True Seeing Conundrum

Markn said:
Well....the campaign is based on the fact that the PC's follow her bidding for the time being.

Please please please tell me this isn't the cliche "person who is your ally is secretly some BBEG" situation! It's gotten so that I assume that any person who contacts the party needing help is a doppelganger/demon/devil/dragon/daemon/deva/duck in disguise.

Coming up with some ad hoc reason why the true seeing doesn't work is, in my opinion, a bad idea. It's like worrying that the paladin's holy sword is going to kill the BBEG too quickly so you decide the BBEG is immune to swords.
 

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lukelightning said:
Please please please tell me this isn't the cliche "person who is your ally is secretly some BBEG" situation! It's gotten so that I assume that any person who contacts the party needing help is a doppelganger/demon/devil/dragon/daemon/deva/duck in disguise.

OK, I won't tell you. Unless you look below....

You hit the nail on the head! I, like you, wish that that cliche died out long ago. The only thing going for it is that their are plenty of NPC's who are patrons in this campaign and they are who they are so the campaign DOES try to trick you, at least a little. Well...ah, who am I kidding?
 

Lashonna could be a pawn of whoever, so the PCs won't see the real "power behind the throne" on this one until it presents itself.

You could use possession rules from the BoVD instead. I don't think true seeing allows you to see the possessor, but I could be wrong on that one, so you should probably check (or just make up your own possession rules).

Lashonna could be a fallen angel instead of whatever she is. The PCs will see through the disguise to an Astral Deva or something like that, making the NPC even more trustable.
 

Whoa, whoa, whoa- first thing, the Robe of Eyes doesn't grant True Seeing. At all. It lets you see invisible and Ethereal creatures, yes. But it doesn't let you see through illusions. All of its benefits are clearly spelled out in the item's description. True Seeing is required to make the robe, yes- but by no means does that mean the robe grants True Seeing to anyone that wears it. Here's the relevant text in case you're confused:

Robe of Eyes: This valuable garment appears to be a normal robe until it is put on. Its wearer is able to see in all directions at the same moment due to scores of visible, magical eyelike patterns that adorn the robe. She also gains 120-foot darkvision.
The robe of eyes sees all forms of invisible or ethereal things within 120 feet.
The wearer of a robe of eyes gains a +10 competence bonus on Search checks and Spot checks. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC even when flat-footed, and she can’t be flanked. However, she is not able to avert her eyes or close her eyes when confronted by a creature with a gaze attack.
A light or continual flame spell cast directly on a robe of eyes causes it to be blinded for 1d3 minutes. A daylight spell blinds it for 2d4 minutes.
Moderate divination; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, true seeing; Price 120,000 gp;Weight 1 lb.

As you can see, there's no mention of seeing through illusions or transmutations or the like.

That being said, if for some reason someone CAN see through illusions and such (such as an actual casting of True Seeing), there's lots of things you can do in this situaiton. I just want to say that I hate the idea of letting the PCs find out she's an evil undead dragon and then just strong-arming them into doing what she says anyway- it completely ruins the entire plot twist, and no matter what anyone says, you should avoid them finding out her true nature at any cost. (I ran the Age of Worms last year, so I know what it's like.) Here's what you do- first, the thing to remember is that Lashonna has access to some powerful magic- her own spells aside, she's got a Ring of Three Wishes in her horde, as explained in Dawn of a New Age. This is a bit outside of the realm of the campaign as written, but here's your excuse: The Lashonna the PCs meet isn't actually Lashonna. Not directly, anyway. It's actually a Simulacrum- the result of a powerful Wish, of course, because a Simulacrum spell by itself wouldn't work in this situation (can an undead dragon even make a Simulacrum?). It's a Wish-created Simulacrum that looks, sounds, and registers as Lashonna's elven form, while it's completely and totally controlled by Lashonna. Seeing as how it's a creature that looks exactly like the Elven Lashonna, True Seeing would show it as it is- a creature that looks exactly like Lashonna. And since it's controlled by her and her alone, it's Lashonna for all plot purposes.

It's a bit meta-gamey, but hey- your job as the DM is to create an environment in which the PCs have a good, fun, experience, and the better the plot, the better the experience. It's well within her power to do this, and really, there's no reason she shouldn't.

But, of course, the most important factor is that a Robe of Eyes doesn't grant True Seeing.
 



True Seeing can't see through mundane disguises. Just give her a lot of mundane items (makeup, prosthetics, etc) that give bonuses to disguise checks.
 

The nail has been truly put in the coffin of this one, but if you ever need to foil True Seeing or See Invisible, use the Invisible Spell feat from the City book that WotC put out recently - +0LA, makes the spell cast invisible, then cast an Invisible Obscuring Fog...
 

Mind Blank is also a pretty good way to foil true seeing, depending on how you interpret it. (Just be sure to interpret it the same for both sides, since PCs in AoW will be able to cast it themselves soon enough.)
 

UltimaGabe,

Very good points and very good catch with the Robe of Eyes. I will double check when I get home just to be sure it isn't different in the DMG from the SRD but I think we just made the accidental assumption that the wearer had True Seeing when it required True Seeing to make it.

At any rate, AoW has been a splendid campaign so far. Both the players and the DM have enjoyed playing through this one so far!
 

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