Magical Security, Communication, and Law enforcement

[Xervous]

Once more I call upon the collected brilliance of the playground that inevitably claws its way to the top amid the putrid deluge of the ignorant.

Wait, that sounds too serious.


Anyways, I'm looking to compile a list of cheap/efficient magic items and spells to give the cities and empires of my world coherent defined security, communications systems, and a law enforcement that will not play out like the keystone cops.

looking for spells of 4th level or lower and items with caster level of 8th or lower as per E8. Though 5th and perhaps 6th level effects will be considered here.

Also, teleportation and extraplanar creatures are not a concern due to the campaign setting.

Brainstorm cloud:
For security

Wondrous architecture of all sorts, mostly for more important buildings. Suggestions for specific uses welcome.
At will items of Power Sight to detect powerful persons entering an area. Best used if entrance to said area is controlled and monitored. Take outstanding individuals aside and bathe them with detect evil/good/law/chaos, detect magic, detect weaponry, discern bloodline, discern lies, zone of truth, etc. If they are to be allowed into the area, they are documented and kept track of.
Alarm is nice, but an X/day item of it is going to be pretty expensive, this will probably be limited to important areas or individuals.
Credit: NeoPhoenix0: Braziers of Aura Revealing
Credit: Steward: Peacebond. Sadly the mass version "Zone of Peace" is 5th level, though it is noteworthy here. Perhaps an "epic" mage could have cast it in a noteworthy place.
Credit: Valwyn: Permanent Helms of Disobedience, pure brilliance for cheaply stopping mind control, but its questionable as to whether it affects certain spells like charm person.
Credit: Kelb Pantera: Hallow. The ProEvil effect is pure bonus next to the ability to extend certain spells' durations to one year. However, with it being a 5th level spell, there are going to be few capable of casting it. Still, 365 day discern lies in the highest court of the land seems amazing to me for only 5k.

Communication

Sending is a staple in long range communication, an at will item or one with multiple charges is probably going to be too expensive for its use to be widespread. So perhaps each sector could have a few use activated consumable items of sending for emergency purposes.
Credit: Kelb Pantera: Missive brooches SCORE, and aspect mirrors. The former is simply amazing for perimeter guards and the latter is the DnD embodiment of a classic fantasy communication method.
Credit: Ben-Zayb: Whispering wind, magic mouth.


will be checking back periodically.

[NeoPhoenix0]

If you use a series of checkpoints to enter the city braziers of revealing aura could be good. The ones to detect alignment are CL 3rd and cost 3000gp, the ones to detect magic and undead are CL 1st and 1000gp.

Important buildings like embassies and royal courts could get Sanctum Sanctorum CL 3rd and cost 1500gp. It provides any who enter the area the Sanctuary effect, will save DC 11 to hit those affected.

These and other good and often cheap architecture are from the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook.

[Steward]

There's peacebond and mass peacebond from Cityscape, used to restrict the use of weapons within city limits. It seems explicitly designed for government use.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For communication amongst civic officials, you can't beat missive brooches from secrets of sarlona; ML 3, 12000gp. They allow constant communication between any number of officers as long as any one of them is within 1000ft of any other.

There's also the aspect mirror in complete scoundrel if you can wrangle the extra +2 caster level to make CL 10. 4000gp per mirror and they come in sets of up to 8. Unlimited range and more secure than the missive brooches but require a dispatcher with a mirror from each set to handle groups larger than 8.

[ben-zayb]

Between Sending and Kelb's suggestions I think communications are pretty much covered.

However, I also recommend:

Whispering Wind, simply because it can be cheaply manufactured into wands/eternal wands, has a standard action cast time, and an area target for flexibility.

Magic Mouth, in case of confidential messages that needs to be hand-delivered by a courier, and then password/voice-activated by the receiver.

[Malvanis]

Put Zones of Truth in any courtroom. That way, witnesses nor the accused can lie. That helps to catch the right criminal. You need some way to detect alignment also, I think some were mentioned above. Maybe give city guards items that they can use to subdue law breakers without lethal force besides a sap. I think there is a list of magical effects in the Arms and Equipment Guide that allows Charm Person 3/day for only like 1800 gp or something like that. I think that can be applied to any item. That way the guards could charm folks and bring them in willingly. Though you would need to think something else up for the high level folks because they could probably resist charm person.

[Valwyn]

These are just ideas, I haven't done the math.

- An item of Enalrged Message could work as short-range communication for the guards (limited to 360 ft at CL 8).
- Permanent helmets of Disobedience (CS 97) should be pretty handy for politicians figures and other important/powerful people. Third level spell, lasts 1 hour/CL.
- Wands of Hold Person should be handy for catching rogues with low Will.
- Animal Messenger can carry letters discreetly if you take some precautions.
- Have strategic locations protected with Invisibility Purge to deal with thieves/assassins.
- Self reseting Dismissal traps set to trigger if Evil outsiders are within range could help.
- Items of Ghost Sound to work as sirens/alarms.
- Items of Dancing Lights or Silent Image to send visual signals.

[Kelb_Panthera]

These are just ideas, I haven't done the math.Some of these are pretty good ideas and some are a waste of magic.


- An item of Enalrged Message could work as short-range communication for the guards (limited to 360 ft at CL 8). The inflation from caster level is going to make this more expensive than it's worth.

1800*8*0.5 = 7200gp before you even consider the adjustment for metamagic.

- Permanent helmets of Disobedience (CS 97) should be pretty handy for politicians figures and other important/powerful people. Third level spell, lasts 1 hour/CL.This, on the other hand, is a great idea. Just refluff as circlets instead of helmets and your golden.

- Wands of Hold Person should be handy for catching rogues with low Will. This runs into a similar problem to the zone of truth in the courtroom idea above; item based saves. Hold person from a wand is DC 11 and zone of truth from an item is DC 13. That's low enough to be painfully unreliable, especially since a CL 1 wand of hold person will only hold the target for 1 round.

- Animal Messenger can carry letters discreetly if you take some precautions.Carrier pigeons are already a thing. No magic required. I'm pretty sure one of the races (either stone or wild) included a trick for animals, it was "home" or the like IIRC, to model this.

- Have strategic locations protected with Invisibility Purge to deal with thieves/assassins. Hellow hallow. Great spell, that one. Cast once a year and the associated effect keeps on truckin'.

- Self reseting Dismissal traps set to trigger if Evil outsiders are within range could help.This one's good.

- Items of Ghost Sound to work as sirens/alarms. Or, ya know, the alarm spell.

- Items of Dancing Lights or Silent Image to send visual signals.

Simple flares (I'm sure I remember seeing an alchemical item that is basically a flare) and somataphores (speak language skill expansion in Heroes of Battle).

Magic can make lots of things better and easier but that's no reason to discount mundane methods that work just fine.

[ksbsnowowl]

Circle of Sound from the Eberron Campaign Setting function like walkie talkies, with a short range. Good for security at a building, but not beat cops. Range of 220 feet, can be made in sets of up to five (?), cost around 2,000 gp per ring.

The only hiccup is that it is a ring, and as such, can't be made by anyone under 12th level. How does E6/E8 deal with that issue?

Edit: Anticipate Teleport on a Wizard guard in prison, to help stop rescue parties from teleporting into the prison. (By "help stop" I mean "have the other guards ready actions to attack the interlopers).

[Telok]

In my setting the Empire communicates with large enchanted mirrors (4/day Scrying, immobile fragile architecture, ~20kgp each). Mirrors are built into large government or military buildings in a designated communications room. Each room has one wall with a unique identifying mosaic, one corkboard wall for outgoing messages to be posted on, another wall for incoming messages, and the last wall holds the two scrying mirrors and books of patterns to target the scrying.

Getting efficent communication this way just takes a decent mathematician to set up a schedule and scrying pattern between the communication nodes. The Empire can transmit short messages over several thousand miles in about a day. None of the operators needs direct knowledge of the recipients and coded or encrypted messages are just as easy to send.

[Fizban]

There's peacebond and mass peacebond from Cityscape, used to restrict the use of weapons within city limits. It seems explicitly designed for government use.

Sadly the duration on those makes them completely useless for actually peacebonding a weapon. Seriously, 10 min/level, who wrote that?

I'd never thought of using one of the "detect that guy's level" spells before, that's pretty cool. Let's you have normal security and adventurer security. If you want to be really oppressive you could couple it with a mandatory Mark of Justice, or you could if it weren't 5th level. There was also a spell that just warned you if they took the action without a massive curse, and I think there might have been an official "sword of damocles" that dealt damage upon trigger, but I can't remember any of their names or sources.

For communication, Sending Stones (MiC) were the most cost effective for short messages between only two people, but if you want a network the costlier items are more effective.

[Der_DWSage]

Hm. A few more thoughts.

-If you're fearing that particular items will get stolen, Magic Aura (Days/level) paired with Misdirection (Hours/level, can be extended) can make a great decoy item. Especially if you combine it with the fact that you can Scry it afterwards, and find out who has your decoy item. Not so useful with mass security, but useful for Sting operations.

-Hallow, as has been mentioned, is a great 1/year casting. Just get a high-ranking priest of Helm to help out, as they would be eager to do.

-Web and Grease make for -great- 'slow down your quarry' spells, especially if your potential guards have access to Expeditious Retreat. Wands might have save DCs, but they have secondary effects that don't rely on saves.

-While Sending is out of your level budget...how about regular Scrying check-ins to a centralized location? Combined with Whispering Wind, it's not as effective as a Telepathic Bond but it can be useful to keep everyone apprised of situations. (IE, the guy at the centralized location is responsible for putting down big, easy-to-read cards that say 'Be on the lookout for X individual' or 'Riot on East Street.)

-While I'm on the topic-Sending is 4th level for Clerics. Would that help your projections at all?

-Rope Trick would be invaluable for stakeouts. Just saying.

-For the big dangers, a few Eternal Wands of Resilient Sphere might be in order. I'd see them being rare, but invaluable.

-Finally, for the speedy rogues and rangers that try and cause trouble in your town, aim for those will and fortitude saves. Wands of Gust of Wind, Sleep, Color Spray, Blindness/Deafness, (Don't forget that permanent duration!) and Bestow Curse (50% inaction type) would target those low saves. Wall of Ice can also be used for these-no reflex save, just get trapped in a big ol' dome of ice.

-Having a 'Future Crimes' unit would likely be good on the old 'to-do' list as well. Playing 20 questions with Divination (Will there be a crime in X quadrant of the City in the next week? Yes? In the next 3 days? Oh dear. Today? No? Oh good, I can recover spells and get more details tomorrow.) can work wonders, and using Speak With Dead will probably make investigations a lot easier.

-For really nasty pieces of work, Lesser Planar Binding can get you a Formian Taskmaster, who can Dominate Monster for a price. Need to infiltrate the criminal underground? Round up one of those crooks to do it for you!

-Finally, if you want to have a police force that's incredibly feared when they take to the streets? Look at the picture for these guys. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/spiderEater.htm) Freedom of movement, paralysis poison, scent, and lots of HP. These would probably be feared more than the guards themselves!

[drack]

Looks like I'm late on the ball. Guess I'd say for higher magic nations you can even consider plastering the place with permanent wards that go off under X (illegal) trigger condition. Can be lethal, can be capture spells, can even just trigger fairy fire to point the bloke out. :smallbiggrin:

[ksbsnowowl]

Looks like I'm late on the ball. Guess I'd say for higher magic nations you can even consider plastering the place with permanent wards that go off under X (illegal) trigger condition. Can be lethal, can be capture spells, can even just trigger fairy fire to point the bloke out. :smallbiggrin:

Oh! Is there some way to link a casting of Fire Trap to Faerie Fire? It's like the paint bomb that they slip into the bills a bank robber steals. Pry that chest open, and you're covered in very noticeable glowing fire.

[drack]

Where there is a will there is a chest with magical fire that glows vary prettily as your would be thief burns. :smallwink:

[TuggyNE]

Oh! Is there some way to link a casting of Fire Trap to Faerie Fire? It's like the paint bomb that they slip into the bills a bank robber steals. Pry that chest open, and you're covered in very noticeable glowing fire.

Just stuff it in glyph of warding. Need a multi-class character to pull it off, or else a wand of glyph and UMD on a character with faerie fire, but it's not impossible.

[Xervous]

if metamagic reducers carry into items, a lvl 8 sorcerer could produce a scroll of maximized empowered shivering touch that he can cast out of a 4th level slot (liberal application of easy metamagic, practical metamagic, and arcane thesis(shivering touch)).

Cleric then uses said scroll to put that uber shivering touch in the glyph of warding.

18 + 3d6/2 (average 23.25) instant DEX damage. Will paralyze all but the most dextrous of thieves.

But of course, Shivering touch is a dumb stupid spell, and as such I will probably avoid using it.

[drack]

But of course, Shivering touch is a dumb stupid spell, and as such I will probably avoid using it.

Yup, everyone wards against those mainstream spells. :smallbiggrin: Why not just ghoul glyph it so they're paralyzed without a save without all the effort?