Improving the Diviner

[Terath Ninir]

One of my favourite specialists to play is the diviner. Why? No one else plays them. However, there's a darn good reason no one plays them. They suck. The divination spells available to wizarads are *terrible*. I can't even count the number of times the rest of the party has asked me, "Well, do you have a spell we can use to figure out this puzzle? No? Darn it all to heck!"

Many of the best divination spells are available only to clerics: augury, divination, commune, and speak with dead especially. Sure, if your DM allows it, divine oracle is *the* prestige class for diviners and gives you access to the first three. However, I think you shouldn't have to take a prestige class to make a base class effective.

The existing spells that diviners have are somewhat less than inspiring. True strike? Lovely for all those warriors who take one level of sorcerer -- not so inspiring for a dedicated diviner. The worst one by far, though, is legend lore. Gah! It is *much less* effective than a knowledge skill. After hours, days, or weeks, all you get is some useless riddle that you have to then waste time decyphering. And they call that worth a 5th level slot? I think not. not to mention the other end: if you're the DM, you have to come up with the dumb riddle, which is even more annoying.

There are some flavour changes I'd like to make on the diviner to make them a little more fun. Giving them the bardic lore ability, for one -- it's not that powerful, but it's right up their alley. But the big problem is the spell list. Diviners need spells that they can actually use to solve puzzles. I don't want to steal the cleric spells; clerics have few enough interesting things they can do.

My other problem is my bad memory. Every time we play, with me as player or as a DM over a diviner, we come across a situation where we could use a spell. Invariably, I don't make any notes on it, so I lose all the best ideas.

So I'm making a shout out for ideas. Spells you think diviners should have. If you know of good published spells, I'm open to that, too. I don't own everything, but I own a lot of books.

The main thing is that diviners should have a core of spells that help them figure out puzzles, and help figure out what to do next in an adventure.

 

[Nifft]

My Unearthed Arcana is in a box -- what do the Variant Specialist rules give them?

-- N

 

[Terath Ninir]

My Unearthed Arcana is in a box -- what do the Variant Specialist rules give them?

-- N

Dunno. My eyes are always drawn to the Conjurer variants, which turns that specialist into a viable class. Lemme look...

Enhanced Awareness adds Sense Motive as a class skill, gives benefits on identify and arcane eye, and adds +1 save DC for divinations in exchange for a familiar.

Bonus Feat list removes metamagic as bonus feats, but adds Alertness, Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Skill Focus (Spot, Listen, or Sense Motive only) to the list. Gah. What a crappy "benefit"...

Prescience allows you to add you Int modifier as an insight bonus to any d20 roll you make 1pd + 1pd/5 levels, but you lose your bonus spells. Doesn't fit my idea of a diviner -- someone who finds things out -- and I would NOT pay that price for that ability.

All in all, only Enhanced Awareness is interesting and I wouldn't call it as good as Lore.

 

[Nifft]

Hmm, real ball-drop from UA then.

I'd allow Lore in trade for a Familiar. Both are high-end Feats. Also, I'd allow Greater Lore (ID magic items for free) in trade for 10th level bonus Feat. Basically, raid the Loremaster for goodies, and drop that PrC from the campaign world.

Some sort of Truename mechanic would be cool -- penetrate SR better, know weaknesses, add to save DC, bonus to caster level checks to dispel effects, etc. but only against certain powerful foes who have Truenames.

-- N

 

[Odysseus]

I think the best tactic for Diviners is for them to find the enemy first. So that the party can determine the best means of attack. And pretty much all detection spells help with that.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I'd allow Lore in trade for a Familiar. Both are high-end Feats.

You're kidding, right? I've never played a wizard or sorcerer who would have kept the familiar if he had the option to trade it for Lore. Lore is a nice ability, the familiar is somewhere between a weak ability and a liability.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I think the best tactic for Diviners is for them to find the enemy first. So that the party can determine the best means of attack. And pretty much all detection spells help with that.

Basically, they're magical recon and support. I don't know the specifics of the specialization rules, but surely there are some combat spells you can use.

You also could make up a spell that lets you find spellcasters--Detect Spellcaster, one that detects positive/negative energy through walls [up to a certain thickness].

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Basically, they're magical recon and support. I don't know the specifics of the specialization rules, but surely there are some combat spells you can use.

You also could make up a spell that lets you find spellcasters--Detect Spellcaster, one that detects positive/negative energy through walls [up to a certain thickness].

Well as long as they don't take evocation as a prohibited school they can use the typical blast the @#$% out of the enemy routine. No very creative but it works usually.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Diviners rock. Just take the extra spell and dump necromancy or whatever.

If you need more spells you can easily justify spells that grant insight bonuses to initiative, Reflex Saves, and armor class. Maybe even hit points depending on how your DM views them.

 

[Saeviomagy]

These are all low level stuff, because personally I think that legend lore does far more than an appropriate bardic knowledge or regular knowledge check, and once you cheese out contact other plane, you're back at the same level as the cleric.

I'd start out with a spell that lets you detect all the members of an organisation. Not through walls or anything like that, just that if you see a member of said organisation, you can ID them - give a big bonus to spot vs disguise, that sort of thing, but the focus is something unusual, like the tongue of a member of the organisation (including your own) and the name of the organisation. Maybe make the tongue a material component unless it's your own...

How about a spell that lets you learn someone's name(s) and alias(es)? Requires you to have seen the target in person, and then rattles off a list of all the names and aliases that the target has ever meaningfully operated under.

Definately some sort of object reading spell.

A spell which identifies the cause of death of a corpse. Doesn't actually give the ID of the killer (if they were killed, as opposed to dying naturally) , but it does stuff like tell you how many killers there were (ie - people with the intent to see the target dead, and actively assisting the deed), and where they were when the target finally died.

A spell which acts as sort of an entry log - it's an advanced form of alarm, but instead of making an alert, it merely records the physical details of anyone who passes through the area.

Xray vision. Nuff said.