So it's useful in the 1% of games where you split the party.TOZ wrote:You're not thinking about it in the context of the goal of the book. The book is about intrigue, political maneuvering, spywork. The benefit of the spell is that the caster isn't there but can still identify who IS there via the target of his spell. This benefit just isn't going to come up in 99% of games because don't you know, you never split the party, but this book is designed for the 1% of games that do bullshit like this.
But in those 1%, it's useful only if the caster has knowledge (nobility) (implausible -10 classes may cast the spell, but only two classes spend rank in shitty knowledge skills), if he can't go with you or send his familiar (highly implausible - among the two classes who have rank in shitty knowledge skills, one has a familiar and the other can go anywhere - it's the whole concept of this class), if the target will need knowledge (nobility) (implausible), if you can't brief him beforehand about the important heraldry symbols or the important persons (implausible), if the target can't simply ask or listen (highly implausible - if you have to split the party and you're not a moron, the person you send at the court is the one with the highest social skills), if the target will need the info right now (and can't simply ask latter)...
In the end, that's something like 0.001% of the games ? Pathfinder isn't wow or star wars - it's still a niche product. I'm convinced the number of time this spell will be actually useful in any Pathfinder game in the world will be comprised between 0 and 1 - and the number of time the spell will be effectively cast won't be much higher.
Even in the context of the book, it's a waste of space.
Pathfinder develops this concept in a new entertaining way: having niche feats and spells inside niche splatbooks, while already being a niche product. In the end, some feats exist for a niche of at most 1 player. That's an awesome way of wasting space.
Edit : oh, I did not see the duration of the spell. "10 minutes per level". At low level it has a shitty duration and you can't even use it to split the party: use message and charm person instead. At high level, you're high level.
I take back what I said : this spell will be actually useful at most 0 times in any Pathfinder game in the whole world.