[3.5] Genetic Matching, testing parenthood, solving murder mysteries

[Xerlith]

My character is investigating a NPC's background and I found myself looking into the deaths of their family. I need a way to check if she's the person she's saying she is. I should have the powers of a 17th level Wizard at my disposal, but a LOT of more powerful spells are banned or rule 0'd out, so I'm looking for the easiest and lowest-level way of comparing genetic ("genetic") material of two tissue samples.

[A_S]

I don't know of any way of doing genetic testing directly in D&D, but some cleverly used divinations should be able to answer your questions. Speak With Dead to get the parents to corroborate her story; Discern Location on her putative identity and check if it returns her actual location; question her under a Zone of Truth; use Contact Other Plane to ask about her parentage directly; etc. Get creative!

[J-H]

Sympathy or Antipathy (Wiz 8) tuned to "People descended by blood from one or both of X and Y." I've never seen these spells discussed anywhere, so they probably haven't been banhammered. RAW, it should work.

[Xerlith]

I don't know of any way of doing genetic testing directly in D&D, but some cleverly used divinations should be able to answer your questions. Speak With Dead to get the parents to corroborate her story; Discern Location on her putative identity and check if it returns her actual location; question her under a Zone of Truth; use Contact Other Plane to ask about her parentage directly; etc. Get creative!

The questioning of her would work, but she's been mindraped, so she can say untrue things without any problems. I think I'll have to use Speak With Dead... Somehow. The bodies of the supposed parens have been mutilated and hacked apart, so that's going to be tricky.

Good idea with the Sympathy/Antipathy spells. I guess I can try these.

[J-H]

If you have access to psionics, the level 8 clairsentience power Hypercognition (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/hypercognition.htm) lets you turn into Tattletale.

[Deadline]

There's always Simulacrum. You've got a part of the creature (presumably), so you can make a Simulacrum of it, which is then under your control. Should be sufficient to get you what you need.

[A_S]

If you have access to psionics, the level 8 clairsentience power Hypercognition (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/hypercognition.htm) lets you turn into Tattletale.
Wow, that power description is like the vaguest thing I've ever read. "Here's an 8th level power. Its effect is, the DM gives you hints."

[John Longarrow]

I'd suggest checking with your DM about magic item creation. Page 282 of the DMG talks about other considerations for magic items. Create an item that makes fires off the light spell when held by a member of her family. Should be pretty cheap. Also follows the trope in much literature that only members of a family can wield/use a magic item associated with the family.

Also makes it really easy to verify if someone is who they say they are.

[Darrin]

I know I oversold it a bit in my Fabulous Four (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=8235936&postcount=8), but would Gloves of Object Reading work here?

Simulacrum is what first sprung to my mind, and produces the most definitive proof, but disposing of the sentient evidence after you no longer need it could be messy from a moral standpoint.

I looked through the divination spells in Core and vision looked like the most reliable method (assuming you can hit the DC 20 caster level check). However, the specifics of the vision would most likely be up to the DM.

[Telonius]

Third-party (and from an infamous source), but the "Analyze Ancestry" spell from BoEF does exactly what you want (back to 10 generations). Clr3, Drd3, Pal2, Rgr2.

[Quertus]

I'd suggest checking with your DM about magic item creation. Page 282 of the DMG talks about other considerations for magic items. Create an item that makes fires off the light spell when held by a member of her family. Should be pretty cheap. Also follows the trope in much literature that only members of a family can wield/use a magic item associated with the family.

Also makes it really easy to verify if someone is who they say they are.

That's what I would have done.


The questioning of her would work, but she's been mindraped, so she can say untrue things without any problems. I think I'll have to use Speak With Dead... Somehow. The bodies of the supposed parens have been mutilated and hacked apart, so that's going to be tricky.

Good idea with the Sympathy/Antipathy spells. I guess I can try these.

Use make whole on the corpses, then use speak with dead. Unless mind rape could have tainted their answers, too.

Or use knowledge: arcana or legend lore to know the location of a gene sequencer. Sure, it's probably not called that, but a magical dynamic lineage verification device doubtless exists somewhere in the D&D universe.

EDIT: mind rape is good, but it isn't perfect. Interrogate the girl at length; if her memories are false, she will eventually spit out inconsistent or incomplete information; ie, if neither she nor the mind rapist knew about the toys the real daughter played with, her childhood memories will not match what you find in the house; etc.

[Xerlith]

EDIT: mind rape is good, but it isn't perfect. Interrogate the girl at length; if her memories are false, she will eventually spit out inconsistent or incomplete information; ie, if neither she nor the mind rapist knew about the toys the real daughter played with, her childhood memories will not match what you find in the house; etc.

Perpetrator got me good. The house was demolished due to no remaining heir or family (it's been a few months now) and the bodies are hard to get (at least legally, so that may be quite easy to work around). So right now I have:
- No body parts, it turns out
- No house to investigate. Antipathy it is, I guess.

[J-H]

I just checked the Spell Compendium. There are very few Div spells there, but the 9th level Hindsight may be what you need.

[tiercel]

If Limited Wish is in play, then Limited Wish for the effect of a Commune spell: play 20 17 questions with Boccob (or whomever).

If Limited Wish isn't in play but Commune is, I'd imagine your 17th level self could locate an amenable Cleric of at least 9th level, or even just summon/call some critter with it an SLA (including, infamously, an Imp).

If Commune isn't in play, chances are the DM will drop the banhammer on any "this spell solves the mystery" approach and is lookng for a more RP approach... which spells can still help with. (Truth detecting magic will presumably work just fine on folks who knew the victim/her parents, for instance.)