Truth Compulsion – How to Force a Character to Tell the Truth in D&D?

dnd-3.5epathfinder-1e

One problem that I have with the various ways of determining falsehood in 3.5/PF is that none of them are foolproof. There are a few spells that help with this, but they all allow saves. Zone of Truth is especially bad, since you don't even know if a particular character failed the save or not, and the affected character is aware of the effect and can clam up if they want.

Is there a way to force a character to tell the truth (or at least know if they're lying) that doesn't allow a save, or SR, or any other form of resistance? I'd be happy with answers that just get by save and SR, as I feel that it's unlikely that anything is going to get by Mind Blank or other such total protections. I'm happy with answers that address either 3.5 or Pathfinder, but please note which you're answering.

Best Answer

Geas

You could cast Geas/Quest on the target, this is however a 6th level spell but it only allows a chance of SR - no saving throw. So it's nearly what you want, but it's not going to get around mind blank sadly as it's mind effecting.

The spell text states:

While a geas cannot compel a creature to kill itself or perform acts that would result in certain death, it can cause almost any other course of activity.

So you could easily compel/quest a target to "only speak the truth for 24 hours"

Lesser Geas/Quest allows a Will saving throw.

Spell available in both systems.

Commune

Failing that you could cast Commune after the subject has said something and ask the patron "Did X speak the truth?". This divination spell isn't directly targeting the subject so may get around this (GM advisement I'd feel)

Spell available in both systems.

Mark Of Justice

Your best chance, probably, I think is Mark of Justice which is neither mind effecting or a divination spell so mind blank isn't going to help. It only allows spell resistance, no saving throw. However the spell does need 10 minutes to cast on the subject however. What it allows is:

Typically, you designate some sort of undesirable behavior that activates the mark, but you can pick any act you please.

So you could designate the action as "lying" and have the curse as, well, it depends how nasty you're feeling. Or if it's a simple interrogation the curse could be that the victim turns orange for 10 minutes - curse over and lie detected.

Spell available in both systems.

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