Changelings, message stations, and prestidigitation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Changelings, message stations, and prestidigitation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
rwarner3701
09-14-05, 09:40 AM I have a few questions concerning my Eberron campaign and was hoping to get some answers from anyone that knows.

1. Changeling’s are of average height and can obviously impersonate a human or an elf sharing the same height. The question is how much can they change their height to mimic someone that is short or even a smaller race such as Dwarves Halflings and Gnomes? Can they appear to be of these races and just taller than average, or can they become short enough to mimic a specific one?
2. There are Sivis message stations in every city and also most towns, some large cities even have multiple stations to better serve the clientele. How to you know who you are sending a message to and which station they will receive the message at? I was thinking that they are somewhat like P.O. boxes so that customers can know that all contacts for them will go to the same place, but also that they take messages to random people and will sort those by name to hand out when the party comes to claim them in a different place. But how do you tell the sending gnome where you are sending it? They must have a system to organize it because it would be impossible to memorize every station in all of Khorvaire. Do you tell them the city, country, and rough location so they can look it up in a book, or can you just give them a station number so they already know where it is going?
3. Finally, the spell prestidigitation can be used to perform minor magic trick, and I was wondering if it can be used to do something that would aid in card tricks. Can the front of a concealed card be read so that it can be found again by the magician? Or can the card be changed so that he can pull out any card and make it appear to be the one he is looking for? These cards don’t have to be as fancy as modern day cards and actually more crude cards might be easier to fake with such a simple trick. If it can be used to change a card, can it change the word that is written on a piece of paper or reveal it to the person without looking at it? Such as a single word, phrase or number?

Thanks in advance for any help.
fhilbrandt
09-14-05, 10:04 AM Changelings can alter their height by +/- 1 foot. Any humanoid within that range could be impersonated. Changelings get a +10 to Disguise; apply this to the roll against the DC in the book in order to successfully impersonate a specific person or even a member of a particular race.

One of the PrC's in RoE allows changelings to do a Small creature.

Hope this helps.
travellersside
09-14-05, 10:46 AM 1. Changeling’s are of average height and can obviously impersonate a human or an elf sharing the same height. The question is how much can they change their height to mimic someone that is short or even a smaller race such as Dwarves Halflings and Gnomes? Can they appear to be of these races and just taller than average, or can they become short enough to mimic a specific one?

Their ability references the spell Disguise Self which tells us that the change can be of up to 1' either way. Consequently, a 5' changeling could become as short as 4' or as tall as 6' - no more. Plan accordingly.

2. There are Sivis message stations in every city and also most towns, some large cities even have multiple stations to better serve the clientele. How to you know who you are sending a message to and which station they will receive the message at? I was thinking that they are somewhat like P.O. boxes so that customers can know that all contacts for them will go to the same place, but also that they take messages to random people and will sort those by name to hand out when the party comes to claim them in a different place. But how do you tell the sending gnome where you are sending it? They must have a system to organize it because it would be impossible to memorize every station in all of Khorvaire. Do you tell them the city, country, and rough location so they can look it up in a book, or can you just give them a station number so they already know where it is going?

Well, I've always thought of it like the old telegraph service - where they'd keep messages for people to pick up, or if you were willing to pay a little extra, they'd deliver to a specified address.
Now, the standard service that Sivis provide allows 22 words, with another 3 words acting as identifiers. Bear in mind that they can stretch the definition of a word quite far, so the first word could use the first letter to indicate which country, the next which city/town/area and the next, which station within that area. Don't forget, with just 26 letters to choose from, and making a 3-letter word, that's a total of 17,576 permutations - enough for all the public stations and allowing private stations to be on the network too. If that isn't enough, try longer words - trust me, making sure that it gets to the right station isn't that difficult. As far as how the gnome knows which one it is, they'd just look it up in a book. If you already know the code, it certainly helps, and I'd imagine that there are plenty of 'ex-directory' stations that can only be contacted if you already know the code.
Now, that's the first word taken care of, and there's still two more that Sivis reserve for themselves. They include confirmation codes, to prove that the message is official, and other little bits that are only of interest to administrators.
If you want to get a message delivered to a specific address, you just pay a little extra. Then, every so often during the course of the day, someone at the Sivis station heads off to deliver those that have accumulated so far - yes, it's a postman. If you pay a decent amount extra, they'll deliver it asap, and if you pay a lot extra, they'll use a Whisperng Wind to send it directly to the recipient, and follow it up with a paper copy to the address you specify. Naturally, this last option isn't always available - it depends on if the staff have the capability, and even then, whether they've used it that day or not.

3. Finally, the spell prestidigitation can be used to perform minor magic trick, and I was wondering if it can be used to do something that would aid in card tricks. Can the front of a concealed card be read so that it can be found again by the magician? Or can the card be changed so that he can pull out any card and make it appear to be the one he is looking for? These cards don’t have to be as fancy as modern day cards and actually more crude cards might be easier to fake with such a simple trick. If it can be used to change a card, can it change the word that is written on a piece of paper or reveal it to the person without looking at it? Such as a single word, phrase or number?

Hmm. Well, there's certainly a lot of things that you can do with Prestidigitation, but what you're asking is a little out of its league. Come on - it's only a cantrip! Albeit probably the best one that there is :)
What can it do? (copied and edited from the SRD)

A prestidigitation can slowly lift 1 pound of material.
It can color, clean, or soil items in a 1-foot cube each round.
It can chill, warm, or flavor 1 pound of nonliving material.
Prestidigitation can create small objects, but they look crude and artificial.

Consequently, no - you can't use it for minor divinations (reading the other side of a card) or lesser illusions (changing the appearance of something). Tome & Blood went into more detail on what the spell could do, stating that while you could recolour an object, it was a simple colour change, not a complex one - ie. that you could turn the entire object blue, but not create patterns.
If you want to do some of those things, remember that there's a skill called Sleight of Hand which allows you to do a lot of these things anyway - it's just an opposed Spot roll to see if anyone notices, although, if you're playing carefully, there may be circumstance bonuses due to, for example, doing things out of sight, or successful Bluffs.

And finally - Their cards wouldn't be 'as fancy' as today's 'modern' cards? :rolleyes:
You obviously didn't know that many historical decks would have been hand-painted, some with extremely complex pictures on them. Today's are actually cruder by far. Court cards in a standard deck would be something pretty impressive, although the 'pip' cards would (usually) be duller, but still more detailed than modern mass-produced ones.

Have Fun!
Ithamar
09-14-05, 02:00 PM Just as a side note, check out this article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20010707) to see some of the cool stuff you can do with Prestidigitation. Can't remember who has it in their sig, but think of it as Diet Wish! :)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rwarner3701 09-14-05, 09:40 AM	I have a few questions concerning my Eberron campaign and was hoping to get some answers from anyone that knows. 1. Changeling’s are of average height and can obviously impersonate a human or an elf sharing the same height. The question is how much can they change their height to mimic someone that is short or even a smaller race such as Dwarves Halflings and Gnomes? Can they appear to be of these races and just taller than average, or can they become short enough to mimic a specific one? 2. There are Sivis message stations in every city and also most towns, some large cities even have multiple stations to better serve the clientele. How to you know who you are sending a message to and which station they will receive the message at? I was thinking that they are somewhat like P.O. boxes so that customers can know that all contacts for them will go to the same place, but also that they take messages to random people and will sort those by name to hand out when the party comes to claim them in a different place. But how do you tell the sending gnome where you are sending it? They must have a system to organize it because it would be impossible to memorize every station in all of Khorvaire. Do you tell them the city, country, and rough location so they can look it up in a book, or can you just give them a station number so they already know where it is going? 3. Finally, the spell prestidigitation can be used to perform minor magic trick, and I was wondering if it can be used to do something that would aid in card tricks. Can the front of a concealed card be read so that it can be found again by the magician? Or can the card be changed so that he can pull out any card and make it appear to be the one he is looking for? These cards don’t have to be as fancy as modern day cards and actually more crude cards might be easier to fake with such a simple trick. If it can be used to change a card, can it change the word that is written on a piece of paper or reveal it to the person without looking at it? Such as a single word, phrase or number? Thanks in advance for any help.
fhilbrandt 09-14-05, 10:04 AM	Changelings can alter their height by +/- 1 foot. Any humanoid within that range could be impersonated. Changelings get a +10 to Disguise; apply this to the roll against the DC in the book in order to successfully impersonate a specific person or even a member of a particular race. One of the PrC's in RoE allows changelings to do a Small creature. Hope this helps.
travellersside 09-14-05, 10:46 AM	1. Changeling’s are of average height and can obviously impersonate a human or an elf sharing the same height. The question is how much can they change their height to mimic someone that is short or even a smaller race such as Dwarves Halflings and Gnomes? Can they appear to be of these races and just taller than average, or can they become short enough to mimic a specific one? Their ability references the spell Disguise Self which tells us that the change can be of up to 1' either way. Consequently, a 5' changeling could become as short as 4' or as tall as 6' - no more. Plan accordingly. 2. There are Sivis message stations in every city and also most towns, some large cities even have multiple stations to better serve the clientele. How to you know who you are sending a message to and which station they will receive the message at? I was thinking that they are somewhat like P.O. boxes so that customers can know that all contacts for them will go to the same place, but also that they take messages to random people and will sort those by name to hand out when the party comes to claim them in a different place. But how do you tell the sending gnome where you are sending it? They must have a system to organize it because it would be impossible to memorize every station in all of Khorvaire. Do you tell them the city, country, and rough location so they can look it up in a book, or can you just give them a station number so they already know where it is going? Well, I've always thought of it like the old telegraph service - where they'd keep messages for people to pick up, or if you were willing to pay a little extra, they'd deliver to a specified address. Now, the standard service that Sivis provide allows 22 words, with another 3 words acting as identifiers. Bear in mind that they can stretch the definition of a word quite far, so the first word could use the first letter to indicate which country, the next which city/town/area and the next, which station within that area. Don't forget, with just 26 letters to choose from, and making a 3-letter word, that's a total of 17,576 permutations - enough for all the public stations and allowing private stations to be on the network too. If that isn't enough, try longer words - trust me, making sure that it gets to the right station isn't that difficult. As far as how the gnome knows which one it is, they'd just look it up in a book. If you already know the code, it certainly helps, and I'd imagine that there are plenty of 'ex-directory' stations that can only be contacted if you already know the code. Now, that's the first word taken care of, and there's still two more that Sivis reserve for themselves. They include confirmation codes, to prove that the message is official, and other little bits that are only of interest to administrators. If you want to get a message delivered to a specific address, you just pay a little extra. Then, every so often during the course of the day, someone at the Sivis station heads off to deliver those that have accumulated so far - yes, it's a postman. If you pay a decent amount extra, they'll deliver it asap, and if you pay a lot extra, they'll use a Whisperng Wind to send it directly to the recipient, and follow it up with a paper copy to the address you specify. Naturally, this last option isn't always available - it depends on if the staff have the capability, and even then, whether they've used it that day or not. 3. Finally, the spell prestidigitation can be used to perform minor magic trick, and I was wondering if it can be used to do something that would aid in card tricks. Can the front of a concealed card be read so that it can be found again by the magician? Or can the card be changed so that he can pull out any card and make it appear to be the one he is looking for? These cards don’t have to be as fancy as modern day cards and actually more crude cards might be easier to fake with such a simple trick. If it can be used to change a card, can it change the word that is written on a piece of paper or reveal it to the person without looking at it? Such as a single word, phrase or number? Hmm. Well, there's certainly a lot of things that you can do with Prestidigitation, but what you're asking is a little out of its league. Come on - it's only a cantrip! Albeit probably the best one that there is :) What can it do? (copied and edited from the SRD) A prestidigitation can slowly lift 1 pound of material. It can color, clean, or soil items in a 1-foot cube each round. It can chill, warm, or flavor 1 pound of nonliving material. Prestidigitation can create small objects, but they look crude and artificial. Consequently, no - you can't use it for minor divinations (reading the other side of a card) or lesser illusions (changing the appearance of something). Tome & Blood went into more detail on what the spell could do, stating that while you could recolour an object, it was a simple colour change, not a complex one - ie. that you could turn the entire object blue, but not create patterns. If you want to do some of those things, remember that there's a skill called Sleight of Hand which allows you to do a lot of these things anyway - it's just an opposed Spot roll to see if anyone notices, although, if you're playing carefully, there may be circumstance bonuses due to, for example, doing things out of sight, or successful Bluffs. And finally - Their cards wouldn't be 'as fancy' as today's 'modern' cards? :rolleyes: You obviously didn't know that many historical decks would have been hand-painted, some with extremely complex pictures on them. Today's are actually cruder by far. Court cards in a standard deck would be something pretty impressive, although the 'pip' cards would (usually) be duller, but still more detailed than modern mass-produced ones. Have Fun!
Ithamar 09-14-05, 02:00 PM	Just as a side note, check out this article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20010707) to see some of the cool stuff you can do with Prestidigitation. Can't remember who has it in their sig, but think of it as Diet Wish! :)