Divination

Divination is the magic of knowing: spells that cut through uncertainty and reveal what ordinary senses can't. It uncovers hidden truths, exposes illusions and lies, tracks people and objects, and reads the echoes of places and events. It also gives warnings and guidance (glimpses of likely outcomes, signs of danger) that turn guesswork into informed choices. Its power is subtle but decisive: it changes not the world, but your certainty about it.

Divination Spells at a Glance

Spells

Glimpse

Cantrip · Strain 0 · Invocation, 2 AP · Duration Instant
Communication, Clue

You shift your awareness into a metaphysical view and ask the GM one yes-or-no question about a creature, object or place you can currently perceive. The answer is true, though it may be cryptic.

Push: take 1 Strain to cast for 1 AP instead of 2.

Critical Success: You may ask a second yes-or-no question.

Read the Wind

Cantrip · Strain 0 · Invocation, Reaction (2 RP) · Duration Instant
Buff, Initiative

Reaction (2 RP). Trigger: you spend a Fate Die.

You catch the shifting winds of fate. Choose the option that matches how the Fate Die is being used:

• Reroll: if it's rerolling a failed save or skill check, make the reroll with Fortune (roll twice and use the better result; you still keep the new result over the original).
• Damage: if it's adding to a damage roll or reducing damage, roll the Fate Die with Fortune (roll it twice and use the better result).

Push: take 1 Strain to cast this for 1 RP instead of 2.

Critical Success: Also add +1 to the reroll result (Reroll) or to the Fate Die result (Damage).

Optional Modifiers

• Ride the Current (+2): You can cast it when an ally you can perceive spends a Fate Die, applying the effect to that ally instead of yourself.
• Winds of Fate (+2): Cast it as a Ritual (10 minutes) lasting 1 hour; it loses Invocation and gains Ritual. For the duration, the next time you make a Perception save, Initiative roll or Investigation check, add your Fate Die result to it without spending a Fate Die; then the spell ends. On your critical success you can do this twice before it ends.

Spot Weakness

Cantrip · Strain 0 · Invocation, 2 AP · Duration 5 rounds · Save: Intellect
Concentration, Debuff, Mark, Concentration

You study one or more creatures for flaws and openings. Choose targets with Touch or Remote delivery; each makes its own Intellect save. A target that fails is Marked until the spell ends. The first time you attack a Marked target before then, choose one benefit:

• Opening: 1 level of Advantage on the attack roll.
• Exploit: the attack deals +2 damage.

Once you have used a benefit against a target, its Mark ends. If your Concentration ends, all remaining Marks end.

Critical failure: against a target that critically failed its save, you may take both benefits, or double one (2 levels of Advantage or +4 damage).

Both critical: if you critically succeed and the target you attack critically failed, that attack gets both benefits doubled: 2 levels of Advantage and +4 damage.

Delivery restriction: this spell can affect several targets only with Remote delivery, and each additional Remote target costs +2 Strain instead of the usual amount.

Push: take 1 Strain to cast for 1 AP instead of 2.

Critical Success: When you use the benefit against a Marked target, take both Opening and Exploit, or double the chosen one.

Detect Arcana

Complexity 1 · Strain 2 · Invocation, 2 AP · Duration 5 rounds
Communication, Detection

You tune your senses to the vibrations of the Aether. For the duration you can perceive supernatural creatures, magic objects and magical effects that you can see, which can reveal invisible creatures, enchantments on people or things, and strange arcane devices.

Critical Success: You also learn the general type of magic affecting each thing you notice (GM's call).

Optional Modifiers

• Identify (+2): You can identify a magic item's powers and how they work (GM's call; it may take time and hands-on inspection).

Locate

Complexity 1 · Strain 3 · Ritual (10 minutes) · Duration Instant
Detection

You spread your mind across the Aether to find something you know but can't find. Choose one specific creature, object or place you can uniquely identify (a particular person, a specific item, a named place). Vague categories ("any trap", "a secret door", "something valuable") don't work. Range: 1 mile; beyond it you sense nothing.

After the ritual, make your Channeling check against the normal spell DC, then apply these adjustments:

• Familiarity: 1 level of Disadvantage if you've never seen the target; ignore it if you have a strong sympathetic link (a personal belonging, blood, a true name; GM's call).
• Obscurity (the GM picks one): Open (0) no change; Hidden (1) 1 level of Disadvantage (behind a door, in a chest, in a crowd); Secret (2) 2 levels (a concealed compartment, disguised, deliberately masked); Warded (3) 3 levels (magical protection, anti-divination, sanctified ground).

• Failure: a weak, hard-to-read signal. The GM tells you whether the target is in range and gives only a vague bearing ("northwest-ish" or a broad sector), with no reliable distance. The signal may drift toward a near-match or related clue.
• Success: an accurate general direction and a rough distance (very near, near, far, very far, or an estimate).
• Critical success: exact direction and a reliable distance, plus one extra detail (the GM picks or rolls): moving or still, indoors or outdoors, above or below you, heavily or lightly guarded, or behind strong wards.
• Critical failure: a strong but useless result: static with no direction, or a confident false lead toward a decoy or near-match. Either way your seeking leaves a trace that can cause a complication (wards notice, the target feels watched).

Optional Modifiers

• Find the Path (+1): You also sense the best or fastest route to the target's general area (the GM adjudicates).
• Far Seeking (+1*): Increase the range by one step per purchase: 1 → 5 → 25 → 100 miles.
• Pierce Wards (+2): Reduce the target's Obscurity by 1 step (minimum Open). [5+ ranks]

Mind Link

Complexity 1 · Strain 3 · Chant (1 minute) · Duration 3 stretches · Save: Charisma
Communication, Mental, Planar

You link two or more willing creatures telepathically; you don't have to be one of them. Only thoughts deliberately sent travel the link, never unconscious ones, and it works up to 1 mile apart.

Pain feedback: when a linked creature takes damage, each other linked creature makes an Intellect save (DC equal to the higher of 10 or the damage dealt; GM's call). On a failure it is Dazed for 1d4 rounds.

Area deliveries cost double Strain for this spell.

Critical Success: The link's range becomes 5 miles.

Optional Modifiers

• Broadcast (+2): Instead of linking creatures, send a short, one-way telepathic message to every sentient mind in an area delivery you choose. No reply is possible.
• ★ Long-Distance Link (+3): You can link to any mind you know on the same plane, at any distance. [School Mastery, 6+ ranks]

Mind Reading

Complexity 1 · Strain 2 · Invocation, 2 AP · Duration Instant · Save: Charisma
Communication, Control, Mental

You force your awareness into another creature's mind. It makes a Charisma save opposed by your Channeling result.

• Success: the spell fails, and it knows someone tried to probe its mind.
• Failure: you get one truthful answer to one question you ask.
• Critical failure: two truthful answers, or one answer plus a clear, related memory fragment (GM's call).

The target is aware of the intrusion unless you critically succeed. The GM may apply modifiers for the target's state of mind, trauma and similar factors.

Delivery restriction (single target): you can read only one mind at a time and can't use deliveries that affect more than one creature.

Optional Modifiers

• Mind Walk (+2): You reach deeper memories: a whole scene or a chain of related memories (GM's call).

Speak Language

Complexity 1 · Strain 1 · Chant (1 minute) · Duration 1 stretch
Communication

For the duration you can speak, read and write one sapient language you don't know.

Critical Success: You also understand and correctly use its common slang and dialect.

Optional Modifiers

• Greater Speak Language (+2): You can speak, read and write every sapient language for the duration.
• Mass Understanding (+5): Creatures in an area you choose (Aura or Sphere recommended) understand one another regardless of language for the duration.

Aether Inquiry

Complexity 3 · Strain 5 · Ritual (10 minutes) · Duration Instant
Communication

You commune with an otherworldly being to learn something. The casting needs uninterrupted prayer or communion, shaped by your trappings. On a success the entity answers your questions as best it can, often vaguely, symbolically or indirectly. After a successful contact you can't reach the same spirit again for 24 hours (the GM may widen this to a whole local community of spirits).

Sacred ground: contacting a spirit on ground sacred to it gives 1 level of Advantage on your Channeling check.

Critical Success: The entity is more helpful, knowledgeable or direct than usual (GM's call).

Optional Modifiers

• Power (+3): Only on sacred ground. Success: the contact is stronger and clearer; ask one extra question and get more direct answers. Failure: you still make contact, but the GM gives one true, relevant answer (maybe incomplete) and one distorted, conditional or misleading one. Critical success: the entity may manifest and offer unsolicited advice about your situation. Critical failure: you reach something unwanted or hostile; it shows a sign or presence and you suffer a complication (GM's call).

Object Reading

Complexity 3 · Strain 2 · Chant (1 minute) · Duration Instant
Communication

You touch an object and see visions of its past, from its making onward. On a success you get a vague impression related to what you're seeking.

Delivery restriction (Touch): this spell can be cast only with Touch.

Critical Success: You get clearer, specific details: faces, names and context (GM's call).

Optional Modifiers

• Projection (+2): Project the vision into a space about the size of a small room, so others can see, hear and examine it from different angles.
• ★ Remote Scan (+4): Change the delivery to Remote (standard 30-foot increments). [School Mastery, 5+ ranks]

Scrying

Complexity 5 · Strain 6 · Ritual (10 minutes) · Duration 1 hour
Communication, Detection

Choose one specific creature, object or place you can uniquely identify. You needn't know where it is, but it must be in range (1 mile; beyond that you perceive nothing). For the duration you see and hear from a viewpoint near it, placed plausibly by the GM. The spell can't affect the target.

After the ritual, make your Channeling check against the normal spell DC, with the same Familiarity and Obscurity adjustments as Locate (Obscurity 3 here covers anti-divination, sanctified ground or planar interference).

• Failure: a blurry, intermittent feed: a few seconds of images or muffled sound, unclear or misleading; you may misidentify an important detail.
• Success: a clear view and sound from near the target for the whole duration.
• Critical success: as success, and once per round you can move the viewpoint to another plausible spot near the target.
• Critical failure: you see a confident false feed or lure (a decoy scene, near-match or ward reflection), and your attempt leaves a trace that can cause a complication.

Optional Modifiers

• Far Scrying (+1*): Increase the range by one step per purchase: 1 → 5 → 25 → 100 miles.
• ★ Pierce Wards (+2): Reduce the target's Obscurity by 1 step (minimum Open). [School Mastery, 7+ ranks]
• ★ Cross the Veil (+4): Scry across planes. Treat every target as Obscurity 3 and take 1 more level of Disadvantage. [School Mastery, 7+ ranks]
• Sympathetic Focus (+1): With a strong sympathetic link, gain 1 level of Advantage on the Channeling check.
• ★ Group Sight (+2): Share the scried senses with willing creatures up to your Mysticism ranks; they must stay within your chosen delivery range for the duration. [School Mastery, 5+ ranks]

Divination Wild Surges

Roll on Wild Surge — Divination: 1d30 on a failed Channeling check; 2d8 on a critical failure (negative entry 2 × roll − 3) or critical success (positive entry 2 × roll − 2). Use the severity for the triggering spell's Total Strain: Minor 0–4, Moderate 5–9, Major 10+.

− negative (odd), + positive (even).