sreservoir
2021-06-01, 12:13 AM
Some methods of getting a message from point A to point B, grouped by drawbacks. Looking for more, though.
Not actually long-range: These methods have relatively limited ranges (generally ~miles). You could probably build a transportation network out of them, but it seems like it'd take a lot of maintenance at scale.
Message (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/message.htm): I'm only listing this because it's a cantrip (and a few of the magic items are based on it), but it's only Medium range, you can maybe call your neighbours with it.
Whispering Wind (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/whisperingWind.htm): This is one-way, to a specific location, gives you know way of knowing whether it was received, plus it has a word limit, a range limit (miles/level), and it even travels slowly (6 mph). This is really bad.
Congress of Shadows (ToM 143): This is a second-level shadowcaster mystery, so uh, you know it's gonna have problems: it's short-range (miles/level), has a really tight word limit (5 + caster level), and you need to know the receiver's location. But at least it's instant and bidi, which makes it better than whispering wind, at least.
Ring of Communication (MIC 122): At 2k each and only a 1 mile limit, limited to the rings you've set this up with, this is probably only useful for intra-party communication. Even then, I'd probably rather get the farspeaking amulet.
Expeditious messenger homunculus (ECS 286): 1650 gp + 126 XP and not for sale, mediates conversations between the master and a creature up to 1 mile away. I think the text is trying to say that that it has a 1 mile range, extended from the normal 1500 ft. homunculus range, and can fly to somebody and talk to them because it has languages, unlike other homunculi, relaying the messages to the master through the extended-range telepathy, but it's not the most clear about it.
Travel-based: These methods require you to set things up, and subsequently have people travel to point A and point B by other means.
Magic Mouth (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMouth.htm), sort of, you can send a message to someone arrive later at your current location.
Phantom Steed (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/phantomSteed.htm) (the the quite similar, but druidic, Bottle of Smoke (SpC 37)): These aren't exactly communication, but they help establish a ... minimum upper bound on how far you can travel: at CL 6, these have 120 ft. move speed, which corresponds to a 27 mph "hustle" and ~120 miles per day.
If we take at face value that these are creatures (well, the Effect line, and phantom steed's description, call them creatures) with no Constitution, and thus can run indefinitely (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#nonabilities), then they travel at about 54 mph where they can run, and you can have phantom steed highways.
(The really deluxe version involves getting someone who can boost their CL up to 12 or 14 when casting phantom speed, which gets you a flying quasi-horse that runs at 109 mph. As far as I know, you have to start dipping into costly stuff to stack CL that high, though.
Astral Caravan (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralCaravan.htm): another effect that's actually just travel, not communication, but this one gets you 10d% miles away from basically anywhere you want over the course of 3 days if you have guaranteed success on take 10 and you overchannel to manifest the 7 pp version.
Combined with 54 mph phantom steeds, you can make ~5-day deliveries anywhere in the world, although planar travel is explicitly dangerous and it's only faster beyond ~2500 miles, but that's a plot hook, I guess. Note this for later.
(This might be the only planar travel below level 6, but I sure wouldn't mind hearing about others.)
Mindlink (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindlink.htm) or Lesser Telepathic Bond (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/spells/telepathicBondLesser.htm) (but SpC 198 removes Clr 3): These are limited by somewhat short duration, but mindlink's rather low level is worth something.
Animal Messenger (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animalMessenger.htm): Like whispering wind, this is one-way to a location with no receipt. It also depends on having a Tiny animal, and on its travel time, which isn't great though at least faster than whispering wind. Its one saving grace is that it requires no advance setup, and it's pretty low-level (Drd 2, Rgr 1, Brd 2). It also waits a while in case it doesn't get received immediately, I guess.
Spymaster's coin (SC 104): A short clairaudience/clairvoyance effect at the location where you can arrange for a Fine object to end up within hours/level duration. It has, well, all the advantages (video!) and disadvantages (one-way initiated from the receiver end, so you need to coordinate out of band) of all the other scrying-based methods (see below).
Speaking Stones (MoE 102): This is basically like sending, with the word limit (although Sivis folks can get some extra word limit out of it), except that you have to transport two "normal objects" to the right place within 24 hours first. One neat advantage is that you don't need a caster in the loop; you can use one as a non-caster and still keep a secret. Even with the limitations, I'd call this one workable with a solid niche, except:
Whispering Flame (5N 155): well, this exists in the same setting at the same spell level (different lists, though—druid and cleric instead of sor/wiz). Instead of two 1 lb object, it works on two candles (i.e. mundane 1 cp objects with no listed weight). Instead of a word limit, they have a time limit—of 8 hours. Instead of transmitting once over a 24 hour duration, they can be turned on and off any number of times over a days/level duration. The one serious drawback here is that both ends have to be running their time limit for either end to transmit, so you do need to coordinate when you transmit, or else you need to light a new candle every 8 hours ... but that's still only three candles per day, to have 100% uptime. They do last long enough to deliver via astral caravan.
(Although if you read unguent of timelessness to expend spell durations, that becomes unnecessary because then your candles can have months of talk time on them and years of duration.)
Interplanar Message (SpC 125): Once, within the next 24h/level after you cast it on a creature touched, you can send a one-way message of 25 words to them. This seems pretty unimpressive given from a 3rd-level spell, but I guess the fact that it's supposed to work across planes is worth something—on astral caravan trips, maybe.
Farspeaking Amulet (MIC 99): At 6k for a set, you get 10 minutes of up to 5-way group calls, 3/day. Potential downsides: only the "main" amulet wearer (who has to wear it in the throat slot) can start the call, and combining it with some other magic items lets them listen in on the other users. That still leaves a lot of potential utility, though.
Unlimited range:
Clairvoyant Sense (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/clairvoyantSense.htm): This is the psionic counterpart of clairaudience/clairvoyance (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/clairaudienceClairvoyance.htm), with the very interesting difference of not having a listed range. It's not at all clear to me whether it's intentional; I suspect it isn't, especially at the lower level, although it also lets you both see and hear where the magical version makes you choose one.
Anyway, if you do treat this as unlimited, then you Skype other psionicists by co-scrying with them. You still need to communicate when and where you're scrying, though.
Necrotic Scrying (LM 69): More scrying, with a different limitation: you need the target to bear a necrotic cyst, it's see or hear (not both), and you can cast message (or magic mouth) through it with nothing about chance of failure to tell them to scry you back. This doesn't even require you to be the one who set up the cyst, so you can just ring up someone else with a mother cyst with this, I guess.
Circle Dance (SpC 46): This is really bad, since it transmits like 1-3 bits of information per minute based on the "sender"'s "physical and emotional condition (unharmed, wounded, unconscious, dying, and so on)", which has obvious drawbacks, and you don't even know when someone is "receiving" from you without prior coordination. I'm only including it because it genuinely has unlimited creature-directed range without requiring explicit setup, even if it doesn't communicate a whole lot of information.
Create Lantern Archon (CoV 54): A sanctified spell that gets you a friendly lantern archon. Lantern archons have self-plus-objects greater teleport at will, and this is not a summoning (heck, it's Conjuration (creation) for some reason), so it can take a message (or transport a load of candles) anywhere you can describe. Having one around to transport 50 lb of objects at a time makes the logistics of some of these other methods so much simpler.
Forest Eyes (CC 121) and Forest Voice (CC 122): Now we're getting somewhere. These two drd 3 spells require a bit of setup: you need to arrange to have the person you're trying to contact be within 10 feet of the same kind of "normal, Medium or larger plant or tree" as you—but they don't have to know you or anything: you just need to target either a plant you know or by rough location. Better if you have everyone standardize on a type of plant. Voice establishes bidi voice chat for minutes/level, which is solid enough, but if both sides can cast forest eyes you can get video too.
Whispering Sand (Sandstorm 128): And here we have almost forest voice on steroids: you still need setup on both ends, but instead of a particular kind of plant, the targets need to possess a pound of any kind of sand, dust, or ash (or be in an area with that kind of thing). And yes, targets, plural—as many as your caster level, although it's not totally clear whether it's a group call or if it just gives you bidi with each of the targets. This lasts for 10 minutes per level.
There's a bit iffy about how the target needs to "possess" the sandy focus (do they have to be holding it? can they just be standing in a sandbox? can it just be on their person? on a mule they're riding? on a mule that's just nearby?), and it's not clear whether you need to speak your messages and whether they're audible to bystanders. It might also just fail if any of the targets can't take the call?
It does have a few other disadvantages over forest voice (no forest eyes counterpart, you need to contact a specific creature), so it's a bit more balanced choiced, but it's also both druid 3 and sor/wiz 3.
Epic: These methods demand 4th-level spells, but have ome significant advantage over lower-level methods. (Potentially it could be worth listing even higher-level communication methods, but 5th-level spells bring teleport and plane shift and planar binding creatures with greater teleport and that kind of thing, so they'd have to be pretty darn good.)
[list]
Sending (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sending.htm): This is 4th-level and still has a word limit, but is creature-directed (you don't need to know where they!), bidi, and requires zero setup other than being familiar with the target.
Scrying (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/scrying.htm): You can do the co-scrying trick with literal scrying, obviously. The fact that it's creature-directed is a bit less useful on this one, since you need to communicate who to scry back to them by other means anyway, but importantly it has unlimited range.
Dominate Person (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dominatePerson.htm): I mean, technically it's a 1-way telepathic link for days/level, which is, surprisingly, better than non-permanencied telepathic bond. You can co-dominate someone you trust, I guess.
Sending Stones (MIC 184): 1400 for a set, 1/day sending each way to the other stone, like sending stones but in item form. The fact that it's based on sending is unfortunate, because it could totally have been based on speaking stones, and has a clear niche that it does better than the lower-level options.
Aspect Mirrors (CS 113): co-scrying in item form without you needing to coordinate your calls, but hecking expensive at 4k per mirror, and they have to be created in sets and can't be reattuned. Has the funky disadvantage that anyone with one of the mirrors in a set can force any of the others on to scry though. Based on scrying. Honestly, really hard to recommend.
Not actually long-range: These methods have relatively limited ranges (generally ~miles). You could probably build a transportation network out of them, but it seems like it'd take a lot of maintenance at scale.
Message (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/message.htm): I'm only listing this because it's a cantrip (and a few of the magic items are based on it), but it's only Medium range, you can maybe call your neighbours with it.
Whispering Wind (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/whisperingWind.htm): This is one-way, to a specific location, gives you know way of knowing whether it was received, plus it has a word limit, a range limit (miles/level), and it even travels slowly (6 mph). This is really bad.
Congress of Shadows (ToM 143): This is a second-level shadowcaster mystery, so uh, you know it's gonna have problems: it's short-range (miles/level), has a really tight word limit (5 + caster level), and you need to know the receiver's location. But at least it's instant and bidi, which makes it better than whispering wind, at least.
Ring of Communication (MIC 122): At 2k each and only a 1 mile limit, limited to the rings you've set this up with, this is probably only useful for intra-party communication. Even then, I'd probably rather get the farspeaking amulet.
Expeditious messenger homunculus (ECS 286): 1650 gp + 126 XP and not for sale, mediates conversations between the master and a creature up to 1 mile away. I think the text is trying to say that that it has a 1 mile range, extended from the normal 1500 ft. homunculus range, and can fly to somebody and talk to them because it has languages, unlike other homunculi, relaying the messages to the master through the extended-range telepathy, but it's not the most clear about it.
Travel-based: These methods require you to set things up, and subsequently have people travel to point A and point B by other means.
Magic Mouth (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMouth.htm), sort of, you can send a message to someone arrive later at your current location.
Phantom Steed (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/phantomSteed.htm) (the the quite similar, but druidic, Bottle of Smoke (SpC 37)): These aren't exactly communication, but they help establish a ... minimum upper bound on how far you can travel: at CL 6, these have 120 ft. move speed, which corresponds to a 27 mph "hustle" and ~120 miles per day.
If we take at face value that these are creatures (well, the Effect line, and phantom steed's description, call them creatures) with no Constitution, and thus can run indefinitely (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#nonabilities), then they travel at about 54 mph where they can run, and you can have phantom steed highways.
(The really deluxe version involves getting someone who can boost their CL up to 12 or 14 when casting phantom speed, which gets you a flying quasi-horse that runs at 109 mph. As far as I know, you have to start dipping into costly stuff to stack CL that high, though.
Astral Caravan (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralCaravan.htm): another effect that's actually just travel, not communication, but this one gets you 10d% miles away from basically anywhere you want over the course of 3 days if you have guaranteed success on take 10 and you overchannel to manifest the 7 pp version.
Combined with 54 mph phantom steeds, you can make ~5-day deliveries anywhere in the world, although planar travel is explicitly dangerous and it's only faster beyond ~2500 miles, but that's a plot hook, I guess. Note this for later.
(This might be the only planar travel below level 6, but I sure wouldn't mind hearing about others.)
Mindlink (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindlink.htm) or Lesser Telepathic Bond (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/spells/telepathicBondLesser.htm) (but SpC 198 removes Clr 3): These are limited by somewhat short duration, but mindlink's rather low level is worth something.
Animal Messenger (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animalMessenger.htm): Like whispering wind, this is one-way to a location with no receipt. It also depends on having a Tiny animal, and on its travel time, which isn't great though at least faster than whispering wind. Its one saving grace is that it requires no advance setup, and it's pretty low-level (Drd 2, Rgr 1, Brd 2). It also waits a while in case it doesn't get received immediately, I guess.
Spymaster's coin (SC 104): A short clairaudience/clairvoyance effect at the location where you can arrange for a Fine object to end up within hours/level duration. It has, well, all the advantages (video!) and disadvantages (one-way initiated from the receiver end, so you need to coordinate out of band) of all the other scrying-based methods (see below).
Speaking Stones (MoE 102): This is basically like sending, with the word limit (although Sivis folks can get some extra word limit out of it), except that you have to transport two "normal objects" to the right place within 24 hours first. One neat advantage is that you don't need a caster in the loop; you can use one as a non-caster and still keep a secret. Even with the limitations, I'd call this one workable with a solid niche, except:
Whispering Flame (5N 155): well, this exists in the same setting at the same spell level (different lists, though—druid and cleric instead of sor/wiz). Instead of two 1 lb object, it works on two candles (i.e. mundane 1 cp objects with no listed weight). Instead of a word limit, they have a time limit—of 8 hours. Instead of transmitting once over a 24 hour duration, they can be turned on and off any number of times over a days/level duration. The one serious drawback here is that both ends have to be running their time limit for either end to transmit, so you do need to coordinate when you transmit, or else you need to light a new candle every 8 hours ... but that's still only three candles per day, to have 100% uptime. They do last long enough to deliver via astral caravan.
(Although if you read unguent of timelessness to expend spell durations, that becomes unnecessary because then your candles can have months of talk time on them and years of duration.)
Interplanar Message (SpC 125): Once, within the next 24h/level after you cast it on a creature touched, you can send a one-way message of 25 words to them. This seems pretty unimpressive given from a 3rd-level spell, but I guess the fact that it's supposed to work across planes is worth something—on astral caravan trips, maybe.
Farspeaking Amulet (MIC 99): At 6k for a set, you get 10 minutes of up to 5-way group calls, 3/day. Potential downsides: only the "main" amulet wearer (who has to wear it in the throat slot) can start the call, and combining it with some other magic items lets them listen in on the other users. That still leaves a lot of potential utility, though.
Unlimited range:
Clairvoyant Sense (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/clairvoyantSense.htm): This is the psionic counterpart of clairaudience/clairvoyance (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/clairaudienceClairvoyance.htm), with the very interesting difference of not having a listed range. It's not at all clear to me whether it's intentional; I suspect it isn't, especially at the lower level, although it also lets you both see and hear where the magical version makes you choose one.
Anyway, if you do treat this as unlimited, then you Skype other psionicists by co-scrying with them. You still need to communicate when and where you're scrying, though.
Necrotic Scrying (LM 69): More scrying, with a different limitation: you need the target to bear a necrotic cyst, it's see or hear (not both), and you can cast message (or magic mouth) through it with nothing about chance of failure to tell them to scry you back. This doesn't even require you to be the one who set up the cyst, so you can just ring up someone else with a mother cyst with this, I guess.
Circle Dance (SpC 46): This is really bad, since it transmits like 1-3 bits of information per minute based on the "sender"'s "physical and emotional condition (unharmed, wounded, unconscious, dying, and so on)", which has obvious drawbacks, and you don't even know when someone is "receiving" from you without prior coordination. I'm only including it because it genuinely has unlimited creature-directed range without requiring explicit setup, even if it doesn't communicate a whole lot of information.
Create Lantern Archon (CoV 54): A sanctified spell that gets you a friendly lantern archon. Lantern archons have self-plus-objects greater teleport at will, and this is not a summoning (heck, it's Conjuration (creation) for some reason), so it can take a message (or transport a load of candles) anywhere you can describe. Having one around to transport 50 lb of objects at a time makes the logistics of some of these other methods so much simpler.
Forest Eyes (CC 121) and Forest Voice (CC 122): Now we're getting somewhere. These two drd 3 spells require a bit of setup: you need to arrange to have the person you're trying to contact be within 10 feet of the same kind of "normal, Medium or larger plant or tree" as you—but they don't have to know you or anything: you just need to target either a plant you know or by rough location. Better if you have everyone standardize on a type of plant. Voice establishes bidi voice chat for minutes/level, which is solid enough, but if both sides can cast forest eyes you can get video too.
Whispering Sand (Sandstorm 128): And here we have almost forest voice on steroids: you still need setup on both ends, but instead of a particular kind of plant, the targets need to possess a pound of any kind of sand, dust, or ash (or be in an area with that kind of thing). And yes, targets, plural—as many as your caster level, although it's not totally clear whether it's a group call or if it just gives you bidi with each of the targets. This lasts for 10 minutes per level.
There's a bit iffy about how the target needs to "possess" the sandy focus (do they have to be holding it? can they just be standing in a sandbox? can it just be on their person? on a mule they're riding? on a mule that's just nearby?), and it's not clear whether you need to speak your messages and whether they're audible to bystanders. It might also just fail if any of the targets can't take the call?
It does have a few other disadvantages over forest voice (no forest eyes counterpart, you need to contact a specific creature), so it's a bit more balanced choiced, but it's also both druid 3 and sor/wiz 3.
Epic: These methods demand 4th-level spells, but have ome significant advantage over lower-level methods. (Potentially it could be worth listing even higher-level communication methods, but 5th-level spells bring teleport and plane shift and planar binding creatures with greater teleport and that kind of thing, so they'd have to be pretty darn good.)
[list]
Sending (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sending.htm): This is 4th-level and still has a word limit, but is creature-directed (you don't need to know where they!), bidi, and requires zero setup other than being familiar with the target.
Scrying (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/scrying.htm): You can do the co-scrying trick with literal scrying, obviously. The fact that it's creature-directed is a bit less useful on this one, since you need to communicate who to scry back to them by other means anyway, but importantly it has unlimited range.
Dominate Person (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dominatePerson.htm): I mean, technically it's a 1-way telepathic link for days/level, which is, surprisingly, better than non-permanencied telepathic bond. You can co-dominate someone you trust, I guess.
Sending Stones (MIC 184): 1400 for a set, 1/day sending each way to the other stone, like sending stones but in item form. The fact that it's based on sending is unfortunate, because it could totally have been based on speaking stones, and has a clear niche that it does better than the lower-level options.
Aspect Mirrors (CS 113): co-scrying in item form without you needing to coordinate your calls, but hecking expensive at 4k per mirror, and they have to be created in sets and can't be reattuned. Has the funky disadvantage that anyone with one of the mirrors in a set can force any of the others on to scry though. Based on scrying. Honestly, really hard to recommend.