Good Divination Strategy - FR 3.5ish

[kalos72]

So my group wants to setup some sort of "Divination Circle"...something to try and find people or objects, mostly named objects from history I think but I am sure some villains will come into play.

I found things like - Discern Location - Locate Object/Creature - Commune Spells obviously but they seem really light and very poor chances to actually find that "long lost sword of BOB lost when Illefarn was just an infant nation".

Not to say it should be easy but, I want to make sure I am approaching this correctly. The idea of time travel has been brought up and I said NO! Then perhaps resurrecting long dead people to get information but I cant imagine some dude will be happy I am messing with the dead all to find his old sword.

Maybe some ritual or High Magic spell perhaps? Some great commune or something?

Also, can you Sim/IA from a corpse? :)


Thoughts?

[Psyren]

Have you considered psionics? There's a lot of options here - Object Reading, Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions, Hypercognition, and the granddaddy of divinations, Metafaculty.

[Andezzar]

Resurrection only works if the character actually wants to return. You might get better results with speak with dead (unfortunately it is not the actual creature you are talking to) or locating dead people in their afterlives.

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to achieve. Usually such searches are a quest in itself, unearthing tidbit after tidbit which eventually lead to the ancient object. If you are not interested in such an adventure just invent some information gathering spell with a ridiculous casting time and/or information retrieval at speed of plot.

What does Sim/IA mean?

[kalos72]

The idea is just that, use the collection of intel to form little off adventures. But some of the more mundane spells seem to be REALLY vague. "The sword you seek is in a great ocean"...WTF?

Psionics works out great actually, I have a strong psionic presence in my campaign.

Simulacrum and Ice Assassin spells. If I find the corpse, with hair, of 2000 year old elven noble can I sim him and learn all he knows? I houseruled that sims keep all memories of the original...

Now I just need to work on that "Chair of all memory transfer" or something. :P

[kalos72]

Two questions about Metafaculty actually...

1. Does it have a time component? Meaning can I use it to see back in time...
2. Can you use it to locate items? The description doesnt mention anything about items...other then when seeing the creature you can see significant items they possess...


How can you improve the abilities of the power? I like the MetaConcert idea, sort of like a ritual actually.

[Andezzar]

Simulacrum and Ice Assassin spells. If I find the corpse, with hair, of 2000 year old elven noble can I sim him and learn all he knows? I houseruled that sims keep all memories of the original...With that houserule Simulacrum is an excellent choice for research.


Now I just need to work on that "Chair of all memory transfer" or something. :PIf you make it so easy for the PCs why make it a search in the first place? If the players like such a hunt for clues, don't give them a machine that converts one clue into all other relevant clues.

[kalos72]

Valid points for sure...

I want to give the PC's the intel on where something is supposed to be...then develop the storyline to fit the intell. I dont want to myself or them play through the cat and mouse "Go to the house at the end of the row, look for the hidden mirror, damn they moved it....try again. Now go across the world to..."

The chair would be for my team to retain the memory...sort of like lore gems. My primary caster, wizard wants to develop his own lore gems and start to capture the memories that way. And then a "Cerebro" type device to access them... :P

I like seeing them try to figure it out before I tell them yes or no...:smallcool:

[kalos72]

Anyone have any thoughts on the three questions regarding Metafacutly?

1. Does it have a time component? Meaning can I use it to see back in time...
2. Can you use it to locate items? The description doesnt mention anything about items...other then when watching the creature you can see significant items they possess...
3. How can you improve the abilities of the power? I like the MetaConcert idea, sort of like a ritual actually.

[kalos72]

Am I asking silly questions or has no one really gone through this exercise with Metafaculty yet is all?

If I am out of line or logic, please speak up. I can take some constructive criticism. :)

[ahenobarbi]

I don't know much about psionics so I don't be able to help you with metaconcert questions. But I can help you with other stuff :)
Magic item for transferring/ storing memories already exitst: it's Thought Bottle (from Complete Arcane IIRC)(you might want to remove option of storing XP though, it can be abused in ugly ways).

I would also recommend getting input from your player(s) on how the divination ring will work (after all their characters(s) is/are setting the ring up). It will save you some work and give player(s) more agency.