Why are scrying rituals so dang short?

[ForbidenMaster]

I'm not sure I consider 2% of my total monetary take for the entire level 24 a pittance. At 30 seconds how many times would you have to cast this to get even half decent information, 20 times, 50 times. Heck I'll be nice and say 10 times, or 20% of your partys total take for level 24. So really to get a shot at decent information, not even guaranteed since even after 10 times you can get 10 times of him in the bathroom is it worth 20% of the party haul.

I suspect the party will be wanting to put some of that money into expanding there miscellaneous magic times, rounding out other slots, and a variety of other functions. How much money are they going to spend on the hope they time everything right, and the person isn't protected from scrying.

First of all if there is a forbiddance cast then no components are ever spent, and no time is spent as you know that you cant cast the ritual right when you start. And yeah, 2% is pretty pitiful cost and worth the price of the few seconds. Its definitely not worth hours of scrying. If you want to scry a creature for hours you should have to pay way more than 2% of your take, especially given that it benefits the group as a whole. If you want to make the scrying time longer, fine, just note that the cost really isnt a lot, and that you should probably increase the price.

 

[Branduil]

Divination shouldn't be an instant-info button. If you want first-hand info you can always have the Rogue lurk around using Streetwise and such.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Divination shouldn't be an instant-info button. If you want first-hand info you can always have the Rogue lurk around using Streetwise and such.

True. I can see a Divination ritual with a tangible beacon that lasts longer.

Then, the rogue needs to smuggle the beacon into the bad guy's henchman's pocket first.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I agree, the short durations are ridiculous, especially considering the time and cost involved in the casting.

Exactly.

You complete the scrying ritual. You can see the king in his audience chamber, ready for his council of war with his chief advisors. You can see the advisors respectfully walking towards the king. They bow, address him with the normal honorifics and... ka-ching! The view goes blank.

Want to spend another 21k and an hour? Oh, but the important meeting will be over by then.

What's the chances of hitting a useful 30 seconds of the targets day with the scry spell? Pretty much nil, I would have thought.

If I'd been a playtester who saw that I'd have kicked up a mighty fuss about useless durations!

 

[serow]

Probably the DM is meant to give the scrying players something valuable to look at. Otherwise it's just wasting everyone's time... and gaming patience.

 

[Branduil]

Probably the DM is meant to give the scrying players something valuable to look at. Otherwise it's just wasting everyone's time... and gaming patience.

Exactly... scrying should be an aid, not the entirety of your information gathering.

 

[Schmoe]

Probably the DM is meant to give the scrying players something valuable to look at. Otherwise it's just wasting everyone's time... and gaming patience.

If it's all in the DM's hands, as you propose, then it's a lot easier for the DM to justify giving some meaningful information with a 5 minute duration instead of a 5 round duration, and there's no risk of giving too much away. Because, of course, it's in the DM's hands.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Scrying is planning. Planning is boring!!!!! Skip the planning and move on to the FUN!!!

From the high costs, long casting times and crappy results it is obvious that scrying is frowned upon in 4E. Perhaps all the 3.X horror stories of scry, buff, teleport made the designers a little too afraid of the power.

Nerfing every ability that has potential for being abused is really nuts. A wizard should be able to sustain scying for a decent and useful amount of time, several hours if desired. It can easily be balanced by the subject(s) getting a greater chance to detect the scryer the longer it continues. There can be great dramatic tension as the wizard struggles to maintain view long enough to gather the needed intelligence, knowing that he could be discovered any second.

I suspect the REAL reason to limit the duration so much is so the scrying wizard could actually get some adventuring done. Everyone knows that long duration scying would be used for porn.

 

[Mort_Q]

Teleportation is LOS. Scrying grants LOS, does it not?

Maybe that's the reasoning?

 

[Stalker0]

If the cost is "appropriate" then I would prefer that the ritual can last as long as you want, you just have to keep paying the cost.

But the other problem is if you actually manage to get in there for a good 5 round window and you want to see what happens...tough! It takes another hour to get more info, and likely whatever you were seeing will be over.

And guys don't forget, that 5 rounds is for a very high arcana check. More likely you will get 3 or 4 rounds.