Warp Sense 5e
Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 2
School: Divination
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a razorvine leaf)
For the duration, you sense the presence of portals, even inactive ones, within 30 feet of yourself.
If you detect a portal in this way, you can use your action to study it. Make a DC 15 ability check using your spellcasting ability. On a successful check, you learn the destination plane of the portal and what portal key it requires, then the spell ends. On a failed check, you learn nothing and can’t study that portal again using this spell until you cast it again.
The spell can penetrate most barriers but is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Even in Sigil, the City of Doors interconnecting all the wild and wacky planes of the multiverse, I struggle to find much value in Warp Sense practically in play. If you’re regularly chasing villains around who are jumping through portals and you want a way to figure out where all these portal hoppers are going prior to perusing them, maybe this can find a home on your sheet, but I struggle to find much value in this beyond that.
Detect Magic can perform a similar enough role, and crucially, is a ritual spell. You have to spend 2nd level slots on Warp Sense. Warlocks have a really hard time justifying a pact slot on this kind of niche effect. Sorcerers learn next to no spells, making it equally as challenging for them to justify putting on their sheet.
This leaves it as a niche wizard spell you could take as a planar scholar, but doing so will mainly be for flavor. You need to know that you’ll be regularly interacting with extra-planar portals, and crucially, you need to be able to act on the information this gives you. If you have to go through the portal regardless, you’ll figure out what’s on the other side of it without ever needing to cast this. If you’re hunting hidden portals, I’d guess Detect Magic will be about as effective, and costs you much less. If they’re hidden inactive portals, then you’ve got at least some reason to use this, but are you really going to take this spell for detecting hidden inactive portals? I doubt it.
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