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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1262922" data-attributes="member: 151">Well, there are plenty of ways that this should be impeded or fail.  First things first: You have a murder at a ball...obviously there will be quite a few nobles and powerful people attending.  We return to Psion's point about authority.  If the PCs have total authority in the situation, then it's a moot point.  If they have the force of law on their side, then don't expect to run a murder mystery, because their authority allows them to optimize conditions to short-circuit it when they use magic like to become C.S.I. Greyhawk. Second, authority or no, Commune takes 10 minutes.  200 people, many powerful or high-born are going to just sit and wait during that time?  No, many will want to leave, fearing for their lives.  Some will be insulted, and demand restitution or to be allowed to leave.  What if they try to leave, with their armed bodyguards?  What happens if someone blames the PCs as the culprit?  Suddenly a room full of terrified nobles suspects THEM, and now they're supposed to just sit still while they choose someone at random?  An evil bard could cause a riot in this situation, with a simple perform or bluff check. Third, commune only last round/level.  Assuming eveyrone cooperates with the PCs (big assumption), that means that a 15th level caster has 1.5 minutes to get 200 people to become 100 people, and then 100 to 50.  Unlikely, so now we have: a murder, then say 5-10 minutes of shuffling about.  10 more minutes to cast the spell.  5-10 minutes of more shuffling about. Another 10 minutes to cast.  It gets quicker, but frightened and angry people are prickly, many of them might be political enemies and most of them may be uncooperative...especially towards a group you describe as not making many friends.  Many in the crowd of this party may not be the murderers....but if the party starts casting divintaion spells...well, you've got plenty of extra questions: what if you start asking other ones?  Is that man a murderer?  Did anyone here steal something?  Did that man steal something?  Is that man corrupt?  They may fear, rationally or no, that the PCs are going to trap them in the pursuit of someone else...just one more reason that a non-villian NPC won't cooperate. Fourth, all of this assumes passivity on the part of the murderer, and that he was both unprepared for this turn of events, and that he's working alone.  Any number of spells and effects could make this a difficult problem for the players, not the least of which is interupting the casting of the spell in the first place.  Imagine someone using a thunderstone, thrown out of the crowd, to interupt the spellcaster's concentration?  Sabotage the balcony over there to create a distraction or a panic, and so forth. Finally, as I mentioned before, finding the killer or even revealing him in front of everyone is not the same as catching him.  "Are you accusing the royal Astronomer of being involved in this nonsense?  Yes, I saw you cast a spell, or at least something like one....but it could have been a trick.  Supposedly you got a message from your god...but how can we trust YOU?  You will hear from the King by morning, I assure you!" Most of the divination spells, particularly under 3.5e, have been scaled back slightly, or refined to limit their applicability over different situations.  The trick is taking advantage of the fact.</blockquote>

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