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I just wrote up this item to be used in a future campaign I'm working on, and I want to focus on exploring so I'm setting up mini dungeons ahead of time. I'd be having preset CR's for the areas so I don't have to make the enemies up on the spot. This would make things easier to let happen naturally, but it would make things dangerous if the PC's walk into a high cr event when they aren't prepared for it. This item will hopefully give some warning ahead of time.
Prediction Gem
Cost: 1,000 GP, Aura: Faint Enchantment,
Prediction gems are the best friend of wary travelers. These magic items are palm sized disks with an inlaid magic gem, and an arrow on one side. The way to use this gem is to point the arrow in the direction of travel, and it will glow certain colors depending on how dangerous the region of travel is.
Blue: CR 1-5
Green: CR 6-10
Yellow: CR 11-15
Red: CR 16-20
Rainbow: Unreadable
(Unreadable can mean either the CR is higher than 20, or there isn't a fight to be had.)
I like it! Simple enough, but useful.
1) What's it got for range? One mile? Two? Ten? Forty yards?
2) If there are multiple items ahead, does it get the nearest? Strongest? For example: there's a dungeon north of our heroes, set up as a CR 5 ogre lair. But further north, there's a giant's lair set up, CR 11. They aim the gem north...what happens?
I hate to say it, but if you are focusing on exploration as a central element, why would you allow such an obvious crutch? Tracking and augry do this just as well.
Don't get me wrong, this is a solid item entry... just don't think it supports your ideal.
That said, I would give it a faint divination aura and set range limits...
What if there are multiple CR groups? I.e. Kobolds attending a dragon, displaced beasts hunting a dire creature... etc
Also on a related off topic note: how is your campaign going to focus on exploration? What incentives and reward structure do you plan to implement in support of that?
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I would have it detect the next one mile hex above ground. In a dungeon, it detects the next room. It's a level boss detector.
I think it would only detect the dragon. All the other detection spells work that way. You cannot see the stars when the sun is out. If a bunch of cultists are summoning a pit fiend, the detector is going to spike big time.
The NPC who sends them on their first mission might say,"I sent 6 parties of adventurers on this mission, and I never heard back from them. Here, take this danger detector with you."
It passes the "Why does this exist" test.
The way I'm going to run it is the closest event in the direction they point it in. So it doesn't show distance. My thought process of making this is that I'm planning on having an event on every square of the map. (It's on grid paper) It'll be a small group, and There isn't a sure thing that they'll have magic to guide them into it.
I like this a lot! I am going to be running an exploration campaign soon too, I hope you don't mind if I use this!
I think when I use it, I will put some distance limit on it (like 1 mile maybe) and it will detect the CR of nearest thing in that direction.
I think this could be interesting as a sort of tracking tool, too, in essence. If the party finds enough clues or gathers enough info about something they are looking for specifically, they might be able to determine an average "danger" level of the target and then use this device to find it. Seems like a very fun plot tool and game mechanic.
Nice work!