A History of Magic: Divination Subschools and Selected Spells (D&D)

Contents

Previously: The History of Divination

The Subschools of Divination: Gnosis, Revelation, Scrying, Spacial, Temporal

Gnosis: A gnostic spell calls information from far sources. The links formed are similar in nature to scrying links. However, instead of connecting to a given place or time they connect to pools, streams, and eddies of information. The sense of whether these contacts are other-planar entities, messages from future selves, or some disembodied wellspring of universal knowledge varies from caster to caster, spell to spell, and even casting to casting. Throughout history it appears, much to the frustration of specialists diviners accustomed to drawing answers from the universe, never to have been definitively resolved.

Revelation: The original practice of formalized magic, revelatory spells detect, uncover, or perceive directly. These are detection spells. Often described as a sense or sight, they can reach through most types of matter to some degree, uncovering things that might otherwise be hidden.

Scrying: A scrying spell creates an extradimensional link to a distant place. Where the link reemerges into the real world it opens an invisible portal, a magical “sensor” that sends information back directly to the caster’s mind.

Spacial: Both scrying and gnostic spells rely on the manipulation of the fabric of reality to create extradimensional linkages. It is the students of the spacial and temporal sub-schools who have pushed the understanding of magical power over space and time through their efforts to understand these links. Spectacular failures in their intended goal, which would behave in a manner similar to the Arcane Gate spell, they have instead provided advances in magic. This subschool forms extradimensional spaces (eg Demiplane, Rope Trick, and Mordankainen’s Magnificent Mansion) 
Temporal: Similar to the spacial subschool, by overpowering extradimensional links such as those used in gnostic and scrying spells, the spells of this subschool create eddies and effects in time (Slow, haste, contingency, temporal stasis, time stop).

Selected Spells:

Dweomercrafter’s Sense

Divination cantrip (revelation)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (a shard of amber)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round

You may choose one roll that is not to hit or damage for a spell you cast. You may either gain advantage or impose disadvantage on that roll. Once you use this effect this spell ends.

See Beyond

1st-level divination (revelation)

Casting Time: 10 minutes (ritual)

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (a sliver of moonstone)

Duration: 1 hour

When you cast this spell chose a single coterminous plane (from the material this would generally be the ethereal, astral, faewild, or shadowfell). For the duration you can see what is within 60 feet of you in this plane. This provides you no ability to effect or communicate with that plane, however.

  

Sense Space

Divination cantrip (revelation)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

For the duration, you have a heightened sense the space within 10 feet of you. If something in this area is “off” relative to your other perceptions you get a mental “ping.” For example, if you are subject to an illusion, near an undiscovered secret door, or interacting with a person in disguise this spell will react. The spell does not detect verbal or written lies, however.

This effect does not reveal the nature of what is off, but does tell you roughly where to search and grants you advantage on investigation, insight, or investigation rolls to uncover it. The spell can penetrate most barriers, but is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. However, such protections may, themselves, trigger the spell- such as if a space within a desk is undetectable for no apparent reason or the interior of a wooden box is similarly shielded.

Spy’s Eye

Divination cantrip (scrying)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Components: V, S, M (a glass eye)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round

You create an invisible sensor at a spot desired within range. It can be a place you can see, one you can visualize, or in an obvious location that is unfamiliar to you (such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees). The sensor remains in place for the duration, and it can’t be attacked or otherwise interacted with. You can see through the sensor as if you were in its space. A creature that can see the sensor (such as a creature benefitting from see invisibility or truesight) sees a luminous, intangible orb about the size of your fist.

Whisper’s Ear

Divination cantrip (scrying)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Components: V, S, M (a small hearing horn)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round

You create an invisible sensor at a spot desired within range. It can be a place you can see, one you can visualize, or in an obvious location that is unfamiliar to you (such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees). The sensor remains in place for the duration, and it can’t be attacked or otherwise interacted with. You can hear through the sensor as if you were in its space. A creature that can see the sensor (such as a creature benefitting from see invisibility or truesight) sees a luminous, intangible orb about the size of your fist.

Next: Eddies in Time and Space

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There it is, large as life- the horrible thing I did to divination. Chronomancers, mages of the manifest universe. Emersionists. Time lo… err…  masters of temporal magic, just a blue box and a fez shy of being an infringement on the intellectual property of a major franchise…

I’ve already talked about why I did it. Really, it does make more sense here than anywhere else because this is the magic of space and time manipulation. But, let’s be honest, divination needed it, too.

To have a well-rounded “factions” you need a coherent concept (the purpose of this entire exercise) and compelling things to do at every level of power. Divination has never had that. I’ve talked previously about how weak divination is compared to the other schools. In AD&D and 3rd ed divination was the school you couldn’t give up. Not because it was so central to what wizards did or who they were, but because it was so weak that even in the era of kits that literally gave you something for nothing (well, things everyone ignored anyway) they realized that it just didn’t stack up. I mean, divination specialists have only ever had to sacrifice one opposing school rather than the pair needed for every other type of magic. So, yeah, divination needed some love.

It is amusing to me that, however much I may have wanted divination to have more power, I never intended to do that through this project. In fact, I started out trying to make coherent definitions of the schools, as they stood, in order to usher stray individual spells back into place. Intending only the most minor of weeding where the various schools had colored into someone else’s lines. Law of widest adoption is the smallest change made will have best chance of proliferating. If I could have just colored in the lines I had a better chance of being influential on general thinking. And, of course, I knew the instant I made a change this big I was sacrificing any potential that most of the community might have adopted my definitions. Then again, I run a blog for homebrew and house rules that I doubt anyone working anywhere in the entirety of Hasboro will ever hear of.

Anyway, if you made it through my abrupt empowering of divination you’ve gotten the worst of it.