I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...

As mentioned in the previous post, tonight we played my Pathfinder Wilderlands game, and the group was debating more about entering the temple/how to approach it.

During this exchange, at a point when everyone was analyzing their reasonings for going in, Taylor announced that Borash was going to pray to Gorum to see if an attack on the temple and it's outer guardians (Lizardfolk and Khumat) would be fruitful.

As Borash is played as a combat cleric, I knew that Taylor didn't have any divination spells other than orisons memorized, and also that he didn't have any open spell slots which he could fill on the fly, so I "Said Yes," which in this instance meant that I let him drop a 2nd level spell slot to cast Augury, which gives the caster an insight into the outcome of one event, giving the possible answers of Weal, Woe, Weal and Woe, or no answer at all.

I liked the decision, Taylor was in, and dropped one of Borash's memorized spells, and ended up with the outcome Weal and Woe, and was happy with the result, as it was pretty much as he figured.

I know from experience that Divination spells can seriously start to put a cramp on a campaign, but in this instance, I saw no harm in letting him seek guidance from his deity, and I would definitely be open to more situations that might crop up on the fly like this, where I hand the players a freebie just because.

Now, I don't want it being abused, and the potential is there. Let's say I want to include this in my games as something that can be accomplished with semi-regularity, at the least. How do I approach it mechanically? I made Taylor drop one of Borash's 2nd level spells...should I also knock out a Channel Energy? A number of Channel Energys egual to spell level? It's definitely stuff to think about.

Also, I want something similar to be within reach of all classes, not just clerics. Let's say Steve wants Jadazh to seek the advice of Asmodeus (or, more likely, one of his servants,) how would he go about this? Draw up a contract written in blood stating the terms of use of the information? What if David wants to have Chas seek the secrets to a particular door out in the forest, or insight into the manufacture of the definitive pattern of a plate harness...what then?

The mechanic doesn't need to punish or tax the PCs too much, because I want to keep the effects minor, and who knows, I might never allow it again, or keep it as an on-the-fly thing with no mechanics. I'm just brainstorming at this point.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to comment.