3.PF - Which Way to the Mundane Magitech?

[unseenmage]

Pathfinder's Technology Guide has the option to build any magic item as a mundane, technological item for the same price.

Ravenloft: Legacy of the Blood has Devices, which are nonmagical versions of magic items.


If your starting point was Faerun, which of these would be the easier magitech to gain IC knowledge of?
Assume all 3rd party materials, in this case including PF, exist on alternate Prime Material Planes.

Getting to PF would seem to be relatively simple. Gaining access to the tech artifact Technology Laboratories, less so.

As for Ravenloft, can one somehow scry, or the equivalent, into that dark realm to learn of this magitech? Or would even that be too risky with the Dark Powers involved?

Are there other mundane magic items that should be on this list that I am unaware of?

[noob]

I believe you can go on real life earth(but with chtulu) in the faerun setting.(or was it in another setting?)
In which case you just need to max ranks in knowledge:local and then you know there is planet earth and humans onto it(since knowledge local is not localized so you surely know about real life humans when you have 10 ranks in it) then you can try to travel to it then you have access to real life magitech(including stuff like cars and airplanes)
Alternatively if knowlege local does not works use whichever knowledge allows to know about chtulu(I believe the knowledge check for knowing chtulu exists is given in some d20 manual) and then you know he is in ryleh and then you will go where chtulu is which is on planet earth and so you will find real life magitech.
So I conclude that real life magitech is kind of easy to access.(due to brokenness of knowledge and how much real life tech is omnipresent on planet earth)

[Psyren]

Which is easier depends on the access your GM grants to Tech Labs, as you mentioned. Since they are artifacts, you effectively cannot craft any technological items in PF without GM approval, and even if allowed they can restrict your output via the lab's Power.

[unseenmage]

Which is easier depends on the access your GM grants to Tech Labs, as you mentioned. Since they are artifacts, you effectively cannot craft any technological items in PF without GM approval, and even if allowed they can restrict your output via the lab's Power.
Divination magics could theoretically be used to find Tech Labs.

My cheesey solution was to make Simulacrums of Animated Object Tech Labs. One does wonder though if this isnt less cheesey by comparison when discussing reality hopping shenanigans in the same breath.

The tech feat tax is a real pain too.

[noob]

Both are equally cheesy: in 99% of the tables the gms would refuse both.(I mean if the gm agree with letting you get tech he will just give you the tech tables for that or give them at the end of a quest and if the gm is fine with you going on earth you will go to in in a part of the scenario)

[Psyren]

Divination magics could theoretically be used to find Tech Labs.


Sure, if the GM wants them to be - just like any other artifact. I'm just pointing out that the answer to the question "which is easier" is indeed GM-dependent.


My cheesey solution was to make Simulacrums of Animated Object Tech Labs. One does wonder though if this isnt less cheesey by comparison when discussing reality hopping shenanigans in the same breath.

Though they aren't magical, they still count as artifacts and thus are beyond mortals to create:

"In the case of technological items, artifact status refers to an item that is beyond the means of anyone within the campaign setting to create or replicate, as well as beyond conventional measures of value. Unlike magical artifacts, technological artifacts can be destroyed just as other items could, and indeed may be quite fragile."

Also - if you want my personal opinion, whether X is less cheesy than Y doesn't really matter to me if both are cheese.

[GreatGoatEater]

One way to do it is to Fleshwarp/Fleshcraft a a Mi-go onto your character which would enable you to create Mi-Go technology.

Another, less egregious way is to take levels in DDS's Artisan (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/drop-dead-studios/the-artisan/), but they can only create robots. The Artisan at level 19, can create major artifacts but this is basically reliant on GM fiat which you're trying to avoid. Spheres of Might's technician can also generate technology and robots, but those usually only function for themselves.

[Psyren]

One way to do it is to Fleshwarp/Fleshcraft a a Mi-go onto your character which would enable you to create Mi-Go technology.

Another, less egregious way is to take levels in DDS's Artisan (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/drop-dead-studios/the-artisan/), but they can only create robots. The Artisan at level 19, can create major artifacts but this is basically reliant on GM fiat which you're trying to avoid. Spheres of Might's technician can also generate technology and robots, but those usually only function for themselves.

Apparently "mi-go technology" is still magical (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l7ns&page=986?Ask-James-Jacobs-ALL-your-Questions-Here#49255) (or at the very least, does not follow the Technology Guide rules.)

[Coidzor]

Finding out about an alternate cosmology and its material plane, going into the Plane of Shadow, and then getting through a whole bunch of BDSM Torture Porn Grease Goblins, busting into the Golarion cosmology, finding out about technology, figuring out enough to know what's what, scrying out Technology Labs, stealing them, taking them BACK through the now recovered hordes of Cenobite Expies, BACK through the Plane of Shadow, and finding the right exit to get back to Toril is probably marginally easier compared to the alternative.

Finding out about the Demiplane of Dread, figuring out how to scry on it, avoiding the mists nomming you, finding out about devices, managing to learn enough to start making them, and then continuing on without the mists nomming you out of annoyance after you poked the bear just seems like a tall order.

Even if you cheat by going to Earth, finding out about Gygax and Greenwood and so on and their stuff and keep track of D&D and its successor Pathfinder by reading the actual sourcebooks and all that jazz, the barriers to get into the Great Beyond cosmology, in the absence of anything more specific, just seem to be lesser.

[unseenmage]

Finding out about an alternate cosmology and its material plane, going into the Plane of Shadow, and then getting through a whole bunch of BDSM Torture Porn Grease Goblins, busting into the Golarion cosmology, finding out about technology, figuring out enough to know what's what, scrying out Technology Labs, stealing them, taking them BACK through the now recovered hordes of Cenobite Expies, BACK through the Plane of Shadow, and finding the right exit to get back to Toril is probably marginally easier compared to the alternative.

Finding out about the Demiplane of Dread, figuring out how to scry on it, avoiding the mists nomming you, finding out about devices, managing to learn enough to start making them, and then continuing on without the mists nomming you out of annoyance after you poked the bear just seems like a tall order.

Even if you cheat by going to Earth, finding out about Gygax and Greenwood and so on and their stuff and keep track of D&D and its successor Pathfinder by reading the actual sourcebooks and all that jazz, the barriers to get into the Great Beyond cosmology, in the absence of anything more specific, just seem to be lesser.

This was basically the conclusion our group came to. The Dark Powers are, much like the Lady of Pain, composed entirely of fiat and nonsense.
Even scrying or future divinations can be skewed by the fiat-monster.

Easier on the sanity to fail to find in Golarion than the Demiplane of Dread.

[ATHATH]

If 3.5 material is on the table, why not use the Lantan/Gnome Artificer PrC?

[digiman619]

Radiance House's Age of Electrotech (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/134569/Age-of-Electrotech) might have what you want.