Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dowsing

Dowsing

Key Attribute: Wisdom

Check Modifiers

Circumstance	Check Modifier
Double search radius or viewing area1	-5
Dowse without a rod-like object in two-hands	-5
Rushing: reduce a 1 round action to a move action2	-5
Rushing: reduce a move action to a swift action2	-5
This can be selected multiple times, with the DC adjustment applied each time. This follows mathematical doubling rules (two times, four times, eight times, etc.), not the additive doubling rules associated with critical multipliers. These conditions may be stacked, in which case all relevant modifiers apply.

Special

There are a couple of special concepts related to the dowsing skill. Let's talk about them before getting into the meat of the abilities.

Dowsing Rods

Dowsing is done most easily while holding an object in two hands. Some sages speculate this is to better allow the "chi" or energy of the world into the dowser, and that this ease of entry makes the pull easier to follow. Others speculate that the magic of the world just favors people who look more like idiots, no one is really certain (this view is more common among urban druid bashers). What is clear, however, is that certain types of objects do help. The object needs to be generally rod-like, and most weapons with a haft (battle-axe, short spear, etc.) or a hilt and a long blade (swords) work well. The object should be wieldable in one or two hands. Weapons that fit this criteria work just as well as dowsing sticks and masterwork dowsing rods (though weapons are never masterwork dowsing items) so long as they are not the same size category as the wielder or less than 3 size categories smaller than the wielder. For games that don't worry about item size in that way, you can pretty much allow any weapon that is larger than a dagger but small enough that it doesn't provide reach to work for these purposes.

Interrupting Materials

Lead and cold iron responds very differently to dowsing. These materials have a pull only 1/100th as strong as other metals and a one inch thickness of either metal completely obscure the pull of any material on the other side. You simply can not use dowsing abilities to detect targets on the other side of these materials. The materials themselves are similarly difficult to detect, and that process is explained in the relevant ability.

Because of this property, many wealthy individuals use safes made of these materials to hide the amount and type of wealth that they keep. On first glance, this would seem to make these boxes targets for any thieves using this ability, but this is not the case. The difficulty in locating them make them difficult targets on their own, and their wide spread use means that any particular box may not actually be hiding anything. High level thieves with access to this ability may use it to help locate hidden safes, but deciding on a job to take is still more about researching the target than standing on a roof and trying to find the largest safe.

Pull Information

In general, a dowsing ability will point you towards the nearest, largest (subject to interposing interrupting materials), highest quality, and most easily obtained option within range. Being farther away, being worse in quality, or simply requiring more work to obtain will make a pull appear weaker, and it will be appear worse at first glance as a result. If the dowser spends an additional minute with a pull after the initial dowsing check to weigh and examine it, they learn more about the option it is tied to. Distance, quantity, quality, and ease of accessibility are all rated after this minute. There is no way to hurry this check, and most dowsers are unable to determine one of these areas without determining the remainder at the same time.

Spending the time weighing the options is the difference between digging a well that refills each day from a larger aquifer, allowing a village to drink their fill, and building the village around a rain pond that was simply accessible. For non-rush jobs, it is almost always worth it. PCs, on the other hand, are almost always interested in rush jobs and will often skip this stage, simply taking the first option. They have different priorities than city planners or mine foremen after all.

Untrained Uses

None. Sorry, you actually can’t do this stuff without a bit of training.

Rank 1 Uses

The Pull of Water

The Pull of DM Generosity

The first two abilities of the dowsing skill vary quite a lot from other skill abilities, and are worth taking a moment to talk about. While a lot of other abilities are designed to allow the players more narrative freedom and control, these abilities just let you find things that someone else has already put in the world. And yes, that means that these abilities won’t be particularly useful in lots of games and that the dowsing skill isn’t all that useful at level 1. Not for PCs anyway. It's fantastically useful for NPCs however. This skill actually goes a long way to helping NPCs get by in the world, and to explaining why every settlement has a source of fresh water and every mine is a fabulous treasure trove of wealth. So while it might not be useful to you at low levels, it’s a useful thing to have in the game.

Fresh, drinkable water is a necessity for most of the life in the world. The world knows where it is, and can guide you to it if you know how to let it. As a full-round action, you can attempt to find the available sources or fresh drinkable water within a 1 mile radius. If there are multiple sources within the area, you can tell how large and how far away the water is. Your check result indicates the minimum size of the accessible water pool you can locate with this ability. You will not be able to locate smaller bodies of water without a retry.

Finding water outdoors on the surface is fairly easy with this ability. You make the check, and walk in the indicated direction until you find it. Looking for water underground or within a structure, where walls can block your path, is a bit harder. A single check will point you in the direction, but several checks from different places will help you better find the exact location regardless of intervening structures. Multiple checks will also help you find the best place to break through a wall or dig a well if that's what's required to reach the water. In general, your first check will let you know if there's an aquifer below you or an underground river to the side, and a few hours spent moving around and making additional successful checks will find you the best way to get there. Assuming there's not a better spot within a mile from where you've walked anyway.

The water found with this ability might be free flowing, standing, underground (accessible via well or pit), or even trapped in a plant. There is no guarantee that it will be fresh and tasty, or that it won’t be full of toxins or diseases that will eventually kill you, but it will allow you to stay alive longer than not drinking it.

Special: If you are some bizarre type of creature that doesn’t drink water and needs something else to live, then this ability will find some variety of that for you instead. It doesn’t matter how bizarre it is, it can be crystallized magic or whatever and you will be guided to the largest source within your search area. Again, there is no guarantee that it will be easily accessible or particularly clean, but it will be something that will keep you alive longer than not consuming it.

Base DC: 15 + conditions
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above: If the largest source of water is wrapped up in a baby cactus, then you can follow the pull towards it. This is not enough water for a medium creature for one day, but it’s a lot better than nothing.
• DC+5 to DC+9: You can feel the pull towards any source of water larger than a bucket. This is enough water for most medium creatures for one day.
• DC+0 to DC+4: You can feel the pull towards any source of water larger than a bathing tub. This is enough water for about 10 medium creatures for one day.
• DC-1 to DC-5: You can feel the pull from any source of water larger than a cottage. This is enough water for a lot of people for one day.
• DC-6 and below: You don't feel any pull at all. If it’s not a lake of fresh water that you can already see on the horizon, you won’t be drawn towards it.

Rank 4 Uses

The Pull of Wealth

The world also knows where it hides its mineral wealth. That sort of wealth has its own distinct pull, one you can recognize and follow. As a full-round action, you can attempt to find mineral wealth within a 1 mile radius. The base DC for this check is 20. If you are attempting to find a specific mineral, the DC increases by 3 to 10 points, depending on the rarity and value of the mineral. Looking for copper or silver might raise the DC by 3 points, emeralds might raise the DC by 6, and adamant might raise the DC by 10 points. The actual amount that the DC increases is up to the DM, and should be based on conditions within the campaign setting. They need to tell you when you ask though.

On a successful check you learn the direction and relative size of each mineral caches within range, so long as they are at least as large as the minimum size indicated in your check result. For long veins of minerals, you know the direction to the point closest to you.

Special: Lead and cold iron responds very differently to dowsing. To detect amounts of these metals, like safes made of them, you need a result as least 10 points higher than you would for normal materials in the same amount.

Base DC: 20 + up to 10 for specific materials, + conditions
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above:
• DC+5 to DC+9:
• DC+0 to DC+4:
• DC-1 to DC-5:
• DC-6 and below:

Augury

Portents, omens, and signs surround us every day, telling us what our fates will be. Other people ignore them because they don’t see them, but you know what to look for when you need to seek guidance on a question.

Base DC:
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above:
• DC+5 to DC+9:
• DC+0 to DC+4:
• DC-1 to DC-5:
• DC-6 and below:

Rank 6 Uses

Sense Presence

The world is full of creatures that cannot be detected with normal senses or have trained themselves to avoid the senses of others. You have trained yourself to feel their presence anyway and can spend some time attuning yourself to the world to detect creatures hidden within it. As a standard action, you can gain blindsense out to 60’ for 1 round. As a swift action, you can gain blindsense out to 15’ for 1 round. These distances are reduced to half, round down, if you do not have an implement in your hands, like a dowsing rod, greatsword, or long bow.

Rank 8 Uses

The Individual’s Pull

Water and wealth give off strong pulls that often drown the subtle pull that every object and person in the world gives off. By focusing on an object or person, you can draw upon your connection with them to block out the stronger pulls of the world and follow that specific one. This pull will lead you right to them if you follow it.

Leads you to them, or to path to them, if within 1 mile. This is a ‘path sensitive’ ability, so if you wanted to find a man who was trapped in a secret dungeon accessible from the door hidden in a tree trunk, you really could ask your father (or whatever) to guide your sword and be lead to the tree with the secret door, even if it isn’t the shortest straight line distance.

If not within 1 mile, a full minute of attempting to find it will leave you pointing in the right direction without knowledge of the distance to them.

Creatures or objects that are protected from location divinations by spell add twice the spell level to this DC. Creatures or objects that are non-detectable through other means simply add their CR to this DC.

Base DC:
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above:
• DC+5 to DC+9:
• DC+0 to DC+4:
• DC-1 to DC-5:
• DC-6 and below:

Rank 10 Uses

Sensor Familiarity

Sensors are commonly used to look upon distant locations. You are familiar with their function, even if you are unable to create them yourself, and can disable them. If you notice a scrying sensor or remote viewing window nearby, you may attempt either to return or break the scrying. These function as the abilities listed in the Scrying Subschool description, except the DC to return a scrying is only 30. You have an effective caster level equal to your ranks in Dowsing for these purposes.

Rank 12 Uses

Sense Coplanar Presence

There are places and planes in the multiverse that overlap, where a creature can be right on top of you but hidden by the veil of reality. You can sense them anyway. When you use the Sense Presence ability, your blindsense now detects coplanar creatures within range, such as those on the ethereal plane or plane of shadow while you are on the prime material. Once you know where they are, you can deal with them as your other options allow.

Rank 14 Uses

Remote Viewing

Knowledge of Location or Person	DC
None	401
Secondhand (you have heard of the person or place)	351
Firsthand (you have visited the person or place)	30
Familiar (you know the person or place well)	25
You must have some sort of connection to a creature or location you have no direct experience with.
Connection	DC Modifier
Likeness or picture, map showing location	-0
Possession or garment, material from site	–2
Body part, (hair, nail, etc.), important piece from site	–5

A pool of water, a silvered mirror, a crystal ball, these are windows to other places if one is properly trained. You are able to use reflective surfaces as scrying devices, to see and hear locations or even people far away. Establishing a remote viewing window requires 5 minutes of work and a Dowsing check, the DC of which varies based on what you are trying to view as indicated on the table to the right. The same methods that frustrate scrying attempts, nondetection, sufficient ranks in the Bluff skill, being surrounded by lead, etc., will also block or interfere with your remote viewing attempt.

Your window lasts up to a period of time determined by your check result, though you may dismiss the effect as a free action at any time. Once the remote viewing is established you need not concentrate to maintain it and you do not need to stay within any particular range. Establishing a remote viewing window is not particularly taxing, but it is difficult to perform multiple times without resting to clear your mind of old locations. Each additional remote view attempt before you have had 8 hours of rest increases the DC by 5 points.

The reflective surface functions in many respects like a window. If you are targeting an individual, it shows their immediate surroundings of your target, about a 10' radius, and you hear sounds as if you were at the location. It will also follow them around at a rate of up to 300 feet per round. If you are targeting an area, you instead see an area of about 40' radius, though this can be blocked by walls and other obstruction, but the window is fixed and can not be moved. You see and hear based on prevailing light conditions on the other side, bt gain the benefits of any low-light, darkvision, or other special senses you posses. Spells or effects that target you and modify your senses (those with a range of Personal or Touch) function normally through the window, spells that emanate from you do not function through it. So you can use comprehend languages to understand a conversation, but not detect magic to see magical effects on the other side. Other creature may use your window for these functions as well, whether they are looking over your shoulder or gathered around the pool.

Objects in view are displayed in detail, but creatures other than the initial target are not shown in identifying detail and their voices are off-pitch. If you or anyone viewing attempts to make them out, the creature is allowed a Will saving throw against a DC of 8 + your ranks in Dowsing. If they fail the save, they show up clearly for the remainder of the viewing. If they succeed at their save they remain unidentifiable.

Like a spell based scrying effect, the sensor may be noticed with a DC 20 intelligence check. Creatures with scrying on their class list or the Sensor Familiarity ability of the Dowsing skill may attempt to return scry through the window with a DC 30 check, and may attempt to break the window with an opposed check. Your caster level for these purposes is equal to your ranks in Dowsing. The sensor for your window may not be dispelled by dispel magic, nor may someone make a caster level check to learn your identity.

Base DC: Varies based on
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above: You may view the location for up to 1 hour per rank in the Dowsing skill. Hope you have a watch order setup.
• DC+5 to DC+9: You may view the location for up to 10 minutes per rank in Dowsing. Might want to get some popcorn.
• DC+0 to DC+4: You may view the location for up to 1 minute per rank in Dowsing.
• DC-1 to DC-5: You may view the location for up to 1 round per rank in Dowsing. Enough time to get a feel for things on the other side perhaps.
• DC-6 and below: You fail to remotely view the location entirely. Which isn't enough time for anything.