New Spell: Detect Monster

[Blackfang321]

Divination spells don't get much love in D&D...including DDO. And this is just a crazy brainstorming type idea, but....why not a Detect Monster spell? I've thought of a couple ways it could work:

1) Monsters have a blue aura which can be seen through walls/doors from a small distance away.

2) Mini-map or main-map can have small dots letting you know where monsters are.

3) Map or mini-map has a monster count on it.

This may be a "game-breaker" and hence would not work...but people better at balancing this kind of stuff could work out those type of deals. I could especially see how useful this would be during wilderness slayer quests and to prepare against ambushes. And Divination spells need to be flushed out a bit...there aren't really many.

[Kahless_of_Cannith]

Experience or an online guide already provides the equivalent of this by telling you where fights are. I agree divination needs some love, but where are you thinking this would be useful?

[redspecter23]

Perhaps if there was some expansion into area such as loot detection? Come up to a door that might have some loot on the other side, cast your spell and see if any chests light up on the other side of the door. If not, continue on your way. Detect monster could be more useful if it could differentiate between standard and named mobs. Perhaps if you could scan the next room to see if a named is there you could shave off some time if he isn't and you just skip it. The potential uses are there, but admittedly there isn't an overabundance of them.

[Nerate_Mireth]

This is already in the game. It's called the LISTEN skill:

Allows you to hear enemies that are trying to move silently as well as subtle noises which others may not hear.

Even stealth'd creatures make noise. My ranger spots creatures LONG before the rest of the party and generally has the creature dead before the party knew it was there.

Also the SPOT skill:

Allows you to sense the presence of nearby hidden doors, traps, and objects, and to spot enemies that are trying to hide. This skill is passive (always on).

[StelionisIgnigenae]

So much like the invisibility spell, it could give you an automatic 20 for the spot and listen DC, like invisibility gives you an automatic 20 for the hide check.

[Kinerd]

It would be very useful for exploring new areas, as seeing where a monster is is identical to seeing where an area is. This would be limited somewhat by spawn-on-approach monsters.

It would be useful for people who want to kill every monster in a given instance, with the same limitations as above.

Listen is limited by range. The Detect Food I remember from an older D&D game saw the whole level, and was magical. I endorse this suggestion.

[Halock]

Experience or an online guide already provides the equivalent of this by telling you where fights are. I agree divination needs some love, but where are you thinking this would be useful?

(1) New players

( 2) New dungeons that seem to get released fairly frequently

Its also nice to have some more classical D&D spells floating around, even if their uses are situational.

[Nerate_Mireth]

(1) New players

( 2) New dungeons that seem to get released fairly frequently

Its also nice to have some more classical D&D spells floating around, even if their uses are situational.

Part of the FUN, at least for me and my friends, is having those monsters just "pop-up" when we hit a new dungeon/quest. Knowing what's around every corner every step of the way is boring and, IMHO, detracts from what little spirit of PnP exists in this game.

[danotmano1998]

Divination spells don't get much love in D&D...including DDO. And this is just a crazy brainstorming type idea, but....why not a Detect Monster spell? I've thought of a couple ways it could work:

1) Monsters have a blue aura which can be seen through walls/doors from a small distance away.

2) Mini-map or main-map can have small dots letting you know where monsters are.

3) Map or mini-map has a monster count on it.

Agreed, this would be very nice for first timing a dungeon. I don't like to wiki the quest first, I enjoy the surprises. That being said, a simple spell that would show me if there's a huge mob just past that door or just a couple of lone guards would be useful indeed.

This was implemented in NWN2 as the tracking skill and it worked quite well. It's sister spell, detect undead was also useful. It simply showed dots on the minimap when you got within a certain range.

[Blackfang321]

I know that this could info could be learned from online resources...but to me thats sort of "cheating". I enjoy experiencing a dungeon for the first time too (like lots of ya'll)...but an addition resources to help me be cautious would definitely be helped.

Also...can you imagine how useful this would be for Slayer wilderness quests? Or the quest optional bonuses for slaying a bunch of monsters?

Thanks for the support guys! :-)

[kmau]

but where are you thinking this would be useful?

Randomly generated dungeons / random elements in dungeons if they are ever made.

[Jaid314]

Perhaps if there was some expansion into area such as loot detection? Come up to a door that might have some loot on the other side, cast your spell and see if any chests light up on the other side of the door. If not, continue on your way. Detect monster could be more useful if it could differentiate between standard and named mobs. Perhaps if you could scan the next room to see if a named is there you could shave off some time if he isn't and you just skip it. The potential uses are there, but admittedly there isn't an overabundance of them.

there is such a spell. i call it "pressing the q button".

some other people also like to call it "pressing the backspace button", but they're just crazy. probably xoriat cultists, if you ask me.

[Doganpc]

Perhaps if you could scan the next room to see if a named is there you could shave off some time if he isn't and you just skip it. The potential uses are there, but admittedly there isn't an overabundance of them.

This and probably this alone... worth taking over another spell though?

Dogan
What could you live without to shave off a few minutes.