My witch, Hama, used invisibility to infiltrate a guarded location. Unfortunately, before she could complete her goals, one of the two guards left their post to use the lavoratory and ended up discovering tell tail signs of an intruder. Before he could warn his companion that something was amiss, Hama brained him, then smeared some if his blood on a nearby ledge and planted a pouch of gold on his person.
As leaving evidence of tampering and foul play would interfere with her plans, Hama discretely cast rewrite memory on the remaining guard, implanting a false memory of a discovery of corruption, a fight with his companion, a shove, and a fall, all ending in a terrible tragedy.
Can this spell really make a person believe that they just might be a killer?
Yes it can. The target will have a memory of something that you wish no matter what.
It may be confused if the false memory is hard to believe or is contradictory or if the target face facts that contradicts with its own memory. Yet the memory will still there and probably it will only consider it as a fake memory created by a spell if someone really point this.
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One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
Knowing that there is magic in place is a very different thing than knowing the nature of said magic.
Even if someone thought to check, had the means to do so, correctly identified it as mind-altering magic, they still wouldn't know the specific memories that were altered. That's a lot of hurdles for next to no information beyond "foul play is afoot."
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It still is dispellable, which means they'll eventually know what exactly was altered IF there's a proper investigation.
Fair point.
I wouldn't say "exactly." Without using the clarity aspect of the spell, how well do people remember fidly details anyways? :P
I'm sure it's enough for the guard to know he never left his post, much less murdered his partner, anyways. Broad stroke memories usually aren't too hard to recall.
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It still is dispellable, which means they'll eventually know what exactly was altered IF there's a proper investigation.Fair point.
I wouldn't say "exactly." Without using the clarity aspect of the spell, how well do people remember fidly details anyways? :P
I'm sure it's enough for the guard to know he never left his post, much less murdered his partner, anyways. Broad stroke memories usually aren't too hard to recall.
You're probably safe if the surviving guard never saw Hama. Buuuuut worth noting that Talking Corpse is in your current rank of spells and fair game for investigators. Hopefully you didn't leave the skull intact enough to talk...
One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
Knowing that there is magic in place is a very different thing than knowing the nature of said magic.
Even if someone thought to check, had the means to do so, correctly identified it as mind-altering magic, they still wouldn't know the specific memories that were altered. That's a lot of hurdles for next to no information beyond "foul play is afoot."
It still is dispellable, which means they'll eventually know what exactly was altered IF there's a proper investigation.
That said, it can certainly buy someone enough time to wreck havoc, you just have to keep in mind that it's not the best tool for a permanent solution.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to get at.
Leaving a magical footprint that would alert someone to foul play is enough to get someone competent involved (if competent people exist within said organization). Especially when someone has just died.
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One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
Magic Aura can hide this. Providing you cast it at a high enough level it should plug this gap.
Magic Aura can hide this. Providing you cast it at a high enough level it should plug this gap.One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
If you happen to have a wand of such, you may be able to renew the effect forever. Then you would only need to worry about someone overcoming the rank limitations.
The new disguise magic covers a fair bit of the rank/counteract issue, as long as you are high enough level for someone’s investigate check to have a good shot of failing. I like its design better than Magic aura.
Also, remember, any spell with a duration of until the next time you prepare spells can be continued indefinitely just by expending that slot again.
Magic Aura can hide this. Providing you cast it at a high enough level it should plug this gap.One thing to keep in mind is the spell duration is unlimited.
This means if someone competent investigates they will discover that the guards memory has been tampered with (from the magical residue). It's relatively trivial for someone to find the guard has magic on them, which in a competent organization would lead to a investigation of what it is.
Now, you could have a situation where there is no one to detect the magic, or no one competent enough to investigate. But my point is that your actions wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny.
I'm not sure it works actually.
The 1st level version clearly only works on items. The 3rd level version says:
You can target a creature instead of an object. When you do, you can either conceal the auras of all magic items it has or have that creature's aura appear as if it were under the effect of a spell you know.
We don't care about the first option of what happens at all. But the second option says "have that creature's aura appear as if it were under the effect of a spell you know". So it doesn't seem like you can give it no aura, which would definitely be preferred. And it only lasts as long as you keep preparing it. So eventually chances are you would forget, although whether or not that would be still be relevant is a good question, people may no longer be interested in investigating. But the issue to me is that the creature would still have some sort of magic aura on them, a creature that just killed someone that is supposed to be an ally.
Still seems like it's potentially suspicious.
That said, Disguise Magic does seem like it will work as long as anyone investigating isn't higher or equal level as the PCs.
We don't care about the first option of what happens at all. But the second option says "have that creature's aura appear as if it were under the effect of a spell you know". So it doesn't seem like you can give it no aura, which would definitely be preferred. And it only lasts as long as you keep preparing it. So eventually chances are you would forget, although whether or not that would be still be relevant is a good question, people may no longer be interested in investigating. But the issue to me is that the creature would still have some sort of magic aura on them, a creature that just killed someone that is supposed to be an ally.
Personally I think that is just sloppy wording and you should be able to surpress the aura completely on a creature too. I don't see that omission as deliberate. So as a GM I would allow that to happen, however if your GM doesn't who can at least try to hide is as something innocent and mild, like for example the aura of a detect magic spell? That might work.
Yes having to keep preparing it is a pest, but at least that is doable.
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That said, Disguise Magic does seem like it will work as long as anyone investigating isn't higher or equal level as the PCs.
Disguise magic is sneaky because even if you are of high enough level to potentially see through it, you have to make a skill check to do so, and it has to be the skill related to the tradition of the spell. So if you were a wizard casting an arcane modify memory, the investigator has to be able to beat your spell DC on an arcana check. So if the investigator isn’t at least trained in your spell casting tradition skill, they may never see through it.