If you scry on a medusa, do you risk turning to stone?

[Segev]

Or a basilisk, or anything else that has a gaze attack?

[Mastikator]

I'd say yes, if you also happen to be within 30 feet and also the medusa can see you. Same for basilisk. For petrifying gaze to work they need to be within 30 feet and see each other. Scrying fulfills the seeing part, but not the range part

[Corran]

What Mastikator said.

IMO it doesn't make much sense, it's basically a no because of a technicality, and scrying needs more not too elaborate drawbacks, so I'd overule it as a DM.

[Sigreid]

I'd say no based on the whole look at her in the reflection thing. Though admittedly I don't know if that's still a thing in 5e.

[No brains]

For a medusa, I'd say no because in D&D lore they're the product of a curse for their own vanity. I imagine the logic is something close to a King Midas situation, where the medusa is denied having people nearby to fawn over their beauty. More evidence for this line of thought is a mirror is specified to transfer the harmful gaze only to the medusa. If someone is spying with the scrying, they aren't giving the medusa the attention they want and so aren't in magic danger. If the medusa scries back, that could be an issue in large part because now the medusa can see you back like the ability requires. *

For a basilisk, that's closer to dangerous because there's no curse, just a quirk of magical nature. Gaze attacks confuse the modern logic my brain has gotten used to, so the idea of something being so ugly it petrifies you doesn't compute enough for me to say if it will or not.

For a Nothic, a creature with a gaze attack and truesight and inborn understanding of magical doohickeys, that is the creature most dangerous to scry upon and the one I'd be most comfortable allowing counter scry-die to work with. It comes closest to making the most sense to me.

*For a fun and weird interaction cascade, tell your DM you want your scrying to appear to other viewers of the magic mirror you scry with. When the medusa scries back at you, it becomes a passive viewer of its own reflection and petrifies itself in a magical Rube Goldberg mousetrap.

As for counterplay to scrying, just cast (Modenkainen's) Private Sanctum. It's a 4th level spell that nixes a 5th level spell. It requires no costly component. It can become permanent after 30 days. There is zero reason for DMs not to use this resource.

[Mastikator]

I'd say no based on the whole look at her in the reflection thing. Though admittedly I don't know if that's still a thing in 5e.

A medusa can petrify herself by seeing her own reflection. So if you see her reflection, and she sees you, and you're within 30 feet you're boned. Or stoned in this case.

[strangebloke]

Honestly whether a medusa makes you hard or not seems like a personal question.

[Segev]

My PC is a druid. I don't exactly have access to a medusa or basilisk, but I'm spitballing ideas. We don't have a wizard in the party, so no Mordenkainen's private sanctum for us, and we also need to be able to move about because of how pervasive the scrying problem is. It's one particular person/group that my PC particularly wants to spite, too, so finding a way to, if I can't afford nondetection (or even get the spell, even if I COULD afford it), make them suffer pain for scrying on me would be nice.

[SociopathFriend]

May I suggest baring your naked posterior towards whatever direction you believe the scrying is coming from?

[Sigreid]

My PC is a druid. I don't exactly have access to a medusa or basilisk, but I'm spitballing ideas. We don't have a wizard in the party, so no Mordenkainen's private sanctum for us, and we also need to be able to move about because of how pervasive the scrying problem is. It's one particular person/group that my PC particularly wants to spite, too, so finding a way to, if I can't afford nondetection (or even get the spell, even if I COULD afford it), make them suffer pain for scrying on me would be nice.

You need to engage in disinformation. Constantly be discussing plans that are complete baloney that will cost the opposition to try to counter.

[Segev]

You need to engage in disinformation. Constantly be discussing plans that are complete baloney that will cost the opposition to try to counter.

Sadly, the info I want to deny is where I am, particularly when I am about to plant growth one of their warehouses and then light it on fire.

Or where I am meditating for four hours.

[Unoriginal]

Sadly, the info I want to deny is where I am, particularly when I am about to plant growth one of their warehouses and then light it on fire.

Or where I am meditating for four hours.

For the meditating space, you could set up a lot of places to look exactly the same, all over the territory you have access to. That way they can see where you are, but not where that place is. Hallucinatory Terrain can help in some cases.

And then if they find one of your "meditating rooms", well, you can leave a ton of nasty surprises there, as a Druid.

[Dr.Samurai]

The scrying spell says you see through the sensor "as if you were there", so within 10ft of the Medusa. I'd rule that the petrifying gaze would work, except that the medusa has to be able to see you as well. And if they had See Invisibility, the best they can do is see the luminous orb. So no-go.

[Opsimos]

Iirc in the Laboratory of Kwalish there's an example of this where the latter uses video screens on a medusa pointed at stuff he wants petrified.

[Corran]

My PC is a druid. I don't exactly have access to a medusa or basilisk, but I'm spitballing ideas. We don't have a wizard in the party, so no Mordenkainen's private sanctum for us, and we also need to be able to move about because of how pervasive the scrying problem is. It's one particular person/group that my PC particularly wants to spite, too, so finding a way to, if I can't afford nondetection (or even get the spell, even if I COULD afford it), make them suffer pain for scrying on me would be nice.
I mean, it's not much, but it can be worth a try if you can have a bit of fun with it. Best case scenario the pipping Tom wastes a bit of time/resources while you feel better for playing a bit of a joke on them. So, pick a language that every pc writes and speaks (so most likely common). Map every letter to another unique one (a keyboard can help with that; eg pick the letter on the right of the one you intended to use). Each one of you form a few short sentences, and then pretend to have a conversation. Use your fingers to show a number at the end of each one's sentences for added illusion of seriousness.

Eg
Barbarian: "O jsbrm'y lovlrf fpem s fppt om fsud... Yjod qoddrd zr pgg!"
Rogue: "Yjrtr nryyt nr dpzr appy om yjr estrjpidr pt O zohjy jsbr yp draa pmr pg zu dyparm hrzd ejrm O joy mrcy ypem."
Druid: "Sgyrt yjod sfbrmyitr O eoaa ytu yp dqrmf dpzr yozr om yjr gpttrdy smf vsyvj iq eoyj zu gtormfd, yjr notfd smf yjr ytrrd."



Sadly, the info I want to deny is where I am, particularly when I am about to plant growth one of their warehouses and then light it on fire.

Or where I am meditating for four hours.
Hire a coach, place curtains on the windows. Be careful (and lucky) not to let either the coach or the driver come into direct contact with your before and during the journey (you understand what I mean). If any of you can dabble in any illusions, use one in the coach's window during the journey. With any help you'll get there without warning the enemy. After that, eh, you could start digging I guess and attack from below?

[Notafish]

Scrying's text says you're seeing and hearing "as if you were there", so I would think that gaze attacks work. If they don't work on the caster, they work on the sensor, but the sensor doesn't have stats, so I'd say it's the caster that makes the save and the sensor represents a hole in space/time that the caster is peaking through.

As for the problem of denying information to the scryer using tools available to a Druid, in addition to the moving around (which is good incentive to defeat the bad guys and smash their crystal ball, imo), I'd go for discussing plans in writing or Druidic, and Hallucinatory Terrain (if you are high enough level) in locations that you are resting.

[Psyren]

Both the medusa and basilisk need to be able to see you for their abilities to work. I would say a scrying sensor doesn't cut it; not only can't they see you through it, they can't even see the sensor unless they have a means of piercing invisibility.

[Kane0]

Well ask your DM, but i'd say a DM that says yes would also be the kind of DM that'd be willing to have Lightning Bolts bounce.

[Chronos]

I'll be bold and definitively state that scrying on a medusa does not risk you turning into a basilisk. The other portions of the question, though, I'll leave open.

[Demonslayer666]

You are not in range, so no.

Seeing "as if you are there" is not that same as being there.


To those that say yes, would you do the same while using a 3x telescope to view the medusa (as if it were 30' away when you are 90')?

[Dr.Samurai]

It's magic.

The gaze attack is magic based on seeing someone from within a certain distance.

The scry spell is magic that let's you see something as if you were within a certain distance.

So that part seems covered, to me.

The part that we're saying where it doesn't work is that the medusa has to see you in kind, and it can't see you through the scrying sensor, so it won't work.

[Temperjoke]

Well, it doesn't sound like you have a way to stop them or intimidate them from scrying, but do you have a way to see invisible things? If you do, then you'd be able to see when they're scrying on you. And when you need to take your rest, perhaps a pitch dark room with nothing in it except for yourself? The sensor appears and stays within 10 feet of you, so you could set up sheets or something in a space around yourself, so that anyone looking on you couldn't tell your position.