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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 944174" data-attributes="member: 9410">I believe you're referring to the "Sunstone", there...  Different animal.  It was used to find the location of the sun, on a cloudy day.Again, why make the PCs roll ANYTHING to determine direction, with a compass?  Does it add anything to the game?  Isn't the (now defunct) Intuit Direction skill necessary BECAUSE there are no compii (compasses)?Considering that compasses do NOT prevent you from getting lost (they tell you which way is north, NOT where you are!), why is it a "Bad Thing" to give the PCs the option of knowing which way they're headed?  (Knowledge (Geography) tells them where they are)?So, again; Why no compasses?  Magnifying glasses and even telescopes exist in 3e.  By the time those were around, compasses were commonplace!As for the Druidic Know Direction Orison, it is not made useless by the compass (just less useful).  Also, it would not be thrown off by the presence of ferrous metals, or high-grade iron ore!  So, I don't see the existance of that Orison as sufficient reason to prevent the compass from being developed.As for magical "anyone can use'm, infinitely" compasses, that's fine, and they should cost quite a bit.  But the mundane compass should be cheaper and readily available, too... at least in those worlds with magnetic fields!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> So why aren't they?  What is it that I'm missing?D&D is a pseudo-Medieval-to-Renaissance Fantasy RPG, based very loosely on the real world.  The level of technology is right for compasses to be common.  Yet they are not.I think the above discussion shows that compasses could be easily made (even if, just like today, they are not perfect).  That being the case, is there a good, compelling reason WHY they shouldn't be a part of the game?As for price, I arbitrarily declare an ordinary, mundane compass to be worth 25 gold pieces.  A magical one is worth... 1/2 (Zero-level spell) x 1 (Caster Level) x 2,000 = 1,000 GP, and takes one day to make.[Edit: 1,000 GP as a "Use Activated" item, that is!]</blockquote>

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