TheBrassDuke
Explorer
Is there anyone out there willing to help recreate the Web of Motes mechanically, and for 5e? I’m stumped.
Is there anyone out there willing to help recreate the Web of Motes mechanically, and for 5e? I’m stumped.
Contact Other Plane essentially answers 5 Yes/No questions. In game, I’ve done exactly what you described by putting coordinates on a map and used the spell to ask if the mcguffin is in a specific coordinate on the map.It's taken a few years but I've finally recovered my old email account so I can verify myself (and promptly changed to a non-burner email!)
I think the major trouble you'll run into is that 5e just doesn't approach divination the same way? In 3e you could, for example, get a hundred diviners into a room with a gridded map, and as long as you had the power to actually search an area, you could first establish that each grid area would be searched in half an hour; that you were looking for something; and ask "Do I find tnhe thing in section c8, weal or woe?". You could then work this into an algorithm whereby knowing you have the capacity to search a given section, and asssigning each diviner a section, ask if sequence A (asking every odd numbered diviner would find the thing within ten replies) or sequence B (asking if every odd numbered diviner would find it within 11-20 replies) or sequence C (asking if... etc) and eventually develop a binary computer system whereby having a spreadsheet, too much time on your hands, and one hundred diviners with a level 1 spell sitting on your payroll, you could discover a very precise geolocation of any object or creature that was not directly obfuscated from divination, with a single casting of Augury.
In 5e, you can't do that. You cannot really push things in the same way because the rules are much less interested in creating a simulation of reality.
Best thing you could do is decide what you want the web of motes to represent knowledge of, and then assign ridiculous DCs to that, but allow preparation using divinations, enhancements, and special conditions to lower the DC.
Maybe it's a DC 50 Arcana check to get a good faith effect of any divination spell, and you reduce that DC by 4 each time someone provides a different Enhance Ability effect for charisma, intelligence or wisdom; Reduce by 4 if the user is a diviner; reduce by 4 if the user can secure themselves a place of power such as a ley line nexus or a wizard tower to do the work in. That right there gives you, a master wizard with some apprentices and real estate, a much more reasonable (50 - (4 x 3 = )12 =) 38 DC check, before the additional reductions being a diviner and having a place of power to work in, dropping it to DC 30, with advantage, A user with an appropriate attribute of 20 and proficiency can hit that, barely, starting at level 6 provided someone is around to drop some Guidance on them!
Sep never explained the mechanics of the Web of Motes - he was even asked directly about it in the Eadric et al. thread, but whether he ignored the query or simply didn't see it, we can't know.
So it can do pretty much whatever it needs to do within your game. I would venture to say that's how Sep would've DM'd it, anyway!
Edit: here's the specific question: Eadric et. al. (The Paladin and his Friends).didn't see it, we can't know.
I don't recall ever seeing any versions of the PCs other than the one posted in the Eadric et al. thread. I guess we know Eadric specifically is the player's prized character since the 1e days, but does the same apply to Nym, Ortwin, Mostin? (I always got the sense that Mostin in particular was created 'recently' to the 'paladin & succubus' situation that kicked off the story hour.)
Did you end up doing it?Try here: Eadric et. al. (The Paladin and his Friends).
I've also been toying with recreating some of Sep's items for my 1e Greyhawk campaigns, in particular the Web of Motes (the Looking Glass is a classic Mirror of Mental Prowess) and some other artifacts.
Allan.