When Many See As One

[Palanan]

Is there any way to link a number of people together so that they can each see and hear what all the others do, across any distance? They would still have separate identities, but capable of experiencing each other’s sensations.

I’m open to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder material, including Dragon magazine. Is there any way for multiple individuals to share sensory information remotely? Ideally I'd like this to be permanent.



Edit: Also, I'd like these people to, you know, still be people. So, with all respect to some of the more...convoluted solutions presented, I would like the participants to remain baseline human, including Medium size and corporeal form, and not slavering were-beasts of doom.

.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

The Fell Conspiracy feat (Exemplars of Evil, not actually evil) gets you partway there, at least. Can't see through each others' eyes, but can cast message at will, communicate telepathically, gain bonuses on Spot/Listen, and can't be caught flatfooted as long as another member isn't flatfooted.

[The Viscount]

Psibond agent's bonds can go any distance, though they only last up to 10 minutes, and they're one directional.

[FauxKnee]

I'm going to point out the spell that art thou from the Mahasarpa OA web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20011019a). It's in kind of a weird design space (see context, by default it is only on the shaman spell list for one specific setting) but is notable for sharing all sensory data instead of just intentional messages or being limited to sight/sound. Depending on your table's interpretations of acorn of far travel (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a/), the entire party could share everything regardless of distance. (RAW, it functions even across planes but not within extradimensional spaces.) Depending on your table's cheese tolerance, the acorn could be wrapped in quintessence (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm), which both makes the spell last functionally forever and protects it from dispelling effects due to blocking line of effect. (A less abusive choice is the unguent of timelessness (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#unguentofTimelessness).)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by PoeticallyPsyco
The Fell Conspiracy feat (Exemplars of Evil, not actually evil) gets you partway there, at least.

Interesting, thanks. Unfortunately it seems to have a range of 100 feet for the telepathy, and I’m looking for something without distance limitations.


Originally Posted by The Viscount
Psibond agent's bonds can go any distance, though they only last up to 10 minutes, and they're one directional.

Very interesting indeed. If only they were multidirectional. I feel ike I should be able to adapt this, but I’m not familiar enough with psionics to know quite where to start.


Originally Posted by FauxKnee
I'm going to point out the spell that art thou from the Mahasarpa OA web enhancement.

This certainly wins the prize for This Week’s Most Obscure Spell Reference. Great spell, but it does have that narrow range limit, and I don’t think an acorn of far shenanigans would provide the functionality I’m looking for.

I haven't really looked at Mahasarpa before, and I'm kind of two minds about it. On the one hand, it's nice to see at least an attempt to represent the Indian subcontinent, which is a whole world in its own right.

But on the other...wow, this is a pretty flimsy adaptation, with names and elements ripped straight from history without even an attempt to create a fantasy parallel. It's a pity that Wizards, or a third party, never fleshed this out more fully along the lines of Rokugan.

[unseenmage]

Magic Resetting Trap of a spell to turn them into animals (Bite if the Were-whatever) + Magic Resetting Trap of Munute Form spell or some way to make them all incorporeal then cram them into a small enough space + enough evil to make them a Hivemind from BoVD and viola.

Explicitly does what you're asking.


Also Dvati have plane wide telepathy, have one jam its arm through a Planar Ring Gate and viola, multi plane telepathy.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by unseenmage
Magic Resetting Trap of a spell to turn them into animals (Bite if the Were-whatever) + Magic Resetting Trap of Munute Form spell or some way to make them all incorporeal then cram them into a small enough space + enough evil to make them a Hivemind from BoVD and viola.

What?! Turn them into a small stringed instrument? You fiend!

:smalltongue:


Originally Posted by unseenmage
Explicitly does what you're asking.

I appreciate the dark elegance of your approach. I should have expected no less.

That said, I probably should’ve included a clause about keeping them baseline human, to include Medium size and standard corporeal form. And not lycanthropes.

[RatElemental]

Battlemind Link from pathfinder might, it's kind of vague what it means by "fusing your thoughts with an ally."

But it lets you share an initiative roll and all attack rolls so I assume sensory data would be involved in that.

[Gauntlet]

Chain of Eyes does this for sight, but has a duration and would need to be cast by each person on each other person. You'd need to get it Permanencied, or have a variant researched which shares perceptions on a longer term basis but doesn't let you jump from person to person?

[ExLibrisMortis]

There are a few creatures that have a hive mind that allows them to be aware of all things any one of them is aware of. Formians, for one. You could, theoretically, steal the formian ability, once for each party member, and bribe your DM to accept the party as a separate hive (otherwise, you would get interference from nearby formians). Of course, stealing monster abilities is decidedly high-OP, and quite possibly requires some form-altering.


In Pathfinder, I'd associate this sort of thing with tacticians, but I don't know whether this exact ability exists.

[Unavenger]

Permanency + telepathic bond allows you to do this, pretty much - the communication it allows is explicitly irrespective of language, and it isn't explicitly limited to verbal descriptions, so you can probably send sensory information directly.

Unfortunately, incarnate doesn't specify that it allows sense link or mindlink to be incarnated, but telepathic bond should work anyway - the others are just nice because they're a lot lower-level.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Gauntlet
Chain of Eyes does this for sight, but has a duration and would need to be cast by each person on each other person. You'd need to get it Permanencied, or have a variant researched which shares perceptions on a longer term basis but doesn't let you jump from person to person?

Chain of Eyes was my first thought, since I’ve used it to great effect as a character; but as you point out, it does have a duration, and there are complications with casting it back and forth. A variant is a promising notion.


Originally Posted by ExLibrisMortis
You could, theoretically, steal the formian ability, once for each party member….

I hadn’t realized that about the formians. The Hive Mind (Ex) ability is perfect for my needs.

Rather than going through shenanigans to steal it or whatnot, I’m more interested in how I could incorporate this ability into a variant human. I don’t need anything else from the formians; Hive Mind answers the call.

Would Hive Mind be worth the human bonus feat, or is that ability worth more than a single feat? Instant long-distance communication, up to 50 miles, plus near-immunity to being flanked or flatfooted. Is that too much for a single feat? And if so, would removing the flanked/flatfooted aspect make it closer to an even trade?

[Melcar]

Is there any way to link a number of people together so that they can each see and hear what all the others do, across any distance? They would still have separate identities, but capable of experiencing each other’s sensations.

I’m open to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder material, including Dragon magazine. Is there any way for multiple individuals to share sensory information remotely? Ideally I'd like this to be permanent.



Edit: Also, I'd like these people to, you know, still be people. So, with all respect to some of the more...convoluted solutions presented, I would like the participants to remain baseline human, including Medium size and corporeal form, and not slavering were-beasts of doom.

.

I'm unsure of how this works in terms of game mechanics, but Larloch is "hiveminded" with at least his 60 servitor liches. The effects are that they can only be flanked if everyone is flanked, and if one knows about a danger, they all do. That must somehow mean that the perceive the world around them from the perspective of all liches at once... so effectively seeing and listening through all at once...

How Larloch achieved this however, I assume is up to the DM...

EDIT:
You could, theoretically, steal the formian ability, once for each party member [...] That'll do it! :smallwink:

[ExLibrisMortis]

I hadn’t realized that about the formians. The Hive Mind (Ex) ability is perfect for my needs.

Rather than going through shenanigans to steal it or whatnot, I’m more interested in how I could incorporate this ability into a variant human. I don’t need anything else from the formians; Hive Mind answers the call.

Would Hive Mind be worth the human bonus feat, or is that ability worth more than a single feat? Instant long-distance communication, up to 50 miles, plus near-immunity to being flanked or flatfooted. Is that too much for a single feat? And if so, would removing the flanked/flatfooted aspect make it closer to an even trade?
I just remembered that the Axiomatic template gives the same ability, but it is limited to "axiomatic creatures of the same kind within 300 feet". Of course, it's an LA +4 template with a lot of other abilities (grossly over-LAd, but still), but it is, perhaps, an easier point of comparison.

I'd say that the 300-feet version is worth a feat per party member. Which, for a typical party, works out to four very valuable first-level bonus feats. A second feat to upgrade to fifty miles would be totally fine, but you might want to put a character level restriction on it (6 or 9), and some additional goodies (related to teamwork benefits, perhaps?). A fifty-mile instant communication ability isn't worth another four feats, really, but if you do get it, it sticks out a bit at level 1. Hence the level restriction and the extra bonuses.

[Aotrs Commander]

If you are prepared to step into Pathfinder psionics (which is admittedly 3PP), the Tactician (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/classes/tactician/) (or the 3.5 versiom the Society Mind from Untapped Potential) should you a pretty good job of a some of that between the network collective (telepathy at 3rd level), though uinfortunately, Sense Link (the power) is not a [network] power (you'd think it would be, really), so to get it on to everyone in the network, the tactician would have to be level 8 and echo it (and I'm not sure you can strictly echo you own powers)...



(You know, I think I might consider adding the [Network] descriptor for my own hourseules, it seems a bit daft at a 4th level power allows you to share darkvision and lowlight and blindsense, but nothing aside from a 1st level power allows you to link up more senses... Though I suppose there's the issue of sensory overload.)


I mean, it depends what you want to use it for and at what level; with a bit of narrative latitude, you could reasonably say just the telepathy of the collective might do if it's for "this NPC is giving the PCs a cutscene," but beyond that, not so sure.

Tactician might be really ideal for waht you're looking for a crowd of mind-linked warriors fightign together, though (sense-sharing aside), as it's literally what the class is built for, and to my knowledge it's not a function that any other class replicates in either 1st party material.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander
If you are prepared to step into Pathfinder psionics (which is admittedly 3PP)….

I appreciate it, but I tend not to use psionics or 3PP.

That said, if any single class could make me reconsider psionics, it would be the tactician, because that’s just cool. I feel like this class needs its own theme by Two Steps from Hell. :smalltongue:

So, interesting suggestion, and worth thinking on. I really like the Collective (Su) ability, and not just because of its limitless potential for Borg jokes.