It says you can locate a specific object known to you, as long as you have seen it up close--within 30 feet--at least. Otherwise it’s the single closest generic object. Most of us in the dungeon are searching for something we have never seen. This reminds me of Find the Path. That spells only use was to get you back somewhere you’d already been and had an object from, which most often meant you were using it to get out of being lost in the woods or a labyrinth or something. It seems like a lot of utility spells that would be extremely useful and not overpowered are absolutely worthless. This doesn’t apply to every single one, it it seems to be extremely depressing to anyone that wants to be a spellcaster. Utility is savagely nerfed in comparison to combat skill.
Find the path is bad, yeah, but it's much more of an outlier than you seem to think. It, find traps, and knock are really the only duds, and quite frankly they should be duds so that they don't make everything nonmagical completely pointless. Aside from that, the utility of casters is off the charts. Even locate object can be insanely useful. Somebody steal from you? Locate object on what they stole. Hunting somebody? Locate object on something they were wearing. It's not always the most useful in a dungeon situation, no, but not every spell has to be.
Also, this seems like more of a discussion for Tips & Tactics than Rules & Game Mechanics.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Notably, it's on the list for Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Wizards, who can all shuffle around spells as needed. It's niche, but it's not hard to picture a story scenario where you've already had a chance to examine the MacGuffin and then need to find it again later. Plus it could also be useful for searching for a badge of identification or similar item an NPC could be covertly carrying. The description says "a certain kind of apparel, jewelry, etc." so if say you suspect the cleric of an evil god was operating in the area you could use the spell to search for the holy symbol of that particular deity, I'd say. No, it's not worth taking for a generic dungeon crawl, but it's got some flex in a more involved plot.
Wow, now there's a hot take. It's a decent tailing method, really; 10 minute duration and a 1000 ft range makes it easy to follow someone without having to say close enough to get noticed. Roleplay doesn't really factor into tracking someone, and at level 3 a typical party as a whole is not particularly good for stealth rolls. Find Familiar can work for a tail too, but this is available to several classes that can't take Find Familiar. Plus Familiars are a lot more obvious to a wary quarry.
Two examples where it was used effectively in a campaign I am in:
1. We needed to find a person and had an item we were pretty sure would end up in her hands if we sold it to the right person.
2. We found a single earring at a murder scene where the head of the victim was cut off to make raising her more difficult. We offered to find the head and used locate object to find the other earring, and thus her head.
it's entirely up to how your DM interprets "particular kind" (of apparel, jewelry, furniture, tool, or weapon.) If my PCs said they were using it to locate a "magic ring", that meets the standard of a "particular kind of jewelry" to me and I would divulge the direction to the nearest magic ring. Sure, maybe there's more than one magic ring in this dungeon, but you can narrow down your search pretty quickly if that is what you are looking for. If they had done the research to know the magic ring in question has a sapphire in it or is in the shape of a snake, I would let that narrow down the "particular kind" definition they use.
Like many utility spells, how useful it is will depend on your creativity and your DM's attitude. But at a minimum, it is great for:
Finding something stolen/missing.
Tracking someone if they have something you know they have.
Locating specific resources when in need, eg fresh water while in the wild. Or eg, magic longsword to find a magic shop/smith/collector in town. (Or a misadventure lol)
Tracking down stuff that has been hidden from other divination. Just locate object "lead-lined container".
It is also a really good trap detection spell. Like, it actually locates the trap. Because a trap is a type of object...
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Locate object is one of those situational spells. It's not something you're casting every day, but it definitely has situations where it shines.
It's not going to reliably work for traps, though; not all traps are objects, and arguably 'familiarity' is required even when searching for a type of object.
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It says you can locate a specific object known to you, as long as you have seen it up close--within 30 feet--at least. Otherwise it’s the single closest generic object. Most of us in the dungeon are searching for something we have never seen. This reminds me of Find the Path. That spells only use was to get you back somewhere you’d already been and had an object from, which most often meant you were using it to get out of being lost in the woods or a labyrinth or something. It seems like a lot of utility spells that would be extremely useful and not overpowered are absolutely worthless. This doesn’t apply to every single one, it it seems to be extremely depressing to anyone that wants to be a spellcaster. Utility is savagely nerfed in comparison to combat skill.
Find the path is bad, yeah, but it's much more of an outlier than you seem to think. It, find traps, and knock are really the only duds, and quite frankly they should be duds so that they don't make everything nonmagical completely pointless. Aside from that, the utility of casters is off the charts. Even locate object can be insanely useful. Somebody steal from you? Locate object on what they stole. Hunting somebody? Locate object on something they were wearing. It's not always the most useful in a dungeon situation, no, but not every spell has to be.
Also, this seems like more of a discussion for Tips & Tactics than Rules & Game Mechanics.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
You might be right on Forum placement (probably are), I just don’t post or read up on either of those to have been certain.
Notably, it's on the list for Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Wizards, who can all shuffle around spells as needed. It's niche, but it's not hard to picture a story scenario where you've already had a chance to examine the MacGuffin and then need to find it again later. Plus it could also be useful for searching for a badge of identification or similar item an NPC could be covertly carrying. The description says "a certain kind of apparel, jewelry, etc." so if say you suspect the cleric of an evil god was operating in the area you could use the spell to search for the holy symbol of that particular deity, I'd say. No, it's not worth taking for a generic dungeon crawl, but it's got some flex in a more involved plot.
Reverse pickpocket a copper piece into someone’s pocket and you can use locate object to track them.
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Wow, now there's a hot take. It's a decent tailing method, really; 10 minute duration and a 1000 ft range makes it easy to follow someone without having to say close enough to get noticed. Roleplay doesn't really factor into tracking someone, and at level 3 a typical party as a whole is not particularly good for stealth rolls. Find Familiar can work for a tail too, but this is available to several classes that can't take Find Familiar. Plus Familiars are a lot more obvious to a wary quarry.
Two examples where it was used effectively in a campaign I am in:
1. We needed to find a person and had an item we were pretty sure would end up in her hands if we sold it to the right person.
2. We found a single earring at a murder scene where the head of the victim was cut off to make raising her more difficult. We offered to find the head and used locate object to find the other earring, and thus her head.
it's entirely up to how your DM interprets "particular kind" (of apparel, jewelry, furniture, tool, or weapon.) If my PCs said they were using it to locate a "magic ring", that meets the standard of a "particular kind of jewelry" to me and I would divulge the direction to the nearest magic ring. Sure, maybe there's more than one magic ring in this dungeon, but you can narrow down your search pretty quickly if that is what you are looking for. If they had done the research to know the magic ring in question has a sapphire in it or is in the shape of a snake, I would let that narrow down the "particular kind" definition they use.
It is one of the more useful spells.
Like many utility spells, how useful it is will depend on your creativity and your DM's attitude. But at a minimum, it is great for:
Finding something stolen/missing.
Tracking someone if they have something you know they have.
Locating specific resources when in need, eg fresh water while in the wild. Or eg, magic longsword to find a magic shop/smith/collector in town. (Or a misadventure lol)
Tracking down stuff that has been hidden from other divination. Just locate object "lead-lined container".
It is also a really good trap detection spell. Like, it actually locates the trap. Because a trap is a type of object...
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Locate object is one of those situational spells. It's not something you're casting every day, but it definitely has situations where it shines.
It's not going to reliably work for traps, though; not all traps are objects, and arguably 'familiarity' is required even when searching for a type of object.