More Divination Spells

At the time of writing, the school of Divination has by far the fewest spells of any school in the PHB (17 spells, including Elemental Evil and the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, compared to Evocation's 55). This document is an attempt to give the school of sensing the past, present, and future a little bit more love.

Note: I'm definitely aware that other schools (Enchantment, Necromancy) are almost as short-spelled as Divination. If this project is successful, I'll definitely be turning an eye to those schools as well!

Sense Shift

1st-level Divination

Casting Time: 1 action

1 action Range: Self

Self Components: V,S

V,S Duration: 1 hour

For the duration, you lose your powers of eyesight. Instead, you gain one of the following:

Tremorsense to a radius of 60 feet. You detect the way in which vibrations pass through different materials, as well as sources of those vibrations. For example, you might detect that a creature is pacing up and down in the next room over, that a wall contains dense lead sheeting, or that there is a large empty chamber located beneath where you are standing.

Blindsight to a radius of 30 feet. Your other four senses are sharpened, allowing you to perceive your surroundings through precise readings of sounds, smells, tactile sensations, and tastes. For example, you might hear a creature’s heart rate increase as it grows agitated, smell the crumbs of food left by the last party to eat nearby, feel the heat of the campfire of the encampment around the corner, or taste copper in the air when someone is bleeding.

You automatically fail any check which relies on sight in a way that cannot be replaced by your gained abilities.





At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the range of your ability doubles for each spell slot above 2nd. Alternatively, you may gain both abilities by using a spell slot 1 level higher than you otherwise would.

One thing I have always wanted to see divination do better is give the caster new ways of percieving their surroundings. This spell plays off the "blind seer" trope a little, but I like how it temporarily lets you trade in your eyesight for a different perceptive ability.

Glimpse Future

1st-level Divination

Casting Time: 1 action

1 action Range: Touch

Touch Components: V,S,M (some charred bones or a stick of dried herbs)

V,S,M (some charred bones or a stick of dried herbs) Duration: 1 minute

For the duration, a willing creature you touch gains brief sensory impressions a few seconds into its future, gaining advantage on attack rolls and wisdom checks.

At higher levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you may target an additional creature for each slot above 2nd.

True Strike is considered to be one of the worst cantrips in the PHB. By turning it into a 1st-level spell with a little bit of duration, I hope to make it slightly more useful. The wisdom checks bit is really just a ribbon to add a little flavor.



If advantage turns out to be too strong in playtesting, however, I would consider scaling this back to adding a d4 to the roll.





Object Retelling

2nd-level Divination (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action

1 action Range: Touch

Touch Components: V,S,M (the object being investigated)

V,S,M (the object being investigated) Duration: Instantaneous

As you finish casting this spell, you touch an object, and instantly gain a vision of the object's history from its point of view. You gain one of the following effects:

You observe the last 24 hours from the object’s perspective. This retelling happens at whatever speed you choose. Viewing the events in real-time, therefore, would take 24 hours, but you may speed up or slow down the retelling as you choose.

You see the last person to touch the object from the object’s perspective. In addition, this retelling may include other sense memories of this individual.