Is this spell's level appropriate?

[Atarax]

I'm open to suggestions.

Whispers of the Past

3rd-level divination

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (a small silver bell)

Duration: Concentration, up 1 hour

As you cast this spell, a gentle breeze begins to stir around you, carrying faint echoes of forgotten voices and long-lost memories. You open a mystical connection to the past, allowing you to hear the whispers of history that surround you.

For the duration of the spell, you gain access to a general feel of the collective knowledge and experiences of the area you are in. Once per casting, you can attune your senses to perceive glimpses of significant events or moments that occurred within the location. Roll a Wisdom (Perception) check, and the Dungeon Master will provide you with relevant details about the past events or knowledge related to your inquiry. The depth of the information depends on the roll’s result and the DM’s discretion.These visions manifest as ethereal echoes, visible only to you and incorporeal to the current reality.

The spell’s effectiveness might vary depending on the historical significance of the area and the amount of information available from the past. Be cautious, as some visions might contain hints or warnings, while others could lead to potential dangers or secrets long buried.


At Higher Levels: you gain a +1 bonus to your Wisdom (Perception) check to learn specific information as well as an additional opportunity to make a check for every two levels above 3rd.

[Kane0]

Its really up-to-the-DM so hard to gauge in a vacuum, but seems fine. Why does it last an hour if you only get one roll out of it? It doesnt seem to have an effect beyond that.
Also, i feel that insight or investigation would be better than perception.

Edit: oh and upcasting generally doesnt do more than one thing, so i'd drop the +1s (which is also a thing 5e doesnt do often)

[Atarax]

Its really up-to-the-DM so hard to gauge in a vacuum, but seems fine. Why does it last an hour if you only get one roll out of it? It doesnt seem to have an effect beyond that.
Also, i feel that insight or investigation would be better than perception.

Edit: oh and upcasting generally doesnt do more than one thing, so i'd drop the +1s (which is also a thing 5e doesnt do often)

It lasts an hour to give the player the choice of when to use it without giving them that much information the whole time. Like, the whole hour, they're getting general vibes from an area, but it's up to them where to focus in for specifics.

I could see those investigation being more appropriate. Depends on how you look at it I guess.

[Chronos]

It'd benefit a lot from some examples of what you can learn with what roll. For instance, 5 to get events of history-changing significance, like battles or assassinations of important people, 10 for life-changing events, 15 for things that would make the local rumor mill, 20 for events whose importance wasn't clear in the moment, 30 for events whose significance only the gods (or DM) knows.

[Anymage]

It lasts an hour to give the player the choice of when to use it without giving them that much information the whole time. Like, the whole hour, they're getting general vibes from an area, but it's up to them where to focus in for specifics.

I could see those investigation being more appropriate. Depends on how you look at it I guess.

It's cheaper than Legend Lore, faster, cheaper, and lower level. Plus you're saying you want the flavor text of "hear(ing) the whispers of history" to mean something above and beyond the mechanically stated benefits of the spell. And can apply even to non-legendary areas. I get the drawbacks (location specific, requires your actual presence, requires a skill check), but it still feels like a mixup of Legend Lore and a psychometry spell with an hour of minor information on top. I guess the question is if you're targeting a third level spell (in which case we can discuss how well the drawbacks compared to Legend Lore or other general divinations like Commune or Contact Other Plane bring the level down), or if you're targeting a spell with an identity of its own (in which case it'd help to identify what it's use cases would be compared to other divinations).

[DarknessEternal]

It's pretty terrible. A 3rd level spell that just lets you make an ability check to learn something when you could already just have made an ability check (History) is not good.

[Vogie]

I think it could be an appropriate level if you added a bit more information to it. You're essentially creating a "Locate IDK, Stuff" spell that isn't as specific as Commune or Legend Lore and more powerful than the Locate spells. The caster has this vision of something that happened in the area in whispery ghosty form, likely inspired by the glimpses of the past we're seeing in Diablo IV, but is seen in various other IPs.

What I would do to make it more interesting is

Remove concentration - it's not really something that needs to be limited by that. It doesn't have a use during combat, and if someone wanted to combine this spell with something like Clairvoyance or Enhance Ability (for that sweet, sweet advantage), there's nothing really wrong with that. I would much rather it have a cast time of 1 minute than Concentration.
Increase the number of Perception Checks - If this is going to an hour duration, you'd want at least 2. This could even be something like a number of checks equal to your proficiency bonus minus 1. Then you could make the per-level scaling just bonuses to the perception check, more ability to direct the visions, or other story-based beats that are available.