Detect Everything Around me?

[Photon1966]

I have a player who wants to create a spell/ability that allows him to know what is around him. I figured a detect bought as a sense would fi tthe basic idea. His thought was the 10 point detect physical objects with discrimatory and range. What he wants to do is for example touch the water and ask whats over there in the fog, and know that there is a boat over there. Or Ask the earth to see is the chest behind the door, or is there somethin burrowing with in you that is larger then a box, the wind if it hears a battle going on, or someone talking.The more he describes it though it seems more like a Clairvoyance with some limits on it. I don't know. Your ideas from this board about other things have given me alot of great ideas so I wanted to pick your brains about this.

Thanks

[Snarf]

I might be misunderstanding your explanation, but this sounds a lot like N-Ray Perception (FREd p. 106).

[farik]

I Think you're correct in calling it clairovoyance. I'd write it up as simply clairovoyance with a limitation to reflect how detailed the description is.

 

-1 Only a vague description ie:"There is motion over there" or "you will find vegetation in that direction"

 

-1/2 An alien description ie:"two legs are fighting over the hill" or "the trees grow upstream"

 

-1/4 A casual observer ie "there is battle between orcs and humans on the other side of the hill" or "there is a fruit orchard upstream"

 

In any of these circumstance I'd allow the person to ask multiple question for as long as they maintained the spell (or the duration depending on it's construction) but the answers won't get clearer than the limitation allows the character will simply have to ask the right questions while they have the time.

[Talon]

It sounds like more than just Clairvoyance, because the character doesn't seem to need any particular sense for it to work (for example, it sounds like he could tell what's inside a dark box). N-Ray vision with appropriate SFX sounds closer to me.

 

It also sounds like a power that could very easily be abused.

[Dr. Anomaly]

It sounds to me like the Talent of Dor from the Xanth novels.

[Blue Jogger]

I like farik's limitation ideas. However, I would add an additional -1/2 or possibly -1 if the nature of the spell was communitive and not giving a drawing, picture or a map.

 

There's a big difference between "there's a battle between orcs and humans" and the GM saying "here's the layout of the battle between orcs and humans, these are the orcs (here, here, here and here) and these are the humans (here, here, here, and here). You can launch an attack at -6 OCV for range on this guy."

[farik]

I'd say (at least with my write up) the advantage of knowing what's in the box is offset by the alien nature of "what" is answering your question. But I can see your point so maybe a multipower of N-Ray and clairovoyance would be better. The nice thing about the spell is that the GM can directly control how abusive it gets by deciding what vital information to leave out where as full blown clairovoyance is pretty revealing if you take the time to look.

[Killer Shrike]

Cost Power END 50 Im DOR from XANTH! (Total: 125 Active Cost, 50 Real Cost) Detect Any Object touching the Ground A Large Class Of Things, Any Object In Contact With An Inanimate Object and Any Object in Open Air 17- (no Sense Group), Concealed (-10 with Detect Any Object touching the Ground PER Rolls), Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Tracking, Ranged (+1/2), NRM (+1/2) (102 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), -1 1/4), Requires A Conversation Skill Roll (Active Point penalty to Skill Roll is -1 per 20 Active Points -1/4), Reduced By Range (Gets Less Information From Further Away; -1/4) (Real Cost: 37) plus Conversation 11- (Real Cost: 3) plus +10 with Conversation (20 Active Points); Only To Talk To Inanimate Objects Or Natural Elements (-1) (Real Cost: 10) Powers Cost: 50