Communication device? 3.5/PF

[Kudaku]

Like the title reads, I'm looking for a spell or a magical item that allows two players to communicate in instant or near-instant form across large distances - essentially the equivalent of a cell phone, text message service, or the like. It would be particularly awesome if the item costs less than 10 000 GP, or is a level 3 divine spell or lower :smallsmile:.

Does anyone have any ideas? :smallsmile:

[Ranting Fool]

Like the title reads, I'm looking for a spell or a magical item that allows two players to communicate in instant or near-instant form across large distances - essentially the equivalent of a cell phone, text message service, or the like. It would be particularly awesome if the item costs less than 10 000 GP, or is a level 3 divine spell or lower :smallsmile:.

Does anyone have any ideas? :smallsmile:

Sending Stones mate:D Think the are in the Item Comp

Allow you to send a short message kinda like a Telegram or a Text once per day.

Also there are some rings of.. damn can't remember the name but allow you to talk and have the other person hear you, but thats limited to I mile.

I think the spell you are looking for is Sending. (Edit: Sending is a level 4 cleric spell, or level 5 wizard. PHB page 275)

[JeminiZero]

Sending Stones mentioned above are your best bet. They found at MiC 184 and cost 1.4k gp.

If you want an extended conversation, add in Whispering Flame candles (Five Nations pg 155), and when you receive a message through the stones, you can then light the candles for a conference.

[Tim Proctor]

Yup I use Sending Stones in my campaigns often, 25 words 1/day.

You could look up the rules for item creation, and find a way to get it to get more than 1/day or multiple times a day. I find that 5/day is more than enough, especially if you keep the 10 minute casting time issue, where they can only send a message every 10 minutes. It keeps information hidden from the party and they can't send instantaneous endless amounts of information.

[maximus25]

Capture a troll.

Cut off his finger, leave him with whoever you need to talk to. When they need to speak to you, they tell the Troll whatever is needed, then burn him until he's gone. He regenerates from the finger you have, tells you the message.

Costs however much it does to keep a troll around.

If you don't wanna do that, yeah sending stones are probably best.

[That_guy_there]

Sending Stones have a greater rang but are only usable once per day adn if they aren't on the person communications fails and if one is destroyed the pair is useless. Also there is the standard action needed to activate them. Good for important long distance communication out of combat.

As mentioned above Rings of Communication (also in the Magic Item Compendium) are good for quick, short range (1 mile), communication at any time. They cost 2000, take a swift mental action to activate and let you hear anything said by the wearer even if it is whispered. Additionally an unlimited number of rings can be linked together as long as everyone wearing one touches their rings together and says the command word (standard action).

SO i guess it depens on your specific needs. (My group uses both).

[Quirp]

Complete Scoundrel has the Aspect Mirror. Two would cost 8000 gp and allow limitless conversation while on the same plane of existance.

[whibla]

Lesser Telepathic Bond is a 3rd level spell from the Complete Divine that allows telepathy between two people, any distance apart. However, they need to be within 30' at the time of casting. Buy a scroll of Permanancy to go with your first casting....though, on reflection, that might not be that cheap (10,125 gp according to the DMG).

You might be able to persuade your DM to waive the initial distance limit if you create a pair of linked custom items, that allows for a permanent bond between them, for example:

"Ring Rings" :smallbiggrin:

Use Activated (2000) x Spell level (3) x Caster level (5) x 1/day (1/5) = 6000 gp base price.

So each pair of single use per day "Ring Rings" costs 6000 gold and 480 XP to create (or 12000 gold to buy a pair). You can simply multiply these figures up if you want multiple uses per day. Each use will last for 50 minutes.

[Kudaku]

Hi guys, thank you for all your replies - really appreciate it! :smallsmile:

Message stones look interesting, but the 1/time is a bit inconvenient and I don't really understand how they reached the price of 1.4k - making a custom item that casts the same spell 1/day would cost about 10k gold. Might be hard to convince my DM to accept that.

Don't have access to 5 kingdoms unfortunately, so I can't track down whispering candles.

The troll idea is mindbogglingly awesome, but slightly inconvenient in the long run since you need to pass the troll back and forth between each message ^^.

The message rings look very interesting. I might be able to talk him into beefing the range a bit for a boost in price - I think I'm going to go with this one.

Thanks again, and if anyone else has any other ideas please keep contributing - the more the merrier. :smallsmile: