[3.5] official spell that acts like Scrying at a location, not a creature?

[gomipile]

As title. It's there an official Divination spell in 3.5 that allows unlimited range remote viewing of a chosen location? It has to work even for locations devoid of life, so insect or whatever shenanigans with Scrying or Greater Scrying cannot satisfy my question.

[Troacctid]

Yes. Scry location.

[Cygnia]

Would Scry Location in the Complete Scoundrel book be what you're looking for?

[gomipile]

Is there a Greater equivalent? The 1 hour casting time might make it useless for the purpose I was considering.

[tyckspoon]

The Psionic version of Clairadience/Clairvoyance "Clairvoyant Senses" has no range limitation and would work for this if you are already sufficiently familiar with the location you want to scry or can describe it in such a way as to sufficiently designate it. It is conveniently available for purchase in the form of a Third Eye: Sense if you don't happen to be a psychic character already.

[Psyren]

Is there a Greater equivalent? The 1 hour casting time might make it useless for the purpose I was considering.

What purpose would that be?

[gomipile]

What purpose would that be?

Well, purposes.

One would be for a mapmaker who makes and sells relatively up-to-date terrain maps. The one hour cast time would be a hindrance but not a deal-breaker here.

Another is fast response surveillance of battlefields in particular and theaters of battle in general. Here, the hour cast time makes it useless, and alternatives and workarounds would have to be found, like the aforementioned insect shenanigans with regular Scrying.

Also, there is geological sciences and astronomy. Here, maybe the hour long cast time isn't awful, but it would probably mean the scientist would want to hire a caster to cast it and then use some sort of telepathy or such to get the information.

[Troacctid]

So what you really want then, I think, is the third eye sense.

[Clementx]

Rapid Spell metamagic will reduce it to 1 minute casting time for +1 level.

I ran into this problem a while ago. Simplest way is to just use lvl4 scrying on a friendly creature you insert into the environment. Train birds too small to eat or carry messages to hang around enemy camps. Release swarms of skeletal mice into cites, that sort of thing.

[Jack_Simth]

So what you really want then, I think, is the third eye sense.

Yep. The Third Eye Sense (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#sense) has a 24k market price, and lets you use Clairvoyant Sense (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/clairvoyantSense.htm) at will. Standard action activation, minutes/level, and lets you see and hear an area. There's a limit, but when it's an at-will item, it's not much of one: "You don’t need line of sight or line of effect, but the locale must be known—a place familiar to you or an obvious one, such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees."

Let's take an example of the Mapmaker using this.
You use the item to pick a spot way up in the air that the mapmaker can see.
From that perspective, many locations are now "obvious" - like, say, that city several miles over.
As that's now an obvious location, the mapmaker can then manifest the sensor a little ways above that city.
From that perspective, many relevant locations in the city are now "obvious" - streets, intersections, buildings, and so on.
As those are now obvious locations, the mapmaker can then manifest the sensor at street level, and look at the signs on buildings, see where the doors are, and so on.
From that perspective, many things are now "obvious" - like the door to that inn.
And so on.

He can, of course, from that high starting perspective, also shuffle the sensor to the horizon the same way, and use that high perspective.

Works very similarly with other listed use cases as well.

Edit: And, of course, a Psion(Seer) can just take the power as a power known at 3rd level (and any other Psion can burn a feat on it at 6th).