Contact Other Plane
- Level: 5
- School: Divination
- Class: Warlock, Wizard
- Casting Time: 1 minute or Ritual
- Range: Self
- Components: V
- Duration: 1 minute
You mentally contact a demigod, the spirit of a longdead sage, or some other knowledgeable entity from another plane. Contacting this otherworldly intelligence can break your mind. When you cast this spell, make a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. On a successful save, you can ask the entity up to five questions. You must ask your questions before the spell ends. The GM answers each question with one word, such as "yes," "no," "maybe," "never," "irrelevant," or "unclear" (if the entity doesn't know the answer to the question). If a one-word answer would be misleading, the GM might instead offer a short phrase as an answer.
On a failed save, you take 6d6 Psychic damage and have the Incapacitated condition until you finish a Long Rest. A Greater Restoration spell cast on you ends this effect.
Tactical Usage
High-Risk Information Gathering: Contact Other Plane provides access to otherworldly knowledge at significant personal risk. This 5th-level divination spell excels at obtaining crucial information when other sources fail, but the mental strain creates strategic considerations.
Optimal Timing: Most effective during safe downtime periods when you can recover from potential failure. The ritual option allows casting without spell slot cost.
Resource Management: Uses a 5th-level spell slot - available from character level 9+. Risk of incapacitation makes timing and preparation crucial.
Target Selection: Prepare specific, well-worded questions that can be answered with one-word responses for maximum information efficiency.
Spell Combinations
Synergistic Spells:
- Recovery Magic: Greater restoration to end incapacitation effects
- Mental Protection: Spells that boost Intelligence saves or mental resilience
- Preparation Rituals: Enhance mental fortitude before attempting contact
Class Feature Interactions:
- Ritual Casting: Available as ritual to preserve spell slots
- Proficiency Bonus: Intelligence save proficiency significantly improves success chances
- Warlock Patron: Thematic connection to otherworldly entities for patron-based characters
Multi-Caster Coordination: Other casters can provide support magic or attempt their own contacts for verification.
Material Component Details
Component Acquisition: No material components required - only verbal component needed.
Component Handling: Simple verbal casting, though the mental preparation and risk management are the real challenges.
Roleplay Opportunities: Choosing which otherworldly entity to contact reflects character knowledge and supernatural connections.
Economic Considerations: No material costs, but potential Greater Restoration spell costs for failure recovery.
Creator Notes
Encounter Balancing: Provides access to information that can significantly impact campaign direction and mystery resolution.
NPC Usage: Powerful NPCs might use this to gather intelligence, creating plot opportunities when they succeed or fail catastrophically.
Environmental Considerations: Planar barriers or magical interference might affect the ability to contact otherworldly entities.
Campaign Integration: Central to investigation campaigns, planar adventures, or any scenario requiring otherworldly knowledge.
Environmental Interactions
Terrain Effects: No terrain restrictions, though thematically appropriate locations might enhance the atmosphere.
Weather Influence: No mechanical weather effects, though storms or cosmic events might affect narrative tone.
Structural Interactions: Can be cast anywhere, though protective circles or libraries enhance the scholarly atmosphere.
Elemental Interactions: Planar energies or magical fields might interfere with extraplanar communication.
Common Rulings & Clarifications
Timing Questions: 1-minute casting time requires uninterrupted focus. Questions must be asked within the 1-minute duration.
Target Limitations: Intelligence save determines success. Failure results in psychic damage and long-term incapacitation.
Duration Interactions: Information gathering window is brief. Failed save effects last until long rest or Greater Restoration.
Mechanical Interactions: Answers are deliberately limited to one word or short phrases. Entity knowledge limitations apply.
Alternative Applications
Non-Combat Uses: Academic research, historical investigation, planar studies, or resolving campaign mysteries.
Social Encounters: Gather information about NPCs, verify claims, or understand hidden motivations through otherworldly perspective.
Exploration Applications: Learn about dangerous areas, identify threats, or understand planar connections before travel.
Utility Functions: Scholarly consultation, prophecy interpretation, or accessing forbidden knowledge.
Related Spells
Same School: Other divination spells like commune (5th level divine questions), scrying (5th level remote viewing), legend lore (5th level historical knowledge).
Similar Effects: commune (5th level divine consultation), divination (4th level cleric guidance), augury (2nd level simple guidance).
Progression Options: detect thoughts (2nd level mind reading), divination (4th level divine guidance), contact other plane (5th level planar consultation).
Complementary Magic: greater restoration (recovery from failure), legend lore (historical context), comprehend languages (understand responses).
Scaling Analysis
Level Progression: Remains valuable throughout campaigns as access to otherworldly knowledge becomes increasingly important.
Upcast Benefits: No improvement from higher spell slots, making this a pure 5th-level investment.
Campaign Phases: Peak usefulness in mid-to-high level play when campaign mysteries require otherworldly perspective.
Comparative Value: Unique information access that justifies the high risk and 5th-level slot cost for crucial knowledge.
Narrative Flavor
Casting Description: Your consciousness expands across planar boundaries as you reach out to contact entities of vast knowledge and alien perspective.
Effect Manifestation: Reality shifts as otherworldly presence touches your mind, bringing knowledge that mortal minds struggle to comprehend.
Personal Style: Wizards might use scholarly rituals, while warlocks experience patron-mediated contact, and both risk mental strain from alien thought patterns.
World Integration: Represents dangerous divination magic that crosses planar boundaries, often associated with forbidden knowledge, planar research, or desperate information gathering.