4th level divination (wizard)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Component: V, S, M
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Every divination spell has the potential to unleash a torrent of uncontrolled information spilling across the user's mind. For the best of such spells the difficulty is filtering and safeguarding the information being poured into the caster. Most diviners consider this spell a failure, an aberration created by
You point to a single target and open their perceptions to a wellspring of information, releasing an unfiltered, uncontrolled torrent of divinatory visions into their mind. At the beginning of each of their turns the target makes an Intelligence save. If they fail they are unable to process the information filling their mind, suffering 3d4 psychic damage and being stunned until the beginning of their next turn.
On a successful save the subject clings to a thread within the prophecies filling their mind. They take half damage and are not stunned. Moreover, the thread they wrest may prove useful, for each successful save they get a luck point, which may be used per the Lucky feat.
At Higher Level. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the maximum duration increases by 1 round.
Every now and then, as a design challenge, I try to find two things that are typically antithetical to one another and find a way to make them work together. For example, the concept of the Divination school leaves little space for a direct attack spell either mechanically or fluff-wise. The goal is to create a spell that is weak enough that it lacks the general utility of its contemporaries and thus doesn't challenge their primacy, but useful enough that it will be taken either by players who find it individually interesting or have specific corner-case builds where it provides an advantage without it being game-distortingly powerful,
I won't rehash the concept I settled on for the spell, suffice to say the consequence was that I decided to use Evard's Black Tentacles as the basis for the mechanics. Theoretically, EBT's main use is to make it undesirable to enter an area, rather than simply impose damage. However, sometimes you just want to drop a distracting DOT effect on someone, so I decided to assume that is the function and work out from there.
On the one hand, I shortened the range, dropped to a single target rather than an area of effect, and subjects the target to the stunned rather than restrained effect. On the other hand, it shifts from requiring an otherwise lost action to try and break free their choice of Dexterity and Strength to a set Intelligence save, forcing the ability score used, and you cannot walk away from it. In some editions the damage type can be significant, especially the shift from a physical type to a rarer type like psychic, but 5e seems to be less prolific with resistances and immunities than 3rd or 4th. This makes that worth being aware of, but not a huge concern.
So, while most of the rest of the changes wash out, the loss of the ability to escape the area by walking and thus end the damage over time ends up being the controlling thing, substantially changing the damage characteristics of a DOT. Consequently, I ended up dropping the damage from 3d6 to 3d4, reducing both maximum and average damage noticeably. The result is a spell that's unusual in effect. While it doesn't threaten the general utility of Evard's Black Tentacles, denying space, it also doesn't do the type of instant-damage that other equal level spells can. On the other hand, like a good DOT, it can rack up significantly more damage by the end than an instant spell would.
I did consider adding a madness stinger on the spell, but felt that it was likely to push the spell over that boundary of potentially too powerful. This is one of the reasons that the higher level adds time to the spell rather than damage. Adding time also adds less damage than either additional dice or a straight plus would. If you want the madness stinger for flavor, or think the DOT effect isn't strong enough;
If, over the course of the spell, the target fails more than 4 saves they are driven insane. The victim of this madness cannot take actions, understand what other creatures say, can't read, and speak only in gibberish. This lasts for 1d10 minutes at 4 failed saves, 10d10 hours at 9 failed saves, and at 15 failed saves lasts until cured with the Greater Restoration spell or other similar effect.
I would actually prefer to use the madness tables (PG 258-260 DMG). However, the simplified madness rules match with the rules on madness spells the PH. If using the madness table rules impose short-term madness with 4 failed saves, 9 saves they experience long-term madness, and at 15 failed saves they are driven to indefinite madness.
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Component: V, S, M
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Every divination spell has the potential to unleash a torrent of uncontrolled information spilling across the user's mind. For the best of such spells the difficulty is filtering and safeguarding the information being poured into the caster. Most diviners consider this spell a failure, an aberration created by
You point to a single target and open their perceptions to a wellspring of information, releasing an unfiltered, uncontrolled torrent of divinatory visions into their mind. At the beginning of each of their turns the target makes an Intelligence save. If they fail they are unable to process the information filling their mind, suffering 3d4 psychic damage and being stunned until the beginning of their next turn.
On a successful save the subject clings to a thread within the prophecies filling their mind. They take half damage and are not stunned. Moreover, the thread they wrest may prove useful, for each successful save they get a luck point, which may be used per the Lucky feat.
At Higher Level. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the maximum duration increases by 1 round.
~~*~~
Every now and then, as a design challenge, I try to find two things that are typically antithetical to one another and find a way to make them work together. For example, the concept of the Divination school leaves little space for a direct attack spell either mechanically or fluff-wise. The goal is to create a spell that is weak enough that it lacks the general utility of its contemporaries and thus doesn't challenge their primacy, but useful enough that it will be taken either by players who find it individually interesting or have specific corner-case builds where it provides an advantage without it being game-distortingly powerful,
I won't rehash the concept I settled on for the spell, suffice to say the consequence was that I decided to use Evard's Black Tentacles as the basis for the mechanics. Theoretically, EBT's main use is to make it undesirable to enter an area, rather than simply impose damage. However, sometimes you just want to drop a distracting DOT effect on someone, so I decided to assume that is the function and work out from there.
On the one hand, I shortened the range, dropped to a single target rather than an area of effect, and subjects the target to the stunned rather than restrained effect. On the other hand, it shifts from requiring an otherwise lost action to try and break free their choice of Dexterity and Strength to a set Intelligence save, forcing the ability score used, and you cannot walk away from it. In some editions the damage type can be significant, especially the shift from a physical type to a rarer type like psychic, but 5e seems to be less prolific with resistances and immunities than 3rd or 4th. This makes that worth being aware of, but not a huge concern.
So, while most of the rest of the changes wash out, the loss of the ability to escape the area by walking and thus end the damage over time ends up being the controlling thing, substantially changing the damage characteristics of a DOT. Consequently, I ended up dropping the damage from 3d6 to 3d4, reducing both maximum and average damage noticeably. The result is a spell that's unusual in effect. While it doesn't threaten the general utility of Evard's Black Tentacles, denying space, it also doesn't do the type of instant-damage that other equal level spells can. On the other hand, like a good DOT, it can rack up significantly more damage by the end than an instant spell would.
I did consider adding a madness stinger on the spell, but felt that it was likely to push the spell over that boundary of potentially too powerful. This is one of the reasons that the higher level adds time to the spell rather than damage. Adding time also adds less damage than either additional dice or a straight plus would. If you want the madness stinger for flavor, or think the DOT effect isn't strong enough;
If, over the course of the spell, the target fails more than 4 saves they are driven insane. The victim of this madness cannot take actions, understand what other creatures say, can't read, and speak only in gibberish. This lasts for 1d10 minutes at 4 failed saves, 10d10 hours at 9 failed saves, and at 15 failed saves lasts until cured with the Greater Restoration spell or other similar effect.
I would actually prefer to use the madness tables (PG 258-260 DMG). However, the simplified madness rules match with the rules on madness spells the PH. If using the madness table rules impose short-term madness with 4 failed saves, 9 saves they experience long-term madness, and at 15 failed saves they are driven to indefinite madness.
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