[3.5] Are there any spells to tell time?

[HaikenEdge]

Out of curiosity, are there any spells that provide a way to tell time? I know that spell durations are definitely timing based, but that would function more along the lines of a stopwatch; however, I'm looking for ways to tell the exact time, and was curious as to whether there was magic for that.

[HunterOfJello]

There should be one in the Eberron books, but I'm not aware of one. They have magitech trains, so they should be keeping careful track of train schedules.

[Phelix-Mu]

Um. Hmm. Maybe I have this wrong, but I thought the 3.0 usage of Intuit Direction also included a usage for telling the time of day. Intuit Direction was rolled into Survival in 3.5. Maybe rolling really well on Survival via skill check-pumping spells will give an accurate time.

Really wish I had some RAW to back that up.

A water clock is an item in the PHB. You could maybe summon up an illusion of a water clock to help tell time. I guess it would have to be quasi-real, though, to operate independent of the user's command. Shrink item could be used to make a water clock easy to carry around. But it wouldn't "tick" while shrunken...damn.

[HaikenEdge]

I'm kind of looking that can be used by a time traveler using Teleport Through Time, who can then arrive at the location, cast the spell and know the local time and date.

[TuggyNE]

Out of curiosity, are there any spells that provide a way to tell time? I know that spell durations are definitely timing based, but that would function more along the lines of a stopwatch; however, I'm looking for ways to tell the exact time, and was curious as to whether there was magic for that.

Ask for the hour, tens of minutes, ones of minutes, tens of seconds, and ones of minutes with contact other plane.

More seriously, no, I have no idea why this is not a thing. Hrm. Remind me to homebrew something if no one else posts an existing spell.

[HaikenEdge]

Ask for the hour, tens of minutes, ones of minutes, tens of seconds, and ones of minutes with contact other plane.

More seriously, no, I have no idea why this is not a thing. Hrm. Remind me to homebrew something if no one else posts an existing spell.

Yeah, I was thinking, if there wasn't a spell for it already in existence, it could be created (homebrewed) via the spell research function, probably as a cantrip, because it's even more situational than Read Magic and the like.

[Phelix-Mu]

More setting appropriate, you could contact some dragon deity and track the time relative to the age/date of birth of famous dragons. Most calendar systems in established settings use very localized and event-based stuff like "Dale Reckoning" and so forth, which are of limited use when traveling to the distant past.

In my personal setting, there is a dragon who is some 4 million years old, and who could be used as a kind of personal clock.

Alternatively, Inevitables probably keep track of stuff like this in an organized fashion. There are spells to call Inevitables. Maybe brew a spell that establishes limited contact to the same clock that the internal programming of Inevitables references.

Finally, the best way to establish local date and time as a time traveler is to first travel back in time to some place, probably a sealed underground cavern, and there place some item or creature that has a very slow, very predictable growth or decay pattern. Upon subsequent time travel, scry on that location and observe the decay pattern.

Sorry, none of these are actual simple spells that do what you asked for, HaikenEdge.

EDIT: Oh, oh, oh. Just make it a use of prestidigitation, if you are looking for a cantrip.

[Ydaer Ca Noit]

How about telling the time from the position of the stars?

[TuggyNE]

Yeah, I was thinking, if there wasn't a spell for it already in existence, it could be created (homebrewed) via the spell research function, probably as a cantrip, because it's even more situational than Read Magic and the like.

Cantrip for the basic "hh:mm" function (and let it keep telling you what time it is for a longish duration), second- or third-level spell for "time.nist.gov"/Inevitable connection, probably.

[holywhippet]

Ask for the hour, tens of minutes, ones of minutes, tens of seconds, and ones of minutes with contact other plane.

More seriously, no, I have no idea why this is not a thing. Hrm. Remind me to homebrew something if no one else posts an existing spell.

Probably because it's never really an issue in D&D to know the current date and time. If you want to know what time of the day it is you generally ask the DM. Unless you have reason to have no idea (like being underground or have been out cold for a while) your character should have a fair idea.

Generally you track the days in terms of X days since we started this adventure/quest or Y days until the BBEG finishes their master plan.

[TuggyNE]

Probably because it's never really an issue in D&D to know the current date and time. If you want to know what time of the day it is you generally ask the DM. Unless you have reason to have no idea (like being underground or have been out cold for a while) your character should have a fair idea.

Yeah, but it's not as though adventurers are never underground or on sunless planes for long periods of time, or never experience flowing/slow time shenanigans, so it seems like there should be at least some nod to the possibility beyond Core's absurd water clock.

[Ravens_cry]

Probably because it's never really an issue in D&D to know the current date and time. If you want to know what time of the day it is you generally ask the DM. Unless you have reason to have no idea (like being underground or have been out cold for a while) your character should have a fair idea.

Generally you track the days in terms of X days since we started this adventure/quest or Y days until the BBEG finishes their master plan.
If you are underground, it could be easy to lose track of the time for when a divine spellcaster can meditate for their spells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/divineSpells.htm).

[Uncle Pine]

Surprisingly, I've never found a way to tell time in D&D and I didn't even notice until I discovered that GURPs has a spell to tell time (Tell Time). Well, there's the water clock, but it isn't really reliable.
The only way I can think of to somehow tell time is to create a spell clock that casts one spell every 24 hours at midnight (determine midnight using a divine spellcaster who prepares his spell at midnight or by foiling a BBEG's plan which makes use of an artifact of doom that activates at midnight). Spell clocks always show the time remaining until the next spell it contains is released, so as soon as you can attune your spellclock to a specific moment of the day you'll always know what time is it.

[Rubik]

You should be able to use Prestidigitation for it, but that's DM dependent.

Also, Lycanthromancer's Psionic Powers Revision has Temporal Insight, a 0-level Talent, which does exactly this.


Temporal Insight
Clairsentience [Mind-Affecting]
Level: All manifesting classes 0
Display: Mental
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal, and Close (25 ft + 5 ft/2 lvls)
Target: You, or one creature
Duration: 1 hour [D]
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: None
Power Points: 0
Quantum Cost: 1

You can bestow an uncanny awareness of the passage of time for a short while.

When you manifest this power, your target instantly knows the exact time of day, as well as the current date and year as it is passing on the Material Plane (as well as that of whatever plane it happens to be on at the time). The target can also act as an extremely accurate timer, gaining the ability to judge exactly how long has passed (up to the second) since the power was manifested.

[Uncle Pine]

You should be able to use Prestidigitation for it, but that's DM dependent.
How so? Prestidigitation's description doesn't even mention it. :smallconfused:

[Rubik]

How so? Prestidigitation's description doesn't even mention it. :smallconfused:According to the various WotC musings on the spell, Prestidigitation can be used for just about anything minor, so long as it's not covered by another spell and is in line with the other effects noted.

[Pilo]

I think you can do it with Commune With Nature (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/communeWithNature.htm) as time may fall under the "the general state of the natural setting" clause.

You can also use Simulacrum, tell him one time which time is it and ask him to say which time it is each minute.

Less seriously you can put a stick in the ground and use survival to find which time of the day it is (Do not cheat with daylight).

[Ravens_cry]

Less seriously you can put a stick in the ground and use survival to find which time of the day it is (Do not cheat with daylight).
Heh, that'd make a neat minor magic item, a portable sundial that, if you shine any source of light on it, the gnomon's shadow moves to the right time.

[Deophaun]

If we're looking for an official spell, scrying would do it. Bear with me.

While time exists independent of us, the units by which we measure its passing do not. Seconds, minutes, hours, these are all human constructs. There's no natural reason that 60 seconds are in a minute, 60 minutes are in an hour, and 24 hours are in a day. In fact, not even the Earth keeps this perfect time, and to make matters worse, its rotation is constantly slowing, so days get imperceptibly longer as time goes on.

Now, a big deal in the medieval world was establishing who got to say what time it was. Churches did not have massive bell towers just to get everyone to pray at the same time. They set the local rhythms of daily life for their individual communities. There are stories of towns with two churches that would compete with each other, signaling their bells just a bit earlier than their rivals, until the population was running an hour or more off.

Even today, we still set our watches according to an authority. Before cell phones became standard, I'm sure many of us turned on the TV after a power outage to synchronize the flashing 12:00 on the VCR with the time the local news was telling us. Now, many of our Internet-connected devices just get their time directly from the Master Clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, which is where those newscasters were getting their's.

In that sense, it makes sense that, in a typical D&D setting (no low magic, no Tippyverse, which would have magical wish-based pocket-watches for everyone) there would be organizations devoted to keeping accurate time. This might be part of an established church, a function of an imperial government (navies love accurate time, at least those that care about knowing where the heck they are), or maybe a medieval equivalent of a group of ham radio enthusiasts. Without a spell specifically for time keeping purposes, scrying would be the go-to spell for synchronizing time across vast distances. If you were really lucky, you might have visited the headquarters of this organization and met one of the keepers. They're probably seventh-level wizards, capable of casting detect scrying so they know when to fail their Will saves. But there are local outposts in every major city, which may or may not have a caster that high a level, but certainly has an exquisite time piece and an item that allows the local keepers to scry on their headquarters to maintain their equipment.

So there you have it. Want to know exactly what time it is? Scry the keeper of the Royal Observatory.

[Zaq]

I vaguely recall a magic item, maybe in Dungeonscape, that let you track the positions of the sun and moon (maybe even stars?) even when you couldn't see the sky. If I'm not just imagining that item, I'm sure a canny adventurer and/or astronomer could use it as a starting point to work out a system of portable timekeeping? As I recall, it was explicitly intended to help out Clerics, who need to pray at a specific time every day. Maybe it was in one of the planar books . . . Don't remember.

Wouldn't tell you the exact date and time after time travel, but for more general use (because I agree with the consensus that the lack of this is kinda weird), it might be a starting point.

[SiuiS]

I vaguely recall a magic item, maybe in Dungeonscape, that let you track the positions of the sun and moon (maybe even stars?) even when you couldn't see the sky. If I'm not just imagining that item, I'm sure a canny adventurer and/or astronomer could use it as a starting point to work out a system of portable timekeeping? As I recall, it was explicitly intended to help out Clerics, who need to pray at a specific time every day. Maybe it was in one of the planar books . . . Don't remember.

Wouldn't tell you the exact date and time after time travel, but for more general use (because I agree with the consensus that the lack of this is kinda weird), it might be a starting point.

That would only function for natural time, ie "noon" (sun directly above), "5 of the clock" (5 of 12 increments between noon and midnight) and such, which varies based on geography. Where I'm at, days shrink and grow by almost exactly 4 minutes every day, so I can calculate roughly the time around now tomorrow or next week or next month by referencing my difference from the last equinox or solstice. If I lived north enough that the sun didn't always go down? Much harder.

[Jeff the Green]

I vaguely recall a magic item, maybe in Dungeonscape, that let you track the positions of the sun and moon (maybe even stars?) even when you couldn't see the sky. If I'm not just imagining that item, I'm sure a canny adventurer and/or astronomer could use it as a starting point to work out a system of portable timekeeping? As I recall, it was explicitly intended to help out Clerics, who need to pray at a specific time every day. Maybe it was in one of the planar books . . . Don't remember.

Wouldn't tell you the exact date and time after time travel, but for more general use (because I agree with the consensus that the lack of this is kinda weird), it might be a starting point.

It's a firmament stone, and yes, it's in Dungeonscape. You can also get one to show the phase and position of the moon, which would give you one of 13 possible dates if you knew the year.

[qwertyu63]

It's a firmament stone, and yes, it's in Dungeonscape. You can also get one to show the phase and position of the moon, which would give you one of 13 possible dates if you knew the year.

It's also not magic (alchemy is fun).