Divination Sphere (Spheres in Review)

[SangoProduction]

Preamble: This is easily my most ignored sphere. Not most hated. Not least powerful. Just most ignored. Perhaps undeservedly so. I don’t often get to play with SoP-proficient DMs, so bringing a wall of text as the base ability is rarely a great introduction. Also, it wasn’t very usable without major investment.

Post-Review Analysis:
Divination is a surprisingly strong social sphere (even stronger at it than the mind sphere), with some obvious scouting/tracking ability (if you really invest, and have a consistent enemy type/alignment).

Link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/13vN3oNUPnAgK0rS8HUxC9gUGNvTPpYw1Mw699nCn6Q8/edit?usp=sharing)

Flex Talents:
Blindfolded Oracle vs Gaze attacks.
Divine Information to reroll knowledge checks.
Detect Secrets if you expect secret doors / passageways.

Full or Partial Caster:
Honestly? Either one would be happy. Full casters because they have the talents. And Partial casters… um… Well, there’s not much to worry about on the caster level side of things. There are some nice Sense talents that would be nice for anyone to pick up.

[ezekielraiden]

Looks like, for once, I had a mostly accurate idea of what the sphere was good for. E.g., taking a drawback to get a better Sense talent is...kind of a no-brainer.
(Edit: apparently I'm crazy and there is no such drawback, you're stuck with the crappy Sense you start with. But yeah, IF such a drawback existed it'd be a no-brainer...which may be why it doesn't exist.)

Hadn't considered the socialite applications of some of those Divine talents though. That's extremely interesting. Maybe not relevant for the game I should be getting into soon, but if I ever land in an intrigue game, I'll absolutely keep this in mind.

[AmberVael]

I've long been a fan of the Divination sphere. Probably because I am a big fan of the social and non-combat aspects of the game, really. It can be hard for some characters to find the talents to invest in it though.
One tactic I've used to get around that is focusing on Conjuration instead, and making a mage companion who goes full into the Divination sphere for me - which as noted, doesn't suffer much from having lower caster level with it.