Study Up on 5E D&D Magic — Divination Spells

Salutations, nerds! We’re about to peek into the future with Divination magic for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Revealing information, peeking into the past or future and uncovering all things hidden fall under the auspices of divination spells in 5E D&D. Grab your Tarokka deck and let’s get ready to roll.

Arcane tradition — divination

The School of Divination’s Portent feature is the reason most people take choose this 5E D&D wizard subclass. It’s really strong and really meta. Portent has you roll two d20’s, write down the numbers rolled and then you get to replace any roll of yours or another creature’s with those rolls later so you want them to be super high or super low. But if you get mid-range ones these can be useful to help your buddies pass failed rolls, so there’s that.

At 6th level, casting divination spells gives you back spell slots so you can keep going longer than most other casters can. It’s also incentive to start low and build higher, cascading your spell slots in the process. Being a School of Divination wizard means you also get the ability to see things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to with your eyes and translate written text at 10th level while your capstone ability is an extra Portent. Which, mind you, is still very strong.

“Divination spells reveal information, whether in the form of secrets long forgotten, glimpses of the future, the locations of hidden things, the truth behind illusions, or visions of distant people or places.” — from the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook

10 notable divination spells

1. Detect Magic. Want to know what in the room is enchanted? This is a tried and true way to do so.
2. Detect Thoughts. Scanning the surface thoughts of another creature can be game breaking with a Dungeon Master who doesn’t really know how to handle this so be careful when you cast. But it can be very helpful.
3. Foresight. When there’s only one 9th level spell on a list it has to go on the notable spells list. It’s a buff spell, the target gets limited precog giving them advantage on almost everything and other things disadvantage on most things directed their way. It’s a good one and evidence a spell doesn’t have to be complicated to be intensely useful.
4. Identify. The best way to find out what a magic item does without attuning. This is super useful especially since if you don’t have it you’re either attuning to things willy nilly or paying someone else to do it for you.
5. Locate Creature. Good for finding both specific creatures and types of creatures. It has to be within 1000 feet of you but that’s not why I’m including this. If a creature is polymorphed you suddenly can’t find them. This is an interesting story bit to me because if the bad guys are chasing the adventurers polymorphing the one they’re locating with the spell is a good way to get them to stop. And I love this. It’s very The Last Unicorn.
6. Locate Object. Keep losing your keys? This is how you find them again.
7. Mind Spike. The divination spell that does damage! I played a diviner in Curse of Strahd and this spell was a lifesaver every step of the way. It also makes it harder for things to run away from you.
8. Scrying. Peeking in on someone you can’t see with your physical eyes — if they fail their saving throw. This one is a classic.
9. Telepathic Bond. Keep losing your friends? This is how you find them again.
10. True Seeing. The target sees things as they actually are despite any obfuscation. Illusions? Nah! Secret doors? I thought it was out in the open!

5 character concepts for divination magic

1. The Adviser. Most courts are going to want a diviner among them. You had the ear of a noble, letting them know what you were able to see in the past and future.
2. The Haruspex. An easy way to play a dark flavored diviner. Haruspicy is divining the future by reading the entrails of creatures. It involves sacrifice and just feels visceral (see what I did there?).
3. The Investigator. You use your powers to look into the past more than the future. You’re on the case, finding out who did it!
4. The Librarian. You always seemed to know exactly what your patrons were looking for or what they wanted to drink. Now you know it was latent divination ability.
5. The Soothsayer. The archetype of the hedge witch who people come to for information on their lives. A character like this might leave their hovel to travel for a lot of reasons but this is a really easy to be like, “The villagers didn’t like that I was there and burned it down.”

Play a 5E D&D divination magic specialist? Planning on playing one? Got one in your game? Please, tell me all about it in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too. And of course, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A tabaxi spellcaster sees with more than eyes! In addition to the excellent divination spells highlighted here you might consider some of these highest rated divination spells for your next 5E D&D wizard. Test strike and last remembrance are both pretty dope. This image was created in just a few minutes with full color thanks to the amazing resources at Hero Forge. There’s so much you can do with Hero Forge! Check it out for yourself here.

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