Ancient Mysteries vs. Level One Spells /u/SnugglesMTG DnD: Roll for Initiative!

I have beef with comprehend languages. Up to four spell casting classes get it naturally and it very specifically ruins the fantasy trope of discovering ancient glyphs in an abandoned temple. What could be an interesting plot of seeking a rosetta stone or scholar of ancient languages to decode the thing, all the party needs to do is wait for the wizard to prepare it and they beat it instantly.

Any DMs have a clever way of playing around this spell? One of the only ways apparent is to have the written language also be some sort of cipher, but that doesn’t always work naturally for how the text is found.

The same thing kind of goes for the identify spell being used on ancient relics. Totally takes the mystery out of an object unless the DM handwaves and says “Oh, identify doesn’t seem to work on this”

I have beef with comprehend languages. Up to four spell casting classes get it naturally and it very specifically ruins the fantasy trope of discovering ancient glyphs in an abandoned temple. What could be an interesting plot of seeking a rosetta stone or scholar of ancient languages to decode the thing, all the party needs to do is wait for the wizard to prepare it and they beat it instantly.

Any DMs have a clever way of playing around this spell? One of the only ways apparent is to have the written language also be some sort of cipher, but that doesn’t always work naturally for how the text is found.

The same thing kind of goes for the identify spell being used on ancient relics. Totally takes the mystery out of an object unless the DM handwaves and says “Oh, identify doesn’t seem to work on this”