how does time work in dnd?

[_felagund]

how does time work in dnd? for example how can a player define 10 minutes of invisibility to another player? (100 rounds??) a reference would be great.

thx in advance

[mythmonster2]

I'm not sure I understand your question. 10 minutes is 100 rounds, though, so you're correct on that.

[Crake]

I think he's asking if dnd worlds have the same units of time as us. Yes, dnd characters know the concept of seconds, minutes and hours, and clocks (magical or otherwise) do exist, although their accuracy may vary from setting to setting.

[SiuiS]

More specifically, if all magic all across the world uses the six-second interval, then yes, all casters the world over will have a term for that interval.

The term for that interval is up for grabs. Interval. Unit. Measure. Span. Round. Turn. Some esoteric word based in root language such as tempo, or similar.

If the question is actually "given universal magic, would people still use minutes, hours and seconds?" The answer is yes. The hour is a division of physical phenomena, and the minute and second are divisions thereof. That a round fits within this Schema further reinforces the concept as both valid and natural.

[Sir Garanok]

If i am correct you ask how they explain to each other how much time has passed since most of them dont have clocks,
or how much will be the duration of a spell scroll.

I believe wizards/high intelligent creatures have a pure understanding of time.

For common folk my party uses the hourglass like its a universal thing almost everyone has seen and knows.
(that wouldnt include a lizardfolk who lives in the swamps though)

So half an hourglass is 30 minutes etc.

Try using examples for things that take about the time you want and pc's know.

Eg a fighter could understand minutes by comparing the time to put on/off his armor.

You can't have precision without a watch.

[jedipotter]

how does time work in dnd? for example how can a player define 10 minutes of invisibility to another player? (100 rounds??) a reference would be great.


This is one of them great questions.

To put it simply, most people can't tell time in D&D with any accuracy. There are only two ways to know what time it is: look at an accurate time piece/clock or guess. That is it.


I think he's asking if dnd worlds have the same units of time as us. Yes, dnd characters know the concept of seconds, minutes and hours, and clocks (magical or otherwise) do exist, although their accuracy may vary from setting to setting.

I don't think D&D character's would know or use our 21st century concepts of time. They would have no need of them. D&D folks, like everyone on Earth before 1900 or so are fine with ''in a little while'' or ''afternoon'' or ''before sunset''.

In the game world, people have to use only vague ways to tell time. Even spellcasters. You simply can't tell time without a clock.

[Fax Celestis]

I don't think D&D character's would know or use our 21st century concepts of time. They would have no need of them. D&D folks, like everyone on Earth before 1900 or so are fine with ''in a little while'' or ''afternoon'' or ''before sunset''.

You are apparently unaware that Al-Biruni defined our standard measures of time (the minute and second) in 1000 AD, while ancient Egyptians defined hours and invented water clocks in 2000 BC. Time is not a 21st century concept, and timepieces of startling accuracy have been in use for literally millennia, surfacing independently in Egypt, Sumer, Greece, China, Japan, and Iran. Pendulum clocks didn't break onto the scene until 1656, but the grandfather clock is not the be-all-end-all of temporal measurement equipment.

[HighWater]

Indeed, waterclocks could get startlingly accurate. With the only downside being that the more accurate they were, the larger they were, so they're not really a wristwatch kind of technology...

Hourglasses work well enough for short time periods, and the day itself is pretty obvious. Astronomy can function as a pretty good timekeep, though clouds can be pretty annoying.

It's also quite possible (though not elaborated), since spell-durations are so extremely predictable, to construct time-measuring devices through the use of magic. If you're the DM, I advise using something very akin to Magic-powered Digital Watches (cause they're so neat!) that get stuck on flashing 42 if they're broken. :smallwink:

[jedipotter]

You are apparently unaware

Yea and they had batteries 2000 years ago in Egypt and tons of other ancient people in ancient places invented all sorts of things. And yet....somehow...none of it mattered at all until about the 18th century, when people started doing things for real.

So how did they tell time in say 1400? Did everyone everywhere have ancient clocks? Was there a massive worldwide accurate way of telling time that everyone used, worldwide....but that everyone stopped using and forgot about right before modern time was put in use in the mid 1800's?


And if you really want to say that 100 years before the campaign started all the spellcasters got together and created a massive world wide official way to tell time.....then your not exactly playing in the ''default D&D setting''.

[Deadline]

Yea and they had batteries 2000 years ago in Egypt and tons of other ancient people in ancient places invented all sorts of things. And yet....somehow...none of it mattered at all until about the 18th century, when people started doing things for real.

So how did they tell time in say 1400? Did everyone everywhere have ancient clocks? Was there a massive worldwide accurate way of telling time that everyone used, worldwide....but that everyone stopped using and forgot about right before modern time was put in use in the mid 1800's?

Sundials are relatively accurate, at least to the hour, and have been in fairly common usage throughout human history. But by all means, feel free to ignore that.

[Fax Celestis]

Yea and they had batteries 2000 years ago in Egypt and tons of other ancient people in ancient places invented all sorts of things. And yet....somehow...none of it mattered at all until about the 18th century, when people started doing things for real.

http://ccphysics.us/henriques/a105l/sundial.jpg
http://previewcf.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_2009_07_14__05_49_41/hourglass.max_thumbnail1.tga81B4EC48-3C0F-457D-AE6D4D353ACAF229.tgaLarge.jpg
http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/clepsydra-300x221_6.jpg
http://www.smashinglists.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Candle-clock-600x553.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Astrolabe-Persian-18C.jpg


So how did they tell time in say 1400? Did everyone everywhere have ancient clocks? Was there a massive worldwide accurate way of telling time that everyone used, worldwide....but that everyone stopped using and forgot about right before modern time was put in use in the mid 1800's?
Actually they probably used a clock made by Christians.


The monks also counted skillful clock-makers among them. The first recorded clock was built by the future Pope Sylvester II for the German town of Magdeburg, around the year 996. Much more sophisticated clocks were built by later monks. Peter Lightfoot, a 14th-century monk of Glastonbury, built one of the oldest clocks still in existence, which now sits in excellent condition in London's Science Museum.
Or, you know, a clocktower. Like perhaps this one, from 1386. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_cathedral_clock) Or this one, from 1390. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Cathedral_clock) Or this one, from 1462. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock) And per this book (http://csul.iii.com/search/a?searchtype=i&searcharg=048625593X), clocks that featured minutes and seconds hands were uncommon in the 15th century, but widespread in the 16th century. Pocketwatches (quickly followed by wristwatches) surfaced in the 17th century.

So you ask how did they tell time in 1400?

Probably on a thirty year old clocktower.

[Phelix-Mu]

There are a few explicit references to "clockworks" in the fluff of the books, as well, though it's not clear how much of it was used for clocks.

Finally, if we take some basic chemistry and assume its inclusion into alchemy (as the books seem to suggest was done fluff-wise), it's pretty easy to come up with something that happens in a fixed amount of time (at least within a second or two accuracy).

There probably is a spell out there somewhere that accidentally would be excellent at telling time.

[jedipotter]

So you ask how did they tell time in 1400?



Good Goggle-Fu. So that is three or four clock towers by 1400. Just wondering, but could you point out the clock towers in North America, South America, Africa or Australia?

Sure, sundials are great, but they are just as good as guessing time by looking up a the sun. ''Oh the sun is just about overheadish...must be close to noon'', and amazingly you will be right.

But a sundial is no help when you want how long a spell with a duration of one minute will last. And clock towers are great....as long as you adventure within like thirty feet of it.


I think most spell casters in D&D would just make due with ''my spell lasts for a short time''.

[Larsen]

I think most spell casters in D&D would just make due with ''my spell lasts for a short time''.

Or just make an hourglass with the right amount of sand in it...

[Fax Celestis]

Good Goggle-Fu. So that is three or four clock towers by 1400. Just wondering, but could you point out the clock towers in North America, South America, Africa or Australia?

Sure, sundials are great, but they are just as good as guessing time by looking up a the sun. ''Oh the sun is just about overheadish...must be close to noon'', and amazingly you will be right.

But a sundial is no help when you want how long a spell with a duration of one minute will last. And clock towers are great....as long as you adventure within like thirty feet of it.


I think most spell casters in D&D would just make due with ''my spell lasts for a short time''.

Just to be clear: you're perfectly okay with several (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/inevitable.htm) different (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/animatedObject.htm) kinds of (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/homunculus.htm) literal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#retriever) robot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/golem.htm), but not okay with clocks?

[jedipotter]

Or just make an hourglass with the right amount of sand in it...

A hourglass really only works at home, where you can put it on a table and watch the sand. What does the adventurer do? Cast a spell and then find some place flat to set down the hourglass? Then stay with in a couple feet of it to watch the sand?


Just to be clear: you're perfectly okay with......but not okay with clocks?

Well, if you add in clocks and modern time keeping, then your world in not ''like the Middle Ages''. Your now into ''like the 19th century''. Granted D&D already has this problem with magic.....


Hummm...I like the idea of gnome animated object clocks.....

[Flickerdart]

Well, if you add in clocks and modern time keeping, then your world in not ''like the Middle Ages''. Your now into ''like the 19th century''. Granted D&D already has this problem with magic.....
What part of "clocks have been around for 2000 years" are you still unclear on?

In case you don't understand mathematics, the Middle Ages are included within that time period, having happened only about 900-1200 years ago.

If you want a portable timepiece, medieval monks used notched/coloured candles to tell time. There are also plenty of alchemical items in D&D that last a set amount of minutes, making precise time-telling incredibly simple.

Hell, if you're so upset about D&D not being exactly like the Middle Ages, then go and ban rapiers and full plate.

[Fax Celestis]

Well, if you add in clocks and modern time keeping, then your world in not ''like the Middle Ages''. Your now into ''like the 19th century''. Granted D&D already has this problem with magic.....

I believe you mean "like the 14th century".

[Telonius]

The deity of Time has also introduced a mystic word to help people gauge time's passage: "Mississippi." No one knows the origin of this strange term, but it appears written on the edges of a hexagon, two letters per side, with the last side left with only one letter. Some suspect it's Yuan-ti in origin, though the Yuan-ti have repeatedly denied it. Counting to six and uttering the word after each number will give a fairly accurate measure of the time it takes to cast a spell. Because the chanter has gone all the way around the hexagon, this interval is known as a "round."

[JoshuaZ]

Yea and they had batteries 2000 years ago in Egypt and tons of other ancient people in ancient places invented all sorts of things.

Claims of this sort are not by and large accepted by mainstream archaeology. You may be thinking of the "Baghdad Battery" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery) where the archaeological consensus is that it was not a battery.



And yet....somehow...none of it mattered at all until about the 18th century, when people started doing things for real.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. All sorts of steady progress was made throughout history. What do you mean by things mattering or doing things for real?



And if you really want to say that 100 years before the campaign started all the spellcasters got together and created a massive world wide official way to tell time.....then your not exactly playing in the ''default D&D setting''.

No. But if all the wizards of the world notice that their spells are always lasting for fixed multiples of a specific time increment, they'll notice that. A more substantive issue seems to be that the time durations for spells are in most settings like caster level and spell-level or hitpoints- abstractions we use in making it work as a game that are rough approximations of a more complicated universe. In that case, one apprentice's spell that we approximate as lasting exactly one round will last 6 seconds for one fellow, but maybe 5.4 for another or 7.1 for another.

[Flickerdart]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. All sorts of steady progress was made throughout history. What do you mean by things mattering or doing things for real?
Because nothing counts until the invention of America.

[Nightcanon]

Sundials are in fact extremely accurate at indicating local noon, and subdivisions of the time between two such events, while other astronomical cycles can be predicted with accuracy (there are numerous examples of ancient civilisations which clearly knew when the solstices and equnioxes were, and monuments that lined up with them).
Knowing the exact time were you are and also at a known reference point is important for navigation, and the creation of a chronometer that maintained its accuracy despite being moved on board ship was a major scientific breakthrough (see Dava Sobel's book Longitude for more). Widespread importance of centralised time replacing local noon in daily life came with the railways, which needed timetables that referenced standard time. In D&D it probably depends on the setting, and whether the relationship between the combat round, magical level and spell duration and astronomical time is precise or not. If all wizards of 10th level cast 1rnd/level spells of precisely the same duration, and 10th level wizards can be accurately callibrated as such, it's a fair bet that this fact has been exploited to make spell-trap driven portable chronometers for sea captains by the royal wizards of maritime nations, at least.

[Flickerdart]

If all wizards of 10th level cast 1rnd/level spells of precisely the same duration, and 10th level wizards can be accurately callibrated as such, it's a fair bet that this fact has been exploited to make spell-trap driven portable chronometers for sea captains by the royal wizards of maritime nations, at least.
So it would be some kind of clock...for spells...a spell clock (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) if you will?

[Shining Wrath]

There is complete interchangability between rounds and seconds; they differ by a factor of six. I've seen some people try to argue that, e.g., Iron Heart Surge can only affect something explicitly measured in rounds but not in other units of time. These people would never pass freshmen science in any high school offering the course, where converting between units is a routine thing.

[Lady Serpentine]

A hourglass really only works at home, where you can put it on a table and watch the sand. What does the adventurer do? Cast a spell and then find some place flat to set down the hourglass? Then stay with in a couple feet of it to watch the sand?



Well, if you add in clocks and modern time keeping, then your world in not ''like the Middle Ages''. Your now into ''like the 19th century''. Granted D&D already has this problem with magic.....

No, an adventurer turns over the hourglass and sets it on a Floating Disc (yes, it's not exactly flat -make the ends of the hourglass rounded to compensate). Or has it made from an Ioun Stone. Alternately, the Wizard or Sorcerer trying to do this sets up Ghost Sound with a regular count that resets itself every [duration], for in-combat timekeeping, or if you don't allow it to be programmed like that, simply one where it's in easy multiples to track every round. Or just have it only go up once a round, if you prefer that.

And those are just a few things off the top of my head using nothing that is above a first level spell, or don't even need you to be a spellcaster. (Admittedly, most Ioun Stones are expensive, so that one is probably less viable in some cases, but on the other hand, there are the ones with no effects, which are presumably much cheaper, just being floating rocks.) So even from a very early point in time, the vast majority of adventurers will have access to consistent timekeeping inherently.

[Sith_Happens]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Astrolabe-Persian-18C.jpg

Have I mentioned that astrolabes are awesome?


The deity of Time has also introduced a mystic word to help people gauge time's passage: "Mississippi." No one knows the origin of this strange term, but it appears written on the edges of a hexagon, two letters per side, with the last side left with only one letter. Some suspect it's Yuan-ti in origin, though the Yuan-ti have repeatedly denied it. Counting to six and uttering the word after each number will give a fairly accurate measure of the time it takes to cast a spell. Because the chanter has gone all the way around the hexagon, this interval is known as a "round."

/thread


Because nothing counts until the invention of America.

http://s3-ak.buzzfeed.com/static/campaign_images/webdr02/2013/7/22/0/11-reasons-ron-swanson-is-my-perfect-man-1-20397-1374468746-0_big.jpg

[Shining Wrath]

Claims of this sort are not by and large accepted by mainstream archaeology. You may be thinking of the "Baghdad Battery" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery) where the archaeological consensus is that it was not a battery.



I'm not sure what you mean by this. All sorts of steady progress was made throughout history. What do you mean by things mattering or doing things for real?



No. But if all the wizards of the world notice that their spells are always lasting for fixed multiples of a specific time increment, they'll notice that. A more substantive issue seems to be that the time durations for spells are in most settings like caster level and spell-level or hitpoints- abstractions we use in making it work as a game that are rough approximations of a more complicated universe. In that case, one apprentice's spell that we approximate as lasting exactly one round will last 6 seconds for one fellow, but maybe 5.4 for another or 7.1 for another.

A round is an abstraction, but it has to be the same abstraction for all; try convincing your DM that you get to move up in the initiative order each pass through the combatants because your round is only 5.4 seconds while they are taking 6.0.

[atemu1234]

Yes, clocks have existed a long time. But common use except among the upper class varied a lot in commonality. Some places it's still relatively recent.

[Perturbulent]

The deity of Time has also introduced a mystic word to help people gauge time's passage: "Mississippi." No one knows the origin of this strange term, but it appears written on the edges of a hexagon, two letters per side, with the last side left with only one letter. Some suspect it's Yuan-ti in origin, though the Yuan-ti have repeatedly denied it. Counting to six and uttering the word after each number will give a fairly accurate measure of the time it takes to cast a spell. Because the chanter has gone all the way around the hexagon, this interval is known as a "round."

Do you mind terribly if I sig that?

[JoshuaZ]

A round is an abstraction, but it has to be the same abstraction for all; try convincing your DM that you get to move up in the initiative order each pass through the combatants because your round is only 5.4 seconds while they are taking 6.0.

Right, we agree to use the same close approximation for everyone because otherwise it would be too complicated. That's why we have 20 levels for characters but in settings that aren't OOTS-like, we don't have people know what level they are.

[1pwny]

Guys, there's a very important rule in life, for if you want to ask yourself about how things would happen in D&D: assume that every person is a copy of you, and go from there.

I personally, am very organized and like figuring out patterns in things. Assume that everyone has those traits. Now let's think for a moment. A wizard wants to figure out how long the buffs he just invented lasts for. He goes, finds a warlock, and works out a deal. He casts the buff, and the warlock casts some random spell every round. This goes on for however long, and they find out that the Wizard's new buff lasts for 100 warlock-casts (rounds). They continue and find out that the Wizard's summoning spell only lasts for 10 warlock-casts (rounds).

[Shining Wrath]

Right, we agree to use the same close approximation for everyone because otherwise it would be too complicated. That's why we have 20 levels for characters but in settings that aren't OOTS-like, we don't have people know what level they are.

Yeah, but the only way the BBEG and his minions and all the PCs all have six second rounds is if everyone, all the time, everywhere, has six second rounds.

Brainstorm
Introducing a BBEG with a 5 second round so that he moved up 10 points in the initiative order each round might throw a serious monkey wrench into player's strategies. "What do you mean he gets to go now?"

[Fax Celestis]

Yeah, but the only way the BBEG and his minions and all the PCs all have six second rounds is if everyone, all the time, everywhere, has six second rounds.

Brainstorm
Introducing a BBEG with a 5 second round so that he moved up 10 points in the initiative order each round might throw a serious monkey wrench into player's strategies. "What do you mean he gets to go now?"

That was actually my intention with the Momentum and Improved Momentum abilities in some of my homebrew.

Momentum (Ex): The creature increases their initiative score (not their modifier) by 1 at the end of each of their turns. This may alter their place in the initiative order: if so, they act at their new placement. This bonus dissipates at the end of combat.

Improved Momentum (Ex): The creature increases their initiative score (not their modifier) by an amount equal to their Dexterity modifier at the end of each of their turns. This may alter their place in the initiative order: if so, they act at their new placement. This bonus dissipates at the end of combat.

[jedipotter]

No. But if all the wizards of the world notice that their spells are always lasting for fixed multiples of a specific time increment, they'll notice that.

That won't be much help, as the in world characters don't know what level they are....and everyone has a different duration based on level, for most spells.


The deity of Time has also introduced a mystic word to help people gauge time's passage: "Mississippi." No one knows the origin of this strange term,

Well, us locals from the state of Mississippi know that the origin comes from the the Ojibwe Indian word ''misi-ziibi'' that means "Great River"

[Flickerdart]

That won't be much help, as the in world characters don't know what level they are....and everyone has a different duration based on level, for most spells.
Wizards are high-Int characters. They also study magic. It's no stretch of the imagination that they could figure out the degree of a spellcaster's power (their CL) through any of a number of tests, whether they be duration-based, SR-based, or crafting-based.

With melee, Sense Motive can be used to determine BAB (as per OA).

So no, people actually have a pretty good idea of each other's power levels in the D&D everyone but you plays.

[Telonius]

Do you mind terribly if I sig that?

Go ahead! :smallsmile:

[Zale]

The wizard pauses after casting his spell to glance up towards the sun, carefully obscuring it with his hand, then waves his hand in the wind.

"Ah, three houses and thirteen degrees."

Beefy McWarrior gives him the resigned look of someone who gave up trying to understand ages ago before returning to planning on the best way to wade through the corpses of his foes.

While the sorceress doesn't care at all. She knows the spells will last just as long as she wants them to- if they know what's good for them.

[Shining Wrath]

Wizards are high-Int characters. They also study magic. It's no stretch of the imagination that they could figure out the degree of a spellcaster's power (their CL) through any of a number of tests, whether they be duration-based, SR-based, or crafting-based.

With melee, Sense Motive can be used to determine BAB (as per OA).

So no, people actually have a pretty good idea of each other's power levels in the D&D everyone but you plays.

For starters, there's the levels you gain spells. "A wizard newly capable of casting Mirror Image will find that his Grease spells now endure for 3 RudiDurs instead of the previous 2 Rudidurs; when he first gains the ability to cast Fireball, he will find that his Grease spells endure for 5 Rudidurs".

[Svata]

Or, for the first 9 levels, he can tell, to the nearest odd number, what his/her CL is by counting the missiles when they cast Magic Missile.

[Phelix-Mu]

Isn't there a bard spell that can produce a simple melody? It would be very easy to create a piece of music with the right tempo to keep time by. You could even compose a piece of music that sounds like a clock ticking, complete with a sounding of a chime on the minute, on the quarter-hour, on the half-hour, and on the hour. It could even be accompanied by the voice of an ice assassin of a warforged psion 20 that has been PaO'd into a timepiece, counting out the hours and giving praise to Tippy.

[JoshuaZ]

Yeah, but the only way the BBEG and his minions and all the PCs all have six second rounds is if everyone, all the time, everywhere, has six second rounds.


Right, but we use that as an approximation. In a similar way, if one is playing say Risk, one doesn't deal with the fact that different size armies might have slightly different numbers of people. At a certain point we use a close enough model and call it good enough for our purposes.

[Fax Celestis]

I don't read them, but do any of you read the RA Salvatore novels (or frankly any other D&D novelizations)? Since they are set in canon universe, if they make mention of units of time we are familiar with (hours, minutes, seconds, etc.), then we can assume their universe shares temporal traits with our own.

[Phelix-Mu]

I don't read them, but do any of you read the RA Salvatore novels (or frankly any other D&D novelizations)? Since they are set in canon universe, if they make mention of units of time we are familiar with (hours, minutes, seconds, etc.), then we can assume their universe shares temporal traits with our own.

There is a magical, infrared pillar in Menzoberranzan that measures time. It is one of the merged stalactite/stalagmites that goes from ceiling to floor, and it is broken into increments that light up in sequence as the hours mount, then they go out in the opposite sequence (or something like that).

I believe it appears in one of the prequel series, probably Homeland or whatever it was, where the city is first being described. For that matter, it probably also appears in one or the other of the splats that talks about that city, as it is a major landmark inside the city, visible from practically everywhere.

I am almost 100% certain that the description of the pillar makes explicit use of the unit "hour," but I'm not so sure about minutes, since it would be hard to make out such increments from a distance.

[jedipotter]

I don't read them, but do any of you read the RA Salvatore novels (or frankly any other D&D novelizations)? Since they are set in canon universe, if they make mention of units of time we are familiar with (hours, minutes, seconds, etc.), then we can assume their universe shares temporal traits with our own.

Just about all Forgotten Realms fiction uses seconds, minutes, hours and days. They use time and tell time accurately, even with no real way to do so available to them. Spell durations when spoken about are often vague like ''a couple of seconds''.

Ed Greenwood is the only exception: He uses all sorts of things like ''breaths'' or a ''song''.

[nimmo0110]

if this is all about a spell i think while a wizard would not say oh 10 sec's left he could say and the spell ends now.as he called the magic here would he not be linked to the magic so he would know if the magic had left the area.

[Sith_Happens]

Isn't there a bard spell that can produce a simple melody? It would be very easy to create a piece of music with the right tempo to keep time by. You could even compose a piece of music that sounds like a clock ticking, complete with a sounding of a chime on the minute, on the quarter-hour, on the half-hour, and on the hour. It could even be accompanied by the voice of an ice assassin of a warforged psion 20 that has been PaO'd into a timepiece, counting out the hours and giving praise to Tippy.

http://newnation.sg/wp-content/uploads/boy-that-escalated-quickly.jpg

[Nightcanon]

So it would be some kind of clock...for spells...a spell clock (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) if you will?
That seems to be a device for casting spells mechanically at a given time interval; I was proposing that one way that one might create an accurate chronometer usable by non-wizards would be by magic (wizards would create a spell). I suppose the wider point is that once knowing that exact time is desirable, attempts will be made to create make it possible. On Earth, prizes for methods of determining Longitude were offered nearly 200 years before Harrison's chronometer was developed- it took that long before it became technically possible to produce it. In D&D3.5-world, magic makes the problem of knowing time as accurately as you like trivial pretty much as soon as you want to know. Heck, by RAW you could make a pretty accurate clock with no magic at all by utilising the fact that 30 feet is the distance travelled by a walking human in 6 seconds, leading to the development of accurate treadmill-driven clocks. Of course, common sense suggests that there is in fact a small amount of variation in walking speed that makes this impractical, but one could certainly create a clock based on an animated object, and having done so, a watch, then many watches.
In a low-magic medieval setting things might run on sundials, church bells and local sunrise, noon and sunset, but in 'standard' 3.5Ed it seems to me that there are fewer barriers to creating pretty much any device than there are in the real world, because magic, and more effort is required to explain why such a thing wouldn't exist than why it would.
Personally I prefer a 'magic is rare and wonderous', late medieval setting myself, but 3.5 requires some checks on magic to acheive this.

[Lady Serpentine]

Just about all Forgotten Realms fiction uses seconds, minutes, hours and days. They use time and tell time accurately, even with no real way to do so available to them.

Ahem. I take it you missed my post about all the ways one can accurately tell time using very low-level spells, or magic items (and ones that don't take UMD) if not a caster?