D&D General Mordenkainen’s Lucubration, broken?

[Coroc]

Yesterday’s DDB post revealed new spells from Arcana Unleashed, and Mordenkainen’s Lucubration made a come back:



So… that seems nice and harmless, what’s the issue?

The Diviner 6 feature says:



So a Diviner could cast this 5th level spell and get back 2 x 2nd level slots + 1 x 4th level slot. Ok, nice combo, but not broken yet…

If you multiclass this with a Sorc 9, however, you could then use Font of Magic to trade those slots for 8 Sorcery Points, and then turn around and use 7 of those points to get a 5th level slot back. Essentially, you can squeeze 1 net SP out of whichever action is required to cast Lucubration + the Bonus Action for Font of Magic.

Or alternatively, you could do this twice per Short Rest with a Warlock 9’s slots.

Some questions remain… what spell lists is Lucubration on? Presumably it’s at least on the Wizard’s list, but is it also on the Sorc’s? If it’s not, then the combo requires Diviner 9 / Sorc 9, which not only comes quite late, but is also probably not a very strong build. If it’s on the Sorc’s list, then it could allow a build such as Diviner 6 / Sorc 14, which is probably not optimal either, but not as bad as the previous one.

Given the multi-class requirements, the builds which could pull this off aren’t stellar compared to a straight class caster capable of preparing the highest level spells. But still, getting infinite regeneration of SP, which in turn means infinite MM and infinite regen of slots of 5th level and lower, is quite strong from an endurance standpoint… in addition to arcane magic, it could lead to infinite healing via Magic Initiate or the right subclass (e.g., Spellfire Sorc) or additional multi-classing…

Thoughts?

Darn, being non native i had to look lucubration up, it is an historic expression for scientific work performed by night (with illumination by lamps) derived from Latin Lux aka light - and also the results of this work.
So native English speakers please tell me is this a word known to many of you?

 

[Coroc]

I've always misread the spell as "Mordenkainen's Lubrication", and well...

Yeah well you might need this by night also ..... D&D General - Mordenkainen’s Lucubration, broken? check my previous post

 

[Zardnaar]

Darn, being non native i had to look lucubration up, it is an historic expression for scientific work performed by night (with illumination by lamps) derived from Latin Lux aka light - and also the results of this work.
So native English speakers please tell me is this a word known to many of you?

Nope I've heard of the spell previous editions. No idea what it did or means.

 

[ECMO3]

Yesterday’s DDB post revealed new spells from Arcana Unleashed, and Mordenkainen’s Lucubration made a come back:



So… that seems nice and harmless, what’s the issue?

The Diviner 6 feature says:



So a Diviner could cast this 5th level spell and get back 2 x 2nd level slots + 1 x 4th level slot. Ok, nice combo, but not broken yet…

If you multiclass this with a Sorc 9, however, you could then use Font of Magic to trade those slots for 8 Sorcery Points, and then turn around and use 7 of those points to get a 5th level slot back. Essentially, you can squeeze 1 net SP out of whichever action is required to cast Lucubration + the Bonus Action for Font of Magic.

Or alternatively, you could do this twice per Short Rest with a Warlock 9’s slots.

Some questions remain… what spell lists is Lucubration on? Presumably it’s at least on the Wizard’s list, but is it also on the Sorc’s? If it’s not, then the combo requires Diviner 9 / Sorc 9, which not only comes quite late, but is also probably not a very strong build. If it’s on the Sorc’s list, then it could allow a build such as Diviner 6 / Sorc 14, which is probably not optimal either, but not as bad as the previous one.

Given the multi-class requirements, the builds which could pull this off aren’t stellar compared to a straight class caster capable of preparing the highest level spells. But still, getting infinite regeneration of SP, which in turn means infinite MM and infinite regen of slots of 5th level and lower, is quite strong from an endurance standpoint… in addition to arcane magic, it could lead to infinite healing via Magic Initiate or the right subclass (e.g., Spellfire Sorc) or additional multi-classing…

Thoughts?

I definitely don't think it is broken. I actually think this is pretty weak. Here is why:

1. To start with you are talking about a minimum 18th level full caster PC (Wizard 9/Sorcerer 9) with no 6-9 level spells. This is a ton to give up to be able to shake out a bunch of extra Sorcery points.

2. So this will be active from 18th-20th level. Going from say 10th level to 17th you are probably weaker than just a single class at most of those levels. Even if we accept that you are better at 18th level (and I am not sure you are). Then at 19th level level you have no epic boon and at 20th level a Sorcerer can use metamagic without using any Sorcerer points anyway whenever Innate Sorcery is active, so you are definitely weaker those two levels too.

3. You can never have more than 9 Sorcery points and you need to have empty spell slots to do this (as both diviner and ML replace spent slots, not give you new ones), so this is highly situational. You can only use it if you have 1 or 0 SP remaining. Then you do the trick and you have 1 more SP than you had before this. In play this just means you always have 2sp and can use 2sps every turn .... at 18th level ... when you usually would not run out anyway if you were a single class Sorcerer. Also to do it you need to have already used a 4th level slot and two 2nd level slots some time before doing this.

4. You are losing a 14th and 18th level subclass ability that is generally way better than a 5th level spell. A Shadow Sorc for example can teleport 120 feet as a bonus action while in darkness, unlimited use, and when using Innate Sorcery can go through walls and other people and has resistance to all damage. A Spellfire Sorcerer is giving out around 25 temp hit points every time they use metamagic (which is almost every turn), has a permanent Fly speed of 60 and takes no damage from any spell they make a save against.