Level
5th
Casting Time
10 Minutes
Range/Area
Self
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Divination
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Utility
Name or describe a famous person, place, or object. The spell brings to your mind a brief summary of the significant lore about that famous thing, as described by the DM.
The lore might consist of important details, amusing revelations, or even secret lore that has never been widely known. The more information you already know about the thing, the more precise and detailed the information you receive is. That information is accurate but might be couched in figurative language or poetry, as determined by the DM.
If the famous thing you chose isn’t actually famous, you hear sad musical notes played on a trombone, and the spell fails.
* - (incense worth 250+ GP, which the spell consumes, and four ivory strips worth 50+ GP each)
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Posted Sep 17, 2024The sad trombone part is funny to me
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Posted Oct 24, 2024DM: The thing you chose isn't actually famous
Legend Lore trombone: Womp womp
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Posted Jan 8, 2025Womp woomp wooomp wooooooooomp
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Posted Jan 12, 2025Womp WOmp WOMp WOMP
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Posted Jan 17, 2025Why is it 5th level? As a DM I think it's amazing to be able to explain more about my world and would love for this to be easier to access.
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Posted Jan 21, 2025As a home rule you could easily reduce the level. But the reason it is so high is that it could reveal critical information that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to gain (note the “secret lore that has never been known”), like the weakness of a legendary monster or the location of a lich’s phylactery, for example. This is one of those spells whose power and usefulness is really up to the DM, so I think it’s fine if you lower the level and (and maybe material component cost) for your campaign, since you are ultimately the one providing the information. Just be sure to consider what kind of secrets or shortcuts your players would be able to gain before you do so. Or maybe have a “lesser” version of the spell whose information is less accurate/specific, but easier to cast.
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Posted Jan 23, 2025sad trombone????
wow.
not funny at all :D
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Posted Mar 12, 2025Yeah level 5, and 250g, and only for things that are very famous but to just find out more details? It very much is like a crap shoot up to the DM. I've always wished it was a roll spell, that had levels of insight, and wasn't tied to a 'famous' level. Really wish grim psychometry from BH class was a spell.
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Posted May 17, 2025Get high level, target yourself, hear a sad trombone.
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Posted Aug 10, 2025Exactly. They turned a flavorful and potentially useful spell into a joke. More and more, 5.5e feels like an AI scrubbed through DanDWiki and only accepted the worst homebrew.
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Posted Aug 15, 2025You can always give them an item that spends charges to cast it.