From:	Wagemage wagemage@**.rr.com
Subject:	senses and magical targets
Date:	Sat, 7 Oct 2000 09:40:45 -0400

>Perhaps it'd be a good idea to pop this can o' worms open... why is it,
<snip>
>On a note that's more likely to come up, could a troll or dwarf mage (who
>would tend to think of infravision as a normal part of sight) zap
>somebody who was trying to hide behind something by the heat signature?

I'll weigh in on this particular quandry. IMHO, you need some direct
method of pinpointing a target and then a direct "view" of that target.
So under my interpretation, a dog could not cast based on scent alone,
because they do not know where the person is, only that they went thatta
way. Same for heat wafting off people. You cannot see THEM, you can see the
effects of thier presence. No more useful than trying to cast on a
footprint.
However, echolocation is a viable means of casting to my mind. The
caster knows the precise location of the target via echolocation, not just
it's general direction. Dolphins can even distinguish shapes and identify
creatures, boats, etc, by the method. Thus it's a direct view of the target.

Say you're in a dark room, an office. There are cubes about. You can see
the beam of a flashlight shining up from within the cube. You might even be
able to figure out that it's being held against the wall, but you still
don't KNOW EXACTLY where it is. You have a pretty damn good guess, but you
don't KNOW. For magic you have to know.