Gaining a 5th level spell is cool. When you can really only use one at 9th level, picking when and why to use it are big questions. Why would anyone choose Legend Lore? Or any of the other seemingly useless spells? I know some of you out there must have had campaigns where using Legend Lore enhanced your story but for my group, I would much rather wait until I can cast Destructive Wave with my Tempest Cleric...so anyone have an example of when you found a spell to be useful or fun that typically would seem to be pointless?
So much of it comes down to the GM. In some tables legend lore is going to be alright depending on how the DM plays it. Knowing about an item/person/places history might be key to a lot of quests.
Also the way you just describe it means a lot. You don't have to have the person/place/thing with you.
Except witchbolt. GMs have to redo the math so people who take that don't feel like they made a mistake.
A lot of spells that seem useless are usually there for roleplaying or social purposes, to allow spellcasting to affect the game more outside of combat. It's up to your group how useful or not they will be. (Some spells are of course just less useful than others, and that's usually for historical reasons, as most spells are from older editions of D&D.)
Because the GM doesn't want to railroad your party and actually give you decisions to make that have consequences beyond, "I hit it. It dies."
D&D's rules are 90% combat solely because combat requires mechanics, whereas roleplaying and narrative do not. It's up to the players and GM's to corroborate and tell a collaborative story, otherwise you may as well just play a video or war game.
Except witchbolt. GMs have to redo the math so people who take that don't feel like they made a mistake.
Elaborate please
I said it half joking. It's always the spell I made fun of for being badly made.
I'll sloppily try to go into detail though if you want.
It does one thing, damage, and it doesn't do it comparibly well on the first round to other first level spells. It scales okay but other high level spells very easily outclass it for any scaling. It takes an entire action every turn to maintain for a 1d12 that doesn't scale.
While doing this bad 1d12 damage on futures turns it takes your concentration so it can't be combined with other sustained spells that only use the bonus action. Also it ends the second they are out of range or in total cover. Since the range is only 30 feet it's extremely easy for an enemy running away from something that hurts him to break it.
It doesn't have a lot of extra utility compared to other better attacks like chromatic orb which can be many elements (electric included), magic missile which never misses except when shield is fast and hits multiple targets, or for warlocks eldritch blast which can be modified by powers and grows with their level is better quickly also.
Other powers some people find questionable like legend lore, illusions, identify, or magic aura depend a lot on how the DM interrupts what they can do. Witch bolt is just bad math and needs to be rebuilt away from how it's written to be good. Even if you want electricity orb is better.
At best maybe a DM could rule it's a steady flow of electrical current as long as you use your action and could be used to power some kind of machine.
Because the GM doesn't want to railroad your party and actually give you decisions to make that have consequences beyond, "I hit it. It dies."
D&D's rules are 90% combat solely because combat requires mechanics, whereas roleplaying and narrative do not. It's up to the players and GM's to corroborate and tell a collaborative story, otherwise you may as well just play a video or war game.
Except witchbolt. GMs have to redo the math so people who take that don't feel like they made a mistake.
Elaborate please
Witchbolt's mechanics are objectively awful in comparison to every other equivalent level spell. Here's my attempt at a fix: Lightning Jolt.
Alright. I like that fix. Weird I couldn't find where to add it to my collection of homebrew for my campaigns from the link but just it's old versions. I ended up searching for it by name to add it.
Legend Lore isn't necessarily a spell to have memorized every day, but it's something that players may want to cast during downtime. Even more likely, perhaps it's something they can pay somebody else to cast. Introduce some role-playing elements like having the party seek out a town sage, for example. From a rules point of view, it helps flesh out exactly what sort of information can be obtained from a 5th-level divination spell.
It does one thing damage, and it doesn't do it comparibly well on the first round to other first level spells. It scales okay but other high level spells very easily outclass it for any scaling. It takes an entire action every turn to maintain for a 1d12 that doesn't scale.
Yup. The damage each turn is barely better than a cantrip so there's almost always a better option. If the enemy has low AC the automatic damage is pointless since you could just hit with a stronger spell attack like Chromatic Orb or Ice Knife and then use your cantrips. If the enemy has high AC you're likely waste the slot, while Magic Missile, or Burning Hands gets you guaranteed damage.
By the time you hit 3rd level, Flaming Sphere completely obsoletes it since it leaves your action free and by 5th level even your cantrips do more damage per turn. It's not even a consideration for Warlocks. Hex is a way better use of a spell slot.
I agree that Legend Lore is a "worldbuilding" spell; it's not necessarily there for players to use. Jeremy Crawford mentions they do design spells with NPCs in mind in one of the Xanathar's Guide To Everything interviews.
Legend Lore is a good spell. Maybe not if you're a bard with limited spell options, but a cleric or wizard can easily pick it up and swap it out as needed. It's great for when you need info about that high level threat at you face.
Now, it's admittedly GM dependant, just because some GMs are shit with divination abilities, and will ignore the what the abilities say they should give you in terms of info. Or some games only care about combat and not exploration. But that doesn't mean the spells themselves are worthless.
Gaining a 5th level spell is cool. When you can really only use one at 9th level, picking when and why to use it are big questions. Why would anyone choose Legend Lore? Or any of the other seemingly useless spells? I know some of you out there must have had campaigns where using Legend Lore enhanced your story but for my group, I would much rather wait until I can cast Destructive Wave with my Tempest Cleric...so anyone have an example of when you found a spell to be useful or fun that typically would seem to be pointless?
So much of it comes down to the GM. In some tables legend lore is going to be alright depending on how the DM plays it. Knowing about an item/person/places history might be key to a lot of quests.
Also the way you just describe it means a lot. You don't have to have the person/place/thing with you.
Except witchbolt. GMs have to redo the math so people who take that don't feel like they made a mistake.
A lot of spells that seem useless are usually there for roleplaying or social purposes, to allow spellcasting to affect the game more outside of combat. It's up to your group how useful or not they will be. (Some spells are of course just less useful than others, and that's usually for historical reasons, as most spells are from older editions of D&D.)
D&D's rules are 90% combat solely because combat requires mechanics, whereas roleplaying and narrative do not. It's up to the players and GM's to corroborate and tell a collaborative story, otherwise you may as well just play a video or war game.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
Legend Lore isn't necessarily a spell to have memorized every day, but it's something that players may want to cast during downtime. Even more likely, perhaps it's something they can pay somebody else to cast. Introduce some role-playing elements like having the party seek out a town sage, for example. From a rules point of view, it helps flesh out exactly what sort of information can be obtained from a 5th-level divination spell.
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Legend Lore is a good spell. Maybe not if you're a bard with limited spell options, but a cleric or wizard can easily pick it up and swap it out as needed. It's great for when you need info about that high level threat at you face.
Now, it's admittedly GM dependant, just because some GMs are shit with divination abilities, and will ignore the what the abilities say they should give you in terms of info. Or some games only care about combat and not exploration. But that doesn't mean the spells themselves are worthless.
Legend Lore just needs the Ritual tag to be awesome. I think they left it out by mistake.