So... I've run Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale. My party used an Augury to
Well, given the properties of the nuke, I mean item, my players have figured out how to use it as an immovable rod, by holding the nuke, I mean item, in space, setting the timer for something like 3 days, letting the nuke, I mean item, sit there in space, using it as a stepstool, then deactivating the countdown using the codes. A more cumbersome and much more explody immovable rod.
A nuclear stepstool.
Not gonna punish them, it's too hilarious. No one buys an immovable rod anyway because of the price yet every PC has come across five situations where one would have been really useful. Still...
Anyone else end up with a nuclear stepstool?
I am having a difficult time picturing a scenario in which Augury (barring house-rules) could do that.
Augury, as written in PF, will tell you if a specific course of action will have good results, bad results, or results that are not especially good or bad. Sometimes. It is not 100% reliable (even a 20th level caster has only a 90% chance of getting an actual answer), and even when it doesn't work, you can't tell that from a "neither good nor bad" answer.
The best case use I can imagine is asking "If I gave it command [X], would that be good or bad?" over and over for each possible command. That could take years before you happened to guess the right command.
The adventure is written for 6th level characters, with access to 3rd level spells. Augury is a 2nd level Cleric (and Oracle) spell, but a 6th level Oracle is going to have at most 8 available each day (using all 2nd and 3rd level slots) plus any scrolls, potions, etc. That is not a lot of guesses per day at one per spell, so for the PCs to guess the correct command in less than hundreds of years seems like a "gimme".
No rules set was specified in the original post, but I assume this is a recent occurrence and the rules set was Pathfinder; 3.5's Augury is functionally similar, though, so it would not matter much.
Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me that Augury cannot do this... which is why I doubt other GMs will have the same situation to deal with. It sounds like a house rule, or a mistake, to me.
I am having a difficult time picturing a scenario in which Augury (barring house-rules) could do that.
Augury, as written in PF, will tell you if a specific course of action will have good results, bad results, or results that are not especially good or bad. Sometimes. It is not 100% reliable (even a 20th level caster has only a 90% chance of getting an actual answer), and even when it doesn't work, you can't tell that from a "neither good nor bad" answer.
** spoiler omitted **
No rules set was specified in the original post, but I assume this is a recent occurrence and the rules set was Pathfinder; 3.5's Augury is functionally similar, though, so it would not matter much.
Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me that Augury cannot do this... which is why I doubt other GMs will have the same situation to deal with. It sounds like a house rule, or a mistake, to me.
Yep, there was such a mistake. Found it.
Augury and Analyze Dweomer start with the same letter but have two very different effects. That's what I get for posting from memory, w/o the core book in front of me.
Yeah, yeah, it lessens my credibility that I get the name of the spell wrong when talking about it on the boards. Meh.
Should make sense now, neh?
Should make sense now, neh?
Somewhat... except that Analyze Dweomer is a 6th level spell. The adventure is written for characters at least 5 levels too low to have it. Did they have some magic item that would let them use the spell?
Somewhat... except that Analyze Dweomer is a 6th level spell. The adventure is written for characters at least 5 levels too low to have it. Did they have some magic item that would let them use the spell?
Should make sense now, neh?
Ya. Scroll. Scroll plus UMD. Scroll they kept from a previous adventure.
That and they're a two person party. I have to send them on adventures a level or two below their actual level so they don't die.
Ya. Scroll. Scroll plus UMD. Scroll they kept from a previous adventure.
That and they're a two person party. I have to send them on adventures a level or two below their actual level so they don't die.
Thanks. That's much more clear. If they took the gamble with the scroll, they're certainly entitled to a reward.
I doubt that many will have a similar experience, though, as this case is based on the situation of happening to have such a scroll available well before the spell would normally be an option.