what are the spells that could help me to resolve detective problems?
Who is the killer?
Why he do that?
Where he is?
When he make it?
the famous 5 "W" :D
thx for help...
no but seriously, divinations...also you could maybe take the Investigator feat from the Eberron Campaign setting? I think it is Int based.
Psions have the two best mystery-busting powers, of course: Object Reading and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions.
Everyone is guilty. Tie all the suspects up and divine the heck out of all of them.
Divine them with fire!
Psions have the two best mystery-busting powers, of course: Object Reading and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions.
Yeah, I'm itching more and more lately to play a Seer. They just have so many awesome powers which are fairly unique, including the ultimate divination: Metafaculty.
For wizards, don't forget Clairvoyance/Clairaudience for spying that doesn't allow a saving throw. :D
Yeah, I'm itching more and more lately to play a Seer. They just have so many awesome powers which are fairly unique, including the ultimate divination: Metafaculty.
For wizards, don't forget Clairvoyance/Clairaudience for spying that doesn't allow a saving throw. :D
Clairvoyance is only useful under certain very specific circumstances:
- You know exactly where (in space) your target is.
- The place you want to spy on is within ~1000 feet or so.
- You're in a place where no wandering encounters will bother you during the 10 minute (!) casting time.
The long casting time is a killer, in particular. The psionic power Clairvoyant Sense is so much better that it's not even funny.
Holy freakin' crap! I'd never actually used the spell, so I didn't know it had such a ridiculous casting time. WTF were they thinking? Yeah, that's basically useless. And yeah, the psionic version is sooooo much better...
I've seen people suggest that Clairvoyance is a worthwhile spell on several occasions, but once I point out the casting time they usually back off pretty quickly.
But there was one guy who kept insisting that it was generally useful. So go figure.
Magical Disjunction followed by zone of truth. Manually question people. It will be very hard for them to lie.
i can't find them...
i can't find them...
Basic Rules Knowledge for 300, Alex. Both are in the SRD.
Mage's Disjunction and Zone of Truth are the proper names. Look here: http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/spells.htm
In the PHB, it's called Mordenkainen's Disjunction, but evidently he doesn't like having his name publicized too much. Silly mage.
In the PHB, it's called Mordenkainen's Disjunction, but evidently he doesn't like having his name publicized too much. Silly mage.
If he wanted it publicized he should have made it easier to spell.
Some of the best ways to find out who the killer is include: Speak with Dead, lots of Augurys, Discern Lies (all clerical spells). Wizards are less effective than clerics and have to stick with Charm Person, Disguise Self, Detect Thoughts, Locate Object, Suggestion, the various Geas spells, and Prying Eyes.
Where Clerics will be able to find out a lot from the corpse, Wizards will have to do the leg work. Using Detect Thoughts while questioning people is always useful. Charm is effective once you think they can help you. Geas for forcing cooperation. Suggestion for a variety of reasons. Prying Eyes for, well, prying.
Useful skills in an investigation include: Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Knowledge Forensics, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Scry, and Spot.
zone of truth. Manually question people. It will be very hard for them to lie.
Unless they have +19 to Will saves?
The best spell tho would likely be Commune, which is a 5th level Oracle domain spell (get via Divine Oracle.)
contact other plane: "what is the last name of the murderer?"
if you dont have acess to 5th level spells...
Tie up the suspects (aka everyone)
augury: "will it wield good or bad results to treat this guy/gal as if he/she was guilty of X crime?"
contact other plane: "what is the first name of the murderer?"
contact other plane: "what is the last name of the murderer?"
Yeah, I'd like to see you try that with a gnome...
if you dont have acess to 5th level spells...
Tie up the suspects (aka everyone)
augury: "will it wield good or bad results to treat this guy/gal as if he/she was guilty of X crime?"
"O.K., we just hanged J. Sweetpants Goodbody. The good news: he left his entire fortune to charity! The bad news: he wasn't guilty. So it turned out O.K. in the end!"
Yeah, I'd like to see you try that with a gnome...
Wait, what? Could you repeat that?
Also: From now on I will give my BBEGs names that can only be spoken in Dark Speech.
"O.K., we just hanged J. Sweetpants Goodbody. The good news: he left his entire fortune to charity! The bad news: he wasn't guilty. So it turned out O.K. in the end!"
im wondering, what perspective does the spell use to calculate good/bad? i mean, while he could be rich enough that normal people would count it as a good result, but even then, there's sure to be somebody so devoted to upholding the law and nothing else that they would count excecuting an innocent rakshasa, who left an item that creates gold on command to the city, as a bad result. Heck, you could just roleplay your character as one.
You guys ever read watchmen? yeah, im not so sure Rorschach would count excecuting innocent people as a good result, no matter how much they left (he would probably just not care, though)
The most likely result is that it will say "weal and woe", and then you just know, "ok, something bad AND good's gonna happen, we cant be sure of anything. lets stop being lazy and start doing some real investigatement"
The most important spells you're going to be looking at are divinations (as people have already mentioned) and the odd necromancy spell- Speak With Dead would be very helpful, except it's a cleric spell. If it's on a domain list, you can get it via the Arcane Disciple feat from complete divine. That's a prohibited school, though. Another good necro spell is Reveille (Spell Compendium 175) which causes a body to say what killed it, but it's a bard spell.
If you want to do it the good ol' fashioned way, you can use the Heal skill to CSI the corpse, as seen in Complete Adventurer (I think. maybe PHB2- I get them confused). It's cross-class, but there's a feat in races of destiny (Able Learner, I think) that makes that a little cheaper. Detect Magic can detect lingering auras, so if you find the body soon enough you can determine if it was killed by magic. Detect Poison will say if poison did the fella in. If you think he might return to the scene of the crime, you can Alarm it (or scry it at higher levels). Detect Object could be extremely handy- if you're after a kidnapped victim, you can detect for their wedding ring or something. Same goes if the villain has a unique item of some sort that you can visualize.
Arcane eye, locate creature, and scry all have obvious applications for the higher-level detective.
Search is a good skill for finding clues, sense motive is good for sensing motives, and heal is good for finding out what killed someone.
From the SpC, Circle Dance (lv 3 div) lets you find the direction to a known individual. Probe thoughts is like detect thoughts, but +1better.
Basically, any divination spell that lets you detect or find ANYTHING can be handy if you know what you're looking for. If you have no clues whatsoever, Gather Information is good (but you might want to let your party face handle that). Track can be handy, but let the wilderness buff handle it if you have one. If you really have nothing going for you, use a spell like contact other plane or augury to narrow things down. Something very flavoury and stylish (but maybe not totally smart) would be to summon up some knowledgeable spirit with planar binding and question it.
Hope I could help!
Wait, what? Could you repeat that?
Also: From now on I will give my BBEGs names that can only be spoken in Dark Speech.
I'd use Truenames myself.
I'd use Truenames myself.
You might want to look at being a Psion (Seer Discipline). Lower levels you get Clairvoyant Sense, Object Reading, and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions. 8th level yields you Hypercognition which basically allows you to deduce anything ;) Not as versatile as a wizard but hey if you're looking for strict detective you can't get better than a Seer.