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BerzerkerUnit
2019-09-24, 09:52 AM
This is kind of more DM jack than homebrew but I’m wondering if it can be applied to divinations more broadly.

Augury gives a Weal/Woe/both/neither result based on the party’s stated immediate plan of action. I’ve never liked it that way, the players always do a terrible job sticking to their plan, sometimes they don’t even understand they need to outline what they plan to do before casting it.

What if they had a percentile roll or even a skill check that granted a number of skill check “successes” based on the roll. High number might provide 3, a low number would be 1, or maybe let it scale as high as spell casting ability bonus.

They’d function akin to Divination school’s level 2 ability but instead of the known number it’s just a bare minimum level of success. They can apply the successes as desired but have to do so before a roll is made. This makes the Spell way more valuable and reliable and a way for the DM to make sure the party doesn’t miss a crucial plot element.

Also, I’m thinking of making True Strike function as “you don’t roll your next attack or spell attack, the target makes a Dex Save for half the rolled damage.”

Thoughts?

cajbaj
2019-09-25, 03:21 PM
Augury functions the way that it does because it's a ritual. Breaking it makes it more mechanical, but it also kind of destroys its purpose as a consequence-free "hey would this maybe work?" For anyone that's high enough level to cast it.

As for true strike, that's kind of neat but might be better as a Maneuver.

BerzerkerUnit
2019-09-25, 04:41 PM
I’m not sure how this breaks Augury.

I don’t think the Truestrike fix works well as a maneuver since I’m not sure what the maneuver Die would do. I’m guessing you’d add it to the rolled damage, but that might get pretty brutal, and I dont think a maneuver should reference spell attacks (though I’m not sure the distinction for things like this works that way normally anyway).

cajbaj
2019-09-25, 05:20 PM
It turns Augury into something completely different than what it is. Additionally, it's a ritual, so giving it mechanical benefits is extremely unwise.
Also, for how low level Augury is, it's kind of overpowered.

As for the maneuver change, I'm just saying having it target a Dex save instead of rolling an attack makes sense and is fairly balanced.

True Strike is so hard to fix without it being overpowered.