So my cleric has recently found both an augury spell scroll and a statue of divinity which allows every party member to ask the statue a question once and it basically operates the same as the augury spell. 

Reading the spell description it sounds essentially useless to me for the most part and I can’t envision a scenario where I would use it.  However I suspect I’m just not thinking creatively enough. Can anyone share some creative or good ideas of how they’ve used the spell augury to add value?

thanks

I've been wondering about this too.

My understanding is that the spell results in a weal, woe, both or no result.

Perhaps the real question is how to cast it so the response is whats actually needed.

For example you've been asked to locate a missing adventurer or item which you're being paid to locate and retrieve.

You reach the site where they or it was last seen and looking at the entrance to a catcomb you're left wondering is it worth searching inside now Augury is limited to the next 30 minutes so if you know the interior well enough to know if you can properly search it in 30 minutes asking would you find the person or item inside a weal result suggests yes, a woe says no you won't, both means yes but its going to be difficult like perhaps an ambush or rockfall and no result would simply mean you found nothing but that might be because you ran out of time for this spell to work or something else is present that prevents this from working properly.

I think it boils down to the question you want answered and whether you might find that answer in the next half hour that in most cases won't happen unless you reached the last chamber or are seeking a way back out and want to make sure the exit you head towards leads out.

Yes well I'd like to see what the others will make of this question.

It can be pretty rare that you get useful information from it, but it will depend on the DM and how you word it. Most things are not either completely good or bad, so more often than not the answer tends to be weal and woe, or just nothing. But sometimes there is a clear choice, and there could be information the character may not know, which the spell kind of allows you to get a hint about. An example from a recent session I played in. There was a bad guy safely locked up in a basement. We could go fight him now, or go get help and come back. We asked what would happen if we went to get help and the answer was "woe." What we didn't know was the bad guy was growing in power, and if we left and came back, he'd be much, much stronger than if we just went to deal with him right away.

And remember, its an action you'll take in the next half hour. In the above example, we would either have left or gone to fight within the half hour. But if we had left, we would have been gone for days. So we phrased the question about the consequences of our leaving, which was going to happen right away, even though the bad thing wouldn't have happened until well outside that 30 minute window. The way we play it, the cause has to happen within a half hour, not necessarily the effect, though obviously, the longer the time frame, the less certain the results. Though I could certainly see a different DM ruling differently and saying the whole event has to be within 30 minutes.

We used it once when going through a bunch of loot we got from a necromancer. By dividing stuff up into piles of 'stuff we think we can touch with our bare hands' and 'sketchy stuff' we were able to avoid touching some items that would've had bad repercussions if we'd tried to touch them to cast identify on them.

Quote from CaileynRothenel >>

You reach the site where they or it was last seen and looking at the entrance to a catcomb you're left wondering is it worth searching inside now Augury is limited to the next 30 minutes so if you know the interior well enough to know if you can properly search it in 30 minutes asking would you find the person or item inside a weal result suggests yes, a woe says no you won't, both means yes but its going to be difficult like perhaps an ambush or rockfall and no result would simply mean you found nothing but that might be because you ran out of time for this spell to work or something else is present that prevents this from working properly.

Actually it doesn't matter how long it would take to search the catacomb; the restriction is "a specific course of action that you plan to take within the next 30 minutes", so it only matters when you intend to enter the catacombs, as entering them 60 minutes into the future could cause a different result entirely (person is dead or gone).

The trick is how you phrase it, and whether your DM wants to be an ass; for example, you could ask "If we search the catacombs, will we find the missing person?", well, when exactly will you find them? You could find them days later in which case Augury will answer weal because searching the catacombs are irrelevant to the key part of the question. It might be better to ask something like "Will searching the catacombs enable us to find the missing person sooner?", i.e- is the act of searching the catacombs itself helpful?

It's one of those spells where a reasonable DM should answer based on how much you think the players are meta-gaming/abusing it, I'd tend to argue that if you burn the spell slot to cast it quickly then you should get a more useful result unless doing it as a ritual and taking more time is an active sacrifice (i.e- the person you are searching for is in grave danger so it may be ten minutes you don't have, with the gamble being that you can bypass the catacombs to save more time overall).

Really the correct answer to how to use the spell is "ask your DM", as they're the one who has to make all the judgements so it's worth talking to them about what kinds of things they'll allow, and how lenient they intend to be in terms of wording and such. When I use it it's usually just a "should we do this" type deal, useful in letting the DM give us an extra clue as to which path we should take when there are multiple options.

 Augury has changed a lot over the years.  This version is worded... interestingly, and leaves some interpretation open to the DM (who always has the final say in any event).  Most people I've played with run it similarly to my preferred way.  The intent seems clear that its is a low powered Divination magic, with a limited time frame.  Most people attribute its future seeing to within the 30m timeframe or and the immediate consequences of that action.  Its like asking "Will I get killed if I attack the King (within 30m)?"  Yea... you are probably going to get a Woe.  Doesn't mean you will get killed, just it has a high likelihood of having a very bad outcome for you.

It gets more complicated, as results may be influenced by factors you don't know.  You could ask the opposite "Will I live if I don't attack the King (within 30m)?", but if a powerful band of assassins' is waiting to kill you if you don't attack the king that answer too would be Woe.  So fate can be fickle.

Now there are plenty of good uses.  You could be trying to buy an ancient item from a merchant who claims its an old family heirloom.  You aren't sure if its legit or not, though detect magic seems to have a faint glow.  If you cast Augury you might be able to get whether or not its a good deal at 50g.  At least for the moment... (I found this ring stuck to a fingerbone in the old dormant volcano... Mt Broom I think?  Or Mt Vroom?  Definitely a Mt -oom something"

Now maybe you want to rob a shiny stone from a sleeping Ancient Red Dragon.  It just ate an army and seems really sleepy.  You have your new ring you just bought and it makes you invisible.  You cast Augury to see how the robbery attempt might go in your favor.  And you get a Weal! 

The big thing is how long into the future your DM will project the outcome, and why most keep it to the 30m or so.  If you ask something too specific but try to get more out of it, you can expect no answer or a weal/woe response.  For instance, "Will I get murdered/assassinated/etc if I pick up this rock".  It is the act of picking up the rock that matters, not the murderer/assassination.  Otherwise a Weal response would clear you from any murder/assassination for the future, which of course is crazy.  Bottom line is:  Low level spell, low divination power tied to some immediate timeframe based directly on the action you are going to take.

When in doubt, ask your DM how it works (or how your character things it works...) and how far into the future it general response applies!  

It's basically a magic 8-ball that can predict the next 30 minutes.

Oh I really like that visual!

If I ever get to run my cleric again would you mind if I grab that as a focus for her casting Augury?