Name or describe a person, place, or object. The spell brings to your mind a brief summary of the significant lore about the thing you named. The lore might consist of current tales, forgotten stories, or even secret lore that has never been widely known. If the thing you named isn't of legendary importance, you gain no information. The more information you already have about the thing, the more precise and detailed the information you receive is.
The information you learn is accurate but might be couched in figurative language. For example, if you have a mysterious magic axe on hand, the spell might yield this information: “Woe to the evildoer whose hand touches the axe, for even the haft slices the hand of the evil ones. Only a true Child of Stone, lover and beloved of Moradin, may awaken the true powers of the axe, and only with the sacred word Rudnogg on the lips."
* - (incense worth at least 250 gp, which the spell consumes, and four ivory strips worth at least 50 gp each)
Or maybe 650gp. A wizards gotta eat...
You gotta wanna know pretty bad. I'm gonna figure the info is acceptably less reliable if you use 25gp incense and you make the PC sniff some burnt cat hair mixed with cinnamin, I mean sinamon, I mean parsley. Oughta bring it down to 120gp.
Ivory? I think a bard named Bill told me "slips of Yew" works well for most things. Can even replace bamboo shoots in a liver stew.
Illaagstrongbone, but, they are clearly talking about the axe of Moradin. How does Gondor have anything to do with dwarves, apart from Gimli?
I think it can be used in real investigation... the wording says "The information you learn is accurate but might be couched in figurative language." Well I decided last time that is not. It actually revealed useful, unknown and forgotten things. I wanted to give more power to this spell, since it is 5th level, relatively expensive and also can't be cast as a ritual... if I make this obscure and not yielding too much info, it would be near useless.
I would argue "figurative" is not the same as "obscure" or "occult." Figurative language is generally easily interpreted, it just uses metaphor. A princess might be a nation's "blossom," a paladin order serving Pelor, the "tribe of the sun." In context, it should be clear, just... poetic.
A DM that makes the results of the spell difficult to interpret is shafting his or her players.
Pretty sure it's meant to be a Command Word
I think the other thing to keep in mind about the spell is the 'The more information you already have about the thing, the more precise and detailed the information you receive is.' part.
I like it because it means the info can be more useful/easier to understand the more work the caster puts into it, from basic knowledge checks, to investigating and doing research about the subject at hand in character.
My dm homebrewed a rule that stipulates that very powerful/ancient magic weapons can't be identified by the identify spell so they need legend lore to be properly identified
The player should be considerate and let their DM know that they have and they want to use this. They also need to use it only when they know it would help add to the wider story or aid the DM to tell the story. Especially in higher-level games.
DM's have a lot going on, and sometimes we just put an item in without a second thought. There will certainly be a sense of "put out" if the DM doesn't have something planned when a play expects it. I know I have changed how I hand items when one of my players took this. I'm certainly less liberal with both giving out and showing magic items in the game.
Sometimes, I'll show an item, and see what people's reactions are to that. If they react positively to it, then I would expand upon it further and build its lore, but if they don't take to it, I can just dismiss the item without a second thought. With this spell in play, I have to have an extra bit of planning. How does the item fit with the wider lore of my world? Who may have owned it before. Now I can't just put "cool item" in front of the party and see what happens. I like to think I'm good at improvising and making up lore on the spot, but this spell can add extra steps that are not always welcome.
okay spell, not very useful though. Great for roleplaying!
Define "Legendary Importance"
I think I'll use it as "It's important for the plot."
Agreed. For the cost of it, it should be a ritual.
The bard in one of my campaigns has proven that this spell is indeed useful, on several occasions.
The use of it has led them in search of various quest objects and allowed them to experience several sudden revelations, and also allowed me to deepen the lore and mysteries of their current campaign.
only a 5th level spell slot, 10 minute casting time and some expensive items away from learning extremely vague information. noice!
If your DM lets you burn all these resources just to say “Maybe it’s a lion,” you’re contractually obligated to shake them until they give you something actionable.
Let your players use the lore dump spell you cowards, it’s a perfect hook generator! You can literally get them to play that adventure you always wanted to run with this spell.
It also functions as a buffed identify, which probably provides detail on curses, history, ways to use it, etc.
Do you want to turn your wizard into a lich? Here's the spell. Do you want a party member with amnesia to regain their memories? Here's the spell. You want to know everything that the BBEG is planning and how they intend to do it and what forces they have at their disposal? Here's the spell.
Magic item that allows the user to cast legend lore. I call it Gugal.
That's a good catch. Perhaps you can get more detailed information from repeated casts targeting the same object.
Why is this spell 5th level when a midling Bard or anyone with kowledge skills could just make a check? It's like wasting a fairly high spell slot to talk to your DM.
PERSON, PLACE OR OBJECT.
Going into the Dread Dealms and want to know the strengths and weaknesses of the dark lord of a domain? Here you go. Want to know what damage to inflict and not to inflict? Here you go. "How does a person permanently kill Count Strahd von Zarovich?" Here you go. "What is the weakness of "insert the name of a Dark Power"" Here you go.
While not great for the standard hack and slash campaign, it can be exceedingly useful for more RP and mystery heavy campaigns. A college of lore bard with this could be a superstar in the Dread Realms.
I am running a McGuyver influenced Bard that will be dipping into Artificer and this will be part of their research "toolkit", for example.
Legend Lore + Teleport