| Balkoth |
The main sentence in question:
"Each Additional Round: The mechanism or trigger for one particular secret portal closely examined by you."
How broadly is this defined? Does the trigger/mechanism need to be in the 60 foot cone?
For example, say the king has a trigger in his highest chambers for a secret door in his lowest dungeons. Can you literally just walk to to the secret door in the dungeon, cast Detect Secret Doors, and 3 rounds later be all "Oh hey we can open this door by a switch in the king's bedchamber that's 6 stories up?"
| Thedmstrikes |
Here are the two passages in the spell description which provide your answer:
2nd Round: Number of secret doors and the location of each. If an aura is outside your line of sight, then you discern its direction but not its exact location....
The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
In your scenario and given the limitations of the spell, you will detect the secret door as normal, but as you concentrate, you will determine that the trigger for the spell is not present, but is in an upward direction through a barrier or out of range of the spell's area of effect.
| Balkoth |
If an aura is outside your line of sight, then you discern its direction but not its exact location.
In your scenario and given the limitations of the spell, you will detect the secret door as normal, but as you concentrate, you will determine that the trigger for the spell is not present, but is in an upward direction through a barrier or out of range of the spell's area of effect.
Except the aura is from the door, not the trigger.
"Only passages, doors, or openings that have been specifically constructed to escape detection are detected by this spell."
What you're referring to seems to be used in cases like a bookshelf in front of the door -- it's not in line of sight so you don't see the door, but the shelf isn't thick enough to block the spell so you know something is over in that direction.
| Kayerloth |
RAW it doesn't clearly state whether the trigger is to be considered separately or as part of the passages, doors or openings specifically constructed to escape detection ... but certainly the trigger(s) would be part of the overall construction of the passage/door/opening to make it 'escape detection'. So by RAI I think the way Thedmstrikes describes handling it would plenty acceptable both in giving the caster something to work with/on as well as maintaining a bit of vagueness and suspense to the storyline. And remember the spells duration is concentration up to 1 min/lvl. The caster can certainly move about and generate an area where multiple cones or directions intersect etc. etc..
Probably what I would do/rule is if the entire triggering mechanism is within 60ft would be to give the caster the location and if beyond 60ft then give only direction barring the presence of barriers the spell can't penetrate for either case.