I tried to use this spell last night on the mirror...whatever...thing... near the Fire Temple. Y'know, the one that tries to persuade you to leave all of your weapons on the ground and leave? Well, I don't have anybody with a particularly good Sense Motive skill, so I decided to try the Discern Lies. And...frankly...nothing happened. The spell is supposed to give a +20 bonus to the Sense Motive skill. When I talked to the mirror-thingy, my character couldn't tell they were lying. I might want to add that on my last playthrough, I used a Monk that had a few ranks in Sense Motive (but no more than 10), and she was able to tell something fishy was up. I even went into my inventory to check on the status of my Sense Motive skill, and it didn't list the bonus from Discern Lies. So...is there a fix for this?
So...what was the outcome from your last game? Surely, that ought to guide what you do in this one. Basically, you have two choices: 1. Believe what it says & try to follow what it tells you to do; -or- 2. Ignore it & try to learn more. This isn't a bug.
No. Last time, there was a conversation split that came up with my Monk being able to see that something fishy was going on. This time, it wasn't there. It is a bug.
Maybe it doesn't work on mirrors? after all, the mirror never lies, it just gives you a backwards version of the truth
I dunno... I mean, after all, the mirror was a follower of Iuz. It was a sentient mirror. Well, either way, I wouldn't mind some feedback by one of the higher-ups to see what they have to say about this.
Well, technincally, it's not the mirror speaking to you, but creatures using the mirror to communicate with you. In the module, the mirror is an item of ARTIFACT power, and hence completely unaffected/unaffectable by any forms of mortal magic. Even a Wish only has a small chance of success (although that's a bit of Gygax's heavy-handedness if you ask me). in the game, perhaps the code doesn't recognize the mirror as a creature? Or, more likely, Discern Lies doesn't do anything. The Orb of Golden Death gives you this power and I don't ever remember using it with any appreciable effect. My money is on Discern Lies being a worthless spell. As you yourself said, high skill detected something amiss but the spell didn't.
I disagree. Follow the available options to see what happens. Perhaps it's as you suspected, and your character isn't able to discern enough to get a hint. Not the game's fault. The game doesn't know you've played it before, and gives options based on the abilities of the character. Try boosting a relevant stat & trying again to see what happens, or talking to it with a more skilled character. You are only suspicious because of what you know from playing through once already.
Discern Lies being broken would be a bug; I was referring to the mirror dialogue & what is supposed to happen there.
And the mirror dialog was how I tested the spell. That was the entire point of what I was saying. aper:
This is the whole point I was trying to make: You cast the spell, and nothing is revealed to your character. Perhaps the spell failed for some reason (target saved, doesn't work on mirrors, etc). The dialogue gives you choices. Choose wisely. If you had a question about the spell being bugged ( as opposed to the dialogue), I think CtB answered that.
By saying what I was saying. I knew that dialog well enough. It's not that hard to figure out that there should be a 'Sense Motive' check where there is one. Besides, is anything at all actually immune to the effects of a buff? I mean, look at it this way. You can buff yourself with a Bull's Rush. Are there any monsters out there that are immune to the extra Strength bonus? I've never seen anything in D&D that works like that. So, there's no reason to believe that the spirit-mirror-creature thing should be immune to the extra Sense Motive enhancement... It makes no sense.
Which has made you suspicious enough enhance your decision making process. It's kind of like you know something's wrong, but just can't put your finger on it. The choice is yours, even though the spell failed & your character may not know precisely why...you are still the player. Are you going to go through with it anyway? What happened your first run through? Edit: And there are things in D&D that are immune to the fact that you buffed...at least in certain regards. A Phantasmal Killer is immune to your added strength, but would be easier to save against if you were smarter. Trick is using the corrrect buff.
...the only thing I'm saying here is that Detect Lies doesn't work. I tested it by using it in a conversation I already knew had a Sense Motive check. I used the buff, and the Sense Motive check failed. End of story.
