D&D 3E/3.5 Help me create "Fantasy Sherlock Holmes" in 3.5

radja said:

as for a weapon: sherlock holmes always carried a swordcane so that would be the weapon of choice.

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Dandu said:

Holmes carried a revolver.

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Dannyalcatraz said:

That was a nice riposte with the re-post.

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Heal: Autopsy

Check: You make a Heal check to study the body of a dead creature. The difficulty of the check determines the level of information that you are able to extract from these studies. You must attempt each check in order, if you do so at all. For example, you cannot attempt a Heal check at DC 15 to find out how long the corpse has been dead unless you have already attempted one at DC 10. Note that you do not have to have succeeded at an earlier check in order to progress to a more challenging one. Success conveys accurate information, while failure conveys wrong information. As the player should not know whether his information is accurate or not, the Games Master makes these skill checks in private.

DC 10: You can tell simple facts about the corpse’s station in life and their behaviour. For example, long nails would indicate little need to do manual work, decayed teeth would indicate poverty and a tattoo of a swallow on the bicep would probably indicate that the deceased was a mariner who had crossed the Equator at some point in his life. If the creature was not humanoid, you could deduce what its last meal had been and whether it was intelligent.

DC 15: You are able to determine the cause of death accurately (what kind of weapon made the wound, what kind of disease killed the person, what kind of poison was used) and tell how long the corpse has been dead.

DC 20: You can tell whether the corpse has been moved, or whether it is lying in the same place in which it died. You can ascertain whether death is likely to have been accidental or intentional.

DC 25: If the corpse was killed by an attacker or attackers, you may give a simple description of their likely height, strength and handedness.

DC 30: You can give a simple reconstruction of the likely circumstances of death; this is essentially an encapsulation of the last hour or so of the victim’s life, as close as may be attempted. Obviously, you cannot give names to people, but you can make such suggestions as ‘The stomach contents reveal that she met friends shortly before her death for a glass of beer, the nail scratches show that she got into a fight with another woman but that this was not seriously intentioned, while the stab wounds indicate that an invisible attacker was able to strike as she waited for her next customer, as she made no attempt to defend herself and had not even taken out her hairpin to use as an impromptu weapon.’

The following modifiers apply to the check. If the corpse has deteriorated owing to exposure, consumption by vermin, immersion in water, fire or acid damage or similar, the Games Master should apply a circumstance penalty of –2 to –10. This assumes that the corpse is still more or less intact despite its condition, as a deliquescing cadaver or a skeleton cannot be treated with an autopsy. If the character can examine the body in the place where it was discovered, he may add a +2 circumstance bonus to his check, as he is able to take environmental factors into account.

If the creature is not human or humanoid, a –10 circumstance penalty applies in the case of aberrations (whose anatomy is frequently alien), a –4 penalty for monstrous humanoids and giants and a –6 penalty for all other creature types. Undead, oozes and constructs cannot be given autopsies.

Action: Each successive Heal skill check takes 30 minutes of activity.

Special: A character with more than 5 ranks in Spot or Search may add a +2 synergy bonus to his use of the Heal skill to perform an autopsy. A character with the Diligent feat may add a +2 bonus to his use of this skill in this capacity, as his meticulousness is exactly the kind of qualification needed to notice giveaway details that others would fail to observe.

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Wraith Form said:

True, although he often gave it to Watson (who was, according to Holmes, a better shot due to his military service).

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