I've encountered an interesting issue in a Paizo adventure which requires the PCs to present evidence in court (I'll not mention the module just to be super cautious about spoilers, although I'm not revealing anything really), but the issue is really more of a rules issue than an AP specific issue. Anyhow, at trial there is a cleric associated with the court who constantly scans the room with detect magic to make sure no magic is used during trial. One of the testifying PCs is a barbarian/oracle with the "haunted" curse, which means "Malevolent spirits follow you wherever you go, causing minor mishaps and strange occurrences (such as unexpected breezes, small objects moving on their own, and faint noises)."
Thus, when he testified I had some strange things happen -- a glass of water flew out of the prosecutor's hand, the Chief Judge's gavel banged by itself, a door in the audience gallery opened and closed. I may have overdone it, but, in any event, it caused some nice chaos in the trial and the events could not really be pinned on him.
My question is whether there is any way the cleric could spot that the PC is haunted, or that spirits are causing the strange occurrences. Detect magic wouldn't spot the spirits. But would a potion of see invisibility allow her to spot the spirits? Anything else?
What is the nature of the spirits that haunt the PC, in game terms? The closest I can come is that they are a species of poltergeists that are associated with the PC rather than associated with a place. Like a poltergeist, they have natural invisibility and telekinesis, but they are less malicious than a poltergeist.
Could an NPC with see invisibility see the spirits that haunt an oracle with the haunted curse? Would they just appear as translucent spirits of people? Can the spirits hide INSIDE the PC so they cannot be seen even with see invisibility?
Any ideas or thoughts are most welcome!
I think it really falls into whatever the GM wants. It seems deliberately poorly explained.
Design Manager
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That is an awesome question I had never considered. I personally never really thought of the spirits as the spiritual remains of people, but more as like mischievous spirits that have always existed as such, personifications of air, nature, or whatever might be appropriate to the oracle. I guess having a good back story to your oracle might help lock that down. I would imagine that See Invisibility might reveal the presence of the creatures, but since they're a curse and not under the oracle's control, he shouldn't get into too much trouble.
I do have a back story that says that he's haunted by the spirit of a specific person, so if see invisibility works there is the potential to see a representation of that person, although so far the spirit has been creating mischief and then hiding back in the oracle's body.
I certainly agree the description of the curse intentionally gives the GM a lot of discretion, but it would be fun and helpful to try to contextualize it in game terms. It would help me make judgment calls and be consistent and it is just sort of fun to think about.
I would argue that "spirits" are by definition undead, which would be detectable by detecting undead but not see invisible. Bonus side effect, if the oracle or his associates are ever detecting undead, they get a bunch of false positives.
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I haven't actually ever bothered to look into the rules for Haunts but by my understanding they wouldn't be visible to see invisibility and if you have them be N rather than evil then detect evil wouldn't pick them up either.
Have the oracles body be the site of a (kind of) haunt rather than a static location and that might do it.
You are Haunted by the curse of a God.
To see the forces that haunt you, is to look upon the fingers of a god.To see them, is to never see again.
This makes me think of the ark of the covenant. The cleric in that court room will cast see in is and his face will melt.
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This makes me think of the ark of the covenant. The cleric in that court room will cast see in is and his face will melt.You are Haunted by the curse of a God.
To see the forces that haunt you, is to look upon the fingers of a god.To see them, is to never see again.
Exactly.
That is why normal magic cannot allow you to see such things.Only the most powerful, and mad, of spellcasters, would dare try to view the haunting forces.
Even then, there is no guarantee for their sanity, sight, or soul.
I like thinking of it as some variation of a haunt that has the characteristics of a less malicious poltergeist when it manifests. The thing about haunts is they can only be perceived when they manifest, and that is probably the reasonable thing to do here, rather than having the PC register as undead all the time... The rest of the time the spirit sort of disappears into the PC. Thanks all for your thoughts.
I would wager that the 'haunt' would in a sense be part of the oracle's aura?
It occurs to me that it is really stupid that oracles do not have a powerful magic aura in RAW, like clerics or paladins. They so should...
There's no reason they have to be obviously tied to the PC or be undead.
Maybe the oracle just weakens the boundary between the ethereal and material planes so any spirits in the area will start to manifest on their own.
Maybe a Oracle of Nature has capricious fey spirits dogging him.
It doesn't even need to be spirits at all really. Maybe fate and consequence are unstable near an Oracle of Time, so things aren't were they were a second ago because you left them elsewhere in another timeline and a window is suddenly open because it will be left open tomorrow. Like a glitch in the Matrix kind of thing.