protection from True Seeing?

[Crothian]

My players are pulling a con and they are investigating ideas to stop True Seeing. One of the characters is a Changeling so he fears being outed. Any ideas?

 

[frankthedm]

True seeing wins. The con fails.

Only the open ended uses of Limited wish / Wish / Wish have a chance of doing anything against true seeing if the DM is willing to let them.

 

[Crothian]

That's their fear.

 

[mordulin]

Stay more than 120 feet away, that is the range of True Seeing. Mundane covering works too, wearing lots of clothes and a face mask/wrap is a good way to get around true seeing as it sees through magical disguises, not mundane ones.

 

[Henry]

The only way is to make the CON ITSELF explain what the mark would see with True Seeing: "Yes, of course he's a demon truly! As I told you, the Lich took him and polymorphed him at an early age to a human, and let his family raise him!"

 

[frankthedm]

Some don't like it, but several spells simply negate cetain options as levels go up.

Death ward kicks necromancy and undead in the junk.

True seeing nukes many illusion spells.

Heroes feast spoils poison.

Mind Blank 'blanks' the Enchantment school, but that does not happen until very high levels. Plus Enchantment has so many things immune to it to start with, it is used to being bent over.

 

[Bagpuss]

My players are pulling a con and they are investigating ideas to stop True Seeing. One of the characters is a Changeling so he fears being outed. Any ideas?

Use actual disguise skill, True Seeing would get rid of the +10 bonus a changeling gets for the disguise self spell like ability, but if they actually disguised themselves with mundane means True Seeing can't see through that.

You could argue that Nondection works against True Seeing. Since it's text reads...

The warded creature or object becomes difficult to detect by divination spells such as clairaudience/clairvoyance, locate object, and detect spells. Nondetection also prevents location by such magic items as crystal balls. If a divination is attempted against the warded creature or item, the caster of the divination must succeed on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against a DC of 11 + the caster level of the spellcaster who cast nondetection. If you cast nondetection on yourself or on an item currently in your possession, the DC is 15 + your caster level.

True Seeing is a divination, you are detecting their true nature. It's a real stretch however, especially as True Seeing is of a higher level.

 

[AuraSeer]

Some people claim that mind blank can protect against true seeing. This interpretation is based on the line that says MB protects against "information gathering by divination spells or effects." If that's the only line you read, then it trumps all divinations including true seeing.

If you go with that ruling, then a changeling under mind blank will appear to really be a member of the race he's impersonating.

Personally I don't buy it. IMO, mind blank is clearly meant to protect only the target's mind, so it would not help against other divinations like true seeing or see invisibility. But that's just my opinion, and I'm not the boss of your campaign.

 

[occam]

Yeah, true seeing can be a very annoying spell. It really makes things difficult for long-term undercover work, especially by a creature that's not even humanoid, making Disguise a less useful workaround. For a campaign villain like that, I'm thinking of creating a special magic item impeding the effects of true seeing. I couldn't find another way to deal with it. If only the spell were cast on the object of the seeing, rather than the one doing the seeing, that would make things a lot easier: you could have spell resistance and saving throws play into it, as well as standard defensive magic.

 

[Pyrex]

I seem to remember there being a spell in Dragon a while back that defeated True Seeing.

It was in an Eberron article, the spell having been created by/for Rakshashas.

The caster would cast the spell (which has a duration of 1day/level) and then have to remain in their current form for 24 hours before the spell took effect (so it's only really usable by shapechangers).

After 24hrs, True Seeing sees their current form as their true form for the remainder of the spell. Changing form ends the spell.