User talk:Downzorz/Tome of Steel/An Urban Campaign

Forensics

People still get away with crimes despite the existence of fingerprints, DNA analysis, and surveillance cameras. It's only difficult to run an investigative mystery in D&D because nobody's gone to the (admittedly considerable) effort of figuring out how to outsmart a bunch of magical detectives. Get to it, Downzorz. --Foxwarrior 05:49, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

That is, I'm sure there are more interesting solutions to the mystery problem than simply banning divinations or slapping mind blanks all over the place. Consider lower levels and/or limited budgets. Every spell has some loophole; speak with dead only works on the victim if they know who killed them, and have a corpse. If the victim actually doesn't want the killer to be found, it could possibly be extra cryptic. Detect thoughts is a very powerful one, but the players need to figure out who to ask, and the perpetrator(s) can partially avoid it with a proper cell organization or memory wipes. --Foxwarrior 06:26, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Ah, you run into one of the many problems that come out from wizard-level play... the ability of decently-leveled PCs with access to wizard spells to go "No, you," to your carefully-crafted tale of mystery and intrigue with just the right spell targeting just the right person... --Ghostwheel 07:54, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

*Sigh*. --Foxwarrior 08:36, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Le sigh. :-P --Ghostwheel 08:52, 14 March 2012 (UTC)