MADAR (3.5e Equipment)

MADAR
MADAR (short for MAgical Detection And Ranging) is an object detection system which uses magical waves to discover the direction and distance of various objects. It consists of a rotating dish shaped object, and a display screen which can be connected through silver cables into another room as needed. MADAR can run in active, long range, or passive form.

In active MADAR, the dish emits invisible magical waves which bounce off objects and return as a "ping", displayed as a dot on the display screen. The larger the object, the larger the dot. For most purposes, MADAR only has enough resolution to bother pinging back objects of Large or larger size, with smaller and smaller sizes being faint and easily confused with background noise. Active MADAR sweeps an area and so it records the last known position in the last round, enabling something that is pinged to have moved from its position by the time the next round comes. The average MADAR can "see" out to a distance of 10 miles in a 360 degree circle.

Long range mode is much like active mode, but limited to a cone shape in a direction. It can see out to 1000 miles, but signals are much weaker and only detect things Gargantuan size and larger with any clarity. In addition pings are delayed and are 3 rounds old when they finally register.

Passive MADAR sends out no waves, and instead listens in for magical pulses. Typically this is from other MADAR units in active or long range mode, which come up strongly as an object three times their actual size. It can also detect magical surges such as spell casting from 4th level and higher spells. Treat a 4th level spell as a Large object, 5th as Huge, 6th as Gargauntuan, and so forth. It only detects spells at the moment of casting, a pre-existing spell does not show up. It can passively detect anything within 10 miles in 1 round, and 1000 miles in 3 rounds.

For all three modes, line of sight is required. The magical pulses can pass through fogs and gases, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, or 3 feet of wood or dirt reflects it. Invisible creatures can be picked up by MADAR, but are treated as an object a size smaller than normal. Some substances, namely lead, also disrupt or minimize the profile of objects by not reflecting the magical ping.

Moderate transmutation; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, locate object; Price Cost::5,000 gp.