Predicting the future

[NaughtyTiger]

There are 2 powers (that I can think of) that predict the future: Div Wiz Portent, Augury. In my mind they don't do a good job of predicting the future.

Augury is basically asking the DM, "do you think this is a good plan?"

Portent is forcing a single roll of your choosing to have a known outcome.


1) Do you/How do you use Augury?

2) I considered, but never put into practice, swapping Portent for something closer to MtG's Scry; where you know what the next 3 rolls are.
"roll 3 d20s in order (keep them secret), replace the next three rolls with those dice..."

Declare Portent at the start of the big bad's turn, you roll 3, 20, 13...
Big bad makes attack 1->replaced with 3, decides not to press its luck and stops.
Barbarian is up, her 2 attacks are replaced with 20 and 13
rip it apart, please.

[Segev]

There are 2 powers (that I can think of) that predict the future: Div Wiz Portent, Augury. In my mind they don't do a good job of predicting the future.

Augury is basically asking the DM, "do you think this is a good plan?"

Portent is forcing a single roll of your choosing to have a known outcome.


1) Do you/How do you use Augury?

2) I considered, but never put into practice, swapping Portent for something closer to MtG's Scry; where you know what the next 3 rolls are.
"roll 3 d20s in order (keep them secret), replace the next three rolls with those dice..."

Declare Portent at the start of the big bad's turn, you roll 3, 20, 13...
Big bad makes attack 1->replaced with 3, decides not to press its luck and stops.
Barbarian is up, her 2 attacks are replaced with 20 and 13
rip it apart, please.

It's significantly weaker than Portent as-is. Knowing what the rolls are goes all around the table, and doesn't make the Big Bad stop trying unless the GM is trying to help the wizard. Losing control of when the rolls comes up just means the wizard can say, "yes, do something, ourselves, now," or "no, wait for the enemy to do something." And even that's not guaranteed to be useful, because if waiting for the enemy, the enemy might force a save.

It should never be a game of bluffing the DM.

Augury is not one I've seen used much, and it's hard for the DM when I have seen it used because its time window is limited and it's hard to judge how long things will take before you know the outcomes. And if the outcomes are based heavily on dice luck....

[Galithar]

I see the change to Portent as useless. Knowing what's coming with no means of changing it doesn't make a good ability. In MTG when you scry you can change what's going to come from your deck. You can put any number of cards on the bottom of your deck and order those you put back on top as you please. If you're going to make it like MTG go all in.

You may declare Portent at any time as a reaction. When you do so roll a number of D20s equal to your Portent value (this would go up as you level up in the class). You may discard any number of these rolls, and then choose an order to apply the rest. At any point you may choose to not replace a d20 roll. If you do so the d20 is rolled as normal and all remaining Portent dice are lost.

This allows you to both predict AND influence "the future" in a way that never inadvertently screws you or a party member over.

[Ventruenox]

Divination, Commune, Foresight? True Strike could even be a minor way to predict the future. The Uvar Rune from the UA Rune Knight (https://media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/UA-RuneSwarmRevived.pdf) states that the PC enters a prophetic state.

I have only used Augury once, and after session my DM told me he gave the Weal and Woe result because the outcome of my query was tied to a die roll anyway. This would probably be one of those discussions with the DM on how those abilities will be interpreted at his table.

[Keravath]

I've never had an NPC stop attacking because they roll either high or low. If they have three attacks they will be using all of them. Whether the player rolls the dice or the DM does, doesn't matter and in your case, all that happens, is that the players know what the die rolls are going to be. It doesn't change what they mean or how they get used.

The real benefit of portent is to know the die roll and be able to impose it at a time of your choosing. Force a hit, a miss or make/break a crucial saving throw. The fact that portent has to be used before the die roll means that the character has to choose to use it for items that might really make a difference.

The one time your version could be more powerful is not necessarily when the bad guy is attacking but when you can set things up for your team. For example ... High roll, low roll, crit. You want to use the crit on an attack by your paladin so then you look who was before the paladin - can they cast a spell that will force a save? Who goes before them, can we work that high roll into a to hit roll? The problem with this is it creates analysis paralysis trying to come up with the best way to utilize the chain of three die rolls and it interferes with the other players turns since now YOU start to dictate what they should do so that the effects of your ability are maximized.

So, overall, I'd say the regular portent does a much better job.

[NaughtyTiger]

thank yall for the feedback, yeah, i can see how it sucked...

that said:

You may declare Portent at any time as a reaction. When you do so roll a number of D20s equal to your Portent value (this would go up as you level up in the class). You may discard any number of these rolls, and then choose an order to apply the rest. At any point you may choose to not replace a d20 roll. If you do so the d20 is rolled as normal and all remaining Portent dice are lost.
i like this much better...

[MaxWilson]

1) Do you/How do you use Augury?

If the DM knows the future, he tells you. (E.g. "what happens if I drink that potion?" "Weal.")

Sometimes the future is balanced enough that the DM can't predict weal or woe. E.g. "what happens if I open that door?" and there's a monster behind it, with treasure, and the DM isn't sure if the players will easily beat the monster.

In these cases, instead of "indeterminate," I prefer to steal from Portent's idea of foretelling via die manipulation and turn Augury into a reroll. If the Augury result is "Weal," players get to reroll one die during the next half hour. If "Woe," the DM does so on the enemy's behalf.

Bad omens = bad luck, one way or another, but not necessarily cripplingly bad.

[Chronos]

A monster with a treasure is the textbook example of "weal and woe".

[col_impact]

Alert feat can be viewed as predicting the future.

[Magicspook]

Augury is not one I've seen used much, and it's hard for the DM when I have seen it used because its time window is limited and it's hard to judge how long things will take before you know the outcomes. And if the outcomes are based heavily on dice luck....

In my last session, a player cast augury to determime whether a bet (arm wrestling match between a player and an NPC) would go right or wrong. I rolled the check for the NPC after augury was cast and predicted 'weal' because the roll was ****.

[Bubzors]

I have not seen Augury used much, but the few times it was it left a lasting impression upon my group. One of our first 5e adventures we were traveling in the underdark and there was this side cave. Someone cast augury on if it was a good idea to go into the cave and the DM came back with a resounding "Woe" we all laughed and noped the **** outta there, never to find out what was back there.

To this day whenever we believe one way in dungeon to be more dangerous than the other we refer to it as the "Cave of Woe"

[Zetakya]

A monster with a treasure is the textbook example of "weal and woe".

I would probably bend the rules and answer that "Woe before Weal"

[Segev]

I have not seen Augury used much, but the few times it was it left a lasting impression upon my group. One of our first 5e adventures we were traveling in the underdark and there was this side cave. Someone cast augury on if it was a good idea to go into the cave and the DM came back with a resounding "Woe" we all laughed and noped the **** outta there, never to find out what was back there.

To this day whenever we believe one way in dungeon to be more dangerous than the other we refer to it as the "Cave of Woe"

I'm now picturing your party staking cutouts of Keanu Reeves in front of these caves. "Woah."