What would the great seer Alaundo cast? ;-)
I have a wizard NPC who serves as a "seer" (well, a foreshadowing agent from time to time), and needs a few spells that are precognitive for future-foreshadowing. Not "perfect" future-telling, but perhaps "seeing the many threads of fate" in a probabilistic sense.
What might be the best spells, spell-like abilities, or methods for this, other than an unabashed DM PlotDevice? I don't have access to all of the supplemental books, but if they're in the ballpark I'd like to hear ideas from those also.
Also, what other kinds of related spells might such a wizard have collected in a spellbook, as a "Seer" during his or her lifetime?
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My personal first choice would be Legend Lore. While nothing indicates that it can reveal details about the future, it also does not specifically state that it does not. By increasing the scope (past, present and future) you can allow that spell to be useful. Considering the casting time, it is unlikely to be abused by PCs. I'd allow the wizard to attempt to determine the liklihood someone or something in the room might become part of a legend using the 1d4x10 minute casting time.
Divination (Cleric & Knowledge) might also be a decent choice, since it is built to look at the future. However, it specifies a maximum of 1 week. Using the general rule that an imrpovement on a spell should be at least 2 levels higher, I think a Cleric 6 Wiz/Sorc 7 spell of "Greater Divination" might be appropriate to your campaign. It would essentially work as divination, but without the 1 week time limit.
However, in either situation clearly describing the future will be impossible since so much depends on the PCs actions. Still, that might allow to make a very clear statement.
The Legend Lore Spell might indicate that the PCs fight a particularly powerful creature. The (Greater) Divination might reveal that they should fight the creature or something very bad will happen to them...
Hope that helps.
...Legend Lore... Divination... Hope that helps.
Well, not quite what I was looking for, actually. Probably, I should have been a little more specific. Legend Lore pulls for heroic or legendary lore (hence the name), and is clearly rooted in knowledge of the past. Altering the spell so that it encompasses present and future events is interesting, but it essentially triples the scope of the spell (overpowers?), and misses the "flashes of future events" flavor that I'm looking for. Divination is a "divine" magic spell rather than arcane, and it's close... but a bit too much like a hint from the gods, as described in the PH.
Augury is pretty close to what I'd like... but again, it's a divine spell rather than arcane. And its feel is still more in the class of "weal or woe" instead of Nostradamus-like flashes of the future. Vision is really close to what I have in mind, but it's 7th level. I'd like to keep the "has a vision of events" piece, but limit it to short flashes of events - of a probable or likely future - where the PC or NPC is the one who does the interpretation (steering away from the divine hints provided by celestial or diabolic agents, more common to the clerical divination spells).
Legend Lore and the others would make a nice addition to a seer's spellbook, for sure. Just not quite the flavor I was looking for. I was hoping for some insights perhaps outside of the PH, in maybe another book or from an article.
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I'm at work at the moment, and will be leaving the country for two weeks on Monday. To say the least I'm crunched for time. Still, I remember quite a lot with chronomancy, mostly from 2nd edition. Taken collectively, chronomancy is quite the can of worms, but there might be something there that you could use. But before I look any up, are you pretty strongly against any "travel" to the future, or any direct observation of it?
I'm at work at the moment, and will be leaving the country for two weeks on Monday...
Uhm... I am not specifically asking you for either your input or help. So please, by all means, concentrate on your work and travel situation.
What I'd like, preferably, is input from other gamers with a similar interest. Not just you, but thanks. You can personally feel free to sit out this question, or any future posting of mine.
Vision is really close to what I have in mind, but it's 7th level. I'd like to keep the "has a vision of events" piece, but limit it to short flashes of events - of a probable or likely future - where the PC or NPC is the one who does the interpretation (steering away from the divine hints provided by celestial or diabolic agents, more common to the clerical divination spells).
Implement your own suggestion, and make it a 3rd or 4th level spell. Done.
That's why this game is so great! : )
- rob
This post isn't going to be particularly helpful to you either but I thought I'd throw this out there...
In the AoW campaign I'm currently running, I had the players roll for natural benefit/flaw during character creation. The player creating a monk rolled consecutive 00 on the percentage dice and ended up with the in-born benefit of prophecy. This has been one of the greatest things that ever happened in any game I've been involved in (and I've been gaming over 25 years). As DM I provide the prophetic PC with "flashed images" of possible future events. These are events that are *likely* to happen but are subject to change (this, obviously, because no one ever really knows how the adventure is going to play out). Thus far the PC has chosen not to reveal his hidden talent to his fellow adventurers and they are only mildly curious to his apparent "fore-knowledge" of some events. For instance, in the Whispering Cairn, I gave the PC a flash image of struggling in the water, in the dark, and then eventually drawing forth the red lantern. This gave the character both motivation and trepidation about entering the flooded rooms in search of the missing item, but confidence that the red lantern was indeed nearby.
I know you said you wanted to avoid the straight-forward DM plot device but it has worked wonderfully for my group. The player is doing great role-playing his unusual talent and I enjoy knowing I can always further the plot and/or redirect the group using this ability.
Thanks Robert, I could try that out.
Also, SirMarcus - actually, your suggestion is interesting... your player chanced getting a flaw. I'm curious where this PC/NPC trait table might be located? I know of one traits table in the DMG, but this sounds like it might be a new one, maybe from a supplement?
A "seer" or "agent of foreshadowing" type NPC in your game need not rely on spells whatsoever. A natural psychic can exist quite... well, naturally... in D&D.
I used one for my own game to set events in motion and foreshadow future events that would come to pass (some have, others haven't yet). The point is that not everything in the game needs to rely on magic or spells. A true "soothsayer" should be very rare, but can easily find a niche in your game.
My own NPC has been touched by Istus, god of fate. His mind swirls with images and portents. Some of them are clear while others make no sense to him at all.
If you need to add some divination spells to your own version's repertoire, you're going to be pretty limited unless he has cleric levels, in which case a simple augury and/or divinitation spell is quite useful. Perhaps you might find the dream spell useful as well, if you want this seer to be a stronger influence in your campaign.
If all you're asking for is some divination spells that you don't have access to, pretty much what is in the PHB is the best selection you'll find. If you want some ideas for non-standard ways of making this NPC more of a medium or fortuneteller, then consider thinking outside the box on this one.
Alaundo actually did recieve those "divine visions" from Savras, though he likely caught Savras' attention due to his skill at divination, and so Savras gave him his "gift" in the form of his prophesies and the Roll of Years.
I tend to see everything precognitive as "something likely to happen" rather than something that will indeed happen, or else the DM and the PCs are locked into a given path. You might have a few minor things happen along this line to create tention ("Oh no, how are we going to change this, things keep happening the same way they did in the vision!")
I agree that you may not need spells or specific game rules to simulate this. While its a divine message again, my party's cleric of Helm often has dreams about what is going to happen in the near future.
What you may want to do, to give yourself some leeway is to create a feat that gives a minor bonus to armor class or saves due to the character's precognition, with the rest of the feat reading that they have minor flashes of inspriration, and rarely major visions about the future. The second part lets you feed in visions about possible futures when they work for your campaign.
Alaundo actually did recieve those "divine visions" from Savras, though he likely caught Savras' attention due to his skill at divination, and so Savras gave him his "gift" in the form of his prophesies and the Roll of Years.
I tend to see everything precognitive as "something likely to happen" rather than something that will indeed happen, or else the DM and the PCs are locked into a given path. You might have a few minor things happen along this line to create tention ("Oh no, how are we going to change this, things keep happening the same way they did in the vision!")
I agree that you may not need spells or specific game rules to simulate this. While its a divine message again, my party's cleric of Helm often has dreams about what is going to happen in the near future.
What you may want to do, to give yourself some leeway is to create a feat that gives a minor bonus to armor class or saves due to the character's precognition, with the rest of the feat reading that they have minor flashes of inspriration, and rarely major visions about the future. The second part lets you feed in visions about possible futures when they work for your campaign.
That's an interesting idea about building a feat off of this. Definitely an insight bonus, which is great because it stacks with everything.
I've had my benefit/flaw chart for quite a while and am pretty certain it didn't come from a suppliment. I think it came from an article (probably Dragon, possibly Dungeon). Sorry, I can't really remember it's been so long. Maybe I dug it out of the Dragon Archive CDs?
Anyway, it's a great tool in our game and I encourage other DMs to impliment it. My players all have the chance to roll for an in-born benefit/flaw during character creation (and about 95% of the time, they do). I provide a 50/50 chance to get a positive outcome versus a negative one. Both the benefits and flaws are largely role-playing abilities with only minor impact on the game; though with my AoW players we got a very interesting mix of in-born abilities. One player's cleric had some unusually low attributes and the player was already leaning him toward a simpering, annoying, bookworm-type character when he rolled "battle cowardice" as an inborn flaw. That is one of the harsher flaws but it fit his character perfectly and does not really interfere with his healing abilities or clerical traits at all. Other flaws are more along the lines of phobias, allergies, vices, etc. The benefits include natural talents of running, swimming, affinity towards animals, superior sight/smell/hearing, etc. I don't use the official *spot* checks in my campaigns but one of the benefits acquired in my AoW campaign was "unusually observant". This has worked out really well as this character is NOT the thief (much to the annoyance of the thief character) and I direct the majority of observations to be gained to the observant character instead (he is the one who noticed the air holes, the broken sarcophagus finger, etc in the Whispering Cairn). The ranger in the AoW is dyslexic and he has had fun role-playing that flaw as well.
All in all, the benefit/flaw system has added a tremendous amount of humor, role-playing opportunities, character depth, and flavor to my campaign. Like I said before (but it bears repeating...) I recommend it to other DMs.
The 2nd edition Player's Option series of books had character flaws and benefits that cost or gave skill points to have. My group used them extensively. I remember one was a qualm, which my brother had--he could never strike a woman. I believe he was also a compulsive gambler. Don't remember if that was in the book or just a self-made flaw.
There were also phobias (lesser and greater), which I liked. One of my characters had a greater phobia of spiders, which was really fun to role play.
If you had access to the Expanded Psionics HB, I would say Psion with the Clairsentience discipline. Otherwise, a diviner.
Either way, I'd say fudge the rules and allow the NPC to use a divine spell as an arcane spell, in favor of the story. You could also make a multiclass wizard/cleric. That would be spiffy, too.
Wisdom based Knowledge checks of various types, augmented by a token cost (gold or something, nothing expensive, just to represent the materials for the ritual, or just a use limit, once a month or something like that). He calls upon his own insight and magical powers, coupled with his knowledge of the past, present, and eldritch currents of time and space, to catch glimpses of what is to come in the future.
I don't think the use of Knowledge skills in such a way is overpowering, since, the way you seem to describe it, these glimpses would offer as many new questions as they do answers, and could easily be misinterpreted. Maybe make a spell that requires such a check.
Thanks for the ideas! I hadn't even thought of using Psionics, so I'll have to check that out - thanks Lilith! Also, I like the idea of potentially having some involvement of Savras from FR, and the Wisdom checks and thoughts of developing Feats or traits/flaws are also pretty cool. Much appreciated!