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Detect and Find spells - confusing


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In particular, Detect Magic and Find Magic in RQG.

Detect XXX, p259-260, has Detect Magic and a separate Detect (Substance). 

  1. Which surely means that Magic is not a "substance".
  2. The caster gets a rough direction and distance, and the items glow.

Find XXX, p328-329, does not have a Find Magic, but we know that the pregen Sorala has a Find Magic matrix

  1. How come Magic is now a substance?
  2. The caster is "informed" and "aware" of the item.  How?  A rough direction  and distance?  If so, why not say that?
  3. There is also a "slight identifying glow", just for the caster.  Is this the answer to #2?
  4. If the identifying glow is so "slight", how come it takes 3 freaking meters of stone to block it?  How about a dark cloth wrapping or a wooden box?
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17 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Find XXX, p328-329, does not have a Find Magic, but we know that the pregen Sorala has a Find Magic matrix

It's a good example of a unique heirloom. It is a Dragonewt figurine - so who knows its origin.

17 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:
  1. How come Magic is now a substance?

If you don't want it to be so, disallow it in your games, or make it a special Lhankor Mhy magic, or change the magic.

17 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:
  1. The caster is "informed" and "aware" of the item.  How?  A rough direction and distance?  If so, why not say that?

It glows, so the range is effectively sight. If a magic sword was in a house the caster could see the sword in the house. The GM says "over there in a house you see a faintly glowing sword". If the sword was 4m under the earth, the spell could not penetrate that deep (note that there are some specialist spells that ignore the 3m rule).

17 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:
  1. There is also a "slight identifying glow", just for the caster.  Is this the answer to #2?

Yes

17 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:
  1. If the identifying glow is so "slight", how come it takes 3 freaking meters of stone to block it?  How about a dark cloth wrapping or a wooden box?

The spell is blocked not the glow. The sword would still glow if in a dark cloth wrapping or a wooden box, but it wouldn't glow 4m under the earth.

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50 minutes ago, Scotty said:

It glows, so the range is effectively sight.

So you have to remember to turn around and look behind you, to take off your backpack and look at it, and so on? Hmm …

18 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

If the identifying glow is so “slight”, how come it takes 3 freaking meters of stone to block it?

I take it the thing sought doesn’t really glow. It is more like a head-up display or AR headset — the effect is “painted on” at the caster’s end. This is just my guess, of course.

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NOTORIOUS VØID CULTIST

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1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

So you have to remember to turn around and look behind you, to take off your backpack and look at it, and so on? Hmm …

No. As I said The GM says "over there in a house you see a faintly glowing sword", for above "and behind you you see a magic crystal in a pouch on the guard". The spell description says

1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

I take it the thing sought doesn’t really glow. It is more like a head-up display or AR headset — the effect is “painted on” at the caster’s end. This is just my guess, of course.

It glows for the caster.

Quote

This spell informs the caster of the presence of the substance sought by giving it a slight identifying glow (or similar effect for non-visual senses) that is visible only to the caster.

RBM 52

 

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So it comes down to whether the glow is just a normal physical glow, in which case the object must be in sight, not inside a wooden box, behind a closed door, etc.  Or is it more of an "AR headset" thing?  Seems like the latter according to @Scotty and @mfbrandi

That makes some sense and fits the spell description.  It also makes sneaking around or hiding things very problematic.  

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Apologies for my earlier post, I may be muddling Find and Detect. This is my reading of the two.

Find (Substance) gives a fake augmented reality glow for the caster, like you sometimes get an outline of an enemy behind a wall in a video game.

Detect (Substance) gives a real visual glow to everyone, plus a distance-and-direction for the caster.

Edited by PhilHibbs
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