Hear me out: homebrew this spell into a magic 8-ball artifact or magical item artificers can create, because the idea of the party stopping to ask the magic 8-ball every time they get stuck is comedy gold, especially if they are provided with a real magic 8-ball
"The goat that was once Zee bleats at you loudly. You assume this is a display of satisfaction with your Baleful Polymorph spell, and that the aggressive biting is meant to show Zee's approval for coming up with a way to save money on rooms at the inn."
Once when I was Dm'ing, my players tried to sneak into a city as wanted criminals. They all disguised themselves in various ways and right before attempting to enter, the cleric cast augury; she wanted to know if this was a good idea. Not knowing what to say, I decided to secretly roll the guards' Perception check ahead of time: a 2. With a roll that low, I assumed they'd likely succeed so I said "weal"
That is ingenious. Rolling something ahead of time that is pertinent to what was asked and answering based on their odds, given said roll, is supremely good. And this way, it does indeed make it useful for the "multiple uses make it random" penalty, because having what's essentially just free knowledge regarding future rolls is a bit too strong. But the randomness make it only work once or twice reliably.
Its one of the many reasons why I wish I could play dnd with my friends around a table. I would find a reason to use the spell every session and bribe my DM with pastries. And then suddenly stop using the spell, depriving them of snacks.
I've hear small offerings of fried tubers, salted and flavored in oil, are favorable to them, but those coated with powder be warned, it may invoke their wrath as well.
@@gabemerritt3139 it takes 10x the casting time for that, so you're spending 10 minutes predicting the next 20 or 30 depending on your dm's interpretation
One thing! Just one thing! Please tell IT to me: WHY tf do I have so many fans even though no TH-camr is unprettier than I am? WORLDWIDE!!!! WHY??? Tell me, dear seb
I saw Augery used once in a campaign. A hostile force was coming, and the party had civilians to protect. They asked if running would be safer than fighting, woe. If fighting inside the town via chokepoints would be better then fighting in the farmland, woe. They asked of the civilians would be better off building barricades rather than fighting, weal. With this in mind, they fought in the field, away from the civilians they needed to protect, and had them barricade themselves in. The party then achieved the best possible outcome with no civilians harmed.
This was defintely a great application. It's not guaranteed none of those villagers would die but it suggests the best course was for them to bunker down in the farmland.
My players found a great use for this spell. They found a deck of many things and have been using augury to make sure they won't screw themselves when they pull a card
@@fhuber7507 I would draw the next three cards, and give weal/woe/(ʘᴗʘ✿) depending on what those cards reflect (maybe give the player a choice of which of the three to draw). Keeps the randomness, but doesn't invalidate their usage of the spell.
Working around the players like that really feels like working against them... but I haven't checked the spell text to see how valid the "too powerful" reaponse is. ...there is a change for random answers for a reason, though, you probably don't want to get caught fudging the fice on that one.
When my players use Divinations like this, if they have a deity, I respond from that deity's point of view with that deity's knowledge, goals, and opinions. For example, opening a portal that would allow demons to enter a plane would be a bad result to a celestial deity, but a good result to an abyssal one, unless those demons belong to a rival demon lord. If the player doesn't have a deity, they can target a deity of their choice, or target an alignment (or alignment group) of deities, or not target anyone in particular at all. This decides on what pool of deities can respond, and I'll pick whoever of that set most agrees with the party's quest at the time, but the players don't get to know which deity responded. (This does not mean that the responding deity has the party's best interests in mind, or that they have the same values that the players do, just that they want the party to succeed in their current quest.) They've gotten responses from Asmodeus SO many times after a demon lord became a BBEG, despite being a good aligned party... It took at least 10 levels of this before the party realized that their good actions against evil forces were also coincidentally giving the devil side of the blood war a better foothold towards taking over the Abyss. They're now working to try to even out those scales.
Cool and thematic but makes the quality of information so much worse. Can't even get good/bad from Augury cause you don't know who tf is answering and if they think it's good or bad
@@tymekx014 Except that you'll at least know the responder agrees with the current quest, so it at least will be in that direction. Plus, you can always target a specific alignment of deities, or a specific deity.
I feel like it's a spell you use after you've already thought of a plan and are about to enact it. "Hey guys, I know we said we'd sneak in through this drainige ditch but leme cast augury real quick." The god knows the bbeg is spying on them and put a shitload of nasty monster in their way: "Woe."
I like that Augury (and Divination) was added to the Wizard (and Druid) spell lists in Tasha's. It's really weird that Diviners weren't allowed to use any of the classic "divine the future" spells that you would think would be in their purview. They're Divination Wizards. Their whole _deal_ is divination. As for Augury itself, I like how they neatly sidestep the possibility of the party sitting in one location, dumping all their spell slots into auguring their way to an optimal path. Because, as is often said, players will optimize the fun out of the game, if you let them.
I'm always a big fan of Augury. Beyond simple stuff like "what happens if I open the door?", it can be really cool to use on complex things like "will I encounter danger in the sewers?" or "will I find the McGuffin in the eastern tower?" Even if the DM can't give an accurate answer due to dice rolls and stuff, it's cool to get a hint on things in the future.
The way the spell is phrased, those sort of questions are not allowed. If you or your DM allow it that's fine, but it is not how the spell actually works. The text of the spell reads: "you receive an omen from an otherworldly entity about the results of a specific course of action that you plan to take within the next 30 minutes". In other words, you think about or otherwise visualize *a specific course of action*, limited to the next 30 min, and you get an omen about it. So what would be allowed would be omens about "I open the door", "I enter the sewers and walk there", "I go to the Eastern tower and look around", not about anything more useful or concrete. Sometimes that will be decently useful ('weal' for going to the tower), most often in my experience it will be almost useless ('weal and woe' or 'nothing' for trying to jump over a deep abyss, since it might go well and it might go bad depending on the dice).
@@theWebWizrd Even if we ignore how RAW there is no actual definition on how specific thus anything up to the scope of horoscopes works, just from actual english language definitions "going into the sewers to do x/y/z and encountering danger" is a specific course of actions tho. As is the "search for a wonderful McMuffin in a specific place when not already there". And in lore remember deities, patrons and other things powerful enough to cross the threshold of planes in D&D (except in DS and Exandria) are generally strong enough if not also competent enough to actually be able to check for such things AND typically know the person asking the question.
@@ANDELE3025 I agree with what you are saying, but there is an important distinction to be made here. If you merely describe that you will "go into the sewers and encounter danger", then there is no way of knowing from the result of the augury whether you will *actually* encounter danger. If you get 'woe', it might be that you encounter danger - but it might also be that you lose your gold purse into the sewers, or you walk into a trap that turns you into a frog for an hour, or you get lost and miss an important meeting that night. Those are all 'bad results'. Moreover, the problem as mentioned in the video is that the DM doesn't really know what will happen either, so you might get 'nothing' or 'weal and woe' anyways. The distinction, therefore, is important, because you can't use the spell to get the answer to a question like "is there danger in the sewers" or "will I find the McGuffin in the tower" as the original comment suggests. For that, you need and are very well covered by the 4th level spell Divination.
The last time I used that spell the DM gave me a rhyming omen, that was didn't answer her question but made even more question as well made her have a panic attack and became nervous and anxious the game session's.
My players use it frequently when they're simply stumped, and for that purpose it's an amazing "where should we go next?" tool for the DM because it's entirely controlled by the players and is thematic to the game. For example, my players went out in search of a location, and they were told to simply follow the sign. But they never confirmed *which* sign, and so when they were stuck at a crossroads with no idea where to go, they can use this spell or a similar ability to ask if it's a good idea to go in a particular direction, with the specific purpose of reaching their destination in mind. This let's me not outright tell them the answer, because the Wheel and/or Woe result might not necessarily relate directly to that purpose, but gives them enough information to come to their own interpretation of the result.
GURPS has an amazing advantage in it called “Common Sense” which basically lets the DM roll for the player’s wisdom score to basically tell them: “Hey before you try to chug that random hag’s potion, your common sense triggers and you feel like it’s a bad idea.”
I have my players use insight to help them when they're about to wander into serious trouble they may not be ready for. It makes sense for a party of mid level adventurers to have an inkling for danger
i often have players roll wis or int checks before doign a very obviously stupid thing and give warnings or encouragments based on the result. so before you chug down that potion you didnt check first (there are litereally rules for checking potions/poisons and it cant hurt you raw/rai ) roll that wisdom check.. oh a nat 1.. oh yeah. that hag was hidding it from you. its obviously very good for you..ignore the flaoting bits of rotting flesh and the pussy aftertaste. or.. your about to perform the spell to banish the bbeg from all of existence using the jumbled up runes you discovered along the way. do a quick inteligence check to remember that when you solved it last session it was the other way around... and you jsut put it backwards...dooming the world if you cast it this way.
I believe this is already in 5e as a wisdom DC10 roll. If a player's about to do something they could easily predict the outcome of (kick a sleeping dragon), just have them roll a low wisdom check and feed them to obvious consequences of what the action will be.
I always give Common Sense to players for free; too many DMs forget that PCs know a lot more about the world (campaign and immediate surroundings) than the players. The players can't see, hear, smell, feel, or taste any part of the game world, and are dependent on the GM's descriptions and their memories. If a PC would obviously think drinking green slime is gross, I'll point that out and let the player decide one more time before a poison save.
This is why I get so tired of low INT player characters being played like l9w WIS builds. Your character might not know what the difference between a fairy or a pixie, but with a 15 in WIS that you demanded to improve their perception modifiers, they know full well to not just off a cliff. They might not be able to read or pick locks, but that should make them more paranoid about irritating the king, not make them recklessly ruin the royal feast for the "lol I'm so stupid and funny".
I'd love to see a look at Divination (the spell so good they named a school of magic after it!) and a comparison of good divination spells to one another. I agree that Augury is mostly useless outside of probing a multitude of specific actions, like which door to pick in a dungeon or which of the king's advisors is a traitor but if you don't use all your spell slots every day then you can usually determine if magic items are cursed or something with it.
Seconding that! Beyond the fact that a good chunk of support locate/understand/uncover spells are in Divination? I can from personal enjoyed playtime was Arcane Eye being insanely useful and surprisingly doesn't fix you to one spot like other spells while down in the thick of danger, while Detect Thoughts and Legend Lore are just a damn good time.
Our cleric used this spell a lot. Since he followed a war god his "good" result often led us into combat as to his God any battle is a chance to earn honor and glory through the art of combat...needless to say we were cautious every time he used this spell unless it was for very specific requests. As for fun around the (digital) table, it added a ton
War gods tend to be at the extremes of Alignment, so what type of combat qualifies as "honor and glory" further depends on which extreme they tend toward. That being said; what was the war god's alignment?
Zee, you are a treasure upon the DnD community. Weekly episodes? You spoil us, truly. Thank you so much for your amazing work. *sidenote* I play your cult procession short at least once a week at minimum. Absolutely hype!
If you Augury "Should I take the McGuffin to that guy who said he was a Harper?" you're playing into the intent of the spell. If you Augury the kind of thing a player _actually_ ever seems to want to know, you're spitting in the faces of RP and Entropy. It's a grand ol' spell if your table knows how to lean into Narrative Causality.
And if you run the spells as it's supposed to be run, you have none of those issues, because it's mostly for diving traps or enemy filled corridors There's a reason there's a 30 min time limit and it needs a slot. It's the "what would happen if we went in the middle corridor" spell
I ran a pirates campaign with some friends. One of them played a paranoid warlock who would cast Augury every dawn. There would be some great days, one really bad day where they got caught in a storm. Eventually I ran out of ways saying the day would be neutral.
Your animations are what inspired me to get into dnd, I was just amazed at the amount of freedom and how math was involved in spells. From the beginning of my journey in dnd, till now I still really enjoy your animations, so thank you so much for making them
Something important about the wording in the spell's description: The spell only cares that the PCs do what they ask in the next 30 minutes, beyond that there is no time limit the result can measure from. This makes it a pretty good spell to sniff out betrayals before they happen, especially in the case of handing over powerful magical artifacts to the people who paid you to go get them. Also, note to GMs: I hear "Weal and Woe" way too often in situations like "You kickstart the end of the world but you find 10 gold pieces on the ground on the way out". Don't be like that, if the woe significantly outweighs the weal, it's woe.
@@ASquared544 yeah but its not if one is significantly more weighed than the other "you find a dead dragons hoard but you stub your toe on a solid gold statue" isnt both. its weal.
Augury is a great spell, its just not an all the time spell. To know a specific action will or won't go well can be pretty clutch at times. And its level 2, likely not the end of the world. Ritual, even, if you can spend the time.
Augury is one of the spells I've looked at loads of times, but I've never actually used. I have recommended it in the past to a player who tended to be overly cautious as a way of getting some reassurance that a plan was a good idea.
As a diviner; I like casting divinations like these before preparing spells "Should I prepare this niche utility spell?" - Weal: Fantastic - Preparing this for the day - Woe: Fair enough - I can prepare more universal spells w/o worry of odd scenarios
My DM and I actually do something cool with Augury. I play a Knowledge Cleric who is a librarian. What she does for Augury is she closes her eyes, flips to a random page in a book, and a random section to get her reading. My DM then picks up a copy of The Art of War, finds a passage he likes, and we use that passage as her reading. He can give good advise that we may not recognize, and it fits with her character.
My augury spells instead give you a glimpse of what other npcs are doing if the party has enough material to work with. Because we were doing ravnica stuff, it was actually pretty important to like see into the future of other npcs like this dude's about to die in an alley, then the party could decide to go save them and change the future.
I actually had a moment when I used this spell and it was really effective. I was a Gnoll ranger with my group in our Eberron campaign. We were in a sewer system infested with monsters and we had a split path. This was my first time using the spell (I had it because the kind of Gnoll I was) and I simply asked “down this left path, week or woe?” Dm responded with, “Woe, definitely woe.” Turns out there was an Oblex down that path. Not something our level 3 party wanted to run into.
The best use I've ever seen for Augury is prior to using the Deck of Many Things. Immediate good or bad results, super specific course of action ("'What if I draw one card from the Deck of Many Things?' Weal? Okay, cast again, 'what if I draw two cards from the Deck of Many Things?' Weal and woe? I guess I'll draw one card"). Different editions have had slightly different rules text for both Augury and the Deck, so this may require, ex., waiting a day between castings to avoid failure chances, or letting someone else draw first and then trying again.
This is precisely why I subscribe, and it’s great to hear from you again! We appreciate what you do, and will be looking forward to whatever you bring us next, and whenever that may be!
Still love the animations, someone who's just sitting around has never looked so animated, and whilst i don't play the game myself, there's enough context and background here for even newcomers to get it and enjoy the jokes!
I was literally just researching this spell for my druid and had most of my questions answered by this video! Also just a question, I swear I remember you having an animated spellbook for the cantrip mold earth, but now I can't seem to find it anywhere? What happened to it?
Most likely it got purged after the coppa stuff. short version of the story is a massive chunk of the animated spellbook got listed as "For Children" And Ze is unable to earn revenue on them. So I think they're delisted to avoid more videos being flagged. It's also why, if you notice, He started swearing more frequently in his videos the past couple of years in order to prevent the same happening.
@@SingeScorcher geez, that's a shame. I'd love to see them maybe remade, but I understand if they're just lost forever. It's probably more effort than it's worth to reupload all of them
This spell has been useful in a few situations Should we buff before this door? No (there is an hour long walk before the boss) Will this wish work? Yes (no specific issues with it, not being too greedy either) We suspect this enemy will be a vampire, should we prepare for that? No (it is a death kiss)
I like that idea a whole lot although maybe bump up the level a bit and call it something like “Visions of Futures Possible,” “Second Chances,” or “Fate’s Sight.” Reminds me of some MtA Fate magics
@@gideonmele1556 Removing the ritual tag and making it a 9th level spell wouldn't even be enough without tons of other steep stipultions. Even Scion, a game where you play eventually literal Gods with tons of crazy abilties including a bunch of very meta abiltes like one where you can ask the DM questions or get confirmation on theories... even that game doesn't have something this OP. Not to mention something that would slow the game down. To make it not completly disruptive/abusable you'd need to add strict time limits (in seconds, probaly a round of action and consequence) stipulations on what it could be used for, and maybe stll instutute a margine for error.
DM, weighing my crappy opinion on public scales, I love augury. For several reasons, not just because I kinda mildly love divination as is. It's great for players to have a "Am I an idiot?" Button. I gave them a skull that cast augury and they used it infrequently enough to not become annoying, and just often enough to figure out if the wild plans even had a farts chance in hell. I also love when religious characters use divination, cause it's more god-cleric interaction which has potential, dammit!
With you being sponsored by Talespire for a while now, it would be cool to see a basics tutorial or something for it. I bought a while now (because of you, no less) and liked it, but it took a while to get used to It.
That's not a bad idea Gust. I really dig Talespire, it changes a lot (because it's still sorta pre-release and they keep tweaking the controls.) That said I think the controls are starting to get locked enough now that it'd be worth while to jump in and do a tutorial!
On a meta level, i find augury amazing because its a quick player to DM: Hey, do you have this shit planned out in a way that makes sense and/or did we miss something crucial that will bite us in the ass if we proceed (the cleric asks after 3 players proceeded to ignore npcs talking about giant nautilus shaped stars in the sky or corpses whose skulls are emptied out for 2+ sessions, as no player has protection from good or evil prepared AND they spent their 1000 gold on something like a shiny shield or half broken ivory goat statue instead of a stack of Scrolls of Protection from Aberrations).
@@Bluecho4 oh no in fully agree! I'm just saying that it wouldn't be nearly as uncertain if I could anticipate what thr heck they'd do in the next hour lol . They've gone from let's explore the bar scene to drug bender in an underground Warren
One thing I've taken to doing is instead of weal or woe, give them something small that "Should be useful" depending on the situation, worth thier sacrifice or less. It's a cleric spell after all, so I make it from thier god. If I know there's a dragon, maybe they're told to dig under thier campfire, where they find a potion of fire resistance. If there's nothing I can think to give, the player "feels unusually lucky (weal, advantage on one roll of your choice, can determine after you find out the result)" or "unusually baleful (Woe, can force an enemy to re-roll an attack, or gain advantage on one save)" Been considering remaking it to let it function as a one-use portent, but so far it's been working well.
I have used Augury and similar in the way that it is clear that when it is cast and the question is stated, it will be given a clear yes or no as of the current moment. Say "Is it safe to swim in this water?" Will give a clear yes now, but in an hour or so, it may not be as a shark has moved in there. It doesn't predict the future, merely informing about the present and how good/bad a given course of action can be at this moment.
This Spell has a 50/50 to be the Deus Ex Machina that will railroad your Campaign, or a useless Spell that doesn't even work because the DM wants you to try things out for yourself. Either that or the phrase "Are you sure you want to do this" will replace the Spell if your DM tells you something before a bad outcome.
0:48 "I cast 'listen to the DM's unpublished novel' " That reminds me of an argument (I think it happened on Twitter) where the DM was complaining the players just kept derailing the story (and was asking about a way to stop it), and one of the replies was "It looks like you want to write a book" 📖
It depends. If a dm worked hard on a story and the players aren't interested at all in playing the prepared material that's on them. But if a gm insists everything has to go the way they planed it, that's on the gm
There is definitely a balance, you can create a town and give them choices in quests. But your players could decide to ignore hooks, murder NPCs and in the opposite direction of any encounter
Divination, near regardless of the Edition, is that one school of magic that depending on a DM is either completely worthless or the most absolutely busted and OP force in existence.
When in doubt, the answer is always: "It depends." I would definitely say this is a good spell for establishing a relationship between a deity and a player. Imagine how disenfranchised a player might feel after getting a coy look from their deity every time they ask what will happen if they drink some bizarre concoction. (And if you think a player drinking unidentified potions is strange, just sit at my table, it is not strange at all.)
I’ll say this a thousand times: I’ve played D&D once, didn’t care for it, probably will never try it again, and I still can’t click on your videos fast enough when they’re uploaded. They just a good time!
When running this spell it can help to have a list of pre-rolled numbers for types of actions. Saves, NPC attacks, skill checks, ect work well. That way the DM can look at the list, see 'wow that boss has a lot of 15+ attack rolls, but poor saves' and give a both good and bad response. Just make sure your players know that if they use the spell then no one will be rolling dice for a bit so they understand what they're asking for. Rolling out stuff my had to make your lists can take a lot of time though so I recommend using a dice rolling program to get your list of pre-rolled numbers.
Your videos are a blessing upon the universe that we are occasionally blessed with. The time it takes to create them is unimportant. All we care about is how much fun you had along the way!
Whenever I run Augury, I usually just go by whether the action is LIKELY to be dangerous (woe or not) and if the action is LIKELY to produce something good (weal or not). To me, it's basically just a danger/"treasure" detector spell, which is still pretty decent for how low level it is. I think the major deciding factor of how useful the augury spell is is how firm of a grasp of the spell's limitations the player casting the spell has. If they know what sorts of situations to cast the spell in to get actually useful results, it can be really useful (such as casting it before going into a room to get an idea on if the party should spell buff before hand or not). I think it's also incredibly useful if the DM allows the casting PC to specify what outcome they're actually going or what they're trying to avoid. Of course it can't be turned into a strict "yes/no", like a cheap "comune" spell, but being able to clarify expectations of intentions surrounding an intended action can help a DM greatly in determining what would be "good" or "bad" for the PC casting the spell.
In my experience as a DM, the important thing about Augury is that a player deciding to spend spell slots by casting it just means they are probably gonna search every nook and cranny for information. In other words, a menace for any trap you might ever think of laying down. Awsome video btw, really love your stuff and seeing the work I go through for one my glorified slideshows I deem to call animated videos, I can't imagine the dedication to be able to post one of these every week! Your videos are amazing, and I'm really looking forward to what is coming up next!
It’s also great for homebrew. I spiced up a “champions of the gods” style campaign by having Augury be both a communications tool (the chosen of the monkey god of chaos called his the bananaphone) and a conduit for blessings that could be called upon from a sort of inventory. A set of potions by another name, sure, but flavor is flavor.
So I have a player who loves augury, but is only sometimes asking specific enough questions. However, they have gotten some great advice and saved themselves a lot of guesswork
Yeah! Happy to see that you're back man. Believe me that Yuanti animation of occult dancing held me over since it came out. I've watched it more than 20 times bc it simply doesn't get old
Your videos are some of the best non podcast d&d content out there. Take all the time you want. Especially if we get quirky videos like the cultist procession vine thing in the interum
If there is one thing I always like its your soothing voice and interesting videos, that said watching your animated stories is amazing and every few months I revisit them
Zee, you have some of the best shorts for D&D. Lots of interesting ideas and applications of the spells. My friends and I sat down to watch the Cold Road series, absolutely love it lol. My wife loves "The Deadliest Thing" short the most, while I lean towards "Heat Metal". Keep up the good work and cant wait for more! (*side note, sorry for rambling, just very tried lol)
I’ve been a loyal follower and I have seen your art level up so much. I am tickled pink to see more of your content in my feed each week, and I hope you can go beyond June
You know...coming back to this one after getting a better idea of how your group rolls makes a lot of your opinions clearer. Keep those coy looks coming!
Zee, love the animations and your opinion on these subjects. I typically find these videos very fun to watch and I look forward to them, no matter how much time it takes
If I remember right augury I used as a cleric , and the dm just wasn't ready to roleplay a deity . We had to dig up all this info to what my deity would respond. The dm decided to go with the generic response because it was too much info .
Aww hell yeah! He's taking *breaks!* Thank goodness! Zee, my guy, your stuff had been so consistently high quality and so obviously the product of some serious work that I'd worried you burned out!
I was just wondering about you yesterday. And here, bang, a new video. Gandalf was right. A wizard is never late, he arrives exactly when he intended to. Welcome back, let the party begin!
Love the videos, quality top notch. Hope to see the cold road story finish or just more stories like that . Thanks though for all your great animation and hard work.
As a DM, I'd consider "unforeseen circumstances" to be anything that I don't yet know. That includes the results of future player actions and dice rolls. The benefit of augury comes when there's information about something the players don't know that would affect the outcome of an action. Also, nice cut before revealing your judgement on the spell. ;) And hype for weekly episodes!
Fun thing to do with it is having the god on the other end be random. Maybe you get a war god, maybe a trickster, maybe a love one who’ll cling to you forever for giving them the attention and trust of you asking them a question
"I'd say--"
I can tell he was trying his best not to snort with laughter.
I was pretty much expecting it. So funny.
Literally said “fuck off” to my screen
Major troll face heh
I mean I snorted at that face lmao
Weal and woe
Hear me out: homebrew this spell into a magic 8-ball artifact or magical item artificers can create, because the idea of the party stopping to ask the magic 8-ball every time they get stuck is comedy gold, especially if they are provided with a real magic 8-ball
Cleric: Should we go look for the treasure? *casts tokens*
Tokens: *spell out "Don't count on it."*
**ALL HAIL THE MAGIC CONCH**
Fuck that! Use a conch!
“Magic” 8 ball
Kind of like the smell bag from CR campaign 2.
Weekly episodes?! I'm so down! Zee is the GOAT!
Both of you are awesome sources of information and fun!
One could even say that he is Zee GOAT.
I'll see myself out....
Nice
Didn’t expect to see dnd shorts here, but I should have!
"The goat that was once Zee bleats at you loudly. You assume this is a display of satisfaction with your Baleful Polymorph spell, and that the aggressive biting is meant to show Zee's approval for coming up with a way to save money on rooms at the inn."
Once when I was Dm'ing, my players tried to sneak into a city as wanted criminals. They all disguised themselves in various ways and right before attempting to enter, the cleric cast augury; she wanted to know if this was a good idea.
Not knowing what to say, I decided to secretly roll the guards' Perception check ahead of time: a 2. With a roll that low, I assumed they'd likely succeed so I said "weal"
That is certainly one way of doing it. I approve.
That's literally how it's supposed to be work
did the funny happen and someone roll even lower?
@@Kraanox fortunately, no XD
That is ingenious. Rolling something ahead of time that is pertinent to what was asked and answering based on their odds, given said roll, is supremely good. And this way, it does indeed make it useful for the "multiple uses make it random" penalty, because having what's essentially just free knowledge regarding future rolls is a bit too strong. But the randomness make it only work once or twice reliably.
I heard giving offerings to appease the spirits can increase the accuracy of Augury.
Yeah the dieties like pizza and/or rum
@@ShugoAWay in that order
Its one of the many reasons why I wish I could play dnd with my friends around a table.
I would find a reason to use the spell every session and bribe my DM with pastries. And then suddenly stop using the spell, depriving them of snacks.
I've hear small offerings of fried tubers, salted and flavored in oil, are favorable to them, but those coated with powder be warned, it may invoke their wrath as well.
@@chrishansen4685 suggest that Door dash doesn't care if you are having the food delivered to you or someone else 😂
Player: I cast augury!
GM: Here's your magic eight ball, each use takes up a spell slot.
LoL
Except it is a ritual, so it's often free
@@gabemerritt3139 it takes 10x the casting time for that, so you're spending 10 minutes predicting the next 20 or 30 depending on your dm's interpretation
Just pull the core out. Less to carry around and fun to roll.
@@gabemerritt3139 If they ritual cast it... interrupt the ritual.
I don't care how long I have to wait for your animations, they are always quality and tasteful
One thing! Just one thing! Please tell IT to me: WHY tf do I have so many fans even though no TH-camr is unprettier than I am? WORLDWIDE!!!! WHY??? Tell me, dear seb
yes, they certainly are always quality
That cult procession one from a couple weeks ago was especially tasteful
Absolutely, always top quality
Much like that Dnd Cultist Procession clip amirite?
Me: I cast Augury! Will there be new episodes every Thursday?
Zee: coy smile
Me: "You get a sense of weal, but with a hint of woe."
I saw Augery used once in a campaign. A hostile force was coming, and the party had civilians to protect. They asked if running would be safer than fighting, woe. If fighting inside the town via chokepoints would be better then fighting in the farmland, woe. They asked of the civilians would be better off building barricades rather than fighting, weal.
With this in mind, they fought in the field, away from the civilians they needed to protect, and had them barricade themselves in. The party then achieved the best possible outcome with no civilians harmed.
Nice! A manual Path to Victory
This was defintely a great application. It's not guaranteed none of those villagers would die but it suggests the best course was for them to bunker down in the farmland.
My players found a great use for this spell. They found a deck of many things and have been using augury to make sure they won't screw themselves when they pull a card
Wouldn't the answer be "weal and woe" every time though? The action of pulling a card could go good or bad.
@@MrSoup-zs4rd no you just roll when they use it and then give the answer based on what card they would draw
I would always rule that the deck is too random and powerful for Augury to be able to predict it.
@@fhuber7507 I would draw the next three cards, and give weal/woe/(ʘᴗʘ✿) depending on what those cards reflect (maybe give the player a choice of which of the three to draw).
Keeps the randomness, but doesn't invalidate their usage of the spell.
Working around the players like that really feels like working against them... but I haven't checked the spell text to see how valid the "too powerful" reaponse is.
...there is a change for random answers for a reason, though, you probably don't want to get caught fudging the fice on that one.
Great episode! It’s such a shame the “eleven minutes of screeching” bit didn’t make the final cut though, that was hilarious.
Yeah! I've listened to it a few times since and waffled on whether or not to animate it.
@@zeebashew Upload it as a shooooooort. Or on twitter or something.
The what now?
@@zeebashew I agree, it should be a shooooort
The *what*
Please upload this somewhere XD
When my players use Divinations like this, if they have a deity, I respond from that deity's point of view with that deity's knowledge, goals, and opinions. For example, opening a portal that would allow demons to enter a plane would be a bad result to a celestial deity, but a good result to an abyssal one, unless those demons belong to a rival demon lord.
If the player doesn't have a deity, they can target a deity of their choice, or target an alignment (or alignment group) of deities, or not target anyone in particular at all. This decides on what pool of deities can respond, and I'll pick whoever of that set most agrees with the party's quest at the time, but the players don't get to know which deity responded. (This does not mean that the responding deity has the party's best interests in mind, or that they have the same values that the players do, just that they want the party to succeed in their current quest.)
They've gotten responses from Asmodeus SO many times after a demon lord became a BBEG, despite being a good aligned party... It took at least 10 levels of this before the party realized that their good actions against evil forces were also coincidentally giving the devil side of the blood war a better foothold towards taking over the Abyss. They're now working to try to even out those scales.
I love this.
Cool and thematic but makes the quality of information so much worse. Can't even get good/bad from Augury cause you don't know who tf is answering and if they think it's good or bad
@@tymekx014 Except that you'll at least know the responder agrees with the current quest, so it at least will be in that direction. Plus, you can always target a specific alignment of deities, or a specific deity.
@@thajocoth go for the literalist deity 😂
@@thajocoth Okay rereading your original comment this does seem a lot better than I've made it out to be, so yeah nevermind cool system.
My players were just complaining about my vague answers to a similar spell. I'm sending them this. (Even though I'm sure most are already subscribed)
I feel like it's a spell you use after you've already thought of a plan and are about to enact it.
"Hey guys, I know we said we'd sneak in through this drainige ditch but leme cast augury real quick."
The god knows the bbeg is spying on them and put a shitload of nasty monster in their way: "Woe."
It's very much the in universe way to allow for "Hey DM, are we being morons" without it being metagaming.
Okay this is a fantastic episode. That ending is great.
😏
I like that Augury (and Divination) was added to the Wizard (and Druid) spell lists in Tasha's. It's really weird that Diviners weren't allowed to use any of the classic "divine the future" spells that you would think would be in their purview. They're Divination Wizards. Their whole _deal_ is divination.
As for Augury itself, I like how they neatly sidestep the possibility of the party sitting in one location, dumping all their spell slots into auguring their way to an optimal path. Because, as is often said, players will optimize the fun out of the game, if you let them.
I'm always a big fan of Augury. Beyond simple stuff like "what happens if I open the door?", it can be really cool to use on complex things like "will I encounter danger in the sewers?" or "will I find the McGuffin in the eastern tower?" Even if the DM can't give an accurate answer due to dice rolls and stuff, it's cool to get a hint on things in the future.
The way the spell is phrased, those sort of questions are not allowed. If you or your DM allow it that's fine, but it is not how the spell actually works.
The text of the spell reads: "you receive an omen from an otherworldly entity about the results of a specific course of action that you plan to take within the next 30 minutes". In other words, you think about or otherwise visualize *a specific course of action*, limited to the next 30 min, and you get an omen about it. So what would be allowed would be omens about "I open the door", "I enter the sewers and walk there", "I go to the Eastern tower and look around", not about anything more useful or concrete. Sometimes that will be decently useful ('weal' for going to the tower), most often in my experience it will be almost useless ('weal and woe' or 'nothing' for trying to jump over a deep abyss, since it might go well and it might go bad depending on the dice).
@@theWebWizrd Even if we ignore how RAW there is no actual definition on how specific thus anything up to the scope of horoscopes works, just from actual english language definitions "going into the sewers to do x/y/z and encountering danger" is a specific course of actions tho. As is the "search for a wonderful McMuffin in a specific place when not already there". And in lore remember deities, patrons and other things powerful enough to cross the threshold of planes in D&D (except in DS and Exandria) are generally strong enough if not also competent enough to actually be able to check for such things AND typically know the person asking the question.
@@ANDELE3025 I agree with what you are saying, but there is an important distinction to be made here. If you merely describe that you will "go into the sewers and encounter danger", then there is no way of knowing from the result of the augury whether you will *actually* encounter danger. If you get 'woe', it might be that you encounter danger - but it might also be that you lose your gold purse into the sewers, or you walk into a trap that turns you into a frog for an hour, or you get lost and miss an important meeting that night. Those are all 'bad results'. Moreover, the problem as mentioned in the video is that the DM doesn't really know what will happen either, so you might get 'nothing' or 'weal and woe' anyways.
The distinction, therefore, is important, because you can't use the spell to get the answer to a question like "is there danger in the sewers" or "will I find the McGuffin in the tower" as the original comment suggests. For that, you need and are very well covered by the 4th level spell Divination.
The last time I used that spell the DM gave me a rhyming omen, that was didn't answer her question but made even more question as well made her have a panic attack and became nervous and anxious the game session's.
My players use it frequently when they're simply stumped, and for that purpose it's an amazing "where should we go next?" tool for the DM because it's entirely controlled by the players and is thematic to the game. For example, my players went out in search of a location, and they were told to simply follow the sign. But they never confirmed *which* sign, and so when they were stuck at a crossroads with no idea where to go, they can use this spell or a similar ability to ask if it's a good idea to go in a particular direction, with the specific purpose of reaching their destination in mind. This let's me not outright tell them the answer, because the Wheel and/or Woe result might not necessarily relate directly to that purpose, but gives them enough information to come to their own interpretation of the result.
1:26 This is the best joke in the entire freaking video.
Welcome back Ze, can’t wait to see all your hard work! Also loving the funky music in this~
GURPS has an amazing advantage in it called “Common Sense”
which basically lets the DM roll for the player’s wisdom score to basically tell them:
“Hey before you try to chug that random hag’s potion, your common sense triggers and you feel like it’s a bad idea.”
I have my players use insight to help them when they're about to wander into serious trouble they may not be ready for. It makes sense for a party of mid level adventurers to have an inkling for danger
i often have players roll wis or int checks before doign a very obviously stupid thing and give warnings or encouragments based on the result. so before you chug down that potion you didnt check first (there are litereally rules for checking potions/poisons and it cant hurt you raw/rai ) roll that wisdom check.. oh a nat 1.. oh yeah. that hag was hidding it from you. its obviously very good for you..ignore the flaoting bits of rotting flesh and the pussy aftertaste. or.. your about to perform the spell to banish the bbeg from all of existence using the jumbled up runes you discovered along the way. do a quick inteligence check to remember that when you solved it last session it was the other way around... and you jsut put it backwards...dooming the world if you cast it this way.
I believe this is already in 5e as a wisdom DC10 roll. If a player's about to do something they could easily predict the outcome of (kick a sleeping dragon), just have them roll a low wisdom check and feed them to obvious consequences of what the action will be.
I always give Common Sense to players for free; too many DMs forget that PCs know a lot more about the world (campaign and immediate surroundings) than the players. The players can't see, hear, smell, feel, or taste any part of the game world, and are dependent on the GM's descriptions and their memories. If a PC would obviously think drinking green slime is gross, I'll point that out and let the player decide one more time before a poison save.
This is why I get so tired of low INT player characters being played like l9w WIS builds.
Your character might not know what the difference between a fairy or a pixie, but with a 15 in WIS that you demanded to improve their perception modifiers, they know full well to not just off a cliff. They might not be able to read or pick locks, but that should make them more paranoid about irritating the king, not make them recklessly ruin the royal feast for the "lol I'm so stupid and funny".
I'd love to see a look at Divination (the spell so good they named a school of magic after it!) and a comparison of good divination spells to one another. I agree that Augury is mostly useless outside of probing a multitude of specific actions, like which door to pick in a dungeon or which of the king's advisors is a traitor but if you don't use all your spell slots every day then you can usually determine if magic items are cursed or something with it.
Seconding that! Beyond the fact that a good chunk of support locate/understand/uncover spells are in Divination? I can from personal enjoyed playtime was Arcane Eye being insanely useful and surprisingly doesn't fix you to one spot like other spells while down in the thick of danger, while Detect Thoughts and Legend Lore are just a damn good time.
Our cleric used this spell a lot. Since he followed a war god his "good" result often led us into combat as to his God any battle is a chance to earn honor and glory through the art of combat...needless to say we were cautious every time he used this spell unless it was for very specific requests. As for fun around the (digital) table, it added a ton
War gods tend to be at the extremes of Alignment, so what type of combat qualifies as "honor and glory" further depends on which extreme they tend toward. That being said; what was the war god's alignment?
@@videogollumer pretty sure chaotic good, a homebrew God our dm made for him.
@@eeveeongirl Makes sense.
Males sense in the context of a war God. It was a good result as you got to battle.
Zee, you are a treasure upon the DnD community. Weekly episodes? You spoil us, truly. Thank you so much for your amazing work. *sidenote* I play your cult procession short at least once a week at minimum. Absolutely hype!
If you Augury "Should I take the McGuffin to that guy who said he was a Harper?" you're playing into the intent of the spell. If you Augury the kind of thing a player _actually_ ever seems to want to know, you're spitting in the faces of RP and Entropy. It's a grand ol' spell if your table knows how to lean into Narrative Causality.
And if you run the spells as it's supposed to be run, you have none of those issues, because it's mostly for diving traps or enemy filled corridors
There's a reason there's a 30 min time limit and it needs a slot. It's the "what would happen if we went in the middle corridor" spell
@@DimT670 completionists need no such spell. They need only to prepare and use stealth and battlefield control spells.
I ran a pirates campaign with some friends. One of them played a paranoid warlock who would cast Augury every dawn. There would be some great days, one really bad day where they got caught in a storm. Eventually I ran out of ways saying the day would be neutral.
That's a very extended version of augury...
The main benefit is you can ritual cast it, so it's a free potential clue once per day.
Your animations are what inspired me to get into dnd, I was just amazed at the amount of freedom and how math was involved in spells.
From the beginning of my journey in dnd, till now I still really enjoy your animations, so thank you so much for making them
Something important about the wording in the spell's description: The spell only cares that the PCs do what they ask in the next 30 minutes, beyond that there is no time limit the result can measure from. This makes it a pretty good spell to sniff out betrayals before they happen, especially in the case of handing over powerful magical artifacts to the people who paid you to go get them.
Also, note to GMs: I hear "Weal and Woe" way too often in situations like "You kickstart the end of the world but you find 10 gold pieces on the ground on the way out". Don't be like that, if the woe significantly outweighs the weal, it's woe.
It can also be both Weal and Woe
@@ASquared544 yeah but its not if one is significantly more weighed than the other
"you find a dead dragons hoard but you stub your toe on a solid gold statue" isnt both. its weal.
@@VoidplayLP its weal and woe, that golden stub toe slowly spreads throughout your body, making you a soild gold staue
@@everythingpony for some reason I thought you were going to write something like "your entire body becomes like a stubbed toe"
Augury is a great spell, its just not an all the time spell. To know a specific action will or won't go well can be pretty clutch at times. And its level 2, likely not the end of the world. Ritual, even, if you can spend the time.
Augury is one of the spells I've looked at loads of times, but I've never actually used. I have recommended it in the past to a player who tended to be overly cautious as a way of getting some reassurance that a plan was a good idea.
Hey it’s a way better trap finding spell than find traps at least. Also, super excited for more episodes, always love to see em
As a diviner; I like casting divinations like these before preparing spells
"Should I prepare this niche utility spell?"
- Weal: Fantastic - Preparing this for the day
- Woe: Fair enough - I can prepare more universal spells w/o worry of odd scenarios
My DM and I actually do something cool with Augury. I play a Knowledge Cleric who is a librarian. What she does for Augury is she closes her eyes, flips to a random page in a book, and a random section to get her reading. My DM then picks up a copy of The Art of War, finds a passage he likes, and we use that passage as her reading. He can give good advise that we may not recognize, and it fits with her character.
YUHU! ZEE BASHEW IS BACK! Love your content and now I have something to wait for each Thursday, so glad to again see your awesome work.
My augury spells instead give you a glimpse of what other npcs are doing if the party has enough material to work with. Because we were doing ravnica stuff, it was actually pretty important to like see into the future of other npcs like this dude's about to die in an alley, then the party could decide to go save them and change the future.
I actually had a moment when I used this spell and it was really effective. I was a Gnoll ranger with my group in our Eberron campaign. We were in a sewer system infested with monsters and we had a split path. This was my first time using the spell (I had it because the kind of Gnoll I was) and I simply asked “down this left path, week or woe?”
Dm responded with, “Woe, definitely woe.”
Turns out there was an Oblex down that path. Not something our level 3 party wanted to run into.
This is what it is meant for. It's meant for the dm to say don't go that way or bad idea.
Subscribed and the bell has been rung! I have loved your stuff for a while and I'm glad (as a DM) that you are back for a while.
The best use I've ever seen for Augury is prior to using the Deck of Many Things. Immediate good or bad results, super specific course of action ("'What if I draw one card from the Deck of Many Things?' Weal? Okay, cast again, 'what if I draw two cards from the Deck of Many Things?' Weal and woe? I guess I'll draw one card"). Different editions have had slightly different rules text for both Augury and the Deck, so this may require, ex., waiting a day between castings to avoid failure chances, or letting someone else draw first and then trying again.
I mean the weal and woe could be random, since 2 casts happened in the day. Could be another weal, could be benign, who knows.
That would require the DM to know the result of a draw from the Deck
Yeah if I were dm I would say weal and woe becuase it could be either.
@@zoroearc2582 I mean the DM just has to peek at the deck after shuffling...
This is precisely why I subscribe, and it’s great to hear from you again! We appreciate what you do, and will be looking forward to whatever you bring us next, and whenever that may be!
Still love the animations, someone who's just sitting around has never looked so animated, and whilst i don't play the game myself, there's enough context and background here for even newcomers to get it and enjoy the jokes!
00:36 an image that speaks a thousand words
I was literally just researching this spell for my druid and had most of my questions answered by this video! Also just a question, I swear I remember you having an animated spellbook for the cantrip mold earth, but now I can't seem to find it anywhere? What happened to it?
There was, it was the 20d6 cantrip episode about using Mold Earth to dig pits.
Most likely it got purged after the coppa stuff. short version of the story is a massive chunk of the animated spellbook got listed as "For Children" And Ze is unable to earn revenue on them. So I think they're delisted to avoid more videos being flagged. It's also why, if you notice, He started swearing more frequently in his videos the past couple of years in order to prevent the same happening.
@@SingeScorcher geez, that's a shame. I'd love to see them maybe remade, but I understand if they're just lost forever. It's probably more effort than it's worth to reupload all of them
@@squiddy1132 I believe they’re on patreon. If you’re willing to pay £6.50 a month for them, they’re there
@@squiddy1132 He has them up on his patreon if you want to see them!
1:28 I should NOT have laughed as hard as I did at that
This spell has been useful in a few situations
Should we buff before this door? No (there is an hour long walk before the boss)
Will this wish work? Yes (no specific issues with it, not being too greedy either)
We suspect this enemy will be a vampire, should we prepare for that? No (it is a death kiss)
Dude, you do the BEST D&D VIDEOS!
Cool idea: do a “simulation” of what would happen if did that thing with the party, then they can choose
That would make this spell insanely powerful.
I like that idea a whole lot although maybe bump up the level a bit and call it something like “Visions of Futures Possible,” “Second Chances,” or “Fate’s Sight.” Reminds me of some MtA Fate magics
@@gideonmele1556 Removing the ritual tag and making it a 9th level spell wouldn't even be enough without tons of other steep stipultions. Even Scion, a game where you play eventually literal Gods with tons of crazy abilties including a bunch of very meta abiltes like one where you can ask the DM questions or get confirmation on theories... even that game doesn't have something this OP. Not to mention something that would slow the game down.
To make it not completly disruptive/abusable you'd need to add strict time limits (in seconds, probaly a round of action and consequence) stipulations on what it could be used for, and maybe stll instutute a margine for error.
DM, weighing my crappy opinion on public scales, I love augury.
For several reasons, not just because I kinda mildly love divination as is.
It's great for players to have a "Am I an idiot?" Button. I gave them a skull that cast augury and they used it infrequently enough to not become annoying, and just often enough to figure out if the wild plans even had a farts chance in hell.
I also love when religious characters use divination, cause it's more god-cleric interaction which has potential, dammit!
With you being sponsored by Talespire for a while now, it would be cool to see a basics tutorial or something for it. I bought a while now (because of you, no less) and liked it, but it took a while to get used to It.
That's not a bad idea Gust. I really dig Talespire, it changes a lot (because it's still sorta pre-release and they keep tweaking the controls.) That said I think the controls are starting to get locked enough now that it'd be worth while to jump in and do a tutorial!
On a meta level, i find augury amazing because its a quick player to DM: Hey, do you have this shit planned out in a way that makes sense and/or did we miss something crucial that will bite us in the ass if we proceed (the cleric asks after 3 players proceeded to ignore npcs talking about giant nautilus shaped stars in the sky or corpses whose skulls are emptied out for 2+ sessions, as no player has protection from good or evil prepared AND they spent their 1000 gold on something like a shiny shield or half broken ivory goat statue instead of a stack of Scrolls of Protection from Aberrations).
Lol love seeing the players agonize over my response to this spell. It would help if they weren't little chaos gremlins
But them being little chaos gremlins is half the fun.
@@Bluecho4 oh no in fully agree! I'm just saying that it wouldn't be nearly as uncertain if I could anticipate what thr heck they'd do in the next hour lol . They've gone from let's explore the bar scene to drug bender in an underground Warren
I’ve been so hyped for your return and having weekly episodes is more than I could’ve imagined. I’ve loved your content for years now
He’s back!!!! Let’s go we’ve missed you
One thing I've taken to doing is instead of weal or woe, give them something small that "Should be useful" depending on the situation, worth thier sacrifice or less. It's a cleric spell after all, so I make it from thier god. If I know there's a dragon, maybe they're told to dig under thier campfire, where they find a potion of fire resistance. If there's nothing I can think to give, the player "feels unusually lucky (weal, advantage on one roll of your choice, can determine after you find out the result)" or "unusually baleful (Woe, can force an enemy to re-roll an attack, or gain advantage on one save)"
Been considering remaking it to let it function as a one-use portent, but so far it's been working well.
I really want to see Vicious Mockery in the animated spell book
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words do 1d4 psychic damage.
@@Blasted2Oblivion the same amount as sticks and stones...
I have used Augury and similar in the way that it is clear that when it is cast and the question is stated, it will be given a clear yes or no as of the current moment.
Say "Is it safe to swim in this water?" Will give a clear yes now, but in an hour or so, it may not be as a shark has moved in there.
It doesn't predict the future, merely informing about the present and how good/bad a given course of action can be at this moment.
Eh the thing i like augery for is it helps when the party is scared of their shadow and over cautious as it lets you get things back in motion
Gives me the idea to give a wand of Augury. Let each of them use it once per day.
This Spell has a 50/50 to be the Deus Ex Machina that will railroad your Campaign, or a useless Spell that doesn't even work because the DM wants you to try things out for yourself.
Either that or the phrase "Are you sure you want to do this" will replace the Spell if your DM tells you something before a bad outcome.
🤣🤣🤣
That end with "If you ask me if it's a good spell" is just brilliant!
I'm glad you didn't give up on this art style. (00:03-01:33)
It's fairly unique and I like it.
0:48 "I cast 'listen to the DM's unpublished novel' " That reminds me of an argument (I think it happened on Twitter) where the DM was complaining the players just kept derailing the story (and was asking about a way to stop it), and one of the replies was "It looks like you want to write a book" 📖
It depends. If a dm worked hard on a story and the players aren't interested at all in playing the prepared material that's on them. But if a gm insists everything has to go the way they planed it, that's on the gm
There is definitely a balance, you can create a town and give them choices in quests. But your players could decide to ignore hooks, murder NPCs and in the opposite direction of any encounter
Divination, near regardless of the Edition, is that one school of magic that depending on a DM is either completely worthless or the most absolutely busted and OP force in existence.
When in doubt, the answer is always:
"It depends."
I would definitely say this is a good spell for establishing a relationship between a deity and a player. Imagine how disenfranchised a player might feel after getting a coy look from their deity every time they ask what will happen if they drink some bizarre concoction. (And if you think a player drinking unidentified potions is strange, just sit at my table, it is not strange at all.)
WOW! WEEKLY UPLOADS FROM AN ANIMATOR?!?!?!
SO IMPRESSIVE!
As a DM, I loved it when my friend used this spell. i was Able to RP this in such a wonderful way. i support augury users, its a gift for improv DMs
I’ll say this a thousand times: I’ve played D&D once, didn’t care for it, probably will never try it again, and I still can’t click on your videos fast enough when they’re uploaded. They just a good time!
When running this spell it can help to have a list of pre-rolled numbers for types of actions. Saves, NPC attacks, skill checks, ect work well. That way the DM can look at the list, see 'wow that boss has a lot of 15+ attack rolls, but poor saves' and give a both good and bad response. Just make sure your players know that if they use the spell then no one will be rolling dice for a bit so they understand what they're asking for. Rolling out stuff my had to make your lists can take a lot of time though so I recommend using a dice rolling program to get your list of pre-rolled numbers.
Your videos are a blessing upon the universe that we are occasionally blessed with. The time it takes to create them is unimportant. All we care about is how much fun you had along the way!
Whenever I run Augury, I usually just go by whether the action is LIKELY to be dangerous (woe or not) and if the action is LIKELY to produce something good (weal or not). To me, it's basically just a danger/"treasure" detector spell, which is still pretty decent for how low level it is.
I think the major deciding factor of how useful the augury spell is is how firm of a grasp of the spell's limitations the player casting the spell has. If they know what sorts of situations to cast the spell in to get actually useful results, it can be really useful (such as casting it before going into a room to get an idea on if the party should spell buff before hand or not).
I think it's also incredibly useful if the DM allows the casting PC to specify what outcome they're actually going or what they're trying to avoid. Of course it can't be turned into a strict "yes/no", like a cheap "comune" spell, but being able to clarify expectations of intentions surrounding an intended action can help a DM greatly in determining what would be "good" or "bad" for the PC casting the spell.
In my experience as a DM, the important thing about Augury is that a player deciding to spend spell slots by casting it just means they are probably gonna search every nook and cranny for information. In other words, a menace for any trap you might ever think of laying down.
Awsome video btw, really love your stuff and seeing the work I go through for one my glorified slideshows I deem to call animated videos, I can't imagine the dedication to be able to post one of these every week! Your videos are amazing, and I'm really looking forward to what is coming up next!
3 views in 26 seconds
It’s also great for homebrew. I spiced up a “champions of the gods” style campaign by having Augury be both a communications tool (the chosen of the monkey god of chaos called his the bananaphone) and a conduit for blessings that could be called upon from a sort of inventory. A set of potions by another name, sure, but flavor is flavor.
So I have a player who loves augury, but is only sometimes asking specific enough questions. However, they have gotten some great advice and saved themselves a lot of guesswork
Yeah! Happy to see that you're back man. Believe me that Yuanti animation of occult dancing held me over since it came out. I've watched it more than 20 times bc it simply doesn't get old
Your videos are some of the best non podcast d&d content out there. Take all the time you want. Especially if we get quirky videos like the cultist procession vine thing in the interum
If there is one thing I always like its your soothing voice and interesting videos, that said watching your animated stories is amazing and every few months I revisit them
Zee, you have some of the best shorts for D&D. Lots of interesting ideas and applications of the spells. My friends and I sat down to watch the Cold Road series, absolutely love it lol. My wife loves "The Deadliest Thing" short the most, while I lean towards "Heat Metal". Keep up the good work and cant wait for more!
(*side note, sorry for rambling, just very tried lol)
I’ve been a loyal follower and I have seen your art level up so much. I am tickled pink to see more of your content in my feed each week, and I hope you can go beyond June
DUDE! Every Thursday?!? Don't even play with my heart like that Zee. I have almost made a shirt with your stuff on it because I love it some much.
Ngl, the notion of seeing an episode every week is amazing. I always get excited to see a new one out.
YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!! Super happy to hear new content is coming! Thanks for all the hard work you guys do! Love these!
You know...coming back to this one after getting a better idea of how your group rolls makes a lot of your opinions clearer. Keep those coy looks coming!
Zee, love the animations and your opinion on these subjects. I typically find these videos very fun to watch and I look forward to them, no matter how much time it takes
If I remember right augury I used as a cleric , and the dm just wasn't ready to roleplay a deity . We had to dig up all this info to what my deity would respond. The dm decided to go with the generic response because it was too much info .
Excited for the episodes. Don't overwork yourself though
Normally I wouldn't feel comfortable making that promise but 7 are already mostly done! Just need assembly and a few tweaks.
Aw man my players love this spell haha. They spend ages tailoring the questions to be as specific as possible to make my life easier, bless em
Yay! More episodes! I’m happy about this! I love animated spell book and I’m still super excited for more tales to astonish with Daveh and Wades
Aww hell yeah! He's taking *breaks!*
Thank goodness! Zee, my guy, your stuff had been so consistently high quality and so obviously the product of some serious work that I'd worried you burned out!
What a treat! New episode every week for the next 2 months. Thank you zee bashew
Your videos are always worth the wait. But I won't complain about weekly uploads either.
My man! Any time you upload, it’s a blessing. Keep up the amazing work, brother!
Weekly episodes until JUNE?! We're so spoiled now with the best content :D I'm so excited.
Oh SNAP a new Animated Spellbook‽ You've just made my day Zee! (And UT was already made so you just double-made(?), double-did it.
I was just wondering about you yesterday. And here, bang, a new video. Gandalf was right. A wizard is never late, he arrives exactly when he intended to. Welcome back, let the party begin!
Oh dang good stylistic animation every week based on dnd! Lovely!!!! Don’t overwork yourself!
Love the videos, quality top notch. Hope to see the cold road story finish or just more stories like that . Thanks though for all your great animation and hard work.
As a DM, I'd consider "unforeseen circumstances" to be anything that I don't yet know. That includes the results of future player actions and dice rolls. The benefit of augury comes when there's information about something the players don't know that would affect the outcome of an action.
Also, nice cut before revealing your judgement on the spell. ;) And hype for weekly episodes!
I always gasp in happiness and click immediately when I see a new video of yours has been uploaded, no long the wait.
Fun thing to do with it is having the god on the other end be random. Maybe you get a war god, maybe a trickster, maybe a love one who’ll cling to you forever for giving them the attention and trust of you asking them a question
I spent half of this video thinking there was a speck of something on my monitor.
I was thinking about your channel yesterday. I was like I love his content its a shame it's so rare. And NOW YOUR TELLING ME EBERY WEEK !!!!!!!