Power Requirements | |
| Future time period | Power |
| Within the next minute | 2 |
| Within the next 10 minutes | 3 |
| Within the next hour | 4 |
| Within the next 24 hours | 5 |
| Within the next week | 6 |
| Within the next month | 7 |
| Within the next year | 8 |
| Within the next 10 years | 9 |
| Within the next 100 years | 10 |
| Any future | 11 |
Prerequisites: Wisdom 12
Attribute: Wisdom
Base Power: 1 + Wisdom Modifier
Base Area/Range: Personal
Base Duration: Concentration
Enhancements: None
Power Effect: The character may attempt to seek an answer to a specific question about the future. The diviner must make a successful Knowledge (Augury) check in order to correctly interpret the omens. The base DC for any Augury is 5 times the Power rating of the effect. If the Augury check succeeds, you receive a short answer to your question. If the question is direct, you will likely receive a simple “yes,” “no,” or “neither” answer. If the question is complex, the answer will be cryptic. By succeeding by 10 or more, direct questions will be answered with additional information, and complex questions will be answered clearly. You can only ask a question once in a 24 hour period. Fail by 10 or more and you cannot ask the question again for a month. Interpreting the omens of another person is a -5 penalty to your check.
5 comments:
I'm curious how this works out for you in play. It would seem to me that it would cause more trouble than it's worth. What do you do if a player asks a question like, "Will I die if I duel Tiberius?" It also assumes that the GM has a lot of knowledge about future events in the campaign.
How do these abilities get used in your games, and what sort of effects do you achieve with them?
- Brian
You have the same problem with any power that allows a player to divine future events.
I think some of it relies on being a bit agile. Leading answers are always the trick - think of the famous augurs of history.
For that particular question, the answer would be "yes" (You will die whether you fight Tiberius or not, so the answer is yes in either case). Seeing the player squirm in that case would be well worth it.
True, but if the key to using augury properly is to only return non-actionable, misleading, or otherwise useless information, why would anyone bother? What is the utility of augury in the game, both for players and GMs?
- Brian
Crap, blogger lost my answer.
Anyway, the information is not useless - you just have to ask the right question. In the specified instance, the answer can also be in "weal" or "woe" format, like the augury spell in 3.5.
If the guy you want to duel is 6 levels higher than you, a general "this might not be a good idea" answer can be very helpful.
From a GM perspective, it is a way to influence the players without railroading. Possible consequences, etc. Either way, the player needs to learn the right questions and it takes time and thought. Careless auguries result in less useful answers.
Question: "Will I die if I duel Tiberius?"
Answer: "The portents are not favorable" or "the signs point to yes" if Tiberius has 6 levels and some nasty magic on his side.
Question: "If I go on this quest, will the kingdom fall?"
Answer: "Perhaps"
Question: "If I don't go on this quest, will the kingdom fall?"
Answer: "Yes"
Augury is not set in stone and it's a tool for information, nothing more.
Ah, I see. Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks!
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