Underground campaign question, how would player characters keep time underground?

[CMagnum]

We (the players) are going underground to look for a drow city. I was wondering if there are items or other methods that the PC's would be able to keep time to know when for example, the cleric to pray to their God. Spell renewal etc. Daily uses of items.

[Blackhawk748]

We (the players) are going underground to look for a drow city. I was wondering if there are items or other methods that the PC's would be able to keep time to know when for example, the cleric to pray to their God. Spell renewal etc. Daily uses of items.

Well Spell renewal happens after 8 hours of sleep so that doesn't need time kept. And Daily uses don't need you to keep track, they just refresh at some point.

Praying is a weird one, though you could use Sunrods to mark 6 hour chunks

[flappeercraft]

There’s bound to be at least one clock magic item, and if there isn’t it shouldn’t be hard to make or obtain.

The drow must have some way to keep track of it aswell, IIRC they have cleric women in lore. Perhaps the party can use them as a time reference, or use their same method to know the time.

There is a water clock in the SRD and also there’s always the classic sand clock.

That’s all I can think of right now.

[Kurald Galain]

2E had a first-level cleric spell called Know Time that does exactly what you want here. I'm not sure if it got ported to 3E as well.

[Xei_Win_Toh]

The obvious answer is, of course, "get a portable timepiece." Or several, so you have backups.

Failing that, you could just use spell durations. If, for example, your Mage Armor lasts 8 hours, you'll know when 8 hours have passed when it expires. Unless it gets dispelled, of course.


The drow must have some way to keep track of it aswell
In Menzoberranzan, they have that one huge pillar with magic cast on it to give off light in different ways during the day, which acts as a timepiece.

[Maat Mons]

My go-to method for keeping track of time underground is to buy Everlasting Rations. "Every morning at sunrise, the pouch magically creates another day's worth of rations." If you ever wonder if dawn has come, just check how heavy the bag is.

[sleepyphoenixx]

There's a cheap item for that in Dungeonscape that tracks the position of the sun and moon. Dawnstone or something, i don't remember the name.


Well Spell renewal happens after 8 hours of sleep so that doesn't need time kept.

For arcane casters. Divine casters don't need to sleep to regain spells, they always get their spells back by praying at a set time of day (sunrise, noon, sunset or midnight iirc).
The recent casting limit (can't regain spell slots you've used in the last 8 hours) still applies though.

[AvatarVecna]

There's a cheap item for that in Dungeonscape that tracks the position of the sun and moon. Dawnstone or something, i don't remember the name.



For arcane casters. Divine casters don't need to sleep to regain spells, they always get their spells back by praying at a set time of day (sunrise, noon, sunset or midnight iirc).
The recent casting limit (can't regain spell slots you've used in the last 8 hours) still applies though.

Firmament Stone. Pg 35, costs 110 gp. A single one only really helps track time of day or time of night, but two of them would completely solve the problem.

I guess the PHB water clock could also solve this problem but like...ew.

[Biggus]

The obvious answer is, of course, "get a portable timepiece."

That depends on the setting, the standard assumption is that they don't exist. A water clock is listed in the PHB as costing 1000GP and weighing 200lbs.

[Maat Mons]

Today, where I live, moonrise is 7:53 AM and moonset is 9:46 PM. There's going to be 9 hours and 16 minutes with neither the sun nor the moon in the sky. A pair of Firmament Stones is not a perfect solution.

[Blackhawk748]

Today, where I live, moonrise is 7:53 AM and moonset is 9:46 PM. There's going to be 9 hours and 16 minutes with neither the sun nor the moon in the sky. A pair of Firmament Stones is not a perfect solution.

No but it's as close as like ninety percent of the population is gonna be and that's good enough

[ShurikVch]

Desk Clock (Ghostwalk) 25 gp, 8 lbs.

[Twurps]

I've always thought it would work in 1 or 2 ways:

Either 1) It doesn't matter exactly at what time the cleric prays, as long as she/he prays at the time she/he thinks is the appropriate time. Or put differently: it's the intent that matters.

For me that works fine. I can see how others would have a problem with that, as it is (probably, I've never checked) not RAW. RAW states 'specific time' without mention of intent. In that case:

Or 2) As part of the ability to cast magic, those who rely on prayers being done at a specific time have an innate ability to feel when that time is. Either because they feel their magic from the day before fading, or because they have an urge, must like I get hungry when my body needs nutrition, or just because, you know: magic.

I have never bothered figuring out which option I like best because either way: Telling time in a dark dungeon isn't something that requires specific effort in our playgroup.

[Jervis]

Well Spell renewal happens after 8 hours of sleep so that doesn't need time kept. And Daily uses don't need you to keep track, they just refresh at some point.

Praying is a weird one, though you could use Sunrods to mark 6 hour chunks

Daily uses of items I believe refresh at dawn so you could actually use that as a time clock. Other than that a actual clock isn’t a bad idea. Not sure how to cost it but a pocket watch shouldn’t be that rare or r expensive.

[CMagnum]

Thanks for the replies. A 200lb clock might be a little gratuitous and difficult to carry. I like the idea of realizing as things replenish at dawn like the bag of rations that its a new day. I just shared this link with the party and we will see what people want to do. Cheers

[Jervis]

Thanks for the replies. A 200lb clock might be a little gratuitous and difficult to carry. I like the idea of realizing as things replenish at dawn like the bag of rations that its a new day. I just shared this link with the party and we will see what people want to do. Cheers

If nothing else a 12k spell clock the size of your hand could cast magic mouth every 24 hours exactly to say “It’s midnight ya dinguses!” in Gilbert Godfrey’s voice.

Humor aside I think Drow of the under dark has something for this, can’t remember what it was right off tho

[Bullet06320]

I've always thought it would work in 1 or 2 ways:

Either 1) It doesn't matter exactly at what time the cleric prays, as long as she/he prays at the time she/he thinks is the appropriate time. Or put differently: it's the intent that matters.

For me that works fine. I can see how others would have a problem with that, as it is (probably, I've never checked) not RAW. RAW states 'specific time' without mention of intent. In that case:

Or 2) As part of the ability to cast magic, those who rely on prayers being done at a specific time have an innate ability to feel when that time is. Either because they feel their magic from the day before fading, or because they have an urge, must like I get hungry when my body needs nutrition, or just because, you know: magic.

I have never bothered figuring out which option I like best because either way: Telling time in a dark dungeon isn't something that requires specific effort in our playgroup.

in one of the FR novels with Erevis Cale, not sure which one, it was stated the priests of Mask KNOW when its midnight and time to pray
while not an actual rule from the rules books that i know of, you could easily house rule it that priest instictivly know what time they pray

i wouldve thought there would be something in the survival skill about knowing what time it is, but i geuss not
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?500214-Survival-Skill-Survival-Guide

i thought i had seen a know time feat or a know time spell somewhere but cant come up with it anywhere.
a custom spell to know what time it is would be easy enough, a 0 or first level spell, 0 for just the time, 1st level to know the date too maybe?

[Arael666]

Had that problem before. Players would come up with various ways to track time, either by inteligently calculating it or simply getting a cheap magic item to do it for them. Either way, the how was quickly forgotten and we continued from that point on assuming the party could tell the time underground.

Today I just skip all that hassle and just assume "adventurers can tell the time underground".

[ShurikVch]

I'm curious to know how necessity to refresh spells in the particular time of day interacts with nonstandard day and night cycle?
For example, closer to the poles night (and day) may last about six months (give or take)
Or in Karasuthra, where is night all the time...

[noce]

Two ways come to mind.

First one, easier to accomplish but prone to errors: enslave a warforged or necropolitan warlock, or better yet find a humanoid or monstrous humanoid warlock, enslave him and force him into the Ritual of Crucimigration so that he becomes a necropolitan. Now force him (with actions or magic) to launch an eldritch blast per round harmlessly to the wall. Now you can keep track of time passing with a 6 seconds interval. You should then enslave another sleepless creature that will group intervals 10 by 10, and then group those intervals 60 by 60, so that the second slave can keep track of minutes and hours passing on a sheet. Now all you need to do is use divination to know the starting time of day of your clock. PRO: it is a compact, portable clock with an unmatched precision in non-modern settings. CON: they could refuse to obey thus rendering your clock imprecise.

Second one, less precise, more predictable behaviour, could require Knowledge(engineering): find or animate a zombie, a small one with 20 feet speed would be best. Attach a pole about 3.2 feet long to a groundbound gear, similar to a human propelled mill. Pole length must be calculated precisely so that the circumference is exactly 20 feet. With additional gears, demultiply the revolutions of the main gear by 600 and then further by 12 with another gear. Make it all end in a conventional round clock with both minutes and hours. Bind the zombie to the pole and order it to walk endlessly. As before, use divination to set your clock for the first time. PRO: a mindless undead won't question your authority, it is still quite compact, it is a less evil method than the previous one. CON: not portable, precision depends on both pole length and demultiplication precision.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I'm curious to know how necessity to refresh spells in the particular time of day interacts with nonstandard day and night cycle?
For example, closer to the poles night (and day) may last about six months (give or take)
Or in Karasuthra, where is night all the time...

The Earth (or Oerth, or whatever) still rotates once every 24h wherever you are, so i don't think that's an issue at the poles. It's the same thing with being underground and not seeing the sun after all. It may be a bit weirder on other planes, where there is no sun and no alternating day and night, like the elemental planes.

[Maat Mons]

A zombie hamster running in a wheel is a brilliant idea for a portable energy source. The on/off switch could just cover and uncover a little picture of a brain.

The insight that the Earth rotates allows a Foucault pendulum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum) to be used for timekeeping, though it's not portable.

[ShurikVch]

The Earth (or Oerth, or whatever) still rotates once every 24h wherever you are, so i don't think that's an issue at the poles. It's the same thing with being underground and not seeing the sun after all.
Ahem...

Clerics of Lathander pray at dawn.

The most important ceremonies of worship are the daily prayers to Lathander at dawn, often held outdoors or where the dawn can be seen.
Now, dawn...

Definition of dawn

(Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb
1 : to begin to grow light as the sun rises waited for the day to dawn

dawn noun


/dɔːn/

/dɔːn/
Idioms

​
[uncountable, countable] the time of day when light first appears synonym daybreak
at dawn They start work at dawn.
Thus, unless your argument is something like "It's dawn now in Maztica!" (which would invalidate the whole "time of the day" issue) - planetary rotations matter very very little, as long as no actual dawning happens
But, on the upside, when dawn finally starts - it would last about three months non-stop - thus, you would be able to pray over and over again


It may be a bit weirder on other planes, where there is no sun and no alternating day and night, like the elemental planes.
Karasuthra is the lowest layer of the Beastlands, and

wears a cloak of continual night. A silver moon whose phases change achingly slowly hangs in the open sky, surrounded by stars that lazily drift across the sky.

[Crake]

I'm curious to know how necessity to refresh spells in the particular time of day interacts with nonstandard day and night cycle?
For example, closer to the poles night (and day) may last about six months (give or take)
Or in Karasuthra, where is night all the time...

That's an easy answer: DM discretion. If a DM is introducing you to nonstandard environments, they need to decide that too