conducting a paternity test in D&D

[Henry]

Augury could let you know if claiming the kid would be helpful or harmful to you.... Legend Lore and Vision might be able to provide info as well.

If a child is going to force you stay put for several years, impact your income, and limit your freedom of action in quests and adventures, how do you THINK Augury's going to come back for an adventurer?

Legend Lore only would work if the child (not the father) was destined to an auspicious and important life, so not a lot of help there, either.

I'm with Green Slime; I'd leave it a mystery, because there are some things spells just shouldn't be able to do with ease.

 

[monboesen]

Without magic it can't be done in a D&D world. Simple as that.

It wasn't until the 1980's that paternity tests by blood reached an accuracy that makes them usable. It requires a lot of knowledge about genetics, the immune system and heritability.


The surest thing will be a Commune spell (Cleric spell level 5) and the question: is X the father of the child in Y's womb.

 

[atom crash]

I'm with Green Slime; I'd leave it a mystery, because there are some things spells just shouldn't be able to do with ease.

OK, so let me ask a somewhat similar question.

According to the campaign material for Green Ronin's Freeport setting, there is a succession crisis because the city's last Sea Lord has been killed without leaving an heir. One of the laws of the city mandates that a person must be a descendent of the original Sea Lord Drac in order to have a claim to the title. According to the Freeport: City of Adventure book, there are currently three candidates claiming kinship to the original Sea Lord who are all vying to become the next Sea Lord.

So, how would one authenticate their claims to the title? There's no such thing as DNA testing, no records of birth certificates, and geneology information can be forged and faked.

 

[jmucchiello]

Discern Location: "Where is so-and-so's nearest unborn offspring?"
Discern Lies: "Did you lay with this man?"
Commune: "Is so-and-so the father of this woman's unborn child?"

 

[Henry]

...One of the laws of the city mandates that a person must be a descendent of the original Sea Lord Drac in order to have a claim to the title. According to the Freeport: City of Adventure book, there are currently three candidates claiming kinship to the original Sea Lord who are all vying to become the next Sea Lord.

So, how would one authenticate their claims to the title? There's no such thing as DNA testing, no records of birth certificates, and geneology information can be forged and faked.

If I recall, isn't at least one or two of those claimants faked anyway, and I could've sworn faked documents was behind one of them? Feeds right back to the problem, and its use in making good RP adventures.

But to answer your question: One of the most common, historically, is credible eyewitnesses. People who say that so-and-so, who was the lover of thus-and-such, had this child. In other words, you don't. As it was murky in real life, so can it be murky in an RPG.

Now, for those who want the magic-based solution, BOEF's Analyze Ancestry and similar spells are a good quick & easy workaround. Me, I don't mind the mystery in-game. Besides, there IS a reliable way, but the question has to be important enough: Commune with a deity who is in touch with the situation, such as a love or fertility god. If someone's riding rule of land over it, you'd better believe the commune would be broken out by the high priest, if it's at all available.

In Freeport's case anyway, the setting is low-level and low-magic inspired, and things like wishes, communes, legend Lores, etc. are discouraged in the setting, IIRC.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If they have Victorian technology, then some cutting edge guy out there knows about the simple blood types (I think that was discovered in 1908 but with different attitudes towards research of the body and with magic helping things along it might well be discovered sooner). He would be able to tell who was not the father by simple blood type.

Not sure why this would be true in a world where the natural laws encompass things like beholders.

Blood is red ketchup that's mostly interesting to stirges in D&D, IMC. It comes out of the heart and you need to keep it on the inside to stay alive, but that's it.

I'd knock up a counterpart to the BoEF spells, myself. It'd be the kind of non-adventuring spell that every nation would develop early on, to solve succession crises and so on. (And, of course, there'd be magic to foil such tests as well.)

Oh, and atom crash, I have a one word complication for you: doppleganger. (Or their cooler cousins, shifters.) Heck, you could even have it be that when a shapechanger impersonates someone, it confuses the paternity tests too, whatever they may be. With a shapechanger running around, not only does the player have to figure out why a doppleganger would do that, and then catch and punish them, but then there's the matter of a fatherless child who will look an awful lot like the PC ...

 

[Mycanid]

Yeah ... I think in this case magic is probably the most surefire way and that the commune spell would be your best bet. (Assuming the spellcasters involved have no personal agenda either ... be a bummer for the pc if the wizard or cleric they asked had fathered the child, for example.)

I like Whizbang's idea about the shapeshifter confusing things though, and think that this might be a good way to keep the story a mystery.

Even if you do not use this particular method I agree with Slime and Henry think it would be good to in fact keep it a mystery - perhaps you can bring in an interesting plot twist later on from the fact!

 

[Deadguy]

Best solution: wish! "I wish this were not my child!"

Expensive, yes. But he'll save money in the long run!

 

[Merkuri]

doppleganger. (Or their cooler cousins, shifters.

Not to be picky, but the race you're looking for is "changelings." Shifters are related to lycanthropes.

I like WayneLigon's idea about the blood types where you can disprove paternity, but you can't positively prove it. You can give that a sort of magical bent, where you can test the magical aura of a person with a spell or a magic item. If the child has a green aura and the mother has a blue aura, then you know the father has to have a yellow aura (blue + yellow = green). If the PC has a yellow aura then he could be the father, but you don't know for sure. If he has a purple aura then you know it's definitely not him. You don't have to use colors, but you can make up something similar.

Leaving a bit of uncertainty in there makes it interesting and more realistic, IMO. Perhaps the mother (or even the child, if you let it go long enough) could keep trying to come up with ways (spells, magic items, pseudoscience) to prove he's the father, and he has to keep dodging or failing the tests.

 

[atom crash]

If I recall, isn't at least one or two of those claimants faked anyway, and I could've sworn faked documents was behind one of them? Feeds right back to the problem, and its use in making good RP adventures.

Exactly my point. This sort of situation must have happened before, so what steps are in place (and what resources are available) in order to validate a candidates claims? And by extension back to the original question, what can a PC do when a woman comes up to him and says, "I'm carrying your child?" Especially when he could in fact be the father of the child, but he wants to know for sure because he really doesn't want to get taken by an opportunistic escort who can't work now because of her condition?

I like Whizbang's idea about the shapeshifter confusing things though, and think that this might be a good way to keep the story a mystery.

Even if you do not use this particular method I agree with Slime and Henry think it would be good to in fact keep it a mystery - perhaps you can bring in an interesting plot twist later on from the fact!

The doppleganger isn't a bad idea, but it's just not right for me. There's already enough drama in the situation without having to add a doppleganger into the mix.

This girl with a bun in the oven is a real escort that the PC hired about 3 months earlier in the campaign (we just glossed over this, since I don't want to run that kind of a game; he showed up at the party's new digs with a girl on either arm and marked off an appropriate amount of gold to cover the expense) who is really three months with child now and telling the PC he is the father; for whatever reason she really believes it, whether or not it's true, and she's asking him to marry her so she can quit the business and they can raise their child and live happily ever after on his fortune.

Maybe she's a nutbag, like the woman a few years back who kept breaking into David Letterman's house. Maybe she received a vision (a devious plot by a demon/devil or a message from the gods?) that the child is the result of her coupling with the PC. Maybe the child really is the offspring of the PC. Maybe it's the offspring of another of her clients and the timing is just an unlucky coincidence for the PC.

The real mystery will be how the PC is going to handle this challenge -- Will he marry her and raise the child? Will he hire a private detective, sage or priest to find out if it's really his child? Will he attempt to buy her off or set her up with a more suitable husband (adventurers make terrible mates, you know, always running off into danger and never home at night)? Will he decide it's time to make waves for the next port?

I haven't decided yet what the truth of the matter is. I'll allow myself to be influenced by how the PC decides to play it. If he decides he could be the father, maybe I'll decide that he actually is. If he thinks it's a plot to get at his fortune, then maybe it is. I've got enough ideas to go either way here. But I want to be prepared for when he says, "I employ every resource to prove I'm not the father."

Leaving a bit of uncertainty in there makes it interesting and more realistic, IMO. Perhaps the mother (or even the child, if you let it go long enough) could keep trying to come up with ways (spells, magic items, pseudoscience) to prove he's the father, and he has to keep dodging or failing the tests.

This is a good idea and would be funny to watch play out. I don't think the woman has too many resources to back her up, but maybe someone she knows who has a vested interest in the situation (her pimp, her estranged merchant family, a devil disguised as her friend who ijust wants to torment the PC, a rival/enemy of the PCs) is footing the bill.