long distance communication question

[Zaknafein2108]

Hi all,
Question for y'all. Im about to start running a 3.5 game, and I've come across a problem that I have no idea how to solve. It involves long distance communication between multiple people. Now most spells I know of have a range of a couple hundred feet to a few miles, but is there a way to pull off this kind of communication between, say, ships on opposite sides of an ocean? Most of the spells I've heard of tend to involve only a one-to-one communication, but what about instructions to a group of people, all of whom are in various places on the ocean?
Thanks everyone!

[ArcturusV]

Maybe the easiest (As in simplest) way to do this is to have the ship's wizard (And what, most ships SHOULD have wizards, they are vital to operations) each know Scrying. Have an assigned "Check in time" each day where the Wizard casts Scrying on someone he knows personally (Like the other wizards in the fleet). Thus you can pass on regular orders in that manner over nigh unlimited ranges. This also works with some sort of central communications hub... like some coastal fort that has some specific room that each wizard scrys on where orders are sent out to them from.

[Barsoom]

Hi all,
Question for y'all. Im about to start running a 3.5 game, and I've come across a problem that I have no idea how to solve. It involves long distance communication between multiple people. Now most spells I know of have a range of a couple hundred feet to a few miles, but is there a way to pull off this kind of communication between, say, ships on opposite sides of an ocean? Most of the spells I've heard of tend to involve only a one-to-one communication, but what about instructions to a group of people, all of whom are in various places on the ocean?
Thanks everyone!Animal Messenger on a seagull can cover a lot of distance. 1 day/level, baby!

[Phelix-Mu]

Rary's telepathic bond from PHB can be made permanent (links two people per permanency), and works over any distance once cast (as long as it's the same plane of existence).

Interplanar telepathic bond is in SC and even less limited (any distance, any plane). A sensible DM would allow it to be made permanent, as well.

[Ranos]

If this is PF, Summon Monster III lets you call up a Lantern Archon. They can Greater Teleport and carry your messages wherever you need them, instantly, with some time left over to bring back a reply if the recipient was expecting it.
If this is 3.5, you'll have to use Summon Monster IV instead.

[Zero grim]

I had the similar problem a while ago, It was while I was trying to set up a world spanning navy.

The best solutions I could find were the following Two:

Aspect Mirror, 4,000g from complete scoundrel, mirrors come in set of up to five, you can communicate across any distance with anyone else with a mirror from the same set, good and low cost for small groups.

Crystal Ball of Telepathy, 70,000g from DMG, unlimited range and use with this item, allows the user to contact anyone they have vague information about, can keep trying until the connection is made, if given to a leader of an intelligence agency they can spread information around quickly.

I went with a small set of crystal balls for my Setting, it takes perhaps a minute at most to establish contact with someone and if they have something to report then they can communicate, with enough time each day this is an expensive but constant way to keep everyone in touch.

perhaps also have a few spare scrolls of sending for distress signal purposes as well.

[Barsoom]

According to the DMG, a Warship costs 25,000 gp. I see we have started going slightly overboard (pun intended) with communication solutions that overprice the cost of the navy itself...

[Rhynn]

According to the DMG, a Warship costs 25,000 gp. I see we have started going slightly overboard (pun intended) with communication solutions that overprice the cost of the navy itself...

:smallcool: I think you'll find warships cost 95,000 gp, but the crystal ball is included free of charge!

[Zero grim]

My navy comes from storm wrack mostly, and they use great ships, (60,000g)

a one to 50 ratio for crystal balls to ships is enough to at least check in once an hour, so the cost isn't that great, especially when you consider the cost of training and feeding 500 people per great ship, the cost adds up quick for simple things like master work equipment even.

the point of the crystal balls is their the only completely unrestricted communication device, they have unlimited use, require no special skills and work across even planar boundaries.

[Slipperychicken]

Why not Sending Stones from MiC? Like 2,000gp for 1/day Sending between them, no maximum distance. The "master" would have one from each set, and gets to send each subordinate one order (and receive one message from each) every day.

To get more out of the Sending, you can use a string of code-words (which would probably resemble nonsense to distinguish them from natural-language messages, and confuse enemies who acquired one of the Stones). Each code-word would represent a sentence, paragraph, a set of coordinates, or a premade status report. Each possessor of the Stones would have a reference book to decode the message, and a ship would have a specialized decoder on-hand at all times to receive and interpret it.

The only limitation is that you have to be on the same plane (which usually isn't a problem for ships. Even then, the failure chance is only 5%), and you get one message per day (which is much better than real-life navies could manage until the past hundred years or so).

[Vaz]

Train all Ships Wizards to be Wizard X/Mindbender 1 with Mindsight, Polymorph, Rod of Extend, Pearl(s) of Power, Metamorphic Transfer

Transform into Spellweaver, use Transfer to get 1000mile Telepathy.

The mindbender dip is not required, but 1000 mile radar is pretty damn nifty.