Adjudicating and Overcoming Foresight

[Weezer]

In Little Brother's archer vs wizard thread the foresight + celerity combo has been brought up a bunch of times (partially by myself) as an automatic win button against any form of ambush and as a protection against ever being caught with your pants down. As is pretty clear this kind of advantage is almost insurmountable when the game turns into high level rocket tag.

However the wording of Foresight is very unclear in places with the key troubling line being "the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself". How much information would you give out about the impending danger?

Text from SRD:


Foresight
Divination
Level: Drd 9, Knowledge 9, Sor/Wiz 9
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal or touch
Target: See text
Duration: 10 min./level
Saving Throw: None or Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No or Yes (harmless)
This spell grants you a powerful sixth sense in relation to yourself or another. Once foresight is cast, you receive instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm to the subject of the spell. You are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and Reflex saves. This insight bonus is lost whenever you would lose a Dexterity bonus to AC.

When another creature is the subject of the spell, you receive warnings about that creature. You must communicate what you learn to the other creature for the warning to be useful, and the creature can be caught unprepared in the absence of such a warning. Shouting a warning, yanking a person back, and even telepathically communicating (via an appropriate spell) can all be accomplished before some danger befalls the subject, provided you act on the warning without delay. The subject, however, does not gain the insight bonus to AC and Reflex saves.

Arcane Material Component
A hummingbird’s feather.


Also is there any way to stop someone with foresight and celerity from seizing initiative every time? Barring casting celerity yourself of course. Bonus points if it's a non-full spellcaster solution.

[HunterOfJello]

It could be argued that a Nondetection spell could stop the spell from working on a target. A Sequester spell would definitely work for most DMs, but it depends on their interpretation of the spells. Sequester does have the problem that the person will be rendered unconscious though. I guess they can go use Lucid Dreaming to attack the wizard though.

Forsight has the limitations of all divinations spells and can therefore be avoided by spells that work to avoid divination spells. It could be argued that anyone sitting in an anti-magic field would be immune to contributing to the Foresight spell since magic cannot penetrate anti-magic.

It also has the limitation of only working for 10 min/level. It would be difficult for a wizard to keep that spell on themselves all day every day, so any plan set up during the wizard's downtime that cannot be avoided within the time limit of the spell has the potential to kill the wizard.


*edit*

Reading the spell over more carefully I noticed that casting the spell doesn't return the result of knowing what the danger actually is. The spell tells you immediately that there's approaching danger and what the best method is to avoid that danger, but it doesn't tell you what the danger is. If there are also multiple steps in a plan to kill the wizard based on the wizard's reactions, then his reactions will be delayed by the onset of the responses of his actions. You can only take 1 immediate action per round and that's a big limiter. The spell is really just a spidersense and can be stopped by planning accordingly. You would just have to set up a series of dangers that aren't dangers until a predetermined action is taken by the wizard.

The PHB has a longer section in the spell description. The first paragraph is:

This spell grants you a powerful sixth sense in relation to yourself or another. Once foresight is cast, you receive instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm to the subject of the spell. Thus, if you are the subject of the spell, you would be warned in advance if a rogue were about to attempt a sneak attack on you, or if a creature were about to leap out from a hiding place, or if an attacker were specifically targeting you with a spell or ranged weapon."

This also gives the limitation that the wizard can prevent physical harm from himself, but not from his allies.

~

The key to beating a Foresight Wizard would be elaborate planning and setting him up into no-win scenarios. The most fun way to achieve it would be to get him into a scenario where he could either kill himself or a loved one. If the loved one is the only person targeted by anything harmful, then the wizard would never detect anything beforehand.

~~~~~~~~~

Immediate Action shenanigans would also work. Same thing for the Time Regression Power.

[vitkiraven]

An attack that is actually a benefit might not get noticed by the spell, since it references danger, if the first arrow was a curing arrow with superior dispelling on it, it might take it out, as the dispelling is not damaging or harmful on its own merits, and the curing was actually helpful, seeing as the spell keys off danger and harm, and the direct attack was a actually a boon (of sorts).
Other than that, maybe multiple different attacks from different venues with different required protection buttons, couple with a no get away spell or effect? (Army of dogs plus archer plus hireling using wand of magic missile, and maybe something else concurrently?)

[darksolitaire]

An attack that is actually a benefit might not get noticed by the spell, since it references danger, if the first arrow was a curing arrow with superior dispelling on it, it might take it out, as the dispelling is not damaging or harmful on its own merits, and the curing was actually helpful, seeing as the spell keys off danger and harm, and the direct attack was a actually a boon (of sorts).

I'd call dispelling shots into my wizard as harmful.



Other than that, maybe multiple different attacks from different venues with different required protection buttons, couple with a no get away spell or effect? (Army of dogs plus archer plus hireling using wand of magic missile, and maybe something else concurrently?)

This will probably lead to an angry wizard player who feels cheated. Better to ban foresight then fudge it.

[vitkiraven]

But, it caused no danger or bodily harm in and of itself, but then again, it would probably fall somewhere between RAW and RAI. I don't recall seeing anywhere that already cast (and hence already expended) spells are even considered applicable for expending resources for the purpose of an encounter to say that it was a loss in that regard, but then again just because I haven't encountered it, doesn't mean it isn't nestled in a book somewhere.

And are we talking about the same style of gouda typically peddled around here that has 15 different protective spells, and so many contingencies that the player and the dm both need lawyers to determine how something interacts with the character? Or one that uses lawyers for a wish spell? :smallamused:

EDIT: I agree on the banning it, since it's such a craptasticly cheddaresque tactic. Nice idea WOTC, pity about the execution.

[illyrus]

"or if an attacker were specifically targeting you with a spell or ranged weapon."

Am I specifically targeting the wizard if I cast a fireball next to him? If it does, what is it going to send, "get out of there"? So you have someone shadowing the wizard planning to launch an AE attack near him and the wizard gets a "danger danger you need to leave" message its not going to be all that helpful for completing the task at hand.

Also it didn't seem to state anywhere that it could judge the level of severity. So it might treat the fireball that does 3d6 with the same advice as the 17 delayed blast fireballs or the building rigged to blow, "you need to leave now, perhaps by teleport" is good advice for staying safe in all those cases.

Or going a step further, is foresight going to ping when I start casting gate to bring in X critter or is it going to ping when the critter appears next to the wizard and right before I order it to attack said wizard?

[Emperor Tippy]

None of that matters.

Foresight has a specific mechanical affect; you are never flat-footed while under it's effects.

So long as you are not flat footed and haven't already used an immediate action, you can always cast Celerity (and the only way to get around that is to cast it yourself). Once you have cast Celerity you are free to cast Time Stop, and once that happens you are screwed.

The only real way to break that chain is to have a Ring of Greater Counterspells (the A&E version) and load it up with either Celerity (but then you get shafted when the player uses Greater Celerity instead) or Time Stop. Choosing Time Stop is the better choice as you force the wizard to waste a 9th level spell, leave him without his easy avoidance of Celerity daze next round, and leave him limited to a single move action.

At which point the Wizard promptly says "Ugh buga Pony Power" and there craft contingent invisible prismatic sphere goes up around themselves.

[nedz]

Information Overload should work. You have multiple people make simultaneous attacks and the poor wizard gets multiple, and ideally contradictory, advice.
Kind of "Go Left", "Go Right", "Go Forward", "Go Back", "Duck", "Jump", etc.

Even better if these are just feints, and you follow up with another sequence of attacks.

[Soren Hero]

Information Overload should work. You have multiple people make simultaneous attacks and the poor wizard gets multiple, and ideally contradictory, advice.
Kind of "Go Left", "Go Right", "Go Forward", "Go Back", "Duck", "Jump", etc.

Even better if these are just feints, and you follow up with another sequence of attacks.

if conflicting information is received, couldn't the wizard just say, eff this and teleport away?

[tyckspoon]

if conflicting information is received, couldn't the wizard just say, eff this and teleport away?

"Trigger your Contingent Resilient Sphere" works against most things. Although because of that it also will probably be what Foresight recommends against most things, since the spell cannot be assumed to have any level of proper threat assessment. Makes that particular part of the spell less useful, but it's by far not the most important benefit anyway.

[illyrus]

None of that matters.

Foresight has a specific mechanical affect; you are never flat-footed while under it's effects.

So long as you are not flat footed and haven't already used an immediate action, you can always cast Celerity (and the only way to get around that is to cast it yourself). Once you have cast Celerity you are free to cast Time Stop, and once that happens you are screwed.

The only real way to break that chain is to have a Ring of Greater Counterspells (the A&E version) and load it up with either Celerity (but then you get shafted when the player uses Greater Celerity instead) or Time Stop. Choosing Time Stop is the better choice as you force the wizard to waste a 9th level spell, leave him without his easy avoidance of Celerity daze next round, and leave him limited to a single move action.

At which point the Wizard promptly says "Ugh buga Pony Power" and there craft contingent invisible prismatic sphere goes up around themselves.

In a non-arena situation if the wizard's every response to danger is to toss out a bunch of high level spells then he may burn through unnecessary resources quite quickly to minor threats (traps, etc). Personally I think the problem is more with the celerity spell. Don't allow it (and as its not in the base book it seems reasonable for GM approval) and foresight isn't very crazy.

[Emperor Tippy]

In a non-arena situation if the wizard's every response to danger is to toss out a bunch of high level spells then he may burn through unnecessary resources quite quickly to minor threats (traps, etc).
Nah, you don't survive to get 9th level spells as a wizard without being an incredibly paranoid bastard. And I would note that the only important spell that the wizard burned was time stop, which he probably has 2/day anyways from Archmage High Arcana. Celerity is a 4th level spell, you can burn those things by the bucket load and it doesn't matter.


Personally I think the problem is more with the celerity spell. Don't allow it (and as its not in the base book it seems reasonable for GM approval) and foresight isn't very crazy.
Foresight is still very crazy. It eliminates surprise rounds against the Wizard. The Wizard who will still almost always go first.

Burn a Moment of Prescience for a +~22 insight bonus on your Initiative Roll. Hummingbird Familiar for another +4. Between other boosts a wizard can be throwing out an Initiative roll that practically requires a natural 20 to beat.

Where Celerity gets real broken is using it to pull off a major nova. Shapechange into a Choker as a free action at the start of the turn, cast something Quickened (maybe from a wand?), followed by two non quickened spells. Then cast Greater Celerity to pick up a whole nother round where you throw two more spells before ending on a free action Shapechange into a Shadesteel Golem.

Using Celerity you can blow all your 9th level slots in a round if you are so inclined.

[Nohwl]

The only real way to break that chain is to have a Ring of Greater Counterspells (the A&E version) and load it up with either Celerity (but then you get shafted when the player uses Greater Celerity instead) or Time Stop. Choosing Time Stop is the better choice as you force the wizard to waste a 9th level spell, leave him without his easy avoidance of Celerity daze next round, and leave him limited to a single move action.



the wizard could have quick recovery so they could still avoid the daze on the next round.

[illyrus]

I guess my perspective would come from this example:

GM: Your foresight pings danger.
Wizard: Ok.
GM: Roll initiative
Wizard: Yay I win, I cast a spell.
GM: Ok...
Wizard: Where was the attack?
Option 1:
GM: They decided against it when they saw you cast a spell.
Option 2:
GM: X critter attacks you in a lower ECL encounter

Repeat either option a few times and the wizard will be low on spells from lower ECL encounters. If there is any sort of time limit on it then in may put the mage in a bad place where he either has to fail the mission by leaving to remem spells or else go into the actually hard encounter undergunned.

[Emperor Tippy]

the wizard could have quick recovery so they could still avoid the daze on the next round.

Which occurs after you get your turn. Break our your scroll of AMF and go hug the wizard.

And you are fighting a high level wizard, the only way you are going to win is if they mess up. That happens most often when their plans are interrupted and they are surprise. That's why your nifty little Ring of Greater Counterspells is covered in a Magic Aura spell and the the nice non magical ring you wear has a spell that makes it look like a powerful magical ring of some time.

[Emperor Tippy]

I guess my perspective would come from this example:

GM: Your foresight pings danger.
Wizard: Ok.
GM: Roll initiative
Wizard: Yay I win, I cast a spell.
GM: Ok...
Wizard: Where was the attack?
Option 1:
GM: They decided against it when they saw you cast a spell.
Option 2:
GM: X critter attacks you in a lower ECL encounter

Repeat either option a few times and the wizard will be low on spells from lower ECL encounters. If there is any sort of time limit on it then in may put the mage in a bad place where he either has to fail the mission by leaving to remem spells or else go into the actually hard encounter undergunned.
How are you forcing encounters on someone who can cast 9th level spells? Once he gets low he can just teleport to the middle of interstellar space where he has a permanent prismatic sphere sitting around and cast Magnificent Mansion, then rest until his spells are recovered.

If the DM is opposed to deep space safe havens, locate a few dozen such safe havens in places like floating in the air randomly, buried in the middle of some random desert, inside a mountain, at the bottom of the ocean, under the basement of some random commoners house in some podunk little village, etc. and then just randomly pick one to stay in every night.

[illyrus]

How are you forcing encounters on someone who can cast 9th level spells? Once he gets low he can just teleport to the middle of interstellar space where he has a permanent prismatic sphere sitting around and cast Magnificent Mansion, then rest until his spells are recovered.

If the DM is opposed to deep space safe havens, locate a few dozen such safe havens in places like floating in the air randomly, buried in the middle of some random desert, inside a mountain, at the bottom of the ocean, under the basement of some random commoners house in some podunk little village, etc. and then just randomly pick one to stay in every night.

Then the mission with a time limit (that is not long enough to rest) fails. Thats why I noted the time limit. Without a time limit the party is free to come and go as they please.

[Nohwl]

Which occurs after you get your turn. Break our your scroll of AMF and go hug the wizard.

And you are fighting a high level wizard, the only way you are going to win is if they mess up. That happens most often when their plans are interrupted and they are surprise. That's why your nifty little Ring of Greater Counterspells is covered in a Magic Aura spell and the the nice non magical ring you wear has a spell that makes it look like a powerful magical ring of some time.

couldn't planar touchstone (breaching obelisk) or whatever one gives you the 1 round timestop like ability fix that problem?

[darksolitaire]

I guess my perspective would come from this example:

GM: Your foresight pings danger.
Wizard: Ok.
GM: Roll initiative
Wizard: Yay I win, I cast a spell.
GM: Ok...
Wizard: Where was the attack?
Option 1:
GM: They decided against it when they saw you cast a spell.
Option 2:
GM: X critter attacks you in a lower ECL encounter


I didn't see the part where GM tells the Wizard the best action to avoid the danger.

[illyrus]

I didn't see the part where GM tells the Wizard the best action to avoid the danger.

It was in response to the someone saying that that step was unimportant. Though the GM could add in "prismatic sphere would be a good spell to cast because its a big attack coming". Then the monsters watch a sphere appear right before they spring their trap and say "hey, you know what guys, screw this".

Even options like: "teleport away to avoid the danger" or "cast resist elements" might change the monster's actions.

[FearlessGnome]

Where Celerity gets real broken is using it to pull off a major nova. Shapechange into a Choker as a free action at the start of the turn, cast something Quickened (maybe from a wand?), followed by two non quickened spells. Then cast Greater Celerity to pick up a whole nother round where you throw two more spells before ending on a free action Shapechange into a Shadesteel Golem.

Using Celerity you can blow all your 9th level slots in a round if you are so inclined.

What, without somehow squeezing in a DMM: Twin on the Greater Celerity?

[Curmudgeon]

So a spellcaster's got Foresight going. The opposing force has scouts keeping an eye on the spellcaster, looking for vulnerabilities. The best advice for the spellcaster to receive is "Teleport away!", because staying may reveal a weakness to these scouts peering through spyglasses. If that's the warning the spell gives every single round, it's either going to be followed immediately (meaning the spellcaster is going to be forced into hiding rather than doing what they want), or ignored (meaning the spell just keeps the caster from being caught flat-footed, but offers no other particular insight).

[Weezer]

So a spellcaster's got Foresight going. The opposing force has scouts keeping an eye on the spellcaster, looking for vulnerabilities. The best advice for the spellcaster to receive is "Teleport away!", because staying may reveal a weakness to these scouts peering through spyglasses. If that's the warning the spell gives every single round, it's either going to be followed immediately (meaning the spellcaster is going to be forced into hiding rather than doing what they want), or ignored (meaning the spell just keeps the caster from being caught flat-footed, but offers no other particular insight).

I don't think that being looked at counts as "impending danger or harm".

[Curmudgeon]

I don't think that being looked at counts as "impending danger or harm".
If they're specifically looking for vulnerabilities to use in an attack, which attack could commence as soon as such a vulnerability is observed, then yes, that's "impending danger or harm".

[Elric VIII]

This spell presents a real problem with DM-Player relations, it seems. It requires the DM to use judgement on what to tell the player and what not to tell him. There's some real potential for argument.

If you can honestly say that you believe your player would not be angered if you intentionally make the spell completely useless, then you have some laid-back players. A 9th level spell that does nothing but give you uncanny dodge for a few min isn't exactly up to par with every other one. It's okay to, perhaps, set up a scenario where the player has to choose between 2 best courses of action (resulting from 2 different dangers), but don't make the spell completely useless.

Something along the lines of a giant pit trap ahead of the players and an enemy stalking them from behind would be a good example. Now the player is warned not to proceed foreward and that staying still is also a danger.



If they're specifically looking for vulnerabilities to use in an attack, which attack could commence as soon as such a vulnerability is observed, then yes, that's "impending danger or harm".

Why use being observed for weakness as a trigger condition? Why not just have the spell trigger everytime the Wizard player even thinks about adventuring? After all, adventures can be dangerous, so considering to go on one is impending danger.

[Hirax]

It does trigger when they go adventuring though, it says "the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself," which might be as simple as 'don't forget your spell components.' It isn't discharged when it gives out its first warning, it continues to warn you of things that come up.

I think information overload is on the right track to overcome it, but that becomes a fine balance and big risk. If you do too much, you'll simply cause the wizard to retreat so they can make sense of things, which will ultimately result in your death if they can go to Sigil (or elsewhere) and find a level 17 seer, whose divinations you can't avoid pre-epic. If you do too little, such as simply sending a single attack dog at the wizard, my inkling is that foresight would say to the wizard 'obvious diversion is obvious.'

There's a middle ground in there somewhere, but that middle ground is still ultimately going to be a gamble depending on how the wizard is using their contingency. If celerity is their contingency, and your diversion doesn't trigger it, but your sniping does, then you also lose.

[Safety Sword]

This spell grants you a powerful sixth sense in relation to yourself or another. Once foresight is cast, you receive instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm to the subject of the spell. You are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and Reflex saves. This insight bonus is lost whenever you would lose a Dexterity bonus to AC.

DM: Hey Wizard, your spider senses are tingling. You get the feeling you should use spells to defend yourself.

DM obligations satisfied? Spells are "generally" the best idea to protect yourself in any situation, so you're not giving much away or incorrect by saying that. You have issued a warning about impending danger.

The spell doesn't say that you know any detailed information about what's coming, or from where.

In fact someone with a large enough hide check can set off your foresight warning and then still be relatively difficult to protect against.

You might go to red alert and raise shields but the Romulans don't have to attack at that moment.

[vitkiraven]

It does trigger when they go adventuring though, it says "the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself," which might be as simple as 'don't forget your spell components.' It isn't discharged when it gives out its first warning, it continues to warn you of things that come up.

I think information overload is on the right track to overcome it, but that becomes a fine balance and big risk. If you do too much, you'll simply cause the wizard to retreat so they can make sense of things, which will ultimately result in your death if they can go to Sigil (or elsewhere) and find a level 17 seer, whose divinations you can't avoid pre-epic. If you do too little, such as simply sending a single attack dog at the wizard, my inkling is that foresight would say to the wizard 'obvious diversion is obvious.'

There's a middle ground in there somewhere, but that middle ground is still ultimately going to be a gamble depending on how the wizard is using their contingency. If celerity is their contingency, and your diversion doesn't trigger it, but your sniping does, then you also lose.
Very true, you also need to make sure that the warnings that would be received are as varied as possible, I.e. with the 500 gold you got, hire a barrister to sign a death warrant and a renunciation of goods while within view of the wizard, if the wizard casts any spells, paying off a bard to turn a loved one against him at exactly that time, miles away, a dog or two to come attack him, one to hump, one to tackle and attack, having an expert use a wand of magic missile, at the same time, having kids taunt him for being weak and worthless, to damage his reputation, and harm him socially, a town guard looking his way for any signs of trouble, and the archer with the stealth missile (curing arrow with a superior disruption rider enchantment), that attacks if the mage does anything.
By my estimation, the foresight should either be saying " #^<√€*" or some dreadful combination of: don't caste anything, dog attack, damaged reputation, trouble at home, watch out for guard, don't stay, don't leave, and obey the rules of town, while the archers arrow should get thru, since it isn't damaging or harmful. Then the actual attack begins.

If you make the mage not have a clear cut choice, it with foment panic, and it is the mistake you desire. Again, for someone to do all that, they have to hate you something good.

[marcielle]

Send mutiple weak enemies of a common weakness. Make yourself vulnerable(just less so) to that weakness. eg. get yourself fire vulnerability. Send in a few swarms(weak to fire) When you finally attack wizard probably thinks it's another swarm(cos the advice it will likely give is 'prepare fire spells). He probably won't waste celerity on something as insignificant as a swarm(which you aren't). Depends on the DM but magic is pretty derpy anyway and psychology is the least expensive tactic.

[Weezer]

So basically the best way of overcoming foresight is to expend a lot of effort on creating siumutaneous effects and rely on the DM giving misleading warnings? It also requires the wizard to react exactly how you want him to and not realize what you're doing. Doesn't seem like an incredibly effective tactic to me.

[vitkiraven]

I'm not requiring the DM to give misleading solutions at all. Foresight is not Corona, or an AI, no matter how much the wizards want it to be. It doesn't say that the spell evaluates the danger or picks out the most dangerous outcome that could befall the mage, just that the mage gets a specific crunch benefit, and a minor helpful description of the attack to commence. By providing multiple problems that require multiple opposing solutions, you use the spell against itself. It requires no DM interaction, beyond control of NPC hirelings or witnesses which were either paid to do a task, or set up by the opposing party to do their intended function.
The mind works best by taking in information, and processing it to generate an optimal reaction. All foresight does is give another venue for information to be received from. Like using flash bangs to stun people, you overwhelm a sensory input, and it becomes more than worthless, irl. Note I am not granting ANY bonus to any action undertaken by any party, I am just using the spell against itself, and honestly, knowing that mages require focus, anyone out to gank a mage should really be focused on getting the mage as far out of his comfort zone as possible.
And MOST of the things can occur in a standard day, hell half of them might be happening normally in a campaign setting.
And the spell itself calls for a warning, its not provided solely because the DM is being mean. If the spell was worded differently, it could be a lot stronger.
Again, I am not adding anything to the spell. I am not adding in the massive disorientation and confusion that would be caused by such an amount of information overload, just using it so that almost all of the wizards standard reactions are counteracted by another warning he could be receiving. And all for less than a 1000 gold. I think 500 gold to one time counteract a 9th level spell is pretty fair, after all, it didn't dismiss or destroy it (that's the main archers job).

[Elric VIII]

So basically the best way of overcoming foresight is to expend a lot of effort on creating siumutaneous effects and rely on the DM giving misleading warnings? It also requires the wizard to react exactly how you want him to and not realize what you're doing. Doesn't seem like an incredibly effective tactic to me.

Your best bet, if you are truly having trouble dealing with the spell, is to talk to the player about the boundaries of the spell that make you comfortable. I'm telling you that making the spell completely useless is not going to go over well.

You can do something as simple as have it be a warning of impending attack or a trap/bad decision radar.

The problem with most divination spells (and I speak from personal experience) is that they are too dependent on the DM. My DM tries to screw me over any time I use a divination with any sort of wiggle room. At one point I cast Commune (a reasonably powerful/high-level spell) and his response was, "I don't have to tell you anything, right?"

Seriously, the way to go if you feel that divinations make the game easymode is to set up some ground rules and limitations.

Also, recall that Foresight is only 10 min/Level duration. At most he's getting 6 hours, 40 min (assuming greater MM rod of Extend). If you include some travel time between important encounters, he will have to choose to either only be covered for one or waste multiple 9th level slots on this (not exactly a small investment of resources).

Something else that might be useful once or twice is that Divinations cannot penetrate dead magic zones, so you can use ambushes that are hidden in one and move out of it to attack. Just don't forget that dead magic zones can be detected by Detect Magic and its derivatives.

[Emperor Tippy]

Divination's are effectively worthless in real high level play against equal CR enemies and challenges.

Between Mind Blank (which can arguably only be gotten around by Contact Other Planes), Permanent Mage's Sanctum's (which prevent any divination from perceiving the protected area), Weirdstones (which prevent all divination's in a 6 mile radius along with blocking virtually every form of teleportation in the same area), and similar abilities divination becomes a lot less useful.

Especially if your DM rules, arguably validly, that Mind Blank and the other effects do block Contact Other Planes.

Foresight is useful not because of what the DM tells the player from it (which really isn't much, perhaps that the enemy is going to use disjunction next round or the like if the DM is feeling particularly generous) but because it prevents the user from being flatfooted. In high level play, a lot of combat can be decided in the surprise round and if you can't act there you can be screwed. Celerity just made it better.

[nedz]

The other classic strategy besides information overload is to cry wolf.
After the umpteenth warning of some minor danger the Wizard will let their guard down - or even run out of spells.
They are basically the same approach - just spread out differently.