Although he was hardly the first to turn to the Outer Planes for answers, the Old Guardian’s dealings with outsiders in his pursuit of enlightenment are legendary, and the Southern Academy credits the Old Guardian with the creation of this spell.
When cast, this spell calls a creature from another plane to your precise location, functioning like lesser planar ally except as noted. When you call a creature using planar inquiry, the only task that you can ask of the creature is for it to answer questions or gather information regarding a specific topic (a person, a place, or a thing). After hearing your request, if the creature has an appropriate Knowledge skill it can attempt a check to provide the information it has. If it lacks such a skill, the called creature leaves for 1d4 hours to gather this information. Upon its return, you roll 1d20 plus your caster level and use the result to determine what information the creature has gathered about the subject (as if using Diplomacy). The called creature stays for up to 10 minutes as it relays this information to you, after which it departs to its home plane. If the creature is attacked or damaged at any time during the spell’s duration, the spell ends and the creature returns to the plane from which you summoned it.
When you cast this spell, you can choose a specific kind of outsider to call, even calling an individual creature by name. The kind of outsider called doesn’t alter the effects of the spell, but when you use planar inquiry to summon a creature with an alignment or elemental subtype, it is a spell of that type. You cannot call an outsider whose Hit Dice exceed your caster level (maximum 18 HD) and you cannot use this spell to contact a unique outsider (such as a deity’s herald) or an outsider with mythic ranks.
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SECTION 15