: generally, no. first of all a normal spell in a spellbook is more then one or two pages. but even for level 0 spell i don't think that should work. to be honest i have never seen it being tried; but may be a Spellcarft check would allow you to know what kind of spell is on that page in the book.

6: yes, you can hear and see what is going on.

7: hmm, no idea. that's a good one!

8: well, he knows that some one is scrying on him. as a hose rule we allow an attack to destroy the sensor; this can be anything, even a rolled up newspaper or a snowball. a powerful wizard may find out who it was that did the scrying and they usually don't take kindly to it. however there are no
rules for it as far as i know.

9: a lot but i dont know that many, i don't like using it (seriously).


as a good houserule you can say that the image is too blurry to read anything, except for very big things like the storefront sign of a merchant. that would get away with the explosive rune and the spell book stuff.

[Mystify]

This has always confused me. People are always talking about scrying on arbitrary points, but the spell doesn't say that. it says you scry on a creature, and then goes into detail on the will save. It says you see the 10ft area around them, and your sensor follows them up to 150ft per round.

Nothing in the spell talks about scrying on a point in space or a location. Nothing talks about controlling the sensor. As far as I can tell, they are just letting mages scry on things that the spell doesn't work on, and hence contributing to their power unjustly.

[tyckspoon]

Nothing in the spell talks about scrying on a point in space or a location. Nothing talks about controlling the sensor. As far as I can tell, they are just letting mages scry on things that the spell doesn't work on, and hence contributing to their power unjustly.

There's a relatively easy hack around this: buy a Third Eye: Sense. This lets you use the Clairvoyant Sense psionic power at will. Clairvoyant Sense is the psionic equivalent of Clairvoyance/Clairaudience, with one major difference: it doesn't have a range limit. So all you have to do is Scry a creature anywhere near the rough location of what you want to scout, and then you can chain Sense the area to map it out in as much detail as you want. (Not to excuse the rules misrepresentation of Scry, but I like pimping out the Third Eye. This thing is one of my favorite items, it's hilarious what you can do with it.)

[Zaq]

I could swear there's a separate, higher-level spell called "Scry Location" or something like that that actually lets you scry on, well, a location, rather than a person. Can't be arsed to look up which book it's in right this minute, though.

EDIT: Found it. Complete Scoundrel. Check it out.

[mint]

1. No.

2. That is correct. It will only work on a creature. Scrying gives you audo and visual of the creature and a ~10 ft neighbourhood around the creature. No steering the sensor.
If the target creature is speaking to second creature say 20 ft away, the scrying party could hear the second creature but wouldn't be able to see it.


3. It is not corporeal. It may be detected and you can interact with it as though it were a spell. Meaning you can cast dispel magic on it. No words on touching it.

4. The sensor follows the subject.

5. No, practically. The reason is a bit involved.
The wizard needs at least 1 hour of rest to occur immediately prior to preparing spells. Like so:

Rest 8 hours -> start preparing spells.
Rest 8 hours -> do something other than resting -> need to rest for 1 hour before preparing spells.

Spellcasting is not resting. So you couldn't cast scry or clairvoyance and then start preparing spells right away.
Further, the spells have casting times of 1 hour and 10 minutes respectively and both have min/cl durations so even disregarding the 1 hour rest rule, you would need to be level 15 to prepare a single spell in this way without extending. At this point, you would need some particular solution for displaying the spells, a room covered in the equivalent of pages in a spell book for example. Spells take up page space proportional to their level.

6. Yes.

7. Sepia Snake Sigil requires line of effect to the reader. By raw I suppose the explosive runes would trigger. They'd trigger if someone read them through a spyglass as well. Or maybe with an amazing spot check? I dunno. The wording of the spell implies the authors didn't think of what would happen if the runes were read from more than 10 feet away in the first place.

8. You decide! :D



I could swear there's a separate, higher-level spell called "Scry Location" or something like that that actually lets you scry on, well, a location, rather than a person. Can't be arsed to look up which book it's in right this minute, though.

There is! 6th level in Complete Scoundrel.