Author Topic: Foresight, how do you run it?  (Read 1742 times)

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Hallack

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Foresight, how do you run it?
« on: February 24, 2011, 07:13:17 PM »
Basically trying to get some feedback on how various DMs run the spell Foresight in an attempt to help a friend who is running a game for us.

Several from our group who also DM have shared our views and methods but I figure he (and perhaps others that read) might benefit from other DM's experience/methods.

Yes, this spell is VERY DM dependent.
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Whisper

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2011, 07:59:30 PM »
When I run it, foresight gives absolute knowledge of the future... with a range of six seconds. So you can sense immediate threats, but only immediate threats.

Some possible inspiration:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435705/

wotmaniac

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2011, 08:48:03 PM »
When I run it, foresight gives absolute knowledge of the future... with a range of six seconds. So you can sense immediate threats, but only immediate threats.
that's pretty much how I've always read it.
of course, it does seem a little weak for a 9th level spell .... though, I don't really think that you can do much about adjusting it without breaking it in half.

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oslecamo

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2011, 08:54:08 PM »
of course, it does seem a little weak for a 9th level spell .... though, I don't really think that you can do much about adjusting it without breaking it in half.

Uncanny dodge and ability to always act in a suprise round isn't too shabby mind you.

Weaker than shapechange or time stop? Most things are.

Around the same level as Energy Drain? Probably.

Whisper

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2011, 11:05:07 PM »
of course, it does seem a little weak for a 9th level spell .... though, I don't really think that you can do much about adjusting it without breaking it in half.

Uncanny dodge and ability to always act in a suprise round isn't too shabby mind you.

Not to mention that you know what the threat is going to be. If a mage has foresight running, I tell him what each opponent is planning to do next round. Unless that opponent is somehow shielded from divination.

Hallack

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2011, 12:09:55 PM »
I guess it is really only a problem if the DM doesn't have an idea of what the bad guys are going to be doing in the next round.

I was asking because one of my friends is running a game in which my cleric just got Foresight.  It was driving him nuts trying to figure out how to give me info particularly when he himself didn't know what his bad guys were going to be doing from round to round.
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oslecamo

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2011, 12:49:31 PM »
of course, it does seem a little weak for a 9th level spell .... though, I don't really think that you can do much about adjusting it without breaking it in half.

Uncanny dodge and ability to always act in a suprise round isn't too shabby mind you.

Not to mention that you know what the threat is going to be. If a mage has foresight running, I tell him what each opponent is planning to do next round. Unless that opponent is somehow shielded from divination.

See, that's precisely on the realm of DM fiat. Nothing in Foresight says you gain aboslute knowledge about other's actions. It uses words as "sixth sense" and "general idea" precisely because it won't tell you your oponent's precise plans.

veekie

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2011, 01:10:57 PM »
Mostly because a DM can't tell you those precise plans because much of the time plans change several times in a round as actions alter the status quo. He doesn't know either.
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bearsarebrown

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2011, 12:33:21 PM »
Mostly because a DM can't tell you those precise plans because much of the time plans change several times in a round as actions alter the status quo. He doesn't know either.
This is a problem with basically the entire Divination school.

veekie

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Re: Foresight, how do you run it?
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2011, 01:13:29 PM »
Yeah, I had a couple of ideas with handling divination on that end, but it requires a bottom up reconceptualizing of the magic involved.

The Easy Way - Objective Divinations gives you the most probable answer at the moment in time you perform the divination. This is how it would likely turn out if no prescient being acts on knowledge of the future. Subjective Divinations(i.e. Commune, Contact Other Plane) do not give you 'truth' they simply act as a phone call to a more powerful being's information sources and you can't know more than what can be learned by scry and spy.

The Hard Way - Divinations define a particular number of facts about the future, within reason, and those attempting to go against prophecy must roll to resist it. Use At Own Peril. May cause :psyduck
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."