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A particular School of Divination wizard is native to the Ethereal Plane (he was created by a wish spell replicating simulacrum cast on that plane).

While this wizard is in the Border Ethereal, can he use his Portent feature to affect the rolls of creatures on the Material Plane?

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Yes, Portent will work from Ethereal Plane

Portent states, emphasis mine(PHB, 116)

You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls.

The DMG (page 48) provides the limitations of being on the Ethereal Plane:

Normally, creatures in the Border Ethereal can't attack creatures on the overlapped plane, and vice versa...This makes the Ethereal Plane ideal for reconnaisance, spying on opponents, and moving around without being detected.

This seems to state that the only natural limitation of being on the Ethereal is that you can not attack across planes. Seeing and using magical abilities is not limited.

Etherealness vs The Ethereal Plane

This is different than the limitations of the spell Etherealness (PHB, 238). Etherealness has specific rules that overrides the general rule for the Ethereal Plane, but in this case is not applicable because the spell and it's specific rules are not relevant to the Simulacrum Wizard simply on the Ethereal Plane.

Seeing is believing

The Simulacrum Wizard on the Ethereal plane need only to See their target in order to activate the Portent. The target is visible to the Simulacrum Wizard and the limitation of being on the Ethereal Plane is only that they can't attack. This allows the Simulacrum Wizard to use their Portent ability across the Ethereal to the Material Plane. The rules for the Ethereal Plane only prevent attacks, so using their Portent Ability is possible since they only need to see their target.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Feb 20, 2018 at 19:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ This question is now explicitly addressed in the latest Sage Advice Compendium: "Can a School of Divination wizard on the Ethereal Plane use Portent on a creature that the wizard can see on the Material Plane? Yes. Portent requires you to be able to see the creature, but it has no range restriction." You may want to update your answer accordingly. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Oct 4, 2020 at 9:33

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