A BBEG has access to a 9 question commune. The heroes have interfered with his operation a couple of times and he knows who they are. 1 of his minions (with a good perception score)claims to have heard an invisible something flying around. What questions would you ask?
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- Will my lair be attacked in X hours/days?
- Will the attack start at entry Y?
Did this in Way of the Wicked and it was quite successful. Just keep asking those questions till you get a yes. Place a high level encounter/trap at that location.
"Is there an invisible creature in area Z?" Would be a good question too, if you follow it up with some teleportation magic and an invisibility purge.
Keep in mind that if your players do the same thing the whole thing starts to get complicated in a Minority Report kind of way. (The short story, as the movie was meh.)
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Personally, I'd say screw playing to win as the DM and ham up the moment for comedic effect. I assume you're not a kill-em-all DM?
The BBEG has 9th-level Commune that the Party is present for... if the heroes do not attack by question 2 (First one is typically "who", second is "where"), those PCs deserve what they get. You get a short sentence reply at most, and the highest number of words I saw was "Five" on the rules.
I've had clerics disowned or forcibly transferred by their own deities ^_^ before. Hilarity ensued. In previous campaigns, I've confronted my Deity/DM with a PowerPoint slideshow representing your proposal points during Commune representing what you know, what you desire, blah blah blah.
In one campaign, as a Druid I was disowned by Sarenrae to an unwilling Pharasma, whom ended up "losing me" to her rival: Zyphus, whom I accidentally had an affinity for after all. There was an ongoing in-character debate as to my stance on undead and how to prevent/eliminate them, especially in taking the initiative. My reasoning was "I've never seen a poop-lich, have you?" when it came to my "cannibalization" of enemies. For the record, I never ate a fellow Gnome, so my Druid feigned the criticism was unjust ^_^.
Tangent, I know, but it plays up to my "Ham Moment" point at the beginning. In-character, imagine being on the table to see a flustered deity chastising one of Her fervent believers whom is doing his best to vindicate his beliefs in Her, albeit with a comedic/malignant method, almost as if some other deity is pulling his strings behind the scene...
Best campaign payoff I've ever seen when the Paladin made a desperation Knowledge: Religion roll. "O-M-Iomedae! You're Evil! You belonged to Zyphus the whole time, you little bastard!"
Meta-gaming on the table to frame a narrative, as a Player I started listing several tragedies/offences caused directly/indirectly by my Druid. Then, in characer, I replied innocently: "Mistakes happen?"
- Will my lair be attacked in X hours/days?
- Will the attack start at entry Y?Did this in Way of the Wicked and it was quite successful. Just keep asking those questions till you get a yes. Place a high level encounter/trap at that location.
"Is there an invisible creature in area Z?" Would be a good question too, if you follow it up with some teleportation magic and an invisibility purge.
Keep in mind that if your players do the same thing the whole thing starts to get complicated in a Minority Report kind of way. (The short story, as the movie was meh.)
quicker method is to start with a large date and then ask half down from that, then half between the 2 closest possibilities, etc.