Locate Creature: Dude, Where’s My Ocelot?

Usable By: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Wizard

Spell Level: 4

School: Divination

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (A bit of fur from a bloodhound)

Describe or name a creature that is familiar to you. You sense the direction to the creature’s location, as long as that creature is within 1,000 feet of you. If the creature is moving, you know the direction of its movement.

The spell can locate a specific creature known to you, or the nearest creature of a specific kind (such as a human or a unicorn), so long as you have seen such a creature up close—within 30 feet—at least once. If the creature you described or named is in a different form, such as being under the effects of a Polymorph spell, this spell doesn’t locate the creature.

This spell can’t locate a creature if running water at least 10 feet wide blocks a direct path between you and the creature.

Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

I’m trying to imagine a silly scenario to highlight when you’d want to cast Locate Creature; it is a struggle. I guess if you’re looking for a creature hiding in a nearby building? If you’re looking for a captive underground near you? I don’t know, this spell seems real bad to me.

For a spell dedicated to finding somebody, having a range only out to 1,000 feet pigeon holes it to work exclusively at finding creatures already close to you. It doesn’t clue you in on direction or distance if they’ve already made a run for it. 1,000 feet isn’t a huge area; three football fields may sound like a lot, but most regular people can spend ten minutes and walk that distance. If you aren’t actively seeking somebody you know is close, the spell does nothing.

In the instance where you are looking for somebody hiding near you or being hidden near you, why would you need a spell for this? If they can escape, they will be doing that, making the spell work in a tiny window of time, and if they can’t, you can just, you know, look for them. I guess you could just hope you wander into a space where a kind of creature you’re looking for might be, but if it's a rare creature you get like an hour to cover a pretty small comparative area. If you’re looking for a woodland being like a Unicorn, odds aren’t in your favor that you’ll find it. Forests like the Amazon are over four thousand MILES long; a mile is five times this spell’s radius.

This spell feels like it's for people too lazy to attempt to use information gathering tools to find things. Why ask around for where the nearest blacksmith is when you can just cast Locate Creature, name the blacksmith, and wander? Why use Speak with Plants to learn about nearby creatures when you could just guess “maybe there’s a satyr nearby”? In both these cases you’re spending a 4th level spell slot on something you could do by just engaging with the world.

There are fringe cases where the spell could be valuable, especially if a creature is magically obscured but not transformed. That is the only redeeming element of the spell to me, but the only time that exact scenario will come up is when the DM learns you took Locate Creature and is trying to find a way to give you a moment to use it.

Locate Creature is bad. It tries to remove a core element of exploration from the game, and fails to miserably. Don’t take Locate Creature. Imagine getting to 14th level as a ranger dedicated to tracking creatures, finding out the exact spell your character should want exists, and then desperately trying and failing to get it to be useful. Not an ideal situation, to say the least.

5e Spells

Locate Creature: Dude, Where’s My Ocelot?