Spell - Memory Map

[Guest]

Memory Map
Divination
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 30 minutes
Range: Person Touched
Effect: Copies a person's memories into a gem
Duration: permanent until vessel (gem) is emptied of memories
Saving Throw: Will Negates
Spell Resistance: yes

Description:

This spell takes a subjects memories and stores a complete mental map of them into a single sapphire of no less than 1000 gp in value. The saphhire can than be either 'read' by means of a 'Detect Thoughts' spell or used in the casting of a 'Clone' spell to animate the clone without killing the original.
If the resultant gem is used in the making of a clone, the caster needs to sacrifice a bit of his own essence to give the creation a soul. The result is that the clone will have memories of the original but the alignment of the caster.
Using Detect Thoughts to read the stored memories is risky in that if one tries to absorb too much information... their fragile mind will break.
Once per day a caster can read one days worth of memories for every minute spent in concentration on the spell without harm. An attempt at any further castings will invoke the following penalties if a save is not made.
A second casting of the spell requires Will Save, DC 20 or suffer 1d4 damage to your intelligence. A critical failure results in the casters becoming completely overwhelmed by the memories and you can treat him as though he is under the effects of a 'Feeblemind' spell.
Any additional castings raise the DC by two for each attempt.

Arcane Material Component:

one sapphire of no less than 1000 gp value and a small doll that has been shaped to look similar to the subject to be mapped

[Unknown Soldier]

very neat mate... as i much prefer to be the warrior, i had never even THOUGHT of creating spells.... actually... really the only thing i ever think about is how i plan to totally destroy the entire human race... good show Ao.

[Zavin]

Wow, I really like this spell. It's something I never thought of but wish I had!

[Guest]

The uses you could put that to in an Eberron game would be great.

"The witness is dying and we cannot save him."

"Cast memory map upon him, we may still see justice done"

etc etc

Of course that use is somewhat redundant with raise dead.

[Guest]

Raise Dead spells bring up waaaay more moral issues than this spell methinks This spell is also superior in that death is not necessary for a reading.

[Guest]

Just as a reference, what level is Clone? I would think that Memory Map should be at least a level higher than Clone, since you'd have a powerful combination of spells if a caster has both.

[archmagi1]

clone is 8th

[leppy1307]

if it wears his mind down you may want to put he needs a break in between. I mean I don't know how many castings of the spell you get per day, but if it's even more than one, unless you specify they could potentially cast them back to back no? Thereby negating the damage by casting one, using a minuite, dismissing it, and casting again. Good job though! ; 0

[Guest]

Man... it's been ages since i even thought about this spell... I always meant to go back and refine it a bit. Mayhaps I'll get it done for the next newsletter. Thanks for checking it out and commenting!

So far as castings per day... I need to word it better up there but, basically, he can cast it as many times as he has spell slots to do so. The penalty stated is for if he were to try casting back to back or more than once in a 24 hour period. So, he could cast the spell once in a 24 hour period at no penalty to himself. Any further attempts without waiting would invoke the penalty that increments with each casting.

I should also note that the maximum amount of minutes one can spend is the same as the casting time... basically, no more than 30 days can be pulled out per casting.

Like i said, it needs some minor refinements... I'm certainly going to do so... and mayhaps a conversion for 4e is in order as well.

[leppy1307]

oh wow, yeah sorry about that.... totally didn't read last post date before posting....I'm terrible for that....

[Guest]

Meh, no worries, thread necromancy is alright in some places... annoying in others... in this case... s'all good. If it had been a post about the first episode of the first season of Heroes dated two years ago or something... well, that would prob have been annoying.

So, don't sweat it leppy. We all float down here!!!

[mistman530]

while being able to read the memories is very useful and can have many possibilities, i think the really cool possibility is its ability to activate a clone without killing the original. Any spellcaster of high enough level with a clone and this spell and copy himself, having two of your character could be extremely useful. Or if you are up against and evil spellcaster in an adventure your spellcaster could copy his memories and activate his clone ( anyway spellcaster with the ability worth his salt should have one in my opinion) and then that would make a great battle, him fighting himself and your entire party.

[Guest]

I wonder if there's some sick experience loophole just waiting to appear here...

[WhiskeyFur]

I was looking at the spell and thinking, what if I was the bad guy...

Kidnap, paralyze, or otherwise restrain one of the PC's (you), do this on him and the villain gets away...

Later on, the you starts hearing about how 'you' ares going around wrecking all kinds of destruction. How do you explain to the authorities that it's not really you, especially when the fake you hides as soon as he hears you were captured so you can suffer the unkind hand of justice?

Eeeevil. I like it.

[Cosmar]

Sorry about the thread necromancy...but I think this is a great spell! If they would still make more sourcebooks for 3.5, like a spell compendium 2.0, something like this ought to be in there. The possible adventure/campaign uses would be infinite...

Like, the location of a sapphire with the memories of a powerful ancient archmage, long dead, is discovered, and different factions want to find it...a lich who wants to discover a powerful arcane secret the archmage knew, clerics of an anti-magic deity who want to destroy it or hide it, a benevolent magical ruler who wants it to discover new ("old") ways of protecting his people, etc, and the players could try to claim it for themselves, or thwart another faction, or recover it for their chosen faction...*runs off to write an adventure*