Just wanted to know if there's a spell out there that can detect/reveal someone's age? So like if it was used on someone who was 56 years old, the caster would know that this person was 56 years old. I've looked around and cant seem to find a spell that does, so i figured i'd ask here first before committing to just homebrewing the spell myself. Please and thank you.
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The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head. He went galumphing back.
While there are many spells that can do this, usually your best best is to look for something like that pre-errata doll from Xanathar's, which could also do this. I think the text you want is on Glyph of Warding, which RAW can react to unobservable phenomena about a creature, such as alignment. Since the rules you need are only on the trigger, you'll in general need to spam the spell to narrow down someone's age using it - e.g. start with a glyph that reacts to people over 128 years old, and narrow down from there using a binary search pattern.
If you want to just find out directly, Commune is one of several spells that ought to work unless your GM is messing with you.
I've never heard of anything official, but there have been similar questions about DNA testing for heirs to thrones and such. Generally speaking, these kinds of functions are relatively mundane, so aren't likely to be baked into official content.
However, it would be easy to expand some basic Divination magic to serve the purpose. For example, the Identify is only intended for objects, but could conceivably be used on a person to learn basic mechanical information including age, general health, etc... 1 minute casting time would make it impractical for some applications.
Higher level Communing spells can reveal just about anything by querying divine beings, but that is likely overkill.
The best case scenario might be to create it as a magic item that the players can discover. Perhaps a charged Wand of Discernment, which can be used like a "Lesser Commune". Tap a person or object and ask a simple question that can be answered in one word. If it's something that the target would tell a casual acquaintance, then they learn the information automatically. Otherwise, have them roll a Wisdom saving throw.
But a homebrewed version of identify that can get basic bio info like race, sex, age, class, and level would be very useful (even a little OP). I'd say level 1 or 2 with a similar or same costly component and not a ritual.
Class and level are usually undefined, but type and subtype usually are, in terms of determining species. Age is one of the least ambiguous and most universally defined things you can examine, though - all you'd need is magical carbon dating.
At least until you cast the spell on a time traveling aberration and the spell returns "-200".
Oh I really like that Glyph of Warding trick - that opens up a ton of possibilities beyond just age testing. Magic Mouth seems like a cheaper, re-usable test though.
Edit: Magic mouth does depend a bit on how your DM interprets the triggering rules. They are a bit vague.
In a fantasy game, Age is as variable as anything else.
Elves are the obvious example. How old is an elf? They live for hundreds of years. A human can be born, live out their entire life, and die before an elf leaves their childhood. Does time spent in the Feywild count? Do elves age when they are in Faerie? There are stories of humans spending a night in fairyland and returning to discover that years have passed. An elf might never notice. What is three years to an elf?
Magic fuddles things up. Do spells change your age? Can healing magic remove the damage caused by age? If you get brought back from the dead, does the time you spent dead count? The current rules don't say a thing about the effects of aging. People are apparently perfectly hale and hearty right up until they die. I have yet to be in a game where a character died of old age.
Just wanted to know if there's a spell out there that can detect/reveal someone's age?
So like if it was used on someone who was 56 years old, the caster would know that this person was 56 years old. I've looked around and cant seem to find a spell that does, so i figured i'd ask here first before committing to just homebrewing the spell myself.
Please and thank you.
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head. He went galumphing back.
While there are many spells that can do this, usually your best best is to look for something like that pre-errata doll from Xanathar's, which could also do this. I think the text you want is on Glyph of Warding, which RAW can react to unobservable phenomena about a creature, such as alignment. Since the rules you need are only on the trigger, you'll in general need to spam the spell to narrow down someone's age using it - e.g. start with a glyph that reacts to people over 128 years old, and narrow down from there using a binary search pattern.
If you want to just find out directly, Commune is one of several spells that ought to work unless your GM is messing with you.
I've never heard of anything official, but there have been similar questions about DNA testing for heirs to thrones and such. Generally speaking, these kinds of functions are relatively mundane, so aren't likely to be baked into official content.
However, it would be easy to expand some basic Divination magic to serve the purpose. For example, the Identify is only intended for objects, but could conceivably be used on a person to learn basic mechanical information including age, general health, etc... 1 minute casting time would make it impractical for some applications.
Higher level Communing spells can reveal just about anything by querying divine beings, but that is likely overkill.
The best case scenario might be to create it as a magic item that the players can discover. Perhaps a charged Wand of Discernment, which can be used like a "Lesser Commune". Tap a person or object and ask a simple question that can be answered in one word. If it's something that the target would tell a casual acquaintance, then they learn the information automatically. Otherwise, have them roll a Wisdom saving throw.
You could possibly use detect thoughts or zone of truth to find out someone's age.
But a homebrewed version of identify that can get basic bio info like race, sex, age, class, and level would be very useful (even a little OP). I'd say level 1 or 2 with a similar or same costly component and not a ritual.
Class and level are usually undefined, but type and subtype usually are, in terms of determining species. Age is one of the least ambiguous and most universally defined things you can examine, though - all you'd need is magical carbon dating.
At least until you cast the spell on a time traveling aberration and the spell returns "-200".
Oh I really like that Glyph of Warding trick - that opens up a ton of possibilities beyond just age testing. Magic Mouth seems like a cheaper, re-usable test though.
Edit: Magic mouth does depend a bit on how your DM interprets the triggering rules. They are a bit vague.
In a fantasy game, Age is as variable as anything else.
Elves are the obvious example. How old is an elf? They live for hundreds of years. A human can be born, live out their entire life, and die before an elf leaves their childhood. Does time spent in the Feywild count? Do elves age when they are in Faerie? There are stories of humans spending a night in fairyland and returning to discover that years have passed. An elf might never notice. What is three years to an elf?
Magic fuddles things up. Do spells change your age? Can healing magic remove the damage caused by age? If you get brought back from the dead, does the time you spent dead count? The current rules don't say a thing about the effects of aging. People are apparently perfectly hale and hearty right up until they die. I have yet to be in a game where a character died of old age.
<Insert clever signature here>
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Detect Thoughts#content