Sense Heretic Optimisation

[Jowgen]

Sense Heretic is a 1st level paladin spell with a 10 m/lvl duration (target object).


This spell is usually cast on a weapon or a holy symbol. If an evil creature that has the ability to cast divine spells comes within 100 feet of the item, the item begins to glow with a faint blue radiance. You cannot tell where, or in which direction, the detected creature is, only that such a creature is within range. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.

I want to use it as the basis for personal and strategic Evil Divine Caster (EDC) detector gadgets, by combining it the with the Lead Lining object modification from CS.

The basic principle is simple.

If there is an EDC within 100 ft of the object you've cast the spell on, and you place a thin lead sheet between it and the EDCs, it'll stop glowing.

Based on that I want to come up with some efficient designs for mechanical contraptions that'll let you circumvent the spell's annoying limitations preventing pinpointing. I am looking for input.

Basic Idea 1: The Lotus

The shape of this design resembles a lotus flower, and is intended to let you determine the direction of EDCs. Normally the EDC detetcting object resides outside the device, until it starts glowing and is then placed in the center of the open lotus flower.

Held level, the open lotus has line of effect to all squares at ground level and up. You operate the Lotus by folding in its 12 petals, which are lead lined and fit together when closed to only leave a small opening at the top. You fold in the petals you find the one that blocks LOE to the EDC, leaving that open and closing all the others.

You can now head in the direction of the EDC, keeping on eye on the detector in the lotus to make adjustments in case of movement.

Basic Idea 2: The Spyglass

The object serving as the detector module in this case is a simple clear glass/crystal disk. The contraption is a lead lined cylinder with a single slot along the side you can slide the detector module into. When you look into one end of the cylinder you are looking through the detector out the other end. If there is a EDC within your field of view, the object glows light blue, applying a blue filter to your vision.

This one is used to just stand at a vantage spot and scan the surroundings. Easier to use to pinpoint an EDC, but a bit trickier if you're doing a general search.

Basic Idea 3: The Radar

This one is just the lotus, but it requires multiples of them set up at least 5 ft apart from another. For example, you could be standing in one square and have 4 of them around you in each cardinal direction. You configure each Lotus to give you the direction it indicates, and based on it you can triangualte the precise location of the EDC within 100 ft (might require a map and ranks in Knowledge Geography). This can either be a permanent setup, or something you could do on the fly even with a single lotus given enough time (and assuming a sationary EDC).


So that's the basic thoughts I had so far, and I haven't even gotten into ways to help with the purely magic side of things. Thoughts?

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Jowgen
You operate the Lotus by folding in its 12 petals, which are lead lined and fit together when closed to only leave a small opening at the top. You fold in the petals you find the one that blocks LOE to the EDC, leaving that open and closing all the others.

Rather than folding petals, I would suggest a flat cylinder like a compass housing for the holy symbol, snugly enclosed by another flat cylinder made of thin lead. The outer lead cylinder spins freely on a central axis, and the outer cylinder completely encloses the inner, except for a narrow wedge cut out of the outer cylinder.

From the top it looks like Pac-Man with his mouth almost closed. Rotate this carefully around the inner axis, and when it pings the direction of the mouth should indicate the bearing to your EDC. For a hands-free version, you can probably enchant it to hover just in front of you at waist height, and there’s probably some cantrip that would cause the outer cylinder to constantly rotate. This will give you a steady ping as you proceed, and lets you keep both hands ready to smite as necessary.

[satorian]

Building on Palanan's post, you could mount the holy symbol in a small cylinder on the forehead of your helm, and have a front and rear cutout, with lead everywhere else. Enchant as a permanent Mage Hand item that rotates the "bullseye lantern" at will enable your searching, but can stop when you've found your quarry. This way, when you have located evil, a small light illuminates the inside of your helm.

It's a heads up display for goodness!

[Kayblis]

If going with the spyglass option, remember you'll need a lead lid on the opposide side from where you look at, to close that end. If the detector is glowing and stops glowing when you close the lid, the heretic is in front of you. If it keeps glowing with the lid closed, the heretic is behind you. If there's no one behind you and you can see the invisible, the heretic is you.

[Jowgen]

Rather than folding petals, I would suggest a flat cylinder like a compass housing for the holy symbol, snugly enclosed by another flat cylinder made of thin lead. The outer lead cylinder spins freely on a central axis, and the outer cylinder completely encloses the inner, except for a narrow wedge cut out of the outer cylinder.

From the top it looks like Pac-Man with his mouth almost closed. Rotate this carefully around the inner axis, and when it pings the direction of the mouth should indicate the bearing to your EDC. For a hands-free version, you can probably enchant it to hover just in front of you at waist height, and there’s probably some cantrip that would cause the outer cylinder to constantly rotate. This will give you a steady ping as you proceed, and lets you keep both hands ready to smite as necessary.
Building on Palanan's post, you could mount the holy symbol in a small cylinder on the forehead of your helm, and have a front and rear cutout, with lead everywhere else. Enchant as a permanent Mage Hand item that rotates the "bullseye lantern" at will enable your searching, but can stop when you've found your quarry. This way, when you have located evil, a small light illuminates the inside of your helm.

This is exactly the kinda input I was looking for, and I think they can be combined to perfect the Device Formerly Known as Lotus :smallsmile:

I would say we make the lead lined base 5 inches in diameter, with one round central indentation and a circular grove 4.5 inches out, outside of which it has marked and number degrees.

The lead lined lid is 4.5 inches in diameter and has a small round hole in the center, while the sides slot exactly into the base's indentation and have a 1 degree wide open slot.

Our detector object is a glass marble that slots exactly into the base indentation and top hole, with a specific diameter so that when you put the whole thing together the marble acts as the turning axis of the base and top while allowing the sides to slot into the base groove.

As you described, this means we can just put the 3 parts together when the marble starts glowing, then we turn the top until we see the marble light up through the small hole in the top. We can then jot down the exact angle indicated by the slot on the side.

The one thing that would make this whole setup perfect would be if we could somehow devise a simple circuit, that had it is that the top is always turning until the marble lights up; i.e. If Light=True, then Rotation=stop.

Perhaps a repeating spelltrap of Prestidigitation -cast to simply rotate the lid- with a visual trigger set to the absence of blue marble light inside the contraption. e.g. If Blue#ADD8E6=False, then TrapActive=True.


If there's no one behind you and you can see the invisible, the heretic is you.

SuddenClarityClarence.gif

[AvatarVecna]

A grid of affected items don't need lotuses of lead in order to be useful, provided you have some means of telling whenever any one of them is glowing. Let's say you've got a grid of affected items 5 ft apart from each other. You look at your "detect glowing items" magic map or whatever, and you see this (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yGsWBa8ZfMGVVMmOuQYUuoP06ZEzED5B2gSu28avdW4/edit?usp=sharing). Where are the heretics? If you've gotten to the point where you have enough of these things permanently enchanted to make a grid like this, and if you've gotten to the point where you can make an enchanted map that can tell which ones are lit up, you either have the skills to determine which square is the center of those three "all these squares make a circle"s, or you can further enchant your enchanted map to highlight the center for you.

Also, weird use, but an evil divine spellcaster could use these things as "lights that come on when you enter the room" to light their home. Although it's only faint light (dim light? shadowy light? ugh not exactly very specific), so how useful that would be (especially compared to like a resetting trap of Light) would be debatable.

EDIT: If you've reached a point where you're able to mass enchant items - like you've got enough reduction to make a "continuous Detect Heretics" effect for copper pieces, or you've got them all built into spell clocks/resetting traps that recast the spell as often as needed to keep it going 24/7, or you're only casting it once each but you're using the acorn trick to give all your duration spells infinite duration - then it might be good to make the object and effect are invisible and (somehow) suspended like 50 ft up in the air over a city. Take advantage of the fact that people don't generally look up by default. Sure it'll get seen if the person is using True Seeing, but anybody with 5th lvl spells taking part in this nonsense is either easy pickings for being stupid, or is gonna be a lot harder to take down than some silly network like this will help with.