Has the DM fallen from grace?

[FireLance]

Right, you know in the cone in front of you if there is at least one magical thing. It doesn't tell you how many, or where.

Which kind of makes it useless for the originally stated purpose of identifying which items are magical so the dragon can avoid destroying them.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

You must have missed the 3rd round part of LOCATION. I know it's hard to see among all that rules text.

Actually the location would be the various locations on the body. On the 3rd round it will tell you if say a necklace is magical, or a sword, or armor etc.

When that 60ft radius moves over the party then they light up together.

 

[malraux]

Actually it will tell you that the party is where the aura is coming from but you will have to wait to find out exactly where on each person each item is located.

All the dragon needs to know is if the party is coated in magic.

No. The only information you get from the first round of detect magic is a yes or no.

Screwing up a relatively basic rule like this pretty much undercuts the entire case you've made in this whole thread you know.

 

[malraux]

Actually the location would be the various locations on the body.

Where are you getting this? The plain language of the spell is just presence or absence in area of the detect spell.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

No. The only information you get from the first round of detect magic is a yes or no.

Screwing up a relatively basic rule like this pretty much undercuts the entire case you've made in this whole thread you know.

LOL!! You really need to go and learn the rules a bit better. In all seriousness you don't know how Detect Magic works.

Whenever you use Detect Magic in the first round you will see that magic is coming from the party. It won't tell you what exactly is magical but that there is the presence of magic.

That's why the radius is in a cone.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

Where are you getting this? The plain language of the spell is just presence or absence in area of the detect spell.

LOL!!!! Seriously, educate yourself.

 

[D'karr]

Wait a second, you said:

A dragon would use Detect Magic on the group to see what items were magical so he was careful not to destroy them when he killed the PC's.

To which he responded:

Unfortunately, detect magic didn't work like that in 3e. Or were you referring to some other edition or game system?

In particular:

You detect magical auras. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.

1st Round
Presence or absence of magical auras.

2nd Round
Number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura.

3rd Round
The strength and location of each aura. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each. (Make one check per aura; DC 15 + spell level, or 15 + half caster level for a nonspell effect.)

To which you said:

Right there. On the 1st round you know the presence of magical auras. Thanks for taking care of that for me.

But if the dragon doesn't want to destroy particular magical items he can't find that out until the 3rd Round which is what he said.

So let me get this straight, is the dragon trying to determine if the party has magical items that he doesn't want to destroy? Because that would not happen until round 3. Or is he trying to

All the dragon needs to know is if the party is coated in magic.

Because that pretty much looks like a moving goalpost.

Interesting that the complexity of the rules seems to undermine even the simplest of things. I think that the amount of time needed to prepare for this would definitely be increased by first having to create a "friggin'" dragon from the books, then having to give him "Detect Magic", and in the end it doesn't even work how you wanted.

Must be frustrating.

 

[malraux]

LOL!! You really need to go and learn the rules a bit better. In all seriousness you don't know how Detect Magic works.

Whenever you use Detect Magic in the first round you will see that magic is coming from the party. It won't tell you what exactly is magical but that there is the presence of magic.

That's why the radius is in a cone.

It's in a cone because it's basically which way you're facing. But no, on the first round you only get a yes/no to see if there's magic in the area of the spell. Round 2 tells you how many magic auras and how high a level the most powerful one is. Round 3 tells you all the stuff you actually seem to thing appears in round 1.

And assuming there's some magic effect that the dragon has going (a Forbidance spell, for example) then round 1 basically tells him nothing.

Seriously, go ask in the 3e/Pathfinder section. They'll say the same thing.

 

[D'karr]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and acknowledge that I've seen at least one DM fall from grace, right on this thread...

 

[FireLance]

Nah, this is just a messageboard thread and not very meaningful in the greater scheme of things. The OP ought to be putting a lot more time and effort into understanding the rules and crafting the plots and monsters for the games that he actually DMs.

EDIT: On a second reading, I realize that there is an inadvertent double meaning in this post. Of course, it should be read in the "OP is probably doing this" sense, and not in the "OP doesn't appear to be doing this, and he should" sense.