Sending Spell Question

[winter_soldier]

How does a Sending spell manifest to the recipient? Is is an audible voice, a "psychic" message? Would other people near the Sending hear it as well?

[LazarX]

winter_soldier wrote:

How does a Sending spell manifest to the recipient? Is is an audible voice, a "psychic" message? Would other people near the Sending hear it as well?

I'd say that the recipient and only the recipient receives the sending as a heard message. No one else would hear the message but they may hear the response the receiver makes in return.

[Firstbourne]

In my games, the message is sent and received mentally.

[Phazzle]

The spell description is vague so the form that the message takes is really up to you.

[Rinegar]

Anyone have thoughts on whether a Sending message, either mental or audible, comes in language dependent words, or whether it's magically translated in transit. The 25 word limit is very specific and implies the actual words are delivered in a language chosen by the caster. But it also says the recipient will "understand the sending" and can be used on creatures with animal intelligence, which most likely wouldn't understand any words.

[StabbittyDoom]

Rinegar wrote:

Anyone have thoughts on whether a Sending message, either mental or audible, comes in language dependent words, or whether it's magically translated in transit. The 25 word limit is very specific and implies the actual words are delivered in a language chosen by the caster. But it also says the recipient will "understand the sending" and can be used on creatures with animal intelligence, which most likely wouldn't understand any words.

I think it's 25 words or less in the language you speak at the table, translated to be correctly interpreted by the recipient.

[Rinegar]

StabbittyDoom wrote:

I think it's 25 words or less in the language you speak at the table, translated to be correctly interpreted by the recipient.

A wizard sends a message to a dog (Int 2) that says something like "Bring the red bag in front of you to my house" and lets say they dog knows where the wizard's house is. Would the dog "understand" that the wizard wanted him to grab a red bag and bring it there? Normally, you'd need a Handle Animal check to try and get it to do something like this. Can the Sending spell make an animal "know" the meaning of the message in a way that overrides the need to use a skill check?

Does "it's ability to respond is limited by it's intelligence, as normal," suggest an animal without language capability would not be able to respond in words? That doesn't make sense if the reverse is true, in which case it could act as a long distance Speak with Animals.

I never realized just how vague this spell is until I started dissecting it.

[Rezdave]

Phazzle wrote:

The spell description is vague so the form that the message takes is really up to you.

Agreed ... it's really a case of DM interpretation.

At my table, the rule is "a direct, mentally received message from the sender, complete with the unique sounds, vocal qualities, tone and inflections of the sender's voice (or normal communication method, whether normally audible, mental or otherwise)".

We usually write out 25 word messages, which as DM I sometimes edit even shorter (thereby allowing Players to add more content) on the assumption that over the centuries the spell has existed the organizations making frequent use of it such as guilds and churches have come up with codes and shorthand methods of communicating long and complex information quickly and efficiently via sending.

I also assume that the spell "hangs" to allow the recipient time to compose a reply. This is as much a courtesy to the Player as a hand-wave to the above-assumed "shorthand" that PCs (even if not members of an organization) will have worked out among themselves.

In other words, the "reply" isn't the first 25 un-edited words to fumble out of the Player's mouth.

FWIW,

Rez

[Diego Rossi]

PRD wrote:

You contact a particular creature with which you are familiar and send a short message of 25 words or less to the subject. The subject recognizes you if it knows you. It can answer in like manner immediately. A creature with an Intelligence score as low as 1 can understand the sending, though the subject's ability to react is limited as normal by its Intelligence. Even if the sending is received, the subject is not obligated to act upon it in any manner.

I would say that:

- the 25 words limit is based on the language you speak at the table (and that make the spell more powerful is you speak German that if you speak English);
- the message is not transmitted in words but as a "thought projection", so it is comprehensible to a creature without a language (int 1) like a animal;
- the creature receiving the message is not forced to obey it and will comprehend it within the limits of its capabilities, so in Rinegar example the dog, that as far as I can find, don't recognize the red and green colours (it seem its visual spectra is between yellow and blue) will get something like "take the (grey) bag in front of you, bring it to my house". As it is something that a dog can be taught to do it probably will do it if you are the dog owner. A handle animal check could be required to see if it will get distracted by somehing int the route from the bag location to teh wizard home.